Pedestrian
Photo Cred 📷 : @hippiedippiedooo
We are however many some odd years removed from the birth of “crescendocore”, a term that eventually was used to mark a band following a formula of musical dynamics: slow build, triumphant release, rinse and repeat. Unfortunate, because the progenitors who were unwillingly ascribed this term had made something that was as powerful as it was fun to listen to. And despite the “magic” becoming often duplicated but hardly replicated, every now and again I’d listen to a band and think “they got it right”. Pedestrian dissolved into their long dormancy after dropping 2015’s “Healthy Ways to Die” a continuation and further exploration of the fuzzy heavy indie alternative with intensely cathartic post-rock sensibilities found on their 2013 EP “Everyone I Know Who Skis Is Dead”. After a lineup change and some retooling, Pedestrian return, not just to their roots, but to the deeply rich soil from which their influences first sprang.
“By The Grace of Outer Space” is the second single the band has released since their auspicious return, preceded by “Earth Exit”, a richly textured aural experience that meanders into wave after fountainous waves of feedback laden riffs, drums and vocals. Almost in contrast, “By The Grace” omits the wooly warmth of shoegaze for somewhat cleaner, crisper tones and atmosphere. Swapping “The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place” for “Tunnel Blanket”, the opening silence begins to crack and glint as the track begins to dilate and pause, almost as if to take a slow measured breath before fulminating into gorgeous hyperstrumming and spacey but forceful drumming. Winding down into a sequence that wouldn’t feel out of place on an early God Is An Astronaut release, the calm measured wind down feels almost like an atmospheric exit, before the guitar returns back to dot stars in the sky and sprawls the opalescent melody of exploratory wonder into your heart.
Pedestrian are a local band to me, one I very much cherished because no one was (or still really is) making music like them. To not just have the band release new music, but to also see them already eager to get back into a live environment is admittedly exciting to me, and if “By The Grace of Outer Space” and Earth Exit” are any indication of what's to come then we are possibly on the precipice of a return to form in the world of post rock, both locally and at large. We look forward to what they have in store for us next. Go stream “By The Grace” now, available on all streaming platforms.
