“It’s okay, it’s a brand new day. Into the sun, I can talk with anyone.” (“Into The Sun”)
I’ve adamantly eschewed the many virtues of Edinburgh’s Benbecula Records for years on the back of blissful downtempo electronic releases from Christ. and Ochre, as well as folktronica fusion acts like Reverbaphon and Frog Pocket. Now, for the first time in its brief but storied history, Benbecula is managing a four-piece band that has the gall, the sheer audacity to harmonize vocals over guitar, bass, drums, and painfully bright, distorted keyboards that thematically smooth over the slightest aural gaps like Angelically hopeful drone-rock. While The Daily Record is quoted as saying “you have to scratch your head that a major hasn’t snapped them up,” all I can say is thank bloody fuck. I haven’t had the pleasure of being inspired by such elegant but rustic music like this since the first time I heard My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, and I listen to a lot of music. Lost on a major’s roster is the last place they, as artists, deserve to be.
Genaro’s eponymous debut is destined to establish the Carluke quartet as the cream not only of the lysergic Scottish post-rock crop, but of all guitar-based UK music. The utter creative sterility of corporate bands like Fall Out Boy and Evanescence -- whose hearts stopped beating sometime around their first few contract signings -- is given definitive relief by Genaro’s range of emotional expression and exhibition of the real Scottish musical climate, one of inquisitive acceptance and bittersweet hope. Craig Snape’s lyrics and, even more so, the honest style in which they are delivered grind a warped bow against heartstrings during the infinite moments off uncouth harmony between his drone vocals and Daryl Kellie‘s blissful shoegaze synth mastery. Lyrics like “Atomic bombs, submachine guns, a world war, and endless executions/ We’re heading for total annihilation/ And this is what we call civilized” (“Dark Corners Of Your Mind”) are conveyed with ultimate compassion and a yearning for understanding, poignantly expressed over chugging, downtempo rock basslines, forceful acoustic/electric guitar strumming doubled over with reverb, and a wash of synthetic noise that glues the whole thing together.
The music, which features each member swapping instruments around, backs up the vocals every step of the way, making certain all the mystically introspective lyrical gestures are fully felt by the listener. However, despite the often serious subject matter, the mood remains consistently chill. It’s everything the final Beta Band record (Heroes To Zeroes) should have been. At that, Genaro’s self-titled debut is one of the best shoegaze albums of 2007.
More about: Genaro
