Synesthesia EP Review

Some advice for listening to Synesthesia; close your eyes. Especially if you’re one with a fractured mind and vivid dreams like me. I realised I was snoring as “Synthstrom” came to its inevitable end, some 25 minutes after I lay down to listen to DIVING’s new EP. Between those two moments I was walking around some strange landscape in a lucid dream I swore was real.

Synesthesia is atmospheric, avant-garde post-rock on the fringe of shoe-gaze. That sound your friend was convinced they could see and feel when they were on hallucinogenics. The soundtrack to an alien abduction, or alternatively a regressive sojourn through your inner psyche. 

There is a sort of unstructured, yet exponential progression to the tracks that only comes from jamming, and a fluency that comes with practice and proficiency. And control. Using the effects, and not letting the effects take over and pull the apart.

It’s amazing to think that these epic, full bodied soundscapes come from two guys, some drums, a guitar and a microphone and a few effects pedals. It’s the sound Trent Reznor was going for when he released NIN’s Ghosts.  Either Wellington needs more band like this, or this band needs more music.

You can listen to Synesthesia for free here http://divingtheband.bandcamp.com/album/synesthesia though as a supporter of New Zealand Music, I urge you to buy a copy or, even better, catch DIVING the next time they’re touring. Their live shows promise to be the closest you can get to an outer body experience you can get at a live venue. Don’t know what I mean? Watch this little clip I found:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ebM1jURMio DIVING appear at around 07:40ish.