Broken Water began when Kanako Pooknyw started hanging out at the house Jon Hanna shared with one of her friends. Hanna was a reclusive sort—the type of guy who had a secret solo career lodged deep inside an old laptop. Pooknyw disarmed the socially anxious Hanna over months of shared cigarettes and stoned banter. Broken Water’s rhythm section—rounded out by the addition of Pooknyw’s good friend, the understated but amply talented bassist Abigail Ingram (also of Congratulations)—is no mere backdrop for Hanna’s loud, impeccably distorted and swirling guitar sound. Every member of Broken Water take turns contributing lead vocals—Pooknyw and Ingram balance things out with a mix of Mazzy Star-like precision and eerie, haunting melodies that can draw a jagged line back to My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, or even the springy, deadpan vocals of Black Tambourine.
A sometimes noisy, sometimes droning, often pretty and subtly poppy band—is very much a product of its hometown. Shape-shifting over the course of EPs, singles, and full-length albums released consistently since 2009, the band has managed the rare feat of evolution in the service of a signature sound, wild experimentation that ultimately works as a harness, locking down the music’s unique and idiosyncratic internal logic. In other words...at times they're more Sonic Youth than say, Sonic Youth.
Tempest, the new record, will be Hardly Art's seventh release of 2012. Album opener and leadoff single "Drown"--a droplet-sized taste of the beloved band's oceanic expanse of mesmeric, turbulent sounds.
Download: Drown
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