EYE
DARK LIGHT (NEW HEAVY SOUNDS)
EYE's - the new band from Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard (MWWB) singer/composer/musician Jessica Ball - debut album has arrived! "These songs have been many years in the making...this is something I've always wanted to do.
The album ultimately is quite introspective yet lyrically loose enough to be open to interpretation - I've always been a fan of songs that seem to perfectly slot into the situation I'm experiencing and not too specific to one person's experience." An intensely atmospheric fusion of emotionally charged songcraft and inspired sonic energy.
The clue is in the album's paradoxical title. Chilling and even bleak melodies with arrangements daringly and deliberately stripped down and minimal.
Revealing a kinship with sonic bed-fellows Mazzy Star, Chelsea Wolfe or even Portishead.
Songs like "The Other Sees", "Respair", "See Yourself" are chameleonic and commanding, wielding snaky, chiming guitar back to back with fuzzed out riffs.
Vocal melodies may be sweet but melancholic, amidst tightly contrasted spatial dimensions, and Ball's signature vocals are at the forefront, sometimes soaring but also with a heart of darkness.
Of the two 'heavier' numbers "In Your Night," slowly builds to a brooding fuzz-groove like a down-tuned Yo La Tengo until a huge space-doom riffs carries you home while with "See Yourself" the contrast from folk delicacy to tripped out sub-bass fuzz riffage is astounding.
So, whilst not strictly speaking 'Doom' or 'Metal' fans of Jessica's previous work with MWWB will not be disappointed.
Along with producer Chris Fielding (MWWB, Conan) EYE have produced something otherworldly, which is at times heavy and epic, yet still deeply intimate and dark.
A striking debut.