By: Rich Buley
Vaadat Charigim | facebook | soundcloud |
Released on September 25, 2015 via Anova Music/Burger Records
If effects laden, melancholic guitar rock is your thing, then look no further than Israeli three piece Vaadat Charigim, who continue the trend in 2015 for noteworthy releases in the genre from locations you would up until now perhaps not expect it, following Pinkshinyultrablast (Russia), Mumrunner (Finland), Westkust (Sweden) and Weird. and La Casa al Mare (both Italy), to name just a few. There’s so much going on in what (UEFA qualifies as) Europe alone actually that we really just need Luxembourg and Andorra to get their pedal boards sorted and we will be set for the Euro 2016 shoegazing championships.
Following Vaadat Charigim’s debut album The World Is Well Lost in 2013 comes Sinking As A Stone, which shimmers and soars in the traditionally gloomy, fringe hiding face fashion, but with a liberal sprinkling of eastern flavours thrown in for distinctive measure.
As statements of intent go, opener ‘Neshel’ is exceptionally bold, a slow-burning, ten minute titan, which perfectly illustrates the enormity of the band’s sound, and their ability to expertly manipulate waves of reverb and distortion into satisfying, submerging swells, with frontman Yuval Haring delivering a world-weary, intoned vocal, that remains exclusively in Hebrew throughout the record. The outro is over-long, however, and drifts its way to a finish in rather underdone krautrock style.
‘Hadavhar’ picks up the noise with a structure book-ended by a rhythm section straight from the Nothing/Whirr school of slowgaze, while in-between the pace picks up with blazing guitar and an uplifting chorus. Best of all is ‘Ein La Makom’, which begins with a slightly foreboding, whirring organ sound, before a lovely, old-school gothic guitar line enters the fray, and provides four and a half minutes of Vaadat Charigim at their most cheerful and accessible.
It is but one of many occasions where the three piece manage to overcome the language barrier to non-Hebrew speakers through the emblematic, nostalgic tones in their instrumentation- the sweeping, minor key changes during ‘Imperia’ being another example- a sound that could quite easily place them in the UK during the mid-1980s, never mind Tel Aviv thirty years later.
Closer ‘Hashiamum Shokea’ provides the other highlight, with an absorbing, quiet-loud dynamic, as the band build around an electric sitar, before exploding into a deafening chorus.
With several of the seven tracks on the album clocking in at over 7 minutes, there are admittedly times when the lack of an obvious melodic or lyrical hook is more noticeable, and, with the sprawling, semi-psychedelic style of music that Vaadat Charigim wish to play, this perhaps presents them with their greatest challenge in winning over western audiences. While we don’t need an album of twelve three minute noise pop nuggets from them, it is telling that they are at their most compelling when they turn up the noise and quicken the pace, or deliver those towering crescendos.
Sinking As A Stone will not turn out to be a prediction as to how this album fares in the short to medium term, because there is certainly enough here for the majority who hear it to be interested in what Vaadat Charigim do next, but they may need to take this next step carefully, and possibly more melodically, if they intend to broaden their appeal beyond staunch shoegaze and psych fans alike.
