Pinkshinyultrablast - Grandfeathered

Ganz wundervoll bunte Langspielplatten aus dem Shoegaze-Segment gibt es in der Regel bei Club AC30 zu kaufen. Das Problem ist nur: Ich bin selten schnell genug, denn die Dinger sind immer höchst limitiert. Bei You Walk Through Walls und Ringo Deathstarr hatte ich zuletzt Glück, bei Pinkshinyultrablast leider nicht. Von deren zweiten Album "Grandfeathered" gab es insgesamt 1500 Kopien käuflich zu erwerben, aufgesplittet auf diese schönen Varianten:    

• Light Blue & Dark Blue Colour in colour effect "Ride The Sky" 180g Vinyl
• Baby Pink & Solid Purple A & B effect "Pinkle" 180g Vinyl
• Green, Blue and Pink half / half effect "Acid Lollypop" 180g Vinyl

Das russische Quintett hatte erst letztes Jahr mit "Everything Else Matters" sein Debüt veröffentlicht, das die Top 50 bei Platten vor Gericht nur ganz knapp verfehlt hatte (Rang 55 mit 7,375 Punkten). Der Nachfolger wurde nun in einem recht kurzem Zeitraum eingespielt und überrascht durch seine Experimentierfreudigkeit und ein Mehr an Noise und 90er Jahre Alternative Prog-Rock. So lassen auf "Kiddy Pool Dreams" die Smashing Pumpkins schön grüßen. Verhuschter Gesang, verhallte Synthies und shoegazige Gitarren gibt es aber weiterhin, so dass die Band selbst ihrer Sound mit "Thunder pop Kung-fu-gaze" umschreibt. 

Von mir wird es mehr als die zuletzt vergebenen 6,5 Punkte geben - ob es diesmal für unsere Top 50 reichen wird?

All of the hallmarks of the band’s debut remain blissfully intact, and yet they’ve managed to engineer an LP with even more seemingly absurd outliers than minimalism and Radiophonic blips. You ever hear a dream pop song with a galloping rhythm? “Glow Vastly” has that. Pinkshinyultrablast smash the paradigms of the genre into a million pieces and reassemble them with a cubist grace and pop melody that belies the amount of work I can only imagine goes into the construction of these pieces of music. They prove it’s possible to craft an album of ear worms with few traditional hooks. Fractal guitar-runs dovetail into fuzz explosions, instruments weave in and out of the mix, and memorable parts are anchored in non-repeating chains. Sound like prog? It kind of is, but they’ve coined their style “thunder pop,” and I’m hard pressed to argue.

Grandfeathered goes prog pop. On the band’s last album, elements of post-rock could be heard in its twinkling guitar arpeggios. If that facet of the band’s music rears its head here, it’s less noticeable. In execution, many of these tracks display a heavier approach. They still bear a passing similarity to Mahogany, but that now has more to do with Lyubov’s vocals sounding beamed in from The Dream of a Modern Day than it does with the rest of the band members, who go hard in the paint for the whole damn album. The guitars get aggressive with palm-muted rhythmic interplay like the metallic riffing during the bridge of Hum’s “Stars.” The bass is bright and snappy, working in complex patterns beneath the guitars. The drums maintain an aggressive tempo that keeps the whole album flowing in a way that feels like blasting off.
(Tiny Mixtapes)

Their ability to create vast ambience within a structure of intemperance is immediately apparent as ‘Glow Vastly’ begins, the addition of subtle synth layers adding an extra touch of fragility that adds a grounded feeling to their compositions, yet those elements together jar. On ‘Kidding Pool Dreams’ the undoubtedly compelling rhythm of drums matched with its technicality feels more forced than ethereal - losing some of the tracks sentimental attachment. When layered with the otherworldly vocals of Lyubov Soloveva, it withholds a haunting emotional value, the integral beauty lost in the record’s technical intelligence.

Perhaps surprisingly, the group find their most suitable path when somehow cramming all these elements into a more traditional, melodic structure. As fast-paced as it feels, the record takes its time in completely unveiling, heading down various routes within a track before reaching its climax. ‘I Catch You Napping’ sees the group use a more concise template, giving each of its part a purpose. With the addition of the drums, the track comes alive, with elements of dance-punk and Afrobeat alluding to a more controlled rhythm that the group really create something intriguing with.

As impressively considered as the group are when it comes to their compositions, they evoke a cold feeling of invulnerability within their music that’s hard to avoid.

(DIY)