Something dark and immense haunts the pop that Ben Heywood (Summer Darling) masters on his new release Skills for the Long Emergency under the name Heywood. From the depths of a post rock, shoegaze haze, Heywood will just as readily produce mind-melting noise as it will dive into an obscure, dream-like melody.
The former is where we find ourselves at the early moments of “Spectacular Violence”, with a wild guitar riff. But Heywood is not one to stay in once place too long; he demonstrates this quickly as the loud guitars drop to a near bouncy pop melody. For a moment there, I had recolections of All Smiles, but with an affinity for noisy post rock sensibilities.
Check out Skills for the Long Emergency, out now on Velvet Blue Music.
Download: “Spectacular Violence” by Heywood
[audio:111228-heywood-spectacular-violence.mp3|titles=Spectacular Violence|artists=Heywood]