Sharawaji 2023
Ocean winds blow in Windy City in search of impact zone – and crash with melodious thrum.
A Seahorse Of A Different Color
For all its brilliance, THE BREAKERS’ 2022 release "Strange Shores" was a little more than a mere corralling of odds and sods which, thrown together, worked wonders, and while it saw the Illinois ensemble take stock of their four-album run, that record also gave the trio a chance to recharge their batteries and come up with this offering. “A Seahorse Of A Different Color” is indeed dissimilar to what the band had done before, as previously their instrumental surf rock strictly adhered to the genre’s waveforms, whereas the eighteen numbers on display here let the listener witness the introduction of Celtic motifs to the plain sailing of yore. Such threading of folk sensibilities through muscular twang and steady beat informs the platter with a conceptual feel and is highly commendable, as there’s nothing wrong about upping one’s game via thinking about the overall flow of a rather lengthy tune cycle.
Once “Salute” has welcomed the audience aboard by allowing bourdon to fill the ether and sculpt a soundscape to which the robust “BagPipeline” will get attached later, Jim Abrahams’ six string sinisterly scratch the melodic surface and pass the momentum to Jayson Slater’s bass and Marc Lockett’s drums that turn “Monster Storm” into a brass-splattered “Goo Goo Muck” spin-off. No wonder, then, in “Garage Door To Your Mind” opting for lysergic kind of dirty sonics further on, after “Landmark” and “El Traditional” go gung-ho about a mariachi land-ho vibe and the title track pitches in an elegiac jive. However, “Houses Floating Away” inhabits an effects-laden, cinematic space, and the richly layered “Sharks In The Streets” and “Skeleton Invasion” are creeping up on you from the horror-film shadows, and if “Luck Favors The Prepared” seems lightweight, the resonant “White Bird” spreads its wings against dark horizon.
Still, “Internal Sun” brings the drift to a close with a heavy, but riveting rifferama, and this shiny send-off is a perfect reminder of the way surf used to reflect good nature of things. Just like seahorses do.
*****
