Soften The Blows is the full-length debut album by San Francisco based Nu Gaze act Above Me who are Rick Altieri with additional vocals by Lauren Matsui from Sea Blite and Ryhmies and shouldn't be confused with any other bands from California called Above Me.
The album opens like it is going to be a mental as anything glitchcore record, before Feelsee gradually calms down into a blissed-out, contemplative, rather wistful tune, with a Spectrum like edge. It coalesces into Water Drops, barely awake, doped vocals come in, guitars become more spatial and widescreen, gently caressing the listeners ears.
Monolith builds a Galaxie 500 wall of shimmering guitars and cocooned vocals, that are always just the right side of indistinct, so you have to close your eyes and listen carefully to hear what they are singing about, what meanings they find in that Monolith, all the bullshit surrounding it, thankfully they don't want to paint any pond floors besides the Monolith.
Dissolving Charms uses a gated drum pattern and ethereal keyboards, they slowly utter the imprecations, that lead to the awareness that you're word isn't your bond, no matter what they said to seduce you originally was a lie, even when they tell you to scream, it is almost whispered, like you know they really want to explode with anger, but are keeping their emotions in check.
French Candle is a title that sounds like to should be some dodgy sexual practise, that judging by the pace of this record only happens while you are at the bottom of a K-Hole barely able to stir, yet still yearning to see that taper lighted, so everything can feel ignited, if they can raise themselves from the torpor of the glacial world they are floating through. 2 Bit Angel is a short musical appreciation for the favours done for you for no more than fiddy cents.
Glowing Faces has heavier guitars and a distinctive riff, that the glitchy drum machines and synths wash under, while they discuss how you have no clue whose really in control, certainly not those that claim to be. Trample The Flowers but do it oh so gently, at the pace this song takes your innocence away from you, in a hazy wash of synths and guitars.
Windmill sounds like it's barely moving round, poor old Windy Miller won't be making any stone ground flour to this slow strummed song, not that the nightmare they are singing about is anything to do with kids tv from the 60's, all your fears are being dragged from you, taking you back to better days.
Chromey appears to be the bands hood name, set to almost harp like soft synth washes and some crackling interference and chimes, Chromey shuffles across the speakers extremely slowly.
The album closes with Pin Never Pricks that uses a drum and bass backbeat, with careful guitar and synths for the barely their vocals to weave a way through the destruction of modern catastrophies, hoping to find a world where bad intentions and worse actors are no longer making the decisions.
Find out more at https://dandyboyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/soften-the-blows https://www.facebook.com/dick.altieri
