Landing: Bells In New Towns
El Paraiso Records

One of the major challenges facing a young band involves capturing the enthusiasm and energy of its live shows on wax. For groups of longer standing, the slightly different challenge becomes finding a way to still sound vital and energized after slogging through years of performing and recording. Solidly inhabiting the latter category is Landing, the Connecticut outfit featuring bassist Daron Gardner and the Snows, Aaron (guitar, synth, drums, bass, vocals) and Adrienne (vocals, synth), and which is currently into its twentieth year of existence. Remarkably, Bells In New Towns, the band's sophomore effort for El Paraiso Records, might be the best Landing recording to date; lethargic it most certainly isn't, and the group sounds as fresh as one just starting out. El Paraiso's made the release available in multiple formats, including a lavender vinyl pressing (limited to 500 copies).

As the opening song illustrates, the band's ethereal dimension has been effectively countered by a muscular low end. Powered by a massive bass thrust, “Nod” lunges forth with conviction, its kinetic drive boding well for the journey ahead. It's Landing at its heaviest, the breathless coo of Adrienne's singing almost obliterated by the grime-encrusted roar of guitars and drums. Picking up where “Nod” leaves off, “Wait or Hide” is as raucous, especially when it's spiked by an aggressive guitar riff whose fuzzy distortion adds just the right amount of punk-styled grit.

The band's particular brand of psych rock has never sounded more vital, though it's hardly the only style tackled on the ten-song set. “By Two” dials the intensity down for an atmospheric dreampop riff with a subtle whiff of electric folk mixed in for good measure. As soothing are “Fallen Name,” whose male-and-female vocal blend and chiming guitars add up to some ballad-influenced fusion of shoegaze and post-rock, and “Trace,” a rare foray into delicate acoustic balladry.

Though the album's largely a trio production, a few guests appear, among them one-time Tangerine Dreamer Peter Baumann, who contributes chimes to the serene, gamelan-meets-prog vignette “Gravitational VII” (the later, mellotron-drenched “Gravitational VIII” plunges deeper into synth-ambient territory). Drummer John Miller climbs aboard for the midtempo krautrock excursion “Bright,” which rolls down the highway with motorik intent and litters the landscape with chiming six-strings and neon-lit synthesizers. However Landing managed it, the new release exudes an earthy dynamism not typically heard in a band with two decades under its belt. Groups with histories of equivalent duration might be wise to track down the Connecticut outfit to find out how it managed to make Bells In New Towns sound so invigorated after so many years in the game.

May 2018