Shoegaze mixed with volcanic ash, a thin black layer that envelops and penetrates melodies that form a perfect arc. Not Here Not Gone is Blackwater Holylight‘s fourth album. The first since the trio, consisting of singer (as well as guitarist and bassist) Sunny Faris, drummer Eliese Dorsay, and bassist/guitarist Mikayla Mayhew. Now relocated to LA from their original base in Portland.
Not Here Not Gone is made in California
From the lively scene in Oregon to sunny California, how many have already traveled this path, and how many in the opposite direction? But the change in environment has not affected the character that nourishes the artistic soul of these musicians. So naturally inclined to create contemplative settings and expansive harmonies that embrace shoegaze, post-rock. And the most absorbed dark wave in a single whole.
Not Here Not Gone: “so intimately enchanting”
The ten tracks (including the short instrumental interlude Giraffe) that form the elastic backbone of Not Here Not Gone are the result of a defined group spirit. Indeed, featuring Sarah McKenna on synths and Camille Getz on violin and the appearance of David Andre Sitek of TV On The Radio and Run The Jewels, among others, although his contribution is limited to a single track. It is precisely the choral nature of these songs. Devoid of unnecessary virtuosity and flashes of egocentricity, that makes them so intimately enchanting.
It is a succession of contrasts
Not that they lack vigor, far from it, the guitars overlap like foaming waves crashing against the resolute resistance of sharp rocks. And elsewhere they are placid waves drying up on the yielding sand. Not Here Not Gone is a succession of contrasts. Like the blinding California sunshine juxtaposed with the shady canopies of the Northwest forests.
Blending light and dark shades
Light and dark shades, that sometimes blend into each other. While other times compete for every space freed up by the force unleashed by the ensemble. Breathless races through shoegaze galaxies that light up the darkened firmament like dazzling spots; the immensity of space is furrowed by the celestial voice of Sunny Faris. Her name carries the light that rises above the cosmic whirlwind evoked by her companions, joined by keyboards that, right at the center of that vortex, find the natural element to shape, lighten, or make even more compact. Heavy, Why?, and Involuntary Haze bring the manifestos of the heaviest psychedelia up to date.
“It’s one foot in, one foot out”
The title of the work itself provides us with a first fundamental clue. Not Here Not Gone, as Faris explains, “it’s one foot in, one foot out,” is loss, the void it creates. But it is also the energy of those who have left us, which lingers in the air, clinging to us. Again, the aforementioned short piece Giraffe (featuring Sitek), built on a few noises, precedes and paves the way, like a path traced through those woods they left behind. Up there in Oregon, to the compact march of Spades and the dry phrasing of the guitar and the nervous rhythm section which then, as one, rise higher and higher, driven by a powerful breath.
The salient features of Not Here Not Gone
Void to be seemingly so fragile, frees itself and closes ranks in the finale, extinguishing its renewed motorik ardor in the calm introduction of Fade, a beneficial dream pop that soon melts into a basin of sour compound. Because of the sudden turn, shuffling the cards are one of the resources that Blackwater Holylight draw on without parsimony, making it one of the salient features of the entire album.
The Cocteau Twins appear in the background
In Mourning After, The Cocteau Twins appear in the background, where they remain for the entire five minutes of the song. The cascade of notes falling from the sky creates clouds of fine dust in which to lose oneself. Where How Will You Feel welcomed us, with its shoegaze caption reiterated in Bodies. Poppyfields leaves us. Seven minutes in which the bright red of the cover of Not Here Not Gone, evoking flashes that pierce the placid California night, takes shape and meaning.
The last track Poppyfields
Indeed, Poppyfield an enigmatic track that seeks to dispel fear. To free itself from its suffocating blanket, and does so by arming itself with the feral fury of black metal. Yet, wisely, they do not give in to frenzy, bending and shaping it into yet another perfect inspiration, finalized by Sonny Diperri‘s astute production. The grace bestowed upon us by the violin that closes the song. And the album reminds us that we do not feed on energy alone.
Track list
- How Will You Feel
- Involuntary Haze
- Bodies
- Heavy, Why?
- Giraffe
- Spades
- Void To Be
- Fade
- Mourning After
- Poppyfields
Line Up
- Sunny Faris – Vocals, Guitar, Bass
- Mikayla Mayhew – Bass, Guitar
- Eliese Dorsay – Drums