Summer Houses - Somedays

Summer Houses 

​Somedays
self-released; 2018

​3.6 out of 5

By Jamie Funk

Summer Houses is the recording project for Morgan M. Clemente. His first release under this moniker is a three-song EP entitled Somedays. It’s a noisy, lo-fi affair that is in an almost constant state of dissonance.

Up first is “Collapse” which melds elements of shoegaze, alternative and other like-minded genres. The vocals are delivered in a kind of ’90s classic indie rock type of way and a number of bands came to mind. Clemente sounds like a young guy talking about suitable topics. He sings, “I'm severing ties with all my friends / Collapsing under your weight / I’m just a character in your stories / I represent all your self hate.”

“Between Then and Now” is full of nihilistic thought and ambiguous ramblings that are completely open to interpretation as to what, where and when they are referring to . At its best the song sounds similar to My Bloody Valentine and early ’90s indie rock acts by combining large splotches of feedback and distortions that shift in pitch.

“Pen Pals pt. 1” is a bit more melancholy and tragic. The story on paper is deep but the way it’s told feels a bit tongue-in-cheek. It’s a slow burn which eventually leads to a Godspeed You! Black Emperor type drone.

The EP reminded me of some of the more noisy aspects of The Microphones. It’s also similar to The Microphones in the lo-fi approach. The Glow Pt. 2 is a bit of an anomaly because it sounds lo-fi but the engineering is deceptively really well done. There is a clear separation on instrumentation, the dynamics are well implemented and much more.

As an engineer myself I can say the music on Somedays is a difficult style to engineer just because of the sheer amount of white noise which takes up most of your mid and high frequencies between 1khz and 10khz. As Clemente steps into his full length I hope to hear a little bump in this area whether it's by working with other engineers or by increasing the fidelity. There were a lot of interesting things happening but even with my best audiophile listening equipment it was hard to discern some of the more interesting, faint instrumentation.

​Overall, I was impressed by these three songs. It was a little nostalgic for me and took me back to my college days at the turn of century when I first started to fall in love with noise rock. Hopefully,  Clemente can keep that flame burning.

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