Reighnbeau – Hands

May 1, 2014 • Bridgetown Records

What a difference two years can make. Okay, so Reighnbeau really isn't that different from when they released their last album Ashes, but am I glad I took the chance to look into them again. I liked Ashes quite a bit, but Hands is a fantastic followup and one shows some great growth for the band.

It's is still a slowcore album, for sure; the lolling tempos and dragging rhythms and gloomy atmosphere is all intact, and Reighnbeau is still one of the better bands to do this particular sound that I've heard (though I've never been a huge fan of the genre anyway). Again their focus on texture rather than songwriting is probably why they appeal to me so much, but man can they ever do texture well. That's not to say their songwriting is bad; there are quite a few songs here that are actually pretty engaging when the drums and well-defined chord progressions kick in (things like the climax of "Dust" with its heavy, driving sound are especially great).

Though I think they've really improved their skills with their sound. Hands mixes their old style with this hazy, slow, drugged-out, almost-psychedelic production, landing closer to the My Bloody Valentine end of the spectrum and farther from the Slowdive end. It's a bit radical compared to the clean and empty style on Ashes—although things never get so thick as to be overbearing, there's still a sort of wall-of-sound effect going on at times. It works pretty well, though, and they really use the production to their advantage to keep songs interesting. It becomes the kind of thing where you can just sit back and get lost in the sound as it washes over you. I'm not sure how I feel about the vocals, though; they're always at a near-whisper and mixed very low, so they often get lost in the fog. But maybe that's what they were going for.

But again I'm mostly talking out my ass because I don't listen to shoegaze or slowcore very much and when I do there are about two bands I actually enjoy. But regardless, this is still something I am liking, so it's got to be at least a little good for your average slowcore fan, right? I dunno.