Album Review: Crisis Arm - Rend
I love this music. Isn’t it too dreamy?
Sherilyn Fenn delivers that line in the third episode of “Twin Peaks,” as her character Audrey Horne stands in the Double R Diner, and sways with utter abandon to the music playing on the jukebox. It’s this quote, as well as this moment from the TV show, that came to mind the instant the needle hit the teal vinyl on Rend, the new full-length effort from the California shoegaze outfit Crisis Arm.
Coming roughly a year after their impressive Caterwaul, and only eight months after the EP Fetch, it’s clear that the band has an admirable “can’t stop, won’t stop” mentality when it comes to recording and their DIY touring across the west coast.
Building off of the momentum of Fetch, Rend finds Crisis Arm continuing to grow into their sound, and over the course of the album’s eight songs, the band creates a very focused, intentionally murky and dense atmosphere, thanks in part to the (intentionally) buried vocal mixing, and the dual guitar work that sends heavy waves of noise rolling over you—they really waste no time with this, and get right to work on the gorgeously downcast opener, “Resemblance.”
While it’s obvious by their general aesthetic that Crisis Arm are one of the many young “nu gaze” bands that are currently introducing a somewhat niche genre to crop of new listeners, Rend shows that they are much more than people who have effects pedals and a worn out copy of Loveless. The dreamy factor gets turned up to 11 on the second half’s “Stray,” and on the shimmering, slow motion grandeur of “Sunder,” while they inject more of a post-punk sound into the first side’s closing track, the surprisingly catchy “Intrinsic.”
Through all of the thick reverb and distortion, Rend shows that Crisis Arm are excellent at treading the line between aggression and beauty, choosing to play up one over the other, and occasionally letting them overlap. It’s a heady record that is incredibly listenable, and even better—incredibly easy to get lost in, allowing it to envelope you.
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