W.S. Walcott Medicine Show

Whispers in The Speech Machine – The Laughing Chimes (Slumberland Records)

The Laughing Chimes are a 4 piece outfit based out of Athens.  One would assume from my general musical tastes that when I’m pimping a band out of Athens, I mean Athens, GA, that bastion of modern southern rock and home of The University Of Georgia.  But this is not the case with Laughing Chimes.  The Athens they hail from is actually Athens, OH, a tiny town in industrial southeastern Ohio.  A town not only on the cusp of rural Appalachia but also a quintessential rust belt small enclave that for the most part appears to have been abandoned by today’s modern economy. This downtrodden, dark and grey physical landscape to which Laughing Chimes come from explains the dark almost supernatural witchy feel their music presents.  With reverb heavy guitars maintaining the forefront of the band’s sound and echo laden vocals throughout the album, one would think that this band was a retro outfit from a depressed industrial town somewhere in the UK.  Whispers In The Speech Machine is without a doubt quite a dark and sullen album bearing similarities to the sounds of Jesus and Mary Chain and The Cure.  For all intents and purposes it is a Goth album drenched in shoegazy rhythms and vocals that don’t so much offer up a story but rather set a deeper and drearier tone that suggests, not so much “dream pop” but rather “nightmare pop”.  All of this being said, what flows from the speakers while listening to Whispers, while certainly ghost like, is at the same time beautiful and soothing as the circular guitar riffs of Evan Seurkamp coupled with his soaring and distorted vocals along with brother Quinn’s subtle, yet powerful effervescent drumming offers one a feeling of weird peacefulness and tranquility.  One doesn’t necessarily need to don a long overflowing black trenchcoat and dark eyeliner to appreciate The Laughing Chimes but Whispers In The Speech Machine just might push you in that direction.