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By: Mark Gomes
Date: 4th Aug 08
Release: Album
To Cure: Hypertension
What:
03/07 - 09/07
Who:
High Places
On:
Mistletone
Where:
Mistletone Shop / Missing Link
Related links:
MySpace / High Places blog
Day tripping Brooklyn duo High Places thoroughly enchant on this singles collection - released locally through Mistletone. Sun-bleached, dreamy and unfolding with a stream-of-consciousness feel, these songs assume weird back-and-forth shapes; their tropical-tinged samples and faraway vocals rolling into themselves with the certainty of waves. Nothing seems intent on beginning or ending, but instead - like the short, impressionistic novellas of self-discovery favored in maudlin youth - all tracks roll out as a deepening trip into members Mary Pearson and Robert Barber's private imaginary world.
Insofar as they conjure an elevated, top-of-the head kind of affect, there's something in High Places' approach akin to My Bloody Valentine's famed 'dry' production aesthetic. But while the latter go dense and maximal to swirl your head, Barber and Pearson's relaxed programming and wonder-infused lyricism is light, stripped-back and weightless. Shakers, xylophone, steel drum, tweaked kitchen recordings and Pearson's breezy voice combine as an escapist scheme approaching out-of-body experience. This pair are the sound of sun-baking lovers, intoxicated, post-coital, on perpetual island holiday.