Craft Spells, who mines similar dreamy, jangly fields as fellow Captured Track buddys Wild Nothing, early-Beach Fossils and to certain extend Mac DeMarco, released a lovely debut album in 2011 titled Idle Label that in retrospect seems far too overlooked.
During the last month, two new singles were teased off Craft Spells upcoming LP Nausea. Especially “Komorebi”, feels as if Justin Paul Vallesteros have set his eyes on much richer, ‘full-band’-sound. It’s a truly beautiful song with this sort of grainy, lo-fi keyboard – playing almost like a flute – used as the lead melody. And Vallesteros also got rid of the reverb-drained vocals of Idle Label that at times had an almost 80’s goth-synth feel. As a consequence, there is clarity and warmth in his voice I haven’t noticed before.
“Breaking the Angle Against the Tide” is more up-tempo and could easily be mistaken for a Wild Nothing track. And while I do mean that as a compliment, I still believe it doesn’t sound distinctive enough to make a lasting impression, at least not compared to “Komorebi”. Each song transmits this rich and very warm orchestrated sound, with lovely strings gently kissing them off.
Nausea is out June 10. Pre-order here.
