Phantom Lights
"Chordae Tendinae"
10" EP
Hovercraft
Genre: indie rock
Portland, OR
December 2009 |
These three young
Portland ladies know their way around a pop hook, and this swell
garage record frames their compositions nicely. This appears to be
the only release these three have put out, but fortunately it's a
swell slab of ten-inch vinyl.
Side A begins with
"Birds," a dreary-eyed pop song with a hint of punk attitude, its
strength being its jangly, Orchids-esque guitar part. It is,
perhaps, the most overtly melodic track on this EP. "After the War,"
meanwhile, is a darker affair -- it replaces the stroll of the
previous track with passionate, almost pained vocals which become a
tad grating. True to its name, "Dos Locos" is an even more driving,
punk-tinged effort; desperate and raucous, it packs a decent wallop
and has a nice, debauched guitar melody which harkens quite
admirably back to early 90s indie rock.
Side B features more
girl-group garage-cum-punk-cum-pop nuggets, beginning with the
awesome minor-key guitar part of "See You Around," whose 'riot grrl'
vocals are sadly a tad too piercing for my tastes. Meanwhile, "Ratt
and the Rabbits" is the most invigorating track on here, starting
with a meandering little passage before accelerating into a raunchy
roll - once again,
the vocals can be a hurdle at their most fervid, though I really
like the track's design as a whole. Instrumentally,
Chordae Tendinae is a tremendously solid slab of grungy indie
rock, but when the vocals kick into shrill mode they detract from
the affair. These mar an otherwise bad-ass affair.
phantom lights' myspace
Matt Shimmer
[Vitals: 7 tracks, distributed by
the
label,
released June 2007] |