Premiere: La Pêche Cross The Streams Of Folk And Shoegaze On Their ‘Bright And Bending’ EP

On paper, crossing the streams of folk music and shoegaze doesn’t seem like it should work. Folk is all about soul-baring authenticity and stripped-down productions, where as shoegaze built its name on the way that bands create massive walls of sound that mask everything else.

But Brooklyn’s La Pêche managed to strike the perfect balance on their Bright and Bending EP — out today via Bakery Outlet Records. Frontwoman Krista Holly Diem’s vocal rings out clear above the ruckus of 90s-indebted spiraling guitar courtesy of Drew DeMaio.

A quick listen to their debut shows that this isn’t the kind of folk that’s out there winning Nobel Prizes, but it is the perfect music to soundtrack your fall. Krista Holly and Keiko Ichinose’s woven vocals recall the swirling chilly winds of the season on tracks like “Be Gentle” and “Not By Sight” with the rhythm section injecting a little warmth and levity like a hot toddy. And the straight-up rocking “Doesn’t Matter” butts into the EP like those sudden and inexplicable 80-degree days.

The fact that the album vibes so well with the changing of the season doesn’t come as much of a surprise after talking to the band. That sense of change and new beginnings comes from the fact that it really is a group of people suddenly heading in a new direction.

“It’s a sort of ‘re-beginning’ for most of us, as this is a first project in quite a few years,” said. Krista Diem. “So it’s revisiting an almost dormant passion with a little more maturity under our belts and maybe a little less self-awareness at the same time.”

Check out the premiere of La Pêche’s debut EP below:

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