‘Cheshire Ambient Punks SIMMER Announce Debut LP ‘Paper Prisms’ states the headline. Ambient punks? Well, my curiosity is piqued, at least. The opening bars of the album’s first track, ‘Faze’, finds Julius Schiazza adrift in a sea of reverb amidst a welter of guitars. It immediately calls to mind ‘You’re Living All Over Me’ era Dinosaur Jr with a hint of ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. That’ll be the Fugazi influence cited by the band coming into play, then. But halfway through, the hell-for-leather drums and guitars taper down to contrails by way of a middle eight… a moment of tranquillity before it all erupts once more, only more powerful. This is impressive stuff: at once forceful energetic and driving, there’s a breadth to the sound, and a nagging emotive undercurrent that contrasts with the grungy punk energy. It’s instantly captivating.
‘Antwerp’ combines shoegaze and post-rock to forge an elegant cascade of guitars, while ‘Gold’ lives up to its title’s promise: it gleams brightly as it surges forwards, guitars ricocheting every which way while the vocals weave their mellow way through the tumult, cosseted in a cathedral of reverb. Just as I find myself being carried away, I realise I’ve heard them before: their 2014 EP ‘Your Tonal Mess’ snagged me in just the same way. If nothing else, it goes to show it was no fluke.
Time and again, the guitars warp in a nod to the melting sound of My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Loveless’, and the layered production, which conveys intense volume, still manages to leave an abundance of space for nuance.
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But however much you – I – try to dissect this album, it’s almost impossible to really pinpoint how, why or where it’s as affecting as it is. Underneath the fuzz, the feedback, and all the rest, there’s something deeply touching. It’s not only the plaintive vocals that snag the heartstrings, and it’s not the guitar sound per se. There’s something in the playing that just does something. Those chords that bend and warp are imbued with a gloriously bittersweet emotion. At once sad and uplifting, everything exists just beyond the parameters of tangibility.
Anyone who loves music, and who lives their life through the medium of music, will know that lyrics and genre and style in all of its forms only communicate so much and only reach so far. The most potent music transcends all of this and communicates on an almost biological level, and speaks through the language of sound. And this is precisely what Simmer do on ‘Paper Prisms’. The elliptical lyrics hint at meaning rather than spelling it out. The rest is communicated almost subliminally, sonically. And it says so much. ‘Paper Prisms’ is an album that oozes and aches. Let it wash over you, and you will feel it too.
Simmer Online
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