Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Haiku Garden
Label: Kapa Records
Release: 2016
Runtime: 18:24
Rating: 3.5/5
Haiku Garden are a brand-new alternative rock band from Ljubljana. After showing up on the compilation »Klubski Maraton 2015«, they’re now putting out their first standalone record on Kapa Records. It’s a five-track EP called »Waver«.
The band has its own charisma, its own charm. Compared to the two songs Haiku Garden contributed to that compilation CD, »Waver« delivers a much more polished and defined style, one that successfully embodies the band’s whole musical dossier. Haiku Garden build their sound on a shimmering mass of sound, oscillating, widely scattered guitar tones and sound modulators that, true to the EP’s title, conjure up a »trip-oid« mood of constant, almost hypnotic waving. The melodies are simple, built from a few monophonic, single-syllable notes. The motifs rest on basic rhythms that a drum machine could almost handle on its own. The band skillfully tops off its sacred simplicity of dark yet hypnotic atmosphere with vocals singing English lyrics, which only underline this trip-oid state of mental absence or (at least) rapture. The band leans heavily on »feedback« and »reverbed delay« effects, and often throws up a massive curtain of sound by “gluing” together a palette of dissonant tones.
Haiku Garden can be pegged as a kind of alternative rock that owes a hefty debt of gratitude to the legacy of (mostly) British bands who showed up in the second half of the eighties and gave alternative rock a new direction, a new sense of purpose, an extra jolt of life and a real character. Across the turn from the eighties into the nineties, they cemented the artistic stance of the movement itself, which asserted itself in the subgenres of post-punk, shoegaze and darkwave too. It flourished right up until its decline in the first half of the nineties, when »grunge« burst onto the global scene in a sudden eruption.
The record is alive, it’s got the dynamics it needs, and it effectively pours the very essence of the band onto the recording, shining with artistic authenticity. Haiku Garden are a pretty limited band in terms of musical know-how, especially when it comes to technical chops. But they make up for that shortfall brilliantly with inventive minimalist solutions, short and punchy strokes, and they cleverly exploit the axiom »less is more«. Haiku Garden build a dark, »bittersweet« psychoid, atmospheric backdrop of a sound, driven by the kind of shoegaze revivalism that bands pioneered many years ago, mostly under the influence of The Jesus And Mary Chain, as well as My Bloody Valentine. At its edges, it crosses paths with elements of noise pop, or more fittingly, psychedelic pop, with a clearly crafted alternative rock stance inherited from the shoegaze movement.
Haiku Garden aren’t discovering a musical revolution, but they’re an interesting presence in our scene and time. They don’t hide how inspired they are by the shoegaze bands and their work. Even though this is a case of artistic revivalism, Haiku Garden add a note of recognizable attitude to their original material. All in harmony with an independent D.I.Y. spirit of promising homegrown talent. May the future be bright and kind to them.
Haiku Garden – Rosetta:
Lineup
Luka Flegar – vocals, guitar
Klemen Tehovnik – vocals, guitar
Matevž Bitenc – bass guitar
Anže Knez – drums
Production
Haiku Garden & Gregor Bajc
Tracklist
1. Arrival
2. Until Then
3. Mercury
4. Bleached
5. Rosetta
