Guitar-based shoegaze records are tough sells these days. With increasing ease, laptoppers such as M83 and Ulrich Schnauss churn out the lush vibes of permanently influential tri-force My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Slowdive, but always fall short of their vitality. Artists obsess over Kevin Shields' gonzo production ethics but forget his equally impressive ear for melody, and without the cherry-colored hooks, shoegaze is a land of gimmicks: cute but stupid, talking loud and saying nothing.
On last year's Dreams Top Rock, Pluramon (aka Marcus Schnitzler, and a favorite of PFM's dean of writers, Mark Richardson) managed a pretty fine balance between traditionally uncompromising shoegaze melodies and potentially distractive recourse to iBook'd trickbags. Mush IDM artist Clue to Kalo debuted quietly but promisingly with Come Here When You Sleepwalk, which boasted similar (though less successful) attempts at offering shoegaze a legitimate second wind. Both acts nailed the hooks and ambience, but Portland-based quartet Charmparticles is one of the few bands looking to recreate the rock energy of early 90s shoegaze. As on their late 2002 debut, The Scenic EP, the band essentially adds nothing new to the genre with their latest Sit Down for Staying EP, but to its credit, quenches its nostalgia with some remarkable melody-driven songs.
A mammoth guitar solo that comes at the end of "A/O" forms a curious midpoint for the Sit Down for Staying EP. Before the solo, songs like "Sixty-Four" and "Stand Up for Leaving" stick to midtempo instrumental pleasantries with little bite, as if to keep listeners focused on Pamela Rooney and Adam Wayne's gorgeous vocal melodies. At times, the chord changes are a tad too predictable to handle such bright hooks-- Charmparticles can sound like Coldplay covering The Cocteau Twins covering Coldplay-- but for the most part, there's always a passage like the washed introductory drones of "A/O" that keeps these first few songs from eating themselves.
After the solo, Charmparticles rush headlong into riff central. The crisp, punchy "Gas Gauge" benefits from Sarah FitzGerald's string of bright ninth strums and drummer Nathanael Merrill's last-second two-beat recoil. "Solvent" at first seems a little too alt-rock for its own good, but then Charmparticles strike a crunchy, tom-heavy break and a ghostly, single-plucked guitar line whose timbre will surely bear its share of Interpol comparisons. "Phone and Finder" and its kind tambourine jangle bring the Sit Down for Staying EP full circle, incorporating the lessons of the album's two "sides." It's Charmparticles' hardest and softest song to date, on their most ambitious and least ambitious effort to date. For a band that so effortlessly pulls off convincing facsimiles, it's a shame Charmparticles can't muster up a little more ambition.
