100 Bands in 100 Days Presented by Verity Credit Union — Day 59: High Plains

Please check out Verity Credit Union, our great partner in the 100 Bands in 100 Days local music showcase.

Music fans of the Pacific Northwest, get ready for our fourth annual year-end daily local music showcase, 100 Bands in 100 Days, where every day until December 31st, we’re showcasing a new band or artist you have to know about, presented by Verity Credit Union. Make sure you are checking the #100Bands100Days hashtag at Twitter on the daily to stay on top of all the bands featured and make sure to follow Verity on Twitter and NW_Music_Scene as well. Some days the featured act could be an established and locally-adored northwest-based musician and other times they could be a band with a small following that just hasn’t had their deserved time in the sun yet. Either way, we’re fairly confident you can come away from this daily segment with plenty of new favorites. Today’s featured artist is High Plains.

Earlier in 2017 we reviewed the debut album from High Plains (Loscil’s Scott Morgan and cello savant Mark Bridges). Although this music probably isn’t something you are going to want to listen to on a Saturday night before you head out on the town to a metal show, it’s a fantastic piece of work and most deserving of the time you’ll invest in the nine song release.

Here’s some of what we said about the EP in our review:

The latter half of Cinderland is less about explaining and more about holding on. “Ten Sleep” pulls the previous weight to the side and restfully clinks a softened melody, while suspended cello over hopeless echoes and sad angles of glacial space, fill “Black Shimmer.” The next track, “Hypoxia,” has a growing percussive heartbeat, but not one familiar with love or a lasting peace: rather survival and detection.

There’s a familiar ghost humming its way through most of Cinderland. Bridges’ calculating cello and Morgan’s ethereal sounds form a tangible relationship to something uniquely tied to the geography they recorded in. Cinderland refreshes itself when a harder struck piano note lifts the scope above the smoky backdrop or when a placid field recording buzzes and stretches the mood of a song. The eerie presence, however, is continuously felt. “Song for a Last Night” is a fitting end to such a harrowing collection of songs. Creaking ambience spilling amongst the night air reveals no easy decision.

High Plains have conjured up a solidly mature, neo classical artifact on Cinderland. The monochromatic depths Morgan and Bridges uncover may zap your mojo, but if you survive the dense trek into the scarred plains they’ve documented, you might just find yourself thirsting for similar terrain in the future.

(You can listen to Cinderland below via the Bandcamp and get more info about them on Facebook HERE).