Label: Exploding in Sound Records
Release Date: February 23, 2023
Pile is probably your favorite band’s favorite band. All Fiction—a reference to “the lack of any objective reality,” and the worries that accompany parsing truth from tale—is a record that may be Pile’s most vulnerable. This is an experimental and adventurous record. Massive synths, resonant vocal re-processing, and overdubs yields layers like doubled drums, warped classical guitars, and triggered samples of air ducts. Even when Pile return to traditional rock song structures, like the thundering Loops, the crackling distortion and alarm-like synths build a type of musical claustrophobia. Poisons takes cues from the loud-quiet splendor of PJ Harvey. There is a brilliant pang of unease when the band kicks the door down around 3:30 that is made even more impactful by the unpredictability of the rest of the record. A trip to Big Bend in Texas inspired the Lynchian Nude with a Suitcase. Here, singer-guitarist Rick Maguire paints a haunting picture: “Dimly lit against deep violet curtains/And pale eyes sunken against flesh that is sure as a fog.”
Not a GMR artist!
Listen to: 2, 8, & 9
FCC: None
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