Shoegaze, or perhaps it would be better to say shoegaze aesthetics, therefore everything that constitutes the imagery evoked by it, from the dreamy and bittersweet sounds, to the colors of the covers, as well as the clothing and video clips, such as trend of Generation Z on TikTok. In Italy it was recently discussed with “Chiaroscuro”, a work by Foreverboymush, Saint Abel, Moskova Div, but this is obviously not an isolated case. Natalie Lu aka Wisp saw her “Your Face”, released in April 2023, go viral in the blink of an eye on the Chinese platform, a fact that allowed her to release her debut EP “Pandora” just a year later ” under contract to Interscope.
Even defined by some newspapers as “the next leader of the shoegaze revival” and currently engaged in her first tour since headliner in the USA, the artist from San Francisco masters various instruments, including guitar, violin and piano, and cites the inevitable tutelary deities Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine among his main starting references, together with the emotionality of Title Fight, all the pop darkness of Whirr and the metallic darkness of Deftones.
In the'opener “Pandora” the sweetness of the muffled notes referring to the project by Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie clashes with more incisive instrumental passages of emo and post-hc typical of “Shed”, Title Fight's debut, but what stands out are the echoes of the successful “Your Face”, which pays a clear tribute to Whirr, and was born by chance from an experiment carried out by the artist by recording his own voice on his Apple earphones and mixing the track on your phone.
Personal insecurity underlies “Enough For You,” which fluctuates between loops of guitar, while “Luna” is the result of the evolution of an idea originating in the folk-rock field and directed in the Slowdive area. “See You Soon” crosses “Primal” and sound post-hcand then wink at the work of Kevin Shields and his associates with the heavyweights wall of sound of “Mimi”, conclusion of the short journey lasting twenty-three minutes.
The idea of trend always generates divisive opinions, for and against: on the one hand the positive idea that the new generations seek out and become passionate about the great artists of the past, and on the other that all this can be emptied and reduced to mere and temporary aesthetics to be sold . Although it does not bring any revolution, what is offered to us by Wisp within “Pandora” is well made as regards some instrumental textures, much less at the level of extremely basic lyrics, nevertheless dealing with themes dear to today's youth, always more fragile and disillusioned. At present, future surprises (or why not, disappointments) cannot therefore be ruled out.
05/05/2024
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM