Whitesand/Badlands - seeding the clouds (2010)

A few weeks months after the review of their debut 7inch, now I decide to give a try to their debut full length and quickly I'm assailed by almost the same comparison ideas, from The Swirlies to Eleventh Dream Day, from Savage Republic to Unwound and maybe now with some common points with the Pale Saints, minus the graceful urgency of Ian Masters 's vocals.

Recorded in Duluth, MN, "Seeding the clouds"' sees more than ever, Whitesand/Badlands stuck in the early 90's indie shoegaze scene with only some more emotional tension with the vocals not so different to some late nineties bands like Juno or 90 Day Men or to the kind of music defended during the early 00's by a label like 54 40 or Fight or even Deep Elm with Destert City Soundtrack, but wihout embracing totally the tension of math-rock and posthardcore.

Whitesand/Badlands is a band of four musicians, created in 2008, with a somewhat classical set of instruments for their style of music : fender rhodes, piano, guitars, trumpet, bass, drums, saxophone and vocals.They know what they are doing, their songwriting is balanced and their compositions are nicely developed. They just appear at the wrong time when most of the indie labels that could have defended them have now disappeared or become dormant, due to the change musical economic model. Their debut album is then self-released on their bandcamp page with the pay as you want option when ten years ago they would have probably found a decent label and regular distribution.

Like their aesthetic peers, Whitesand/Badlands is not destined to a massive popularity, just at best a small cult level if they can reach their right audience and not being lost into the mountains of release diffused on the internet.

I think this is a good album but I probably would have love it much better ten or fifteen years ago, it takes many listens to finally get the right idea about their songs and fully appreciate it but even there i fail at finding something truly their own I wouldn't have already enjoyed somewhere else.  

http://whitesandbadlands.com/