With jagged guitar strikes piercing a harrowing and portentous synth-drone, Skeletal System’s “Small Talk” opens their just recently released two-track EP. A vast and reverberating chamber of sound engulfing eerie and despondent lyrics, “Small Talk’s” pensive mood begs to be played at high volume so that the listener can be consumed by its resonance, sending chills in a fascinating way.
Like a thick cloud punctured by the blips of a falling satellite, “Static Eyes” fills the second side of the single with additional ominous intensity. Marked by its sharp arpeggio-ed synthesizer tones, “Static Eyes” (all though certainly dark in its own right), functions as a lovely bridge out of the utter despair that characterized the previous track.
All in all this EP (or single, however you choose to define it) is a brief but enthralling release by one of San Francisco’s great synth-rock bands. Hopefully, it is a herald of more in-depth things to come. It is available for free at Bandcamp and comes highly recommended.
–Ada Lann