| There’s something embarrassing about bedroom records. Not for the people who make them, but for the people who listen to them: It feels like you’re intruding on someone’s personal space, reading their diary or snooping outside the door as they spill their guts over the phone. On “Where It Ends,” Boy In Static joins the same creeping-us-out confessionals club as Her Space Holiday and Manitoba, except where HSH lap-chops Radiohead and classical strings, Boy In Static’s Alex Chen mainlines My Bloody Valentine. It’s obvious there is a well-worn copy of Loveless somewhere between his laptop and dresser. Five-o’clock-shadow guitars churn into soup, barely discernable buzzes float in and out of the mix, and Chen tops it off with a hushed, breathy vocal that makes Kevin Shields sound like Billy Corgan. It’s precisely these vocals that make Boy In Static such an uncomfortable listen: They sound like they were recorded while he was embarrassed someone might hear him. It’s a shame that “Where It Ends” is the single, as the rest of Violet is far more compelling, with Chen cutting-and-pasting wheezing air organs, ringing wineglasses and weeping strings into a siamese fever dream. Listen to the rest of the record first: Here, Boy In Static is loveless, listening to Loveless, less lovable. - Paper Thin Walls |
1XLP/Out Of Print