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Growing's early-2008 effort was one of their shortest, less a full album than an EP of four good songs that collectively clock in at under half an hour. It's a reasonable balance between inspirations and their own spark -- thus, "First Contact" has the kind of sheer obsessive focus in its waves and loops of sound familiar from late Spacemen 3 efforts (or early Spectrum and Spiritualized), but the random guitar stabs that come in over the rhythm, reverbed and a little noodly in their own way, give the track its own clear identity. Similarly, the title track reverses what had become a standard model for electrogaze -- a punchy, near-glitch beat cutting through a sonic wash -- by placing the reverb on the beats itself instead. Meanwhile, "Swell" starts off the release on a perfectly named note, continuing to rise and develop in a propulsive motion that almost feels like a regal ascension.
© Ned Raggett /TiVo