Iceberg Nerves

In a city that is overcrowded with stoner garage psychedelia and irony-soaked jangle pop, the brooding Lowlakes exhale a breath of refreshing, chilled air through the streets of Melbourne. Cutting through the mass of longhaired jams and adored ocker accents, the local quartet emit an atmosphere of cinematic shoegaze and hazy dream-pop championed by vocal haunts of Tom Snowdon.

Having successfully performed at the never-ending cool of New York City’s CMJ Festival and a European tour courtesy of their stunning 2012 eponymous EP, the fog of anticipation is at last dissipating, revealing the band’s stellar debut LP, Iceberg Nerves.

The record oozes a bone-chilling shoegaze vapour that themes the record throughout, introduced in the opener, ‘Entry’.

Lead single ‘Newborn’ wields the most expanse of sounds on the record. As Snowdon questions, “Could I? Could I?” the track soars triumphantly to an almost orient-inspired string arrangement before submerging back into the dark dreamy Lowlake depths.

The title track of the record displays the band’s understanding of harmonisation. Progressing steadily, Snowdon’s vocals are lost in the impending sea of swirling shoegaze and blue dream-pop, cracking so slightly as his howls weep through the wall of sound.

The band’s recent tour of electro-ridden Berlin certainly transcends on ‘Belle’. The standout track bridges a raw guitar riff to a desolate smoggy-industrial wasteland of electric layering, personified best by the German capital.

The seamless juxtaposition of Snowdon’s vocals to the band’s ambient reverberation never teeters to one side, albeit ‘Bigblood’ belongs solely to Snowdon’s overwhelming incantations.

Iceberg Nerves more than exemplifies that Lowlakes are rehearsed in the art of Talk Talk, Slowdive and Radiohead: ethereal melancholy that somehow instills the most euphoric of sentiments.

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