Song of the Day: Pinkshinyultrablast - The Cherry Pit

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole, is “The Cherry Pit” by Pinkshinyultrablast from their 2016 album, Grandfeathered, on Club AC30.

Pinkshinyultrablast - The Cherry Pit (MP3)

Although there’s a great deal of influence of the melodic side of shoegaze in St. Petersburg, Russia’s Pinkshinyultrablast, elements of Krautrock and early electronic music set them apart in the current wave of glimmering guitar worshipers. Igor (bass), Lyubov (vocals), Sergey (drums), Rustam (keys), and Roman (guitar) make what they call “thunder pop”, and as far as semi-serious genre tags go, it’s pretty spot-on. There’s far more melody than noise in their potent, hazy sound, but between their pounding rhythm section and the smothering layers of gorgeous keys and guitars, it has a massive heft behind it all. The band’s 2015 debut, Everything Else Matters, was a sleeper critical hit, especially in Europe, opening the door for the band to tour outside of Russia. Their second LP, this year's Grandfeathered, doubles down on the both the band's volume and hooks – for every crushing wave of guitars on a track, there's a gilded topline, usually sung by Lyubov, that shines through all of the noise. "The Cherry Pit", which might not only be the band's catchiest song but also one of its most muscular, follows that ethos to a T, pushing their amps to their limits with a shimmering tidal wave of reverb. But as much as the band still excels at marrying noise to melody, "The Cherry Pit" shows that their songwriting is moving away from the historically washed-out shoegaze template, using space more cleverly than ever to accent both their almost percussive guitar work and Lyubov's voice. From start to finish, "The Cherry Pit" is a step forward for the quintet, a winding, tone-rich six minutes that that never shows its hand before taking the listener down another turn into the group's guitar pedal rabbit hole.

Pinkshinyultrablast have yet to announce tour dates behind Grandfeathered, but if they do, that news will be on their Facebook and Bandcamp. For now, watch the official video for "The Cherry Pit".