MUSIC BLOG

Bellavista

• Author: None
• Published: Wednesday, December 12, 2007

BELLAVISTA
Bellavista
(Take Root Records; 2007)

Bellavista has risen from the ashes of former San Francisco rock heroes The Vue and released their self-titled debut on Take Root Records.

The sound on this nine-track album is raw and drenched in echo, with Rex Shelverton's vocals and guitar swirling around the point of attack. It creates a gauzy, droning, and psychedelic soundscape similar to My Bloody Valentine. On songs like "Carve Our World" and "Divided We Suffer," early '70s hard rock guitar chords stretch waaaay out until the sound is like an arc that begins and swells and fades.

Cary LaScala's drumming is a counterpoint to the strung out shards of guitar; his pounding tribal rhythms give the music an earthiness that anchors the washed-out guitars. Bassist Jeremy Bringetto plays melodically and pushes songs into colder territory, with the metallic sound of the bassline on "Mystic Son" bringing to mind Joy Division and giving songs a gothic edge.

On "Transcosmic Egress," the closest Bellavista come to a ballad, Rex mournfully describes a world that's collapsed around him, and on "Temptation By Your Side" he sings a one-sided love song to someone he wants dearly to be close to. He sings with a sometimes-crooning, sometimes-yelping vocal delivery that cuts through the mix and sounds a bit like Bowie.

Bellavista play their music with abandon yet with a strong awareness of their sound. It gives them a lot of weight to throw behind each of their dark, pop inflected psychedelic rock songs.

[Jeff Bissell]

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[STREAM] Bellavista: Various Tracks