GLIDER
(GHOSTLY INTERNATIONAL)
Despite borrowing the title of his debut album from My Bloody Valentine, the music of Seattle’s The Sight Below has more in common with the treated guitar sounds of Cocteau Twin Robin Guthrie on his collaborations with Harold Budd. A silvery haze of subtle drones and loops, tones overlapping, building and fading. A distant 4/4 beat occasionally emerges from the murk, conjuring mind’s eye images of a night drive through freezing fog. ‘Gaseous’ is the word. But while The Sight Below traverses similar territory to Wolfgang Voigt on Nah und Fern, he uses another mode of transport entirely: rather than processed samples, everything is played live.
Another touchstone is the mid-90s ‘isolationist’ school of ambience. An impression furthered by The Sight Below’s reported reclusiveness, and track titles such as ‘Dour’, ‘Nowhere’ and ‘Life’s Failing Light’. Yet there is beauty in this gloom, never more so than on ‘Already There’, a worthy companion to Eno/Lanois/Eno’s ‘Always Returning’.
Rating: 8 / Justin Toland