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The EP's five tracks are guitar pop and noisy. The opener’s tracks remind me of 90s British indie bands pigeonholed as ‘showgazers’ by the mythical music newspapers Melody Maker and New Musical Express.
This is the fourth record and second EP and ‘The Age Of Lovely, Intimate Things EP’ comes after their 2003 debut album ‘Fair Weather Karma’. This 3-piece from California takes the ethereal pop and space rock of bands in the likes of Ride, Catherine Wheel and Slowdive. ‘Never come down’ the EP's highlight, is a thirteen-minute-plus noisy guitar heavy on feedback that reach an overwhelming soundclash. reviewed by: Guillermo Escudero for Loop.cl |
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For a shoegazer fan, Sciflyer's newest LP, The Age of Lovely, Intimate Things is pure gold, baby! Sciflyer, which sounds like a five-piece, crams a whole lot of sound into this music for only being a threesome.
The album opens up with "The Nation," a beautiful slow-burner that is equally as loud as it is hard to understand the vocals, which I am sure have nothing to do with an actual nation. Maybe lead singer Steve Kennedy is singing about how he's master of his own domain. Maybe Kennedy doesn't really want us to know the lyrics, as they aren't listed anywhere within the packaging or on the band's website. But really, screw the vocals; I would like to know just how many effects pedals it takes to make a Sciflyer record. The main appeal to Sciflyer has always been Kennedy's amazing guitar work and the band's marvelous rhythm section. With Kim Kennedy on bass and "Harvey" on drums, the rhythm section plays like they are jamming behind Steve's guitar work. It all sounds a bit complicated, but I am sure it isn't, as all of this jamming seems natural. This five-song mini-LP plays out so very nicely. The hushed vocals, jangly guitars, and the sexy basslines are slick, and you would be hard pressed to find a "shoegazer" band that does it better. The gem of this album has the be the last song, the 13-minute "Never Come Down." This song could have easily fit on the Spacemen 3 album Perfect Prescription. This opus is a noise-psych masterpiece that has Steve Kennedy creating so much sound from all of the picking at his guitar that I would half expect him to mutilate his guitar a la Pete Townshend as soon as the last note was played. With The Age of Lovely, Intimate Things, Sciflyer moves far ahead of the bands that try to create the perfect balance between noise and dreampop. reviewed by: Jason Wilder for delusions of adequacy |
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Dreamy shoegazer rock in the vein of Swervedriver and early Starflyer 59. This EP consists of four songs from two lost singles the band released earlier in their career plus a thirteen minute droner called "Never Come Down." Sciflyer is driven by the ethereal guitars and reverb drenched vocals of Steve Kennedy. This EP finds the band sounding as smooth and satisfying as ever. Kennedy and company's subtle approach to progressive pop works exceedingly well, partly because the songs are neither overworked nor overproduced. The open space in these tunes allows the listener to soak up all the slight nuances in the songs. Packaged in a beautifully designed digipak cover, The Age of Lovely, Intimate Things is both lovely and intimate.
reviewed by: Don W. Seven for LMNOP/Babysue |
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For a number of years, Sciflyer has been at the front of the revivalist shoegaze scene. Last year's Fair Weather Karma was a mid-tempo opus of dense guitars and brilliant rhythm work. The just released ep The Age Of Lovely, Intimate Things is the next logical step in the progression and growth of the band, with one notable exception. Before now, the band has always had vocals that played a backseat role to the rest of the music, but were always distinctively vocals, and recognizable. On TAOLIT the band seems to have toned down the vocal production to a level of sub-instrumentation. The words are mumbled and nowhere on the record do the lyrics draw attention to themselves, as they can never be understood. That is my one and only complaint about this set of tunes though…
The album is full of the jangling guitars and crispy drumming that set apart the shoegaze bands from the rest of the dreampop crowd. These songs float around your head, swirling masses of glorious sonic splendor. The drumming is understated at most times, provided a gentle rhythmic undercurrent for the entire record. Melodically, TAOLIT is highly advanced and shows a total growth from Sciflyer's previous works, finally ranking them right up alongside the old masters of the genre, such as Slowdive. The guitars achieve some fantastic tonal qualities, especially on "Like An Ion", where there is a sharp, yet smooth, buzzing fuzz guitar that makes the song an immediate favorite. "Never Come Down" takes the beauty and calm of the previous four tracks and elevates it to a sonic level resembling the early days of My Bloody Valentine - full of eerily pitched distortions and feedback heavy lead lines built on a stoic and precise slowdown throb. This new record will appeal to established fans of shoegaze, and established fans of Sciflyer's work, but I fear that few new converts to the dream are going to be made, simply because of the lack of vocal presence on the record. I'm all for voice as instrument, as long as it is clear and understandable… but that leaves a little room for improvement on the next full length. reviewed by: Embo Blake for Hybrid Magazine |
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With five tracks clocking in at just over a half an hour, Sciflyer's approach is true to the shoegazer tact of yore on The Age of Lovely, Intimate Things, while maintaining a uniqueness that sets it apart from the Ride and Swervedriver worshipers that have scattered the alternative music landscape since the early '90s. Launched with the dreamy, muted crawl of "The Nation," frontman/guitarist/visionary Steve Kennedy and his bassist spouse, Kim Kennedy, thrive on atmospherics, as evidenced by the uplifting instrumental "Proxima Centauri" and the lilting, acoustic-steered "The Same Thing Goes for Christmas." While the highlight, "Like an Ion," glistens in homage to the aforementioned Ride, the disc's 13-minute closer is as epic as it is redundant, meandering on to the point where it loses effect. Outside of this misstep, Sciflyer's sonic affairs are not only in order, but hell-bent on reviving an otherwise dormant music style.
reviewed by: John D. Luerssen for AMG |
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What Swervedriver would sound like underwater. About 50 feet underwater. As usual with Sciflyer, the vocals are way way buried in the mix and the guitars are droney. The Age, which is two "lost singles" and some "b-sides," includes a song called "Never Come Down" that clocks in at 14 minutes. So they pretty much should have called the band Vervedriver.
reviewed by: Kenyon Hopkin for advancecopy |
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It sounds like someone was given a Cadbury’s selection box of melodies for Christmas and stuffed themselves until they were sick. Officially handed down the baton by Swervedriver, Sciflyer lodge themselves somewhere between shoegazers and interplanetary explorers, but wherever they are, it is not here. Some bands are distant no matter how loud you turn them up, but rather than poor production, in this case it is deliberate. The lyrics aren’t vague so much as released into the ether. Over the course of this epic mini-album, they dunk you repeatedly in a swimming pool of sonic layers – for 13 whole minutes in the case of swansong ‘Never Come Down’ – and you will still come back for more.
reviewed by: Jim Merrett for new-noise |
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This 31-minute, 6-song EP aims to be a stopgap between LPs, as well as a clearing house for unreleased singles. That in mind, SCIFLYER's swirly guitar pop is quite likeable here. From the lilting waves of 'The Same Thing Goes For Christmas', to the 12-minute space-freakout-jam vibes of 'Never Come Down', SCIFLYER prove that they are as capable of strong Britpop-style songwriting as well as some fairly out-there psychedelic meandering. A solid effort and well worth a listen for fans of stuff like SLOWDIVE or SPIRITUALIZED, though by no means eclipsing either.
reviewed by: Godsend Online |
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