Wreaths, Wreaths, 2014

Album Review

I was at The Saint one night a couple of months back. Asbury Park's Wreaths were playing. At the end of their planned set, they got the nod from the sound man that there was time for one more song. The band complied and lit into what had to be an approximately seven-minute version of psych-blues jam, "I Love Me, Dark Wizard." The song swirled around The Saint, and I'm sure a few people allowed themselves to get lost in it. One more from Wreaths and you really get your money's worth.

"I Love Me, Dark Wizard" closes out Wreaths' self-titled, debut full-length. Over the course of the LP, Wreaths employ just about every drone-y guitar style  there is -- from late 1960s psychedelic space rock to Jesus and Mary Chain-style walls of sound to My Bloody Valentine-esque dronescapes -- usually pairing them up with a Motorik beat to produce a record in which it is quite easy to lose yourself.

"Coke Straw" starts things off. It's a psychedelic ramble that feels like it's leading you down a path into the depths of the rest of the album. "Goin' Back to Haiti" rides that Krautrock beat into a squall of noise over the course of its thirteen minutes. "Ruby," "Piedmont Aire," and "Adult Life" are the closest things to poppy tracks here and really harken back to some 80s proto-shoegaze and early dream pop.

Coming at the end of all of this, "I Love Me, Dark Wizard" initially sounded a little out of place to me; but upon further listening, I can see how it fits. Whether it's the forward momentum of a driving beat, a steady drone, or the blues-y riff of "I Love Me, Dark Wizard," the songs here use repetition to great effect. Wreaths layer sounds, noise, and lyrics over repeated themes; and your brain kind of goes on autopilot as you listen. It's like when a word, repeated over and over, becomes just a sound.

Wreaths are a band producing some of the truly interesting sounds coming out of Asbury Park right now. The album does about as good a job as a record can do of capturing the feeling of seeing the band live amid flashing colored lights and the mist from the fog machine. Keep Wreaths handy for whenever you think you may want a non-chemically induced, fifty or so minute escape from reality.

Wreaths is out now on NJ's Killing Horse Records. Wreaths will be celebrating the album's release with a show at Asbury Lanes on April 26th.