Edinburgh’s Wozniak, whose superb Five Star featured on the first Almost Scottish Fiction ep, release their second ep, Auster the follow up to their superb debut e.p. Pikes Peak. Auster represents a leap forward for the band as it takes their shoegaze and post rock influenced sound and adds layers and layers to it producing a set of four songs that are brilliantly noisy but also multi layered and really quite clever.
Opener Snow Effect is a slice of Ride or Slowdive like fuzz noise with wonderfully whispered vocals that packs quite a sonic punch and ultimately is an outstanding track. Amongst the four excellent tracks here, Snow Effect is the standout for me. Next up we have Wings Of Pegasus which starts like My Bloody Valentine before a bassline Kim Deal would be proud of propels the song forward into a rush of shimmering guitars that’s really quite marvelous. Gospel Of Infinity adds even more power to the mix with a track built around a crunching riff and an almost military drum beat that is reminiscent of Mogwai but has Wozniak’s own stamp on it thorough. The e.p. then ends with the 8 minute beast that is Helder + Zelda. An initial slow build of bass and spiky, reverb laden guitars lead to a wall of noise that is quite breathtaking before the track returns to its beginnings, ending the e.p. perfectly.
As someone who is old enough to remember shoegaze the first time round, it’s great to hear artists like Wozniak use the power and drama of that type of music as a basis for their own hugely impressive work. Auster is an excellent e.p. and Wozniak clearly have something special about them.
“This article first appeared in David’s blog Almost Predictable Almost”
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