The New York band voyeur makes the kind of hazy, splintered guitar music that seems the be all the rage these days. It's not shoegaze, exactly, but it's the kind of thing that sometimes gets tagged as shoegaze in social-media posts these days. Last year, voyeur played one of the Austin shows that Stereogum co-presented during SXSW, which was nice of them. Today, they've got a new split with untitled (halo), a Los Angeles band with a similar sensibility.
The voyeur song on the new split is "Eyes Full Of Tears," an ominous atmospheric chug that recalls the Sonic Youth songs that Kim Gordon used to sing. In a press release, bandleader Sharleen Chidiac describes the tragedy that catalyzed the song: "Last December, my uncle was killed by a drunk driver. I was overtaken by grief, and I couldn’t move for days. Jake [Lazovick] had this guitar part he had been playing and I felt like I needed a way to release my emotions."
For their side, untitled (halo) contribute "doomcomplex," a dreamily angular number with drums that are a lot funkier than you might expect. Singer Ari Mamnoon says, "My lyrics are alluding to an essay I was reading before coming to work on the song. I wanted to write about a dancer under the light, earth, more surrealist themes -- but also just give it that spooky/sad tone that leads into Jack [Dione, the other untitled (halo) singer]’s narrative about a doom complex." Check out both songs below.
The voyeur/untitled (halo) split is out now on American Death Records.
