Jordyn Blakely's tough but precise drumming and cloudy high-register vocals had already helped define multiple bands by the time she decided to step out solo under the name
Smile Machine. Along with singing and drumming in bands like
Stove and
Jackal Onasis,
Blakely added her talents both on-stage and on record to
Bartees Strange,
Maneka, and others. None of
Blakely's previous output is quite like the doomy yet dreamy shoegaze that appears on
Smile Machine's five-song debut EP
Bye for Now. Though the music is made up of familiar shoegaze starting points -- crashing drums, layers of distorted guitars, vocals that sound submerged in alien waters -- the lo-fi quality of the production adds distance and mystery to songs that are already seeped in noisy melancholy. There are traces of Bug-era
Dinosaur Jr. in the cathartic screaming of album-opener "Bone to Pick," but
Blakely's combination of reflective songwriting and washed-out production also holds traces of
the Microphones' misty existentialism and the muted dissatisfaction that lay at the core of the first
Vivian Girls record. The understated and blurry "Pretty Today" is one of the EP's best moments, refining
Blakely's bummed-out fuzz into a song that's dynamic and subtly catchy. Gentle verses doused in feedback glide into melodic choruses and a floating segment carried by a strange flute-like synth line. Songs like this and the euphoric closing track "Shit Apple" take shoegaze standards to a new, unforeseen place.
Bye for Now's worn textures and beautifully chaotic turns come together to create a world of sound that's warm, intimate, and strange. The record sounds broadcast directly from inside of
Blakely's groggy mind minutes after waking, with swirling sentiments of hope, wonder, and frustration intersecting. There aren't a lot of acts that manage to improve on the often-utilized shoegaze template, but
Smile Machine surprises and reinvents as the waves of noise rise and fall. ~ Fred Thomas