Artist: Pixel Grip

Artist: Pixel Grip

Links: https://www.facebook.com/PixelGrip

http://pixelgrip.bandcamp.com/

While it was certainly coincidental that I ran across Pixel Grip's Here Comes the Disaster on Halloween, it couldn't have worked out better. Like Memory Tapes' “Walk Me Home” holiday series of spook-wave, Pixel Grip works just as well ratcheting up Hallows' Eve creep as it does transforming an everyday walk-in-the-park into an event: “I walked in the park the other day”...“So?”...“I was listening to Pixel Grip at the time”...“Nice.” [A closer chill-wave match might be Neon Indian, given Pixel Grip's paring of gauzy vocals with heavy keyboard settings (“Uber Color #3 (with Well Wishers) at 1:35).]

One of the best compliments paid to relatively new bands is that they arrived on the scene “fully formed.” This connotes a product that's both consistent and quality. [The opposite of fully formed is half-baked.] So it is with Pixel Grip. Other than an allusion to Sneaker Pimps' “Low Place Like Home” (on “Dr. Peterson”), which I now know to be homage [from Pixel Grip's Facebook page, which lists the 90's trip-hoppers as an influence], they strike nary a false note, in sound or mood, on this penetrating debut.

Here Comes the Disaster is a beautiful beast whose slow movements read ominous – heavy as they are with virus. “My Blue Electric” is a great place to start: a muffled beat serving up a rhythmically mesmerizing keyboard loop with effects-laden baritone. It's the rare band that can excel at this type of loosely structured minimalism, but also serve up the hooks like Pixel Grip can. From the non-lexical falsetto on “Pipe Dream” (at :54) to the male harmonies-over-bass run of “On Fire” (at 1:57), Pixel Grip packages them with hook-caliber lyrics, “Just like a ticking bomb, the time is up, we'll all be gone, we'll all be gone” (“On Fire” at 1:57).

So let it be said: Pixel Grip arrived on the Chicago scene fully formed. I'd go further. They're already woven into the fabric of the city (and not just that of “Belmont Harbor”).

*** The author of this review, Justin Bailey, plays the toba for the following band: http://youtu.be/tMS73-1kCr8