Imagine, if you will, a music video, in which a vacant young woman drifts through town in a loose fitting giant t-shirt. Sitting in a formica-lined cafe, she flirts with some off-camera spectre, while draining a glass bottle of coke. Walking outside she witnesses strangers in animal suits cycle past, carrying sparklers in slow motion.
Behind them, two students in bear suits ride in a shopping trolley, crashing safely across the street. One of them removes his bear head to reveal a tousle-maned, moustache-sporting slenderling. He takes her to a party at a graveyard; revellers in skeleton suits beckon them into the forest, where they find Wampire playing this song.
A tidy, simple bundle of synth lines, plectrum bass and lightly distorted guitar, Wampire are making no pretensions about their music. There is nothing complex, daring, or adventurous in it, nor does there need to be. Grooving well, I was taken in by the inoffensive, inviting nature of the work. The Portland duo of Eric Phipps and Rocky Tinder has swelled to a five piece for live shows; acoustic drums would have been interesting here. The atmosphere reminds me of an immature Bee & Flower, threatening without being overt, lacking that bands’ sultry, sexual edge.
Spirit Forest is an appropriately produced, deftly executed song. It soundtracks movies already written and thoughts already conceived, offering the accentuation of a moment’s feelings before evaporating. Taken on its own, it shows a band able to express themselves clearly without pomp or self-aggrandisement. There is a slight emptiness to the track, a feeling that this was all the band had to give; their emotional best not being quite strong enough to carry the material. That said, it has character, and though not fully realised it has the ability and potential to be so.
How this will bode for their upcoming album is uncertain, but on the strength of what is presented here, it will no doubt make for an interesting listen.
Check out the release, below:
[soundcloud params=”auto_play=false&show_comments=true&color=0ac4ff”]https://soundcloud.com/polyvinyl-records/wampire-spirit-forest[/soundcloud]