Photo courtesy of Silo HaloOne of the most frequent questions we received during our run of tour diaries from local trio Silo Halo was…so who is this band exactly?
When we talked to guitarist Christopher Goett in 2010, the band was called Night and the City. They have since changed their name to Silo Halo and ended their struggle to keep a consistent drummer by going without one. As such, the trio of guitarists–Goett, Greg Svitil and bassist Christin Durham–utilizes samplers and synths to back their heavy arrangements. This shift has served them well. Whereas, Night and the City live sets were laborious, plodding affairs, there’s enough stylistic variety throughout Silo Halo’s debut disc to keep the listener interested and engaged.
The songs on Night and the City are still undeniably dark. The album opens with “Silhouette,” a 47-second barrage of staticky clangs and distorted guitar. It acts as an announcement of their arrival into the gothic soundscape that they’ve created and continue to reveal over the course of the ensuing 31 minutes. “Silhouette” fades into the moody “Out of Your Fugue.” Although Goett sounds like a Reid brother during his take on vocals, Durham’s sultry alto is downright mesmerizing as she intones, “If I can’t have you/then no one shall.” The following three tracks effectively dive into a potpourri of new wave and shoegaze riffs and samples. “You Don’t Dream” plays like a lost Depeche Mode radio hit and album highlight “I’m Still Slamming My Head Against A Brick Wall” proves that Screen Vinyl Image aren’t the only locals who can pummel us with feedback drenched guitar.
Our biggest complaint about Night and the City is that its finish is not as strong as its start. “Which Wire Do I Choose?” has Goett doing his best Thurston Moore, both vocally and on guitars. But the chorus seems sonically unrelated, as if superimposed from another song. “Which Wire” still demands repeated listens, while the instrumental title track and the overly long closer “Stones Inside Her Chest” do not. It contains the gravitas of the previous tracks but lacks much of the sense of drama (until its final voice over). This absence is noticeable because it’s the drama that really sells Night and the City and lures us in.
