Spotlights - Seismic album review

Married couple Sarah (bass, vocals) and Mario Quintero (guitar, synth, vocals) are on to a novel form of couples’ therapy with the dreamy unrest of their cathartic second album Seismic, as drummer Chris Enriquez provides a third wheel. The record arrives bolstered by prodigious support, released on Mike Patton’s Ipecac label following support slots in 2016 with Deftones, while the band are managed by Isis’s Aaron Harris. Fortunately, Seismic lives up to the hype. Opener Learn To Breathe is a title-justifying, heavy statement of intent, Mario’s dream-pop vocals proving a compellingly hypnotic counterpoint to the doomed pounding. Ghost Of A Growing Forest experiments with the formula, with instrumental paths that meander, lost in sunkissed daydreams before a vocal surge returns the focus. Affairs take a dismal turn on Hollow Bones, with vast soundscapes under heavy skies and tinged with a noir 80s nuance that elevates Spotlights’ stylishly forward-thinking, atmospheric bludgeon.