Portland, Maine veteran shoegaze quartet Crystal Canyon released their latest single “Belt of Orion” today, inspired by the spirit of the 13th Floor Elevators. Watch + share the video via YouTube. The track is featured on their upcoming third full-length album, Stars and Distant Light, due out November 3 (Vinyl 12” LP + Digital). The band will host a Listening Party via Bandcamp on Monday, October 30 @ 5pm ET, before kicking off a short run of tour dates, November 4-10 [all dates below]. Pre-order Stars and Distant Light via Bandcamp.
Led by Lynda Mandolyn, already inducted into the Detroit Rock & Roll for her youthful work in the all female punk trio Inside Out, Crystal Canyon recorded Stars and Distant Light at guitarist/engineer Todd Hutchisen’s Portland Acadia Recording Company studio. The 9 tracks represent a painstakingly collaborative effort on the part of Crystal Canyon’s members. True to the stereotype of shoegazers being obsessive about their gear, the album features sounds that could only be produced following the trial and error of dozens of guitars tracked meticulously onto analog tape.
“We started out demoing about sixteen or seventeen songs then finally narrowed down the songs to the nine that are on the record,” notes Hutchisen, who cites the deliberate inclusion of more synth and keyboard sounds found on the album as one point of departure from the band’s earlier releases, further refining the band’s already-established commitment to lush soundscapes.
Never veering off into territory that is inaccessible or overbearingly obscure, Crystal Canyon’s third full-length features a wide range of sounds for listeners to savor. From the slow-tempo and shimmering dreampop of “Sierra” (a song the band notes is a tribute to Julee Cruise, whose vocals graced the theme to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks) to the mesmerizing rhythmical assault found on early single “Judy Moody,” many of the performances on the record demonstrate how important both restraint and cathartic release can be for a
band that leans toward the loud. While firmly rooted in the shoegaze tradition, there are enough moments of melodic mastery (like those found on “Catatonia”) that showcase affinities for expansive genres that fans of Stars and Medicine can appreciate.
Formed in 2015 by vocalist Mandolyn and Hutchisen, Crystal Canyon launched with a simple mission: call upon the spirit of the tradition of late 80s and 90s shoegaze without merely rehashing the formulaic gestures of the genre. Knowing the contours of the northeast indie scenes well, the duo called upon bassist (and Hutchisen’s bandmate in another Portland-based post-rock/prog-rock outfit, The Baltic Sea) Jeremy Smith to handle low-end duties. On Stars and Distant Light the trio are completed by the addition of multi-instrumentalist Nate Manning. Though primarily offering drums throughout the record, Manning also found himself adding guitars and other instrumental accoutrement to the sessions. Many of the more explosive moments included on the record are due, in part, to the fresh perspective he brought into the mix.
With Stars and Distant Lights, Crystal Canyon have taken all of their combined experiences in making music to create an album that fuses these varied elements. Resulting in a record that stands out from anything any individual member has been a part of before, and took them to a place outside of one singular form of music. “We formed a band that sounded like the music we listened to,” says Mandolyn. “In the process, we’ve become a band we’d want others to hear.”
