Signer: new single and album
Mon 2 Nov 2009
Ghostly Rhythms
Wellington’s Signer, aka Bevan Smith, toured the world with Panda Bear and Ariel Pink in 2005. The latter two acts have since gone on to be crowned kings of modern psychedelic music and amazingly Signer has remained criminally unrecognised – until now. Breaking a five-year drought, Smith released his fourth album Next We Bring You The Fire on September 23 in the US via Carpark Records, and on November 23 A Low Hum and Border are releasing it in New Zealand with two extra bonus tracks.
Recording with help from longtime friend Ryan McPhun (The Ruby Suns) as well as Matthew Mitchell and Jeremy Coubrough, Smith is no stranger to collaboration. Together with Nik Brinkman (Psychic Powers) Smith is also one half of the recording side of Over The Atlantic, and has also released three albums with Signer bandmate Matthew Mitchell as Skallander.
Next We Bring You The Fire is very much ambient electronica, utilising Smith’s experience as a rave DJ in the ’90s to create an exciting blend of dreamy shoegaze and analog pop with sparking techno embers. An obvious highlight is the oddly poppy single ‘Kicks And Kicks’, but later ‘Languidly Toot’ unearths a hazy euphoric vision with clapping rhythms. The much raved about ‘Don’t Be A Forest Cow’ serves as somewhat of a climax of the album. Percussion is surprisingly sparse throughout the whole album, giving it a drifting, haunting quality that seems to be without time. The album feels tense and spiritual as the swirling synths and spooky vocals hover over transparent noise, songs are submerged and then rise up to float and bob on the surface, becoming lighter and friendlier, sometimes ending suddenly, sometimes coasting on infinitely.
Posted by Sarah Gooding under New Zealand, Wellington
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