12 July 2010

Went - how are you (2010, Floorcollapsing)

Until a change of algorithm last year, Dushan Filimonovic, from Belgrade, Serbia, used to top my "neighbours list" on last.fm, sharing favorite artists like Empress, Talons, Low, Duster, S or Hood. Exploring his page I discovered a few years ago that he was playing music in a band called Went. But at this time, Went was playing hardcore noisy music with screamed vocals. Not my cup of tea and the difference between his playlists on last.fm and the music of his band was really strange.


Checking again at the beginning of 2010, I discovered that his band had just released a free single online. Their sound is totally different now,with vocals much more in front and no more screams. It is much more indie, mixing shoegazing elements with post-rock ones. "How are you" starts with and acoustic guitar and almost whispered vocals with an atmosphere that leans towards Empress but less refined. Slowly other instruments join the room, drums, bass and electric guitars, an like a frog inflating to become as big as a bull and the final result becomes average. The intentions are clearly good and the first part is promising, but the result fails to convince as the vocals of Dushan don't have the atmospheric qualities of the singers of bands like Appleseed Cast or Jeniferever and are closer to the ones of a band like Okkervil River.

"Out" starts with noisy atmospheric shoegazing guitars the would be almost at home one early records by Bark Psychosis or Readymade, mixed with typical Godspeed You Black Emperor wall of sound and whispered vocals à la Crescent. The song is pleasant but one again it's like an artifact of different things together without the feeling to have a pure substance.

This single shows a band still searching for its identity.

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