Brianna Kelly/Sympathy Pain

Split tape from Cincinnati’s Whited Sepulchre Records, both sides full of melodic, dark, droning lo-fi beauty. Brianna Kelly of Cincinnati makes thick, ghostly, nearly ambient songs that fans of Grouper or Sister Grotto/Midwife will love. Sympathy Pain of SLC, a duo, goes more longform with post-rock-tinged drone pieces. Great cloudy day music. Favorites: 3, 4, 5. FCC clean, though 2 might be tempting the borderline a little.

Brianna Kelly
1. (5:23)—Misty, distant, buoyant vocal loops. Crackling background noise.
2. (5:15)—Smeary tapes of speech. Deep, resonant keys reminscent of some older Grouper songs. High shimmering drone. Low, whispered singing.
3. *(5:20)—Deep, almost metallic guitars. Long, slow build, soft at first and then evolving into total Slowdive “Machine Gun” bliss. Wow.
4. *(9:06)—Tape reversed vocals, surface noise, warped piano. Grand and desolate.

Sympathy Pain
5. *(13:24)—Muffled synth drone. Gentle post-rock guitars. Occasional percussive machine sounds. Dense and warm.
6. (9:36)—Foggy, noisy, even more muffled. Soft, simple tick-tocking guitar line. Very faint background beat.