Talha

In all my shoegazing discoveries this year, none has satisfied me to such an extent as Me You Us Them‘s debut LP has. This album sounds NEW from the first track in, and you had better get your rating finger ready for some serious 5-star clicking. Order in a neck brace as well, the riffs and melodies have a hook enough to get your head bobbing through-out the record till its done.

My first impression of Post-Data had me preparing myself for post-punk onslaught, but as I listened to the album over and over, the dense chords lying in the back made their way up and I was introduced to the wall of sound reminiscent of I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness‘ textural driving buildups. There’s enough swerve in the guitars to fill up your brain’s drone capacitors only to be complimented by the driving grooves that keep your feet busy for, say, about the length of the entire album?

The album’s only just started and already “Any Time’ has you hooked – full of enough key elements to keep the gazer in you more than satisfied. Elastic chords suspending you from the pivot point of the beat while the bass provides all the tension. Each track that follows builds up your appetite for the next. There’s a distinct two chord swerved out riff which I find myself holding on to as a bookmark for each track.

The track that instantaneously stands out is “Drugs’ – it takes you up in with the atmospheric sound wash in the back only to drive you to the edge of a cliff where you hear the words “chin up child, don’t give up”, and it just keeps getting higher from there on. “iQuit’ takes the role of building up to the self titled track, and here’s something interesting – the groove hasn’t let go of you and we’re about 7 tracks down.

It’s this constant driving force in their sound that keeps pushing you further and further still, till you activate your drift and you’re caught in the current . Post-Data transitions from light to dark as you progress from the first track on to the last, but it doesn’t leave you in the shadows once you’re done cruising your way to the end. It only deprives you of their sound when it closes and there really is nothing much you can do but rewind and find yourself stuck in this endless circle of Me You Us Them.

The graphic designer in me really likes the whole retro-modern album art. The hand made silk screened cover is made to look like an old floppy disk, with the pixelation on the record visible through the negative spaces. It’s a perfect depiction of nostalgia and innovation, which is pretty much the sound this band has managed to create. I’ve checked on all the boxes on my shoegaze list and given 5 stars for each track… EACH TRACK! Post-Data is a compilation of all your favorite songs that you haven’t heard yet. I’ve only managed to catch a few videos off of youtube and I can clearly see them rocking out major shows pretty soon in the future! Go ahead check them out yourself… http://meyouusthem.com/

Imagine all the sounds you’ve ever known and all the sounds you think you’ll know, now break them up into a musical barcode and you’ll get a visual of what Sweet Trip might sound like. The album art definitely gives you an image of what you’re about to step into, because this band is not just musically diverse, ethnically they come from three different parts of the world and have managed to create this giant super sundae of shoegazey guitars, electro-break beats, insane sound samples and melancholic dreampop vocals.

Velocity : Design : Comfort – my first Sweet Trip record – defines their sound for me. The album is produced to perfection laying down layers of dense, thin, chunky liquid and presenting it in a flawless manner for your ears to delve into making sure the contrasts fill up all the sound cravings in your head and reach that perfect point of balance.

The opener track ‘Tekka’ is in a way an overture of the madness that lies in the rest of the record, taking you on a trip from a wall of beats and crisp sound samples to a lo-fi, 8 bit screech stop and then driving you back into the buzz of little flurries and beat washes. Another track to watch out for is ‘Fruitcake and Cookies’ which expands on the notion set by the opening track, giving you more of the beat driven madness with Valerie Reyes’ vocals providing you with a rope to hold on to as you make your way through the density laid down by front man Roberto Burgos and his machines.

The track that got me hooked was ‘To All the Dancers of the World, A Round Form of Fantasy.’ It’s all your nostalgia and hope crammed into one track. The way the syncopated beat structure keeps your head bobbing in a state of disbelief at a steady tempo is unlike any song I’ve ever heard. And just when you thought things were going all lazy calm and lo-fi, you’re introduced to the sweetest wall of noise and you cant help but sink into it. Progressive is an understatement, it’s almost bipolar.

Sweet Trip has taken the best of all of the indie world and made it their sound, don’t be surprised if you’re putting five stars on each track in the record. This will be a hook you don’t wanna get out from. Sweet trip? More like sweet submission.