Heat and White: “Standing Wave”

Olof Persson of Swedish duo Broken Boys made quite a splash this past week with Sea-Through, the first release of his solo material under the name of Heat and White. Where Broken Boys favor inventive sampling and passive aggressive beats in their ominous tunes, this new project relies on a more relaxed palate of sounds reverb heavy guitar and reliably punchy drums. It’s highly conversant with the always trendy “beachy” guitar jam and semi-Balearic Nordic tropicalia, while still managing to do its own thing. The track “Standing Wave” is a simultaneously more complex and pop friendly adaptation of the musical element of Persson’s conceptual multimedia project Stående våg, which translates as, you guessed it, standing wave. The track’s wafts of highly melodic guitars, pianos, and melodicas (?) mesh beautifully, as barely controlled synth arpeggiations threaten to break the song’s delicate balances. Our advice: put on some good headphones, direct your eyes at the ceiling, and let the track evolve.

Sea-Through is now available from Zeon Light

Written by Luke Carrell