Astrobrite - Whitenoisesuperstar

ENTANGLED IN A PULSATING SEA OF WAVEFORMS

Talk about compressing the shit out of heavenly bodies. Astrobrite's Whitenoisesuperstar is a brilliant black hole, spewing unfathomable light on the other side. Like the negative photograph taken on the cover, reality is transposed and in disarray. Ignore the drama, the semantics, the frivolous plight of men. What exists beyond that super star cluster is nothing but celestial ecstasy. A rapture of eternal noise, droning into the ether, specks of haunting vocals reduced to their bare essentials. Sure, Whitenoisesuperstar borrows heavily from My Bloody Valentine's formula on Loveless, but the Wall of Sound is age old for a reason. It was always there, the seminal Shoegaze band just discovered it. Discordant noise, existing for no rhyme or reason, predated man, God, primordial chaos itself. To make it music is to inject a human touch. In Astrobrite's case; love, the bind that seals our fate.

Enough of the over-embellished cheese, as I'm sure the band themselves would scoff at such declarations. In reality, Astrobrite's brand of Shoegaze reduces intricacies to simple matter. Contemplation to feel. Purpose to existence. These are Drones, woven together by increasingly-dirty guitars, concealing the frailty of the human voice. Like the universe at large, it's not about her, or us, but rather what's beyond our reach. The unnamed vocalist tries, cooing with irresistible romance, only able to muster vanilla phrases plucked from the song titles. Nothing else pierces the infinite fabric on tracks like 'Dragonfly Pinkyfuzz' and 'Fireye Goodbye.' Some don't even get that far, trapped in loops of feedback ('Whitenoisesuperstar') or distorted by measures of a gravitational pull ('Summershine Smiley'). Let it be known though; for an album whose lyrics balance between indecipherable and meaningless, the importance of those angelic coos can't be understated. They are gorgeous, sending a powerful message that love persists even the most dense resistance. While to the universe, we are just bacteria, imperceptible and inconsequential, to ourselves, life and love is a treasured gift.

Before concluding I'd like to broach one last topic, that of the Atmospheric Drum N' Bass. Though my admiration falls primarily on the vocals, something needs to be said for Astrobrite's genius move to offset the grinding Drone with an agitated, fitful pace. Not every song has this feature, but those that do (like my two favorites, 'Cherryflavorburst' and 'Amorotic Zoom') seemingly achieve another plane of existence. Here, the heavens aren't enough. This is a rise to something beyond. It's as if the blissful haze of 'Vanillablue' or 'Kisspeach' aren't enough, the satisfaction of Dream Pop a fleeting repose that needs the excitement of anticipation. These moments soar. In a weird way, though polar opposites, I'm reminded of Aphasia's use of Atmospheric Drum N' Bass on Stereoisomerism. Whereas Astrobrite offset everything with a powerful disturbance, Aphasia did so against nothing. The effect, oddly enough, reaches that same sense of human discovery.