Spacemonster is the alias of young Richmond based recording artist Kenny Hamilton. Previously part of a basement band called American Spacemonster Gill, Kenny’s gone his own way and taken his contribution to that name with him. Once upon a thankfully distant time, Spacemonster gigs consisted of scriptural readings accompanied by blaring white noise. I’m struggling to imagine anything worse, but luckily for us Kenny has gone in a totally different direction for “Gills”, his 5-track EP recorded last Summer.
Not a peep from God here. Instead we’ve got lo-fi, bedroom-made music with a beach vibe that I can’t help but compare to Beach Fossils. Standout song “We Are Too” opens, sounding about as lo as lo-fi can get, with muffled vocals scarcely audible over a hazy guitar line. It’s all deliberate though, and the song soon reveals itself with a sound much wider than you’d expect from a one man bedroom band, and in the end has a space to it that recalls the best of early Mercury Rev. But where they used to deal in 8 minute epics, Spacemonster keeps things short and sweet.
Kenny’s lyrics reflect young, easy love: “good friends make great companions” and “love is a holiday”. If you can cope with the fuzz [Kenny himself admits that, even at the best of times, there's "tape hiss up the wazoo" on these recordings], grab a slice of carefree youth with a couple of free downloads below, and stream the full EP via the Bandcamp link.
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