Listen: Gleemer – “Tooms”

With recurrent references to their motherland, namely in their forthcoming record title and in their Facebook genre description (“Rock Mountain Sway and American Dream”) one could initially contend that Colorado duo, Gleemer, were going through something of an identity crisis. “Tooms” is the first track taken from Holyland USA, and from the offset couldn’t sound more British.

On ”Tooms”, the band fuse The Jesus and Mary Chain-style sporadic percussion with moody Slowdive guitar tropes that could lull any unwitting listener into a state of cathartic bliss. The track is permeated with lo-fi undertones and unexpected discord, serving for momentary periods of sobriety only to once again swing the listener into raptured sedation. Cosmetically, the track wouldn’t be out of place in early 90s Britain, slapped across Melody Maker pages and dubbed by Steve Sutherland as a part of ‘The Scene That Celebrates Itself’.

So with these markedly British musical motifs, how do Gleemer justify their self-baptized genre description and LP title? That would be in the anatomy of Corey Coffman’s angst-ridden vocal melody, and the painful gravel-drawl in it. It’s in “Tooms”‘ visceral sense of nostalgic freedom, which can only otherwise be found driving non-stop cross-country on the American highway, or at night looking out over the cityscape from a homebound plane.

Despite their brazen homage to British post-punk and shoegaze modes, the Colorado duo breathe fresh Rocky Mountain air into the genre – something that can only be attained with Gleemer’s truly American essence. With this, the genesis of a hypnotic modern-day Columbian exchange is realised.

Gleemer release Holyland USA on 25 March.