Financier - Port of St Albans - Self Released

Nashville isn’t just about the sweaty garage punk (or country music for that matter – ed). Financier, a duo from the area, is about to destroy the mountain of my research in support of geography having a lot to do with this recent trend. These two guys are going to extreme lengths in effects heavy, layered shoegaze with precise mechanical rhythms and abstract vocals. Flying in the face of dirty loose pop, Financier carefully handcrafts this doom metal inspired epic ambience that washes in tidal waves over music city.

A-Side "Blood Headache" is throbbing huge hits of drone instrumentalism. A Boris meltdown smacking of metal and Explosions in the Sky soaring half apocalyptic chords. The vocals are a heavy chorus of lofty harmonies as big as these hits and gated thundering guitars. It’s a crazy mix of laid-back drone in an almost Earth way, they’re working that big and the distortion waves bleed through each other. The track takes a turn to an English ‘80s atmospheric OMD and then Jesu. The vocals are from another planet than this heavy riff sound the entire thing sounding like it's always trailing off into a massive breakdown, the end of catharsis. Metal transitions interrupted by a heavenly Ah-Ha melody. A squealing feedback finds a way to match the unearthly sounds, guitars soaring in an evil, slightly menacing way. You could almost say Financier has a similar fascination with exploring these layered chorus fuzz tones as Milk Music. Drum machines shouldn’t make sense here either but it's all a part of their idiosyncratic palette, the end is a muddled mess of looping underwater rhythms and low end thuds, warbling down reel to reels, delayed to the slowest rumble.

"I get lit now" has a calming, Buddha machine style loop on this side really playing with ambient, canned beats and warbles of hand spun synth. This one leans towards a loose dance rhythm, like a clean Dirty Beaches or Ducktails with robotic harmonies. The indie sound of the drums compressed into to a loop and slowed down with Ratatat style guitar chunks of high fret gymnastics. UFO guitar sounds and bizarre choral elements like a reverse wind chime delayed into infinity. Just impossible to pick apart and make sense the source. Mysterious with no liner notes, no websites, just equally puzzling inserts. The layers of vocal should be as epic as anything but somehow get buried in this piling on of sound. Like a watercolor that doesn’t ever dry, it turns into a darker shade, separating into layers of painstaking detail.

I love the ‘50s photograph they included and in full disclosure that’s an actual two-dollar bill. I think it might be a little bit too defaced to use, but that’s the ways of the financier. Handing out crushing melodies and money and then taking it all away.

Get it direct on clear vinyl with a possible $2 dollar refund from these guys on their bandcamp page.