Boxstep record with Shellac’s live soundman, Bill Shibbe. As such, he’s helped furnish brooding gothic ballads with enormous mettle. Rolling grand pianos, menacing violins and shards of guitar make this sound like a cross between The Bad Seeds and Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s gale force ebb and flow.
It’s an imposing, imperious album, but Boxstep’s cerebral approach means impassioned crescendos rarely teeter over into melodrama. Thankfully, any quiet-to-loud dynamics are shelved in favour of clarity and coherence.
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