Saxon Shore
It Doesn't Matter

The cover suggests something similar to what is proposed by the Saxon Shore, a quintet originally from Philadelphia and now scattered here and there across the USA. These are threads that draw precise coordinates, indeed, textures that, within the digipack as well as the CD, become tangled, creating a knot difficult to unravel.

The sounds handled by the quintet are a melodic blend of guitars (three, to cross riffs without raising a wall of sound), keyboards, percussion, bass, and drums with fleeting vocal incursions.

The producer's name will attract some of the more attentive listeners, being Dave Fridmann (already having worked with the Flaming Lips and MGMT, among others), yet there are not many similarities with those bands. Saxon Shore rather lean towards atmospheric post-rock (one might say in the Mogwai area, but only remotely), they are not immune to wave influences (see "Thanks For Being Away") nor to decadent interludes ("This Place", the only sung track). The band's taste for long, dreamy, expansive, and melancholic instrumental excursions makes listening to the entire album somewhat indigestible, and this is perhaps their biggest flaw.

Notable instead is "Sustained Combustion", a track balancing between "post" emotion and immediate riffs, probably the most successful of the bunch.

Ultimately, this second album of the group (self-produced) does leave some uncertainties but reveals what Saxon Shore are capable of, hopefully, they can capitalize on their talents and put aside their tendency for lengthiness.