3 out of 5

Label: Antiquated Future

Produced by: Evan Hashi and David Jaberi (recorded by)

There’s a blend of so many interesting indie rock elements in Flying Circles’ Of Loving Grace that it’s almost just worthwhile to sit there and pick apart the different pieces going into it: female-fronted 90s Matador stuff; some 80s post-punk gloss; Seattle skronk; shoegaze noise; folkified jangle; and this odd throwback psychedelic pop vibe – for me, Schooner comes to mind – that hangs over the production style.

But, as often happens with a kitchen sink sound, emerging from that with something that comes across as definitive – shaping the mélange into a groove that moves past RIYL and becomes its own thing. Flying Circles get very, very close, generally when they allow themselves to pursue a given style a bit more wholeheartedly, but the majority of the album otherwise feels somewhat restrained, rather purposefully mixed / recorded so that it all occurs at an aurally distant mid-level, and most songs resolving unceremoniously. Because the group is clearly on to something, and that something can equal delightfully catchy riffs and great, soaring vocals and harmonies, it’s as though some inner, scrappy indie demon urged the band to dodge away from becoming too catchy or poppy. I definitely appreciate the impulse, but it makes every song slowly drift from being a single to being, y’know, good.

The haunting, Siouxsie lilt of the vocals is further affected by the reverbed recording; this is an appealing effect, except, as indicated above, it’s applied all over, which tends to make the edges of the tunes fuzzy, and the lyrics hard to parse. Whether purposefully or not, this suggests, to my ear, that I’m not to pay as close of attention to these details – that we’re going more for mood thank hooks. But then it’s odd how often the group will land on incredibly catchy riffage, betraying a kind of mesmeric vibe. Would-be epic closer Arachnibs is a good capture of the various quirks of this: it lets loose with a brief and awesome bit of soloing up front, and then goes kind of dirgey in its lengthy back half, hinting at another build that… shrugs away. And many, if not all, of the songs have this kind of scrappy, Pavement sense of precise drunken flow, but there again the echoey recording polishes that stuff.

Amidst this, there are two points where things crystallize into stronger material: Dayglo Queen (probably not uncoincidentally the song chosen on a comp that made me check this band out) is completely atypical of the disc in how it goes straight for a Modest Mouse-y discordantness; and followup Til The World Turns Over is bright and big shoegaze, with – suddenly – the production to match, bringing out huge blasts of guitar and slamming percussion.

I perk up with these, and hope for the album to open up further upon subsequent spins – which, to be clear, are easy to commit to, as the music is definitely good – but I really do feel like the commitment to kind of keeping their sound contained prevents Of Loving Grace from breaking through perceived barriers. Though, I suppose, if containment was the goal, the band succeeded.