The Bilinda Butchers - Goodbyes EP

EP review by KevW

They may have borrowed their name from the singer/guitarist with shoegaze noise terrorists My Bloody Valentine, but San Franciscan duo The Bilinda Butchers have been taking their cue from the scene's more dreamy pioneers. Their echo-rich, misty-eyed sounds have always harked back to similarly-minded sonic explorers of yore such as The Cocteau Twins, Chapterhouse, Slowdive and so on. It's this sound that they push even further on new pay-what-you-like download EP 'Goodbyes' (also available on physical formats) with not a second of space going spare. The pair actively shun gaps, filling every available moment with floaty synths and softly reverberating guitar lines. The vocals too are distant, distorted and dreamlike, drifting through the songs like a heat-haze engulfing a landscape.

We've already been gifted a glimpse of what to expect from this EP in recent download 'Crystal Tears', a song which when heard in the context of the full set sounds all the more impressive and swoonsome. Flanked by the 80s-shaded 'Hai Bby' and the atmospheric, synth-heavy 'Half Open' (whose exotic sound isn't too far removed from something you might find on a Pan Pipe Moods album) its subtlety makes more sense in such similarly cosy company. The strummed-out ending of 'Little Leaf' is also a thing of fragile beauty, bringing in some cushioned beats to add substance. 'Teen Dream' is the strongest track here, it could easily have been lifted from any classic dreampop album and may well become a classic in its own right. Basically it's about time that doctors considered prescribing The Bilinda Butchers instead of Valium.



The Bilinda Butchers' website

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