SHIMMERANCE- ‘Shimmerance’
Shimmerance have been waiting for this. The Moscow outfit formed in 2016 with a dreamy, clean approach to shoegaze, but artistic differences and member turnover delayed delivery of a debut album. Now their self-released self-titled effort is here and, initially, it feels like the band might be too eager to make up for lost time. ‘Scryscraper’ clatters and rushes along, leaving the excellent rising chords at its centre crying out for more attention, and the poppy ‘Look at Me Now’ simmers where it should soar. But the record soon settles. ‘Altered Realm’ is a slowly unfurling epic, ‘Gone Everything’ a swirling, hypnotic rumble, and ‘Mometasone’ is full of fizz and fuzz without drowning in reverb, allowing relatively new addition, vocalist Maria Kondakova, to make her mark. There’s a sense that Shimerance will kick on from here, go louder, bigger, more beautiful, but there’s no denying this is a record worth waiting for.
