SINGLE REVIEW – Static Shore – Sun in my wake
Most of Static Shores music has a beautiful simplicity to it. Simple, softly conveyed chord progressions beneath superbly delivered, but delicately understated vocals are most certainly trademarks of their creative output. A brand identity of their sound if you like.
A gradually staggered build-up is easy to achieve in this age of drag and drop, but to achieve it with this level of disguise and subtlety is way beyond software expertise, it’s an art form. It takes you from simple bass line to full sound without you even knowing how it did so. One difference between this and some of their previous offerings is the absence of a high note string layer which, rather cleverly, allows this track to power along in a more bass-driven, but melancholy fashion. That said, the strategically placed spattering of tinkly, spatial-sounding melody patterns lifts it to a brighter place where needed and then disappears to allow the songs beautifully crafted dysphoric drive to take centre stage once more. The song ends just when and how it should, and without pomp and ceremony. There is a blessed absence of unnecessary drama or prolonged showiness, it just ends because the story has been told. The art of knowing when to stop is just as important as knowing when to start, and Static Shore clearly have that art in their pocket.
Shannon Alexander has an earthiness in her vocal delivery that is so often lost in the modern day polishing production of vocals on electronic tracks. Whilst the vocals are obviously filtered with digital technology, someone here has discovered that less polish on the vocal equals more feeling emanating from the voice and transmitting to the listeners sensibilities, especially when coupled to the meaningful lyrics this song has been blessed with.
The inclusion of an additional ‘second row’ of vocals singing differing lyrics on certain parts and not marrying up in perfect symmetry is pure production genius as they add another level to the aforementioned earthiness of the overall vocal delivery.
The songs title, Sun in my wake, suggests that brightness in a life has dissipated and that moving forward means trundling off to a darker place. This song didn’t make me feel that. It just reminded me what a lovely thing it is to have the sun on your back sometimes and not glaring in your face. If all songs could do this then I’d rarely take my headphones off.
5 out of 5 Stars
Understated beauty, simplicity at its finest, and if I don’t get some more material from you guys, I’m gonna start stalking you!
Garth Musk – BB Show / WA12 Radio Click here for this great new Static Shore track:
https://soundcloud.com/staticshore/sun-in-my-wake-original-mix