As much as there are trends in music itself, there’s an equal fashion when it comes to band names. A good one can bring in as many new listeners as a thousand positive write-ups on blogs, and probably more. So when you’re faced with a name as brilliantly imposing as Glass Graves, you can’t help but take notice. Throughout début album ‘Architecture’, it proves to be a moniker brilliantly fitting, with the 9 tracks sounding as if they’ve been recorded in an abandoned mansion, a ghostly, haunted air hanging over the 9 tracks.
A solo project, it’s the work of Gaby Graves, who either has an average pseudonym or an excellent maiden name. The sound is one heavily coloured by the post-punk movement and Gothic music, droning guitars interweave with delicate, distant piano for most of it, whilst Graves’ vocals linger nearby. There are definitely shades of Witch house within, but this is a fundamentalist version of the sound, stripped back from the ultra-modern direction Disaro’s bands take. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find many signs of the digital revolution in the tracks, and this could just as easily be some forgotten classic you happen to come across in an second vinyl shop, such is the timelessness of the sound. The almost basic instrumentation means that it’s completely refreshing, as similar artists lean towards attempting to mimic the Crystal Castles/HEALTH style, apocalyptic breakdown. It’s ultimately the restraint shown in not instantly going in for the kill that make these 9 tracks so memorable.
Brilliantly, the entirety of ‘Architecture’ is available for free through bandcamp for absolutely nothing, which more than makes up for the thousands of miles between the UK and anywhere where Glass Graves would be playing a gig. Beautifully understated, it’s a subtle shoegaze sound that will haunt you in the best way possible.
