EP: Basement, PA – High Jinx / Nothing Is Cool

‘Lo-fi action paintings from a basement in Pennsylvania’

Beauty is often found in unconventional places within the music we cover on this website. It’s in the flaws – the clipping of an amp pushed to its limits, the hiss and whir of a tape, a splattering of vinyl crackle, the stirring wobble or strain of a voice exerting itself. Basement, PA embody this approach wonderfully. ‘High Jinx’ and ‘Nothing Is Cool’ are their latest efforts, a pair of 6-track EPs released a month part and made up of addictive noise pop. The tracks are injected with some gorgeously sugary hooks and electronic touches buried underneath the fuzz and rough edges. Both collections of songs sound like they would be as comfortable in a blisteringly hot park on a summer’s day as in a red-wine-haze in a bedroom late at night.