Bright Channel
Self-Titled (2004, Flight Approved)

As eluded to in the recent BTID feature, the best way to describe Bright Channel's sound is the best of post-punk, shoegaze, indie rock, space rock, and even no wave. While their debut does have traces of all of this, it would be better described as a very spacey post punk. The band molds the best when they expose their huge guitar sound, meshing it with the deliberate drum sound engineered by none other than Steve Albini himself. From the first 20 seconds of the album, you can get a feel for what these guys are about, feedback. The guitars chime throughout the album - held together nicely by a constant rolling bass line and a very steady pounding drum sound. All of this sets up the beautiful vocals of the singer. His melodic vocals seem to fit perfectly with all the other aspects of Bright Channel's sound. Even when the guitars are at their height, his they seem to stay very distinct. Bright Channel plays a brand of shoegaze kin to that of Swervedriver. This is an album that can please just about any fan of the aforementioned styles, moving from noisy rockers, to very dreary paced compositions that beg the listener to notice the painful lyrics sitting on top of it all. Some of the drumming is very reminiscent of Madonna era Trail of Dead (of which I am a huge fan). This album sounds like Cave In's brilliant 'Jupiter', but with none of the metal that hung over Cave In's sound. I find myself listening to this album almost compulsively. Look for Bright Channel to become a bit better known in the future, and definitely check out this splendid debut.

-Kenny 8/7/05