originally published: 09/30/2024
Feel It Records recently announced the upcoming LP by Disintegration, and now the band is back with a new video for single "Shadow Of Love".
The first full-length release from Cleveland’s Disintegration brings their intricate circuitry of nocturnal synthwave and noise-saturated post-punk to a new plateau. Sharper, leaner, and more involved than the material on their first EP, Shiver in a Weak Light is a huge step forward in terms of production, atmosphere, and overall construction, with singer/synthesist Haley Himiko turning in stellar vocal performances, guitarist/vocalist Noah Anthony and bassist Christopher Brown moving in lockstep, and new drummer David MacCluskie adding clatter and thump to the gridded framework the band architects and then dismantles on every song. The album roves between shadowy dream sequences and slow-motion shatter, drawing a dark and futuristic sound that’s sometimes familiar, sometimes confounding, but always captivating.
Listening closely to the web of sounds on “In Your Diary” reveals a series of unlikely turns and transitions; like the brittle guitar line that arrives out of nowhere to lace up a propulsive chorus, the nearly subliminal hits of percussion that move throughout the stereo field, and a song structure that jumps between its parts in unexpected ways, always landing on a new hook. “Hideaway” connects its fragmented sections in a perfect balance of dissonant chaos and shout-along melodies. Live bass and guitar parts are processed until they sound more like alien synth programming, with choppy rhythms bouncing like sequenced ones and zeroes. Each repeated listen to Shiver in a Weak Light unlocks a new room of sounds and ideas that may have gone unnoticed the time before. It’s an album that beckons the listener to trek ever deeper into its network of neon hallways and interconnected underground tunnels, exploring a world where it’s always night and time moves differently.
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Rock On! This Week's Sound Bites...7/10/25
"Well, I certainly hope so, it seems like it is," laughed Blues Traveler bassist Ben Wilson as he discussed what the band has been up to and their preparations before they hit the road once again for a Summer tour. "The band has been quite active over the years through touring and we managed to continue to record some records. We've done two kinds of covers records, the first one was a blues record which actually got nominated for a Grammy which was pretty cool and the next one, we did some soul covers. That one wasn't quite as well received but it was sure fun to make. So, it's been really cool; you have this massive success for a decade or so and then you kind of dip below that cultural Gestalt line where you're just kind of bubbling below the surface and you can do just fine there even though you're not on the cover of "The Rolling Stone" and that's kind of what we've been doing. We've had a good run, it has been fantastic and these summer tours where we get together with these other kind of bands of similar eras with similar kinds of hits; we're very fortunate as kind of a neo-hippie jam band from that era that kind of bucked some of the trends that were going on at the time but we were lucky enough to have a couple of hits and that has allowed us to have kind of a different career than just the straight jam bands do; not that that wouldn't be awesome as well because obviously many of them are doing just fine but it's just a slightly different road but it has been wonderful. We didn't rehearse a whole lot because we've been playing together for 38 years but things are good and we're stoked for this upcoming tour."
