Respira ‎– A Still Silhouette CD

Respira ‎– A Still Silhouette CD

"Damn, this is really cool. Great emo/indie rock with an appropriately thick and rugged sound, ample brightness, clean guitars mixed with distorted guitars, lots of panning and layering, etc. The material is well driven by the rhythm section, guitars playing the central role just in front of superb singing vocals that are perfect for this style - not at all whiny or anything like that, just nice, calm, emphatic singing. I'm shocked that the songs are really long and drawn-out with a lot of lengthy instrumental passages in them, not in a "jam band" sense or any of that shit, but in more of a loose, repetitious sort of manner - routinely clocking in at over six, seven, or even eight minutes! It's really somber music, nothing upbeat or poppy at all, but instead really quiet and fairly laidback in most instances. "Thinning Threads" is just a wonderfully moving composition, while others such as "I'm a Hypocrite and a Liar" are more energetic and mildly technical as far as some of the time signatures and guitar riffs go. Things do get slightly harder edged at times, notably in "Cuts in the Shape of a Star", but they always shift the dynamic back to something softer, which really works out great to keep the sheer length of the disc moving without getting stale. Recorded by Alex Newport (Fudge Tunnel/Theory of Ruin), this disc has a great sound: Dense percussion, lush clean guitars, thick (but not "heavy") distorted guitars - nothing too jangly or anything, dry vocals with no layering (which works nice for the style of their delivery), and a really clean mix so that the interaction between instruments is all really clear. Very fucking cool. I don't have one gripe. The layout is nice and basic, using only white and light yellow, with some images of birds, and small, clean text. That's all there is. No lyrics are included, only some lineup/recording information, and a rather interesting phrase across the center of the booklet: "We hold each other. By thinning threads. That knot at the center. And break at the ends. These strings that strangle. An empty chest. With a slow rotation. For a world at rest. A warm addiction. Wound in these threads. In this stale repetition. Do you wish you were dead?" This is great stuff. Once more I'm slightly reminded of Boilermaker, and even though I'm not too familiar with the Deep Elm label this does seem to me as though it would fit in well with some of that stuff that I have heard... but this is so refreshing. Much more intense and meaningful than most of the emo that I've heard in the last several years. Absolutely check this out if you're into the genre. This is way more mature than all of the music that's basically turning emo into a "bad word", so don't let the fact that I use the term here turn you away." - Aversion Online