Godcaster – Ramp Local
Godcaster, the sextet from Brooklyn, presents the vibe of indie rock breakouts for 2023. Their second release after 2020’s Long Haired Locusts is more focused, with tighter instrumentalization, and a forceful drumming beat that lives on the edge of explosion. It is avant-garde punk rock mixed in with psych-rock influences. Sounding often like Black Midi, while at times like Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
Track 3, “Didactic Flashing Antidote,” is a hypnotic 10+ minutes of pure power and clanging. Track 2 is a frenetic, busy beat with subdued vocals. Such urgency in the music, living up to the title of the piece, “Vivian Heck.” I’m digging the sprawling and diverse 11+ minute track, “Draw Breath Cry Out,” with its time changes, bookended by noisy shoegaze. Is track 8, “Gut Sink Moan,” death metal? Perhaps it is Godcaster’s take on it. Track 4 and 7, “Albino Venus,” and “Pluto Shoots His Gaze Into the Sun,” are calming selections that serve as interstitials to the chaotic bangers on this 8 track album.
Hauntingly sweet and full of friction and psychotic energy. This is sure to be a classic in years to come.
Track listing –
1: Diamond’s Shining Face
2: Vivian Heck
3: Didactic Flashing Antidote
4: Albino Venus
5: Deaths Head Eyed Hawk Moth
6: Draw Breath Cry Out
7: Pluto Shoots His Gaze Into The Sun
8: Gut Sink Moan
My favorites on their self-titled album – 2**, 5**, 6**, 1**, 8*, and 7*. Godcaster is terrifically intense, and I can only imagine them live!
– (h)earwitness