Bridgetown Records • August 12, 2014
Time for some more weird stuff today! Shivering Window is a left-field lo-fi pop band. the sort that defies simple classification and makes it very frustrating to write about. But they do make some pretty darn interesting music.
This is mainly a cassette release, and boy is that taken seriously. I have the digital version, and it still sounds like it was dug out of someone's basement in 1989—a bit of tape hiss and AC buzzing, telephone EQs, some tracks that sound like they were ripped from ancient reel-to-reels. If you put this album alongside a bunch of actual '80s and '90s underground-lo-fi-DIY tapes, I wouldn't know the difference.
Of course, this is an entirely good thing; I think the aesthetic fits Shivering Window's music perfectly and I don't think there's a better way for the music to be presented. Strip it all out and it's a pretty basic pop album, one that probably wouldn't be too terribly interesting and technically is a bit of a mess; but with its production, the drum machines and out-of-tune instruments and silly keyboards work together surprisingly well. And there are a handful of neat little riffs in there, like the guitar line in "Sloucher".
I'd say this album is probably an acquired taste, but for anyone like me who is remotely fascinated by underground tape culture, this is a great modern representation of that. It's not perfect by any means, as it sometimes seems a little too amateur for its own good, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth a listen.
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