Michael Beach - 2022 EP 12"

In trying to find words to describe the latest Michael Beach release, I found myself turning to similar reference points to what Nic did when writing up last year’s Dream Violence LP: Neil Young, The Feelies, The VU, strains of No Wave.

But this set of tracks seems to pack a slightly different punch. From the whipcrack turn-a-riff-on-a-dime rocker of Out In A Burning Alley the EP gradually mellows into a the cracked voice and mournful ballads of the second side, each with the undeniable mark of Bonnie Mercer’s expert wielding of oft-unwieldy guitar feedback.

Aside from sharing bills and touring circuits with them, Beach’s music in my mind is filed alongside Stateside contemporaries like David Nance, Rosali, and the New Haven crew (Mountain Movers etc): rock music that nods to the past without playing dress-ups, instead more interested in writing genuine songs and rockers that exist timelessly away from the boring cycles of hype and churn that underpin so much art these days. 

-Mitch