Where the sun hits the snow, there you find beauty in the bleak midwinter, there you find a spectrum of bright color on a crystal white landscape, there you find the music of Pinkshinyultrablast. 2015's Everything Else Matters was a promising debut for the Russian shoegaze band, ably worshipping at the sonic altar of Lush, Loveliescrushing and My Bloody Valentine. Pinkshinyultrablast immediately follows it up with Grandfeathered in February, an album just as radiant; though now the dreamy and noisy pop songs are more abstract and more intentional.
"The Cherry Pit" certainly has all of the earmarks in its opening blast: shimmering guitars, Lyubov Soloveva's delicate-yet-striking soprano, indistinguishable drums obliterated by a squall of feedback. But a minute in, the noise subsides into an astral highlife funk, one that alternates with thunderous pop throughout. In this video, director Jared Hutchinson lays static over images of the band's hometown of St. Petersburg, with a backlit Lyubov singing to the sunsets. It's all euphoric and pretty until the final moments when Pinkshinyultrablast launches into a messy, metallic whoosh, like a warped VHS rewinding at triple speed.
Grandfeathered comes out Feb. 26 on ClubAC30.
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