Heart of a Dark Star

The Heart of a Dark Star, Mr. Gnome are finally blowing past the borders of their home state to knock the rest of us off our feet. As Mr. Gnome, vocalist/guitarist Nicole Barille and drummer/pianist Sam Meister blend gritty blues tones and psychedelic space with rare ease. Listen to how Meister's delicate drumming punctures the thick putty bass line of "Melted Rainbow" or the way "Odyssey" echoes children's music and try not to smile. These two could easily make prog metal; their open-string riffs and heavy production are practically borrowed from the speakers of a metalhead's car stereo. It's their grasp on floating embellishments - frail horns, soulful vocals, toy piano - that allows them to dance freely from labels, crafting a sound that's wonderfully detached. Barille's vocals sound similar to those of Tegan and Sara, but thanks to some layering, she's able to stack her howls and coos to form a sound even more melodic than the twins'. Her voice fleshes out lighter numbers like "Mustangs" and "Light" and melts down "Rise & Shine" until it collapses the way most of these songs do: in a burning pile of colorful chaos. This marks the first time the duo have completely self-recorded an album. Instead of breaking from their nightmare-come-true sound, they filled their home studio with microphones, replacing the ticking of a studio clock with the comfort of being able to record their orchestrations the moment they slipped into their heads. Named after a line from Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Dark Star haunts with dynamic instrumentation and fantastical imagery, all tidied up thanks to Kevin McMahon's mixing (he's also worked with The Walkmen, Titus Andronicus, and Swans). indie rock art rock duo ethereal female fronted psychedelic surreal Cleveland.