Bound shows beautiful side of heavy music in Orlando debut, Dearest emerges as full band

THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
Bound, Boston Marriage, Uh and Dearest, Will’s Pub, Aug. 21

Bound is a promising new D.C. band that just made their Orlando debut courtesy of local promoter Endoxa Booking. Being practically post-everything, they’re not a group that’s conveniently sorted. Stemming audibly from metal, post-rock, shoegaze and dream pop, their influences are many and varied. But in their hands, it all proves complementary. At once gossamer and heavy, their sound is a complex fog of slow-breath mood and bottomless, elegant melancholy. In its quiet stretches, it verges on evaporation. But when it rises, it comes in like a tsunami.

There are only two meaningful ways to experience this band: at volume on a stentorian stereo with no neighbors or live. In person, they don’t just play, they envelop, like a magnificent hurricane of pristine fuzz and groan.

How committed to texture is this band? Just look at this sick-ass pedal array:

All told, Bound’s lush vision shows the more beautiful possibilities of heavy music.

Good performances were also given by reliable local openers Boston Marriage and Uh.

But showing a very new look was rising Orlando act Dearest. The solo loop-and-layer guitar vehicle of Tracy Farah has now spread its wings as a full-band project. Admittedly, a two-piece isn’t everyone’s idea of a full band. But with the capacity that Farah already handles alone, the mere addition of a drummer can qualify.

Not to completely hang the work on gimmick, but there is a real magic to watching a skilled loop-and-layer act work alone, and Farah is a notably good one. Well, the looping still happens. But with just the addition of a drummer, Dearest’s songs already take on whole new sense of flight and scale. What was a lovely, sparkling cloud before is now a gorgeous silver tower. They’re still finding their footing as a unit but the case for expanding the Dearest sound is already made.


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