A constructor of weighty yet shimmery guitar textures that often take their time to explore a thought,
Summer Flake is Australian musician Stephanie Crase, who returns three years after her solo project's full-length debut with sophomore LP
Hello Friends. The album combines sunny, surf rock-reminiscent colors with hints of grungier hard rock grimness that fosters earthiness amidst its reverberation. Most of the record is leisurely in pace, almost favoring sound over song, as on the gloomy "Shoot and Score." The song opens with a repeated, pitch-bending guitar riff before atmospheric vocals join in the mid-range between the guitars and bass. The brighter, tuneful "Satellite" also opens with 30 seconds of guitar before singing commences, quickly leading into a call-and-response melody that has Crase and her guitar vocalizing as a duo. The rhythm section comes alive on the brisker "Wine Won't Wash Away," which has lead and melodic backing vocals submerged in lush, churning guitar, coming up for air mostly in the choruses. Lead guitar actually takes over the mix as the song progresses, culminating in a solo that ends the song. Later, vocals sink like quicksand into the lush, gravelly guitar tones of "Mess." Overall, the album rewards a patient listener, as tempos are generally on the slow side and song developments are subtle. It excels where the guitar work is more than scene-setting, as on the feedback-tinged "So Long," which offers a particularly elegant solo guitar melody that metamorphoses into sinuous accompaniment to vocals before layered voice and instrument share the spotlight as the song apexes. Recommended for fans of atmospheric guitar,
Hello Friends values the instrument at least as much as song form and more than vocals, and may compel attempted tone reproduction. ~ Marcy Donelson