A massive wall of guitars, coalescing chorused shimmer and dusty fuzz, crashes down like a wave. Sweet voices soar over the roil like seagulls riding air currents. Acting as anchor, a rhythm section clings to the beat like a life preserver. Call it shoegaze, dream-pop, or just a variation on psychedelic rock: It’s an instantly recognizable sound, particularly for Anglophiles who came of age in the Eighties and Nineties, that ATX quartet Blushing nails down on LP No. 2. Michelle Soto and Noe Carmona weave their axes together in a lush tapestry as bassist Christina Carmona and drummer Jacob Soto maintain the momentum, whether the songs blast (“Sour Punch,” “Lost Cat”) or float (“Gel,” “Waster”), in mastery of the form. Christina and Michelle’s glistening vocals paint the tracks in rich pastels, acting as new textures more than focal points – the better to let the sweet & sour melodies of “Surround (With Love)” and the title tune soak in all that six-string acid. The band’s neighborhood devotion extends to inviting a pair of genre icons to participate, with Lush’s Miki Berenyi adding her distinctive singing to “Blame” and Ride’s Mark Gardener mixing “The Fires” and mastering the whole thing. Produced, appropriately, by Ringo Deathstarr’s Elliot Frazier, Possessions burns like a supernova, as much an air guitar record as anything hard rock or punk.
This article appears in Guide to SXSW 2022.
