L.A. duo Eyeshadow (Joshua Sushman and Taylor Thompson) make music that resists easy categorization: a play of glaring contrasts and unexpected marriages, firmly grounded in the DIY ethos of radical community. As creators and session musicians (Thompson currently plays bass with Jerry Paper), the two have been fixtures on L.A.’s punk, experimental, and pop arenas for quite some time now, and Auto, their first official EP together, serves as an attempt to synthesize what they’ve learned throughout.
In the band’s own words, the short album was inspired by “a fixation on grids, the game of chess, symphonic form, and all structures created as landscapes for play.” Some of these tropes are conspicuously audible: the four-on-the-floor rhythm spine locked to the stately grid of “Audacious Girls”, the black-and-white juxtaposition of Sushman’s inky, industrial production and Thompson’s angelic vocals in “Static,” as well as the playful nature of what sounds like Klezmer clarinet ostinatos in “Minuet.” Together, Eyeshadow’s music comes off as a sort of Saint Etienne for the post-November 2016 era: classically musical, eclectic, and danceable, but with grim undertones the duo is purposely not doing a great job covering up.
Auto is out now on streaming platforms. Listen to it below:
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