4 out of 5

Label: Touch and Go

Produced by: All The Saints, R. Mexico (All the Saints); Chris Common (These Arms Are Snakes)

An interesting mash-up of artists I wouldn’t pair together m’self, but whose sounds totally make sense as varied genre reflections of one another.

All The Saints are kind of what I always wanted from shoegaze; the “heavy” music I never really heard from groups like My Bloody Valentine: it hits the sweet points of being slow and moody and gloriously guitar heavy, with woozy vocals and an emergent melody…. but also has teeth. And unlike a more slocore version of that, ATS have a great sense of progression on Host, allowing the percussion to be known throughout; willing to toss in legit riffage as things go along, using that overwhelming moodiness to actually build to something. ‘Host’ would later be included on an album, unlike TAAS’ track, but it works both in sequence and in isolation.

These Arms Are Snakes are more direct than ATS, which can make the jump to their punkier guitar work a bit at odds if you’re doing this digital. But with the divide of flipping over the physical 7″, it’s easier to sit with what both bands do: mix and match a few individual noisy genres to find the space inbetween, and iterate within that space. TAAS err towards hardcore with their experimentations; Washburn is Easter-era, and has the warmer, more organic production of that disc, but its straight-forward edginess feels more like an Oxeneers track. It’s less immersive than ATS offering, not necessarily showing off the group’s strengths behind their intensity, but it hits on a totally excellent breakdown and is concise enough to keep you hyped up throughout.

As a collector, I’m here for the TAAS, but it’s admittedly not a track I crave; I more value the 7″ for getting me into All The Saints.