The Soft Walls make music that is poised somewhere between lo-fi and dream-pop. The tunes from the Brighton "band" linger in the brain like bits of memories, or flashes of an eerie dream recalled in the morning. The one-man group's newest record, Not As Bad As It Seems, drops on Friday and it's highly recommended, obviously.
"Misperception" is the epic opener, equal parts Silver Apples and Spectrum, a retro stroll through space-rock realms, while "As Thin As A Thread" is even better, noisy bits like from an old Syd-era Floyd record mixed all up with the sort of propulsive momentum one used to find with reliable frequency on Swirlies and Stereolab albums. Elsewhere, "No (Personal) Connection" and "Inward Island" see Dan Reeves tone down the loud bits to let his skewed melodies take center-stage. I suppose these numbers could be compared to stuff released not too long ago by Temple Songs and The Foetals, or even Flaming Lips, but Reeves is really mining a valuable vein of Sixties acid rock here. The cuts have a throwback charm about them, such that one could almost believe that they were lost classics from some late volume in the Nuggets series.
Not As Bad As It Seems is out on Friday via the link below.
More details on The Soft Walls via the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: The Soft Walls]