Broken Water are a relatively well-known garage rock/noise rock/shoegaze band from Olympia, Washington. They have released a handful of fascinating albums and EPs, among which perhaps ''Tempest'' stands out the most. Released back in 2012 the album packs some noisy garage rock with a shoegaze coating from start to finish, building on feedback laden guitars and a repetitve almost krautrock like motion.
The first track on the album is titled ''Drown'' and so happens that this track is also one of the best ones on this fine album, packing some fine feedback laden guitars and a catchy forward propelling rhythm section. All in all ''Drown'' has a sort of a tragic noise-rock/shoegaze feel to it in an almost post-rock sense, and that of course is a good thing entirely. The second track ''Coming Down'' sounds quite different with its almost Nirvana'esque song structures. The third track ''Orange Blossom Stains'' on the other hand offers some rather catchy garage rock with the female vocals working pretty well too, whereas the fourth track ''Yanka Dyagileva'' makes a clear reference to a Russian punk/garage rock musician, who used to be the girlfriend of another legendary Russian punk/noise rock musician Yegor Letov. The track itself is pretty similar to the previous one, while the seventh track ''Paranoid'' moves into some more interesting feedback filled shoegaze laden garage rock paths once more. This one is however follow by the marvellous ''River Under The River'', which packs a really awesome bassline and some memorable guitar bits as well, making for the best song after ''Drown''.
All in all ''Tempest'' offers some truly great noisy garage rock with a shoegaze atmosphere for the most part, and is thus a pretty balanced out album. Nevertheless some of the songs clearly stand out, whereas others move in some rather weird and confusing Nirvana'esque paths. Whatever the case may be the album is already worth checking out purely for tracks like ''Drown'' and ''River Under The River''
Some related links:
Bandcamp: https://brokenwatermusic.bandcamp.com/album/tempest
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HcAejEatKs
