Where the Land Meets the Sea

Listen for the Gulls (2009)

Brian Shultz

Notably, Where the Land Meets the Sea comprise current/ex-members of Smoke or Fire, Lock and Key, the Cold Beat and the Campaign for Real Time, but their debut EP, Listen for the Gulls, might leave one grasping for comparisons.

Listen for the Gulls provides carefully upbeat, occasionally fuzzed-out synth-rock romps with both male and female leads and touch of experimentation. It could be the halfway point between a more tense Pretty Girls Make Graves and Slingshot Dakota's bouncy goodness, but there's a lot of generally original shades here. Opener "Title Bout" has some excited, fuzzy yelps and clean female delivery, though she seems to take the reigns more as the songs progress. Weird archival interludes and overlaying keyboards make for some interesting layers and the melodies are fairly tight too.

Definitely a curiously good 19 minutes or so. It's not all in place here yet, but the pieces are falling in.

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Listen for the Gulls