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Los Angeles-based lo-fi rockers Goon have range, damn it. That’s surely the intention behind releasing two wildly differing cuts from the four-piece’s forthcoming debut album, Heaven Is Humming. “Northern Saturn” is a grungy viber, exposing an affinity for Pixies and lazily chugging guitars, which is all well and good.
But “Snoqualmie,” its spacier and more placid sister, is our choice pick. Singer-songwriter Kenny Becker sweetly croons on the multilayered track while finger-plucked guitar and cinematic strings float beneath. If that sounds a touch twee or melodramatic, it’s not. The diaphanous tune drifts like a summer daydream, appropriate when paired with the sunny, Becker-directed music video. In fact, one can snag subtle Boards of Canada touches near the song’s close—unsurprising, as Becker declares the band his favorite.
Heaven Is Humming, out July 19 on Partisan Records, aims to bring these two forces together: Pixies’ scuzz and Boards of Canada’s sun-bleached nostalgia. Becker wrote the collection while suffering from a chronic sinus condition that often dulls his senses, even requiring surgery. He describes the sense of optimism that came during intermittent periods of good health in a statement:
I find encouragement in the fact that I’m able to be productive in the times that I’m not sick. People like to romanticize the periods in which, for example, someone like Van Gogh was suffering, but it was actually because he was sick that he would go outside and see a cherry blossom tree and be struck by its beauty. It would make him realize, “This might be the last time I see this, I don’t know when I’ll have this snatched away from me again.”
Goon’s first two independent EPs, Dusk of Punk and Happy Omen, were both reissued by Partisan in 2018. Next up for the group is an opening stint for … And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead at The Echo in Los Angeles on June 21. Tour dates are yet to be announced, but sure to follow.
Watch the appropriately low-budget video for “Snoqualmie” and check out “Northern Saturn” below, and find the album cover and tracklist for Heaven Is Humming further down.
Heaven is Humming Album Art:
Heaven is Humming Tracklist:
01. F Jam
02. Black Finch
03. Northern Saturn
04. Deny
05. Snoqualmie
06. Cammie At Night
07. Datura
08. Critter
09. Mem
10. Check Engine Light
11. CCLL