Misselenaeous Records 12/12/09
Genre: Goth Surf Shoegaze
The End of Midnight. A proclamation or a surrender? Or both?
When midnight ends will it break a spell? Reveal ancient secrets? Or set your soul alight? So asks Elena Gonzales on her self produced debut EP.
What is midnight? An hour cast between days, bestride the what was and what will be. We find solace and enchantment there, terror and courage. On these 5 songs, Ms. Gonzales holds you captive there. Her haunting vocals, shimmery and evocative, seem to beckon you to forgotten, or as yet undiscovered places. Places at once luminous and foreboding. Hidden in shadow and, like a veil, all the more mesmerizing for it. Resonant, atmospheric guitars usher you into this hither-to-forbidden world, sounding seductive, sinister and slightly forlorn; like they are echoing off the walls of Dracula’s bed chamber. The hypnotic drum beats and sibilant, creepy cymbals keep things hovering just above ground, careful not to fracture the nether world looking-glass Ms. Gonzales has fashioned for her own amusement. And perhaps ours. This wall of sound, more specter than Phil Spector, creates a lush, almost cinematic atmosphere…A perfect backdrop for a beyond the grave circa 1970s horror soundtrack, if you will. In an almost tongue in cheek manner these songs ask, if love is thwarted in this world, why not try the next? They invite you to lightheartedly consider, what it might be like to be cosseted away in such a chimera, where one’s spirit prevails over the banal distractions and limitations encountered here on Earth. Ms. Gonzales creates a world where suspending disbelief is not only possible, but preferable. If only for a moment.