GRNDMS :: Capitol Mill

millGRNDMS is the duo of Catherine DeGennaro and Suzy Jivotovski. Their debut, Capitol Mill, is the result of an ongoing long distance pairing of the two’s material. Entwining delicate folk with garage pop, the everyday with the mystic, the two fuse into a strange and beautiful whole, creating one of the most enchanting lo-fi records of the year.

Opener “Mass Observation // Whistle & Bells” is all distorted reverb encircling hushed echoes of Jivotovski’s mysterious poetry. DeGennaro’s “White Hot Mess” buries the existential hysteria and loneliness of adulthood under a bed of polleny garden folk and milky harmonies while the wistful, nostalgic melody of “Bending Out” paints a day in the life, populated with psychics, people watching and moving homes.

GRNDMS :: Observation Satellites

Showcases DeGennaro’s bewitching vocals is “Linger On”, drawing shades of both The Sandwitches and Jana Hunter. A ringing guitar and buzzing bass line swell into a kind of radar signal, searching for that which has transcended: “You trod on mountaintops and you’ve seen the peak / you let it move through you, you are the creek.” The morning, mountainside folk of “Observation Satellites” is perhaps the stand out of the record as DeGennaro’s playful, layered harmonies saunter and whisk through the countryside, hiding in the hills and getting lost amongst “strange purple trees, whites, yellows, and greens.”

GRNDMS :: Echo Chamber

Jivotovski channels The Raincoats and Marine Girls on tracks “Pwr Chords Drool” and “Spoonless.” The former’s deceptively sugary melody is subverted by its jagged distortion and abstract actualization, and the latter, a spell of dizzying aimlessness, finds her lost, adrift and alone. Closing the album is “Resolute”, its acoustic and electric guitar mingling behind DeGennaro’s awakening of self-empowerment. She sings confidently but bruised (“I’m seconds far from fine”), but her raw and stirring sincerity sweeps the listener in, forcing us to check in with our own personal and spiritual inventory. “Let me be me, again, “ she concludes.” words / c depasquale