#moonlasso

Emily Reo, firstly, is at the head of "people to thank" line, being the reported proposer of this split. Her contributions, "Peach" and "Metal," come first and sixth, respectively - right at the start and the heart of the tape. The former is appropriately organic as it germinates and grows from bare bones percussion into a busy, sparkling topiary. It's lithe and living, unlike the latter track. "Metal" is somber. "Metal" is serious. It still has an electronic , but it's washed out and emotionally stark to the point I almost want to call it "inhuman." Perhaps I should've embedded "Peach" below, then, to brighten this day - but we all love the sad stuff.

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Yohuna was, as I said, the immediate hook for me. As her voice comes in as quietly confident as it did on her cover of Joni Mitchell's "River," I'm immediately reminded why. Supported by an almost full band sound of noisy, reverberating guitar, filling-out bass, and click-clacks on "Creep Date" and by serene noises of all sorts on the post-existence, incredibly final-feeling closer "Westerlies," Johanne Swanson's voice is a deeply cutting, moving thing. 

<a href="http://crashsymbols.bandcamp.com/track/creep-date" data-mce-href="http://crashsymbols.bandcamp.com/track/creep-date">Creep Date by Yohuna</a>

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Brown Bread

Brown Bread has the privilege of establishing the albums core (or at least its midpoint) back-to-back, more abstract contributions. "Sister" is all soaked sounds, reverb, and a wind-through-the-cracks, hushed and ambivalent chorus over a truly ghostly voice. "Moths" follows in similarly mysterious fashion. Again anchored by a constant, prominent feature (that drum, simple yet divine), the song is defined by how everything plays off at, most especially that half-burried voice of Rebecca Doerfer that rises briefly in each beat's wake.

<a href="http://crashsymbols.bandcamp.com/track/moths" data-mce-href="http://crashsymbols.bandcamp.com/track/moths">Moths by Brown Bread</a>

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MoonLasso provides the most fun. "Vibrasonics" immediately provides a beat that is playful and open, and quickly interweaves Malee Bringardner's relaxed, delightfully confident voice, all adjectives enhanced by the heart-racing middle minute. "Skies All Around" is much the same - open and airy, and lighter. It's a bit more affecting, though, and lyrics-centric ("I keep this salt on my wounds to remind me to feel you/I feed these irrational fears like 'I could forget you'"), pairing well with  "Westerlies."