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Monday, November 24, 2014

Listen: Seismograph - "In Holy Abyss"


Considering the immersive quality of his music and assisting on the new Cemeteries album, it's hard to imagine Seismograph's Jonathan Ioviero can put out music with the frequency of which he is currently and yet here we are. With his debut album Azure Drift out last year, and not one but two tracks on the annual Halloween label for which he is a cofounder, the fact that Ioviero managed to record and release a sophomore record so quickly is, well, rather impressive.

With "In Holy Abyss", the first single from the sophomore record Tundra Divine, Seismograph is leaning more in a distinctly folkier directio or at least that's the impression the fingerstyle intro would have you believe. Seismograph continues not only to excel at making his form of longform songwriting engaging and interesting but also in sidestepping easy genre classification. Seismograph has always managed to take the scenic route in regards to genre - a pop momentum functioning as the vehicle but post-rock and chillwave elements like hills and trees are reoccurring parts of the scenery.

The most charming thing about Seismograph's "In Holy Abyss" however is how he manages to manipulate it's main melody into the very fabric of it. Throughout the song's 9 minute sprawl, there's frequent callbacks to its initial presentation and it rises in intensity and immediacy until it's eventually the only thing left - there some time before Ioviero's wispy vocals enter and present long after they fade.



Seismograph's sophomore album Tundra Divine is out now and available on limited edition cassette via Ioverio's own Snowbeast Records.

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