Lancaster shoegazers Vicious Blossom get a remix from Slowdive’s Simon Scott
Lancaster songwriter-guitarist Nate Zerbe made an impressive debut this spring with Solace, the first full-length from his rotating cast project Vicious Blossom. Upon its release, I wrote that the immersive album is steeped “the liquid sound shoegaze tones of 90s bands like Catherine Wheel and Slowdive, as well as current torch bearers like Wild Pink.”
Today, the band follows up its album by tapping one of those prominent influences — Slowdive, specifically its drummer Simon Scott — to remix the song “Sway.” It’s one of the oldest numbers in the Vicious Blossom catalog, first appearing on its 2017 EP I’m Disappointed In You, and plays into the album’s themes about addiction, depression, and the way those forces affect personal relationships. “Sway” takes a look at a toxic relationship, set to an airborne drumbeat and gliding guitar tones; it is pure sonic bliss to flip the distressed scenario, but for his interpretation of the song, Scott takes a minimal approach that dives into the depths of the moods that Zerbe’s words describe.
With droning guitar and a frizzled, static kick drum pattern, the remix is haunting and harrowing, with melodies mingling with dissonance, hammering home lyrics “She said she loved me / but love is temporary.”
Listen to the remix and the original below. Though Vicious Blossom has no shows coming up at the moment — Zerbe tells us he is hard at work on the follow up to Solace — the band just recorded a Key Studio Session at WXPN studios that will air on Tuesday night, November 12th.