Album Review: Beaches - She Beats

Melbourne psych jammers Beaches came out of nowhere with their self-titled 2008 debut, juggling expansive sonic miasmas with flashes of krautrock marches, surf rock wailing and choral harmonies. Their efforts saw them touring the US, courting the likes of The Black Angels and Neu!/Kraftwerk/Harmonia mainstay Michael Rother in the process. And while there's been intermittent releases since then, the five-year wait for a sophomore album is hard to fathom. She Beats has, however, been worth the wait.

The obvious addition to the five-piece's sonic palette has been density – She Beats pulses with an hazy energy that coagulates, wavers and shifts endlessly, an Aurora Borealis of aural repetition, harmony and distortion. Rother was enamoured enough to offer his services on two tracks, the mesmeric Distance and Granite Snake. The sinuous motorik grind of Granite Snake in particular benefits from Rother's influence, his nebulous guitar lines infusing with the squalling tenacity the three-pronged guitar attack of Antonia Sellbach, Alison Bolger and Ali McCann inherently bring to proceedings. Elsewhere they're aided by the hefty fretwork of Justin Fuller (Zond) on the sunny squall of Send Them Away and the icy-yet-euphoric Weather.

Yet it's the five girls as a resolute, incessant unit that impresses most about She Beats. Lead vocals shift imperceptibly between Sellbach, Bolger and Karla Way (whose drumming here is gargantuan, a rumbling engine block that, alongside Gill Tucker's pulsing bass, provides the dark glowing heart of the band) intertwine, fuse together, much like the full-frontal guitar assault. Pop bleeds through on Runaway, while an Eastern raga imbues Veda, but in the main She Beats remains a surging monstrosity of precision, dynamism and considerable, brutal beauty.