The least likely sound to make any kind of come back in the past few years would have to be the lush wall of sound girl-group surf reverb from bands back from The Vivian Girls and Grass Widow to Best Coast straight through to more recently with Shannon and the Clams. Thank Water Wing records for adding another incredible early single from Seattle’s La Luz to the list of bands mining this Phil Spector-ish thick and hazy layers which couldn’t be more perfect for the steadily creeping temperatures in Brooklyn. You can hardly move over to the turntable to flip this over in fear of the vinyl itself bending like jello under the heat lamp happening all around you.
A-Side’s "Call Me In The Day" makes you immediately realize that even if you could aspire to this kind of rhythm and instrumentation, La Luz got something so indefininably perfect here with a real soothing echo daydream of grassy field psych surf. It’s got nothing to do with effects or any gimmick you can put a finger on. Maybe its this fantastic bass line, that recalls The Ronettes, or Shangri-la’s? It’s spot on in the way The Vivian Girls were such a touchstone. They’ve instead chosen the clear as day path and really stick to the chorus big space sounds here. Maybe more like the late '60s in paying homage to those girl groups and spinning it their particular way, which isn’t about today making it truly great. You can’t place this anywhere except it hasn't been heard as pure as this with a real style and slow soul. (Except for Shannon Shaw of course) Where’s the hiss and static? It doesn't belong here. It sounds like the calculated, cool time of those girls on The Life Pursuit. They know what you've been up to, stop messing around and GET REAL.
On B-Side’s "Easy Baby" this watery, back-of-the-room, haunting reverb sound had better be trademarked…they will make a killing on that pedal. The same way Shannon Shaw has that vocal that ignores the year she ended up in, this track would find a home in any number of decades because it’s just timeless, plain and simple. There’s a determination or destiny that this will be a classic track no matter what. It’s heartbreaking and full of real emotion, even in the drums. Like a '90s Rose Melberg Softies track if she was friends with Mikal Cronin or Mac Demarco - well before they got jittery. There’s a relaxed perfection around this. You can see the vaseline lens and shaky 8mm film spinning now. That would be too easy guys don't do it. There’s creepier things at work here, I don't know what. I just listen to records, but this single is sheer beauty. Fantastic.
Still available from Water Wing Records, can't possibly be for long.
Both sides originally from their Damp Face cassette EP:
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