Cassette Review: Seven Tin Stars "Return To The White Tide" (Custom Made Music)

[$8 // http://custommademusicva.com/release/return-to-the-white-tide-cassette/]

While I definitely feel like the term "shoegaze" has been thrown around too much- just search for the genre on Bandcamp and try to sift through all of the crap just using it as a tag because it's popular and tell me when you find an actual shoegaze artist- but Seven Tin Stars does have that shoegaze feel to it in the way that you would appreciate if you were to hear them on a When The Sun Hits compilation.  

The dreamy bliss brings about thoughts of floating on clouds.   It's pleasant, but not upbeat.   It just has this sound which falls somewhere between The Verve and some other traditional shoegaze artists such as MBV, TJMC, etc. etc.    But the one thing which can be said for Seven Tin Stars is that they do add their own take to the music, giving it a sound which is unique to them.   If you search Bandcamp for "shoegaze" not only will you find a lot of artists who are not, but you'll find those who are mere clones-- and Seven Tin Stars is neither.

To some extent, I feel like you could almost get away with calling this one instrumental as it is that music over vocals sound I have written about before, and yet somehow this seems to just be even more music than vocals than other artists.    I found myself questioning at times whether or not this was strictly instrumental, as it is easy to get lost in it, but you'll eventually be pulled back to reality and hear the singing.

If you enjoy that pure based shoegaze sound which is more instrumental than not, then let Seven Tin Stars take you to a deserted island and help you fly through the sky without a care, like some sort of balloon escaped from a child's hand during a birthday party which they did not want to attend.    It's just so freeing that I cannot describe it because I don't think I've ever felt quite this free before.