San Francisco four-piece Pastel have impressed with their self-released debut EP ‘Eyelids’. By blurring individual musical components they’ve created a nebulous shoegaze dream pop sound that washes over you like waves of euphoric nostalgia. It’s the perfect counterpart to a glowing evening – layers of mellow riffs soaked with distorted feedback and obscure fuzzy vocals amalgamate to create an atmospheric wall of sound that hits you like a summer haze.
The gentle ebb and flow of opening track ‘New Cancer’ leaves you immersed in a dreamy subdued state, as ambient melodic guitar riffs reverberate in and out of focus. Fear not, Pastel haven’t let their shoegaze style confine them to a tediously slow tempo throughout the EP – as the second track hits it’s clear they’ve confidently indulged in a more raucous sound too.
‘Nervous’ lands with full force – the thickly distorted crunch of the initial riff leaves you feeling tense until Pastel pull you over the edge and effortlessly submerge you in their sound. Overpowered vocals and lyrics echo in the distance forcing you to concentrate, it’s difficult not to get lost in the droning riffs and melodic layers of sound as a result.
A rumbling bass riff opens ‘Halfhate’, a track reminiscent in style of punk band Milk Teeth’s ‘Swear Jar’. The crackling feedback and white noise pick you up and let you drift along nostalgically, prompting you to be introspective, whilst Nick Lomboy’s vocals become a mere haunting trace that you try to follow and make sense of.
Hooking you from the offset, ‘Hensong’ is the catchiest track on the EP. Nick’s vocals induce euphoria, surrounding and suspending you. They then dissipate into the background like a bold colour becoming pastel and compliment the ambient instrumentals created by Matt, Henry and Michael. The rough edge to the mellow guitar riffs burns like the warm buzz of thick summer air.
Despite being both under the radar and together for less than a year, the release of ‘Eyelids’ shows Pastel in their element – they’re sure of themselves and confident in their sound. It’s an evocative alternative rock/shoegaze EP brimming with nostalgia, one that’s sure to impress and make the mark that Pastel deserve, in order to pave the way to even better things.
SUSANNAH BENNETT