4 out of 5

Label: Suicide Squeeze

Produced by: Phil Ek, JJ Golden (remastered by)

In the loving liner notes written by all-around awesome Washington scenester Brian Cook, of the many interviews culled together are some lines from Built to Spill’s Doug Martsch, explaining how Lync’s sound was so compelling at the time: compositions that seemed to play around the actual tune than be the tune itself; a kind of bass-heavy drive where each note rolls into the next. I’m paraphrasing in combination with my own opinion, but Martsch does key on the crux of it – how Lync stood out from the other Olympia / Seattle bands at the time, besides being there at the start, and of massive influence to a lot of the groups we’d later associate with the scene. But as I write that, I realize another key takeaway: that’s it’s not just “at the time:” Lync remains compelling; the youthfulness of Sam Jayne, James Bertram, and Dave Schneider doesn’t give the group the same cringey taint of early efforts I’d think of when compared to plenty of other eventually (relatively) household names from that era. While some songs on their sole album maybe bear the sins of DC hardcore and burgeoning grunge – neither of these are bad things, but it’s a very 90s tell-tale sign, and possibly limits tracks that lean into it too much – on the whole, Lync have this ineffable emotiveness to them, kinda raw and sincere but also weird and cryptic; willfully dipping into childish imagery to inform more mature thoughts and imagery. The music then follows suit, brimming with teen angst of burly guitar riffs and throaty shouts, expanding outward into spacey, chorus-less grooves, talk-sung chatter and a cavernous recording that prioritizes atmosphere. It’s the kind of album you’d suspect of being a zeitgeist, except the later collected comp of singles shows that this is just the kind of music this team produced: a whole bunch of influences boiled together without expectation of them being anything mind-blowing, and then kinda sneaking up to blow your mind as a result.

Lync’s music has outlasted a lot of K / KRS stuff for me as a result. These Are Not Fall Colors is somewhat lacking in singles, and the spell falters a bit when you start to hear Discord shouts or Nirvana moodiness trickle in, but it’s still – decades later – a grabbing experience of grand riffs, open-ended explorations, and utter earnestness that somehow feels wizened.

While I can’t speak to the original recording, given that it was Phil Ek, I’d guess the original provided plenty of meat for JJ Golden’s remaster here, which sounds phenomenal – a rich bass and low-end; the vocals feel appropriately mixed; the guitars are warm but gruff. The pressing from Suicide Squeeze brings this to life, and, as mentioned, Cook’s liner notes are… well, I called them loving, but they’re also a labor of love, and sincerely some of the best retrospective liners I’ve read: concise, but informative. I’m plus / minus that they’re printed on a huge fold-out newsprint, as I kept worrying I’d tear them, but I kinda appreciate the DIY spirit of that.