Sparkling Wide Pressure - Time Travel Melody (Kimberly Dawn 3" CD-R)

Was just settling down to write a review for that Riggs tape on Unverified Records, Amazed Nova, when I realized it's not even out yet, so I'll wait on that one till it's good to go I guess. Good opportunity for me to sink my teeth into this new batch I got from Sparkling Wide Pressure's Frank Baugh and his young label, Kimberly Dawn. Actually didn't realize Frank was who he was till I got the batch, but I was thrilled to figure it out if only because that Stunned tape he put out not too long ago really won me over.

Nice to know there's plenty more where that came from. This little 3" is broken into three tracks that apparently are based on a melody Baugh's been singing to himself since childhood. Opener starts with some rambling guitar folk stuff with blissed vocal melody lines that definitely exert a certain hazy summer sound before they slip back in favor of crunchy hiss and hollow synth drone. Slowly building it back up, the whole thing drifts out into some pretty zoned spaces, somewhere between the pitfalls of brethren past and the forest of brethren future. Nice stuff that carves out some pretty insular and engaging zones.

The second track's odd pitch-shifting twangs squirm about pretty wiley-like, almost like a prettier and more restrained Riggs line actually--same sense of playful experimentation. The shining hum above it keeps it all pretty grounded though, nice and simple, and wholly effective in that, even as guitar swallows it up, redirecting it toward the sun. The last track, with odd echoing vocals emerging from some deep crevice, further pushes things into the weird. An oscillating high end drone decentralizes the thing while it builds, closing in on straight compositional post-rock without ever getting close enough to lose the strengths it has. Nice disc, and a 3" that manages to explore some disparate material even given the time constraints. More to come from this outfit for sure.