It’s weird for a band that had broken up around 4 years ago release an album, but this is what happened with the band Wet Hair with their new album, The Floating World. It was a band that was formed by Shawn Reed who wanted to go for more experimental dark tones.
Then his former band mate from the Raccoo-oo-oon, Ryan Garbes who played organ and drums joined and then they started touring. On the tour, they recorded a lot with tape manipulation and effected heavy vocals to test out their new sound.
Three albums were released in this five year period, but when most of the members wanted to do other project, the group disbanded in 2013.
With the news that this was to be their last album, this made me a bit disappointed due to the fact that I really loved their mix of stand up rock and experimenting and their slight synth melody that really calms you down and gets you away from things.
A bass-line with an awesome reverb effect start off the opening track “Lift the Stone.” With the drums coming in, it really has a band practice feel to it. The really cool synths lead the whole track with vocal’s you can barely hear, it’s really off the bat and shows you the style the band are aiming to go towards in the album.
Yet again, with “Dear Danae,” the bass is centre stage but with more on the vocals which continues throughout most of the album. It would sound great live with all the synths and the simple bridge solo and really is another good song to listen.
The bass player for this band is amazing. Using simple grooves; it really is the album’s driving force and is the most interesting parts in any of the songs. But, in “Endless Procession,” the use of the synths and electric sound, with its amazing instrumental, creates a build of weird and wonderful sounds.
The mix of the guitar and synths and a cool SOS sound leads to the same set-up as the other track. But, the problem with some of these tracks are that they do feel like they are a very similar layout. However, it is the best song even if the track is eight minutes long.
With “Black Paint“ and “Revealed,” you get more of the bass lead with “Black Paint” starting off with a The Who type synth background. But, the song has more energy than the songs after and the synth lead line fits better. The amazing outro also caps off the song well.
And with “Revealed” it’s more of the same with another great outro. Another synth and bass blending together in the background works really well together and gives an epic feel to the track. “Through the Night,” which would be a great way to end an album has an the best outro of the album that has a farewell type of feel to the song.
Finally, the album finishes off with the short song, “Ice Cream” which has a stereo filter which works well with the name of the song. It’s a pretty enjoyable end to the album.
The Floating World is, sadly, Wet Hair’s final album and I really enjoyed it. With great bass lines and good uses of synth and reverb, it really does do justice the experimental sound the band were going for. The best songs by far on the album were, “Endless Procession,” “Black Paint” and “Revealed.” The album is a definite must-listen.
Wet Hair The Floating World is available for streaming on Spotify down below, you can purchase it on iTunes here.
Words By Stuart Irvine
