your greedbagpress release - Fade In Fade Out
A little bit of sound can fill a lot of space. Few bands, however, can melt the air with such subtle and fragile precision as does New Haven, CT's Landing. Following closely behind the hazy yearnings of their bliss-pop diamond Seasons (Ba Da Bing, May 2002) and the extended slow burn of 2001's ambient rock du jour Oceanless, our shooting stars-on-the-rise unfurl a defining chapter in their ever-evolving dreamrock canon, the magnificent Fade In/Fade Out EP.
Stretching 5 songs over 37 minutes, Fade In/Fade Out encapsulates all points possible along Landing's glistening trajectory of beauty. Bridging their droned-immaculate works (Oceanless) and concise tunesmith shimmer (Seasons, Circuit) with mystifying exactitude, the scope of the EP is immense, complex and composed… astonishing, when you learn that the music on Fade In/Fade Out was completely improvised on the spot! From the incept, as a low frequency hum gives way to reverberating, refracting guitars and elegantly huzzing feedback swirls ("Forest Ocean Sound"), it's evident this journey will be brimming with hushed, delicate, yet mysterious density. Guitar and Moog fragments rain down like a feathery meteor shower on minimal drum pulses laced by distant vocals ("Against the Rain"); feedback and sonic squiggles spill forth into Flying Saucer Attack-type acoustic/electric spheres ("Constellations"). Out of hesitant sound swirls emerges the grandeur of "Whirlwind", slowly revealing itself like a quiet apparition bathed in white light. Featuring Adrienne's heavenly vocals, this tune steals the show…blurred out guitars curtain lazy drums, exhuming the gilded body of Slowdive for a new means of worship. Gorgeous. "Pulse" provides the closing lullaby, floating out the window and into the night with oscillating swashes of color via a spare blueprint of bass and two guitars. Just like that the weightless journey is over, but the experience lingers, and as you emerge from the trance you feel cleansed, as if you have witnessed secret scenes buried deep beyond consciousness.
In one swoosh, Landing have constructed their finest and most representative achievement to date. Graceful and languid, Fade In/Fade Out sums up every last nuance about this band, rippling forth their detailed drone color splashes and songwriting surrealism from music made absolutely raw and in the moment. Fade In/Fade Out is the foundation to establish Landing as the humble heirs to the new space-gaze sound.
release:Fade In Fade Out
label: Strange Attractors Audio House