Keep – Almost Static | Album Review
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Honeysuckle Sound
Recently, I’ve made a resolution to get out of my apartment and go see more movies. It's been a drought so far this year, with my second-to-last entry being A Minecraft Movie, during which an eight-year-old screamed “CHICKEN JOCKEY” directly into my left ear. Beyond that, last week’s viewing of The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow left much to be desired in terms of storytelling, character development, and overall positivity in a moviegoing experience. The only bright spot has been watching the latest season of Black Mirror with my roommate, which certainly isn’t providing the “magic” that Nicole Kidman touts at AMC. These episodes, which may as well be movies with how long some of them are, feel beyond dystopian, more akin to a pale imitation of reality, which is even more terrifying.
This dread has begun to infiltrate my listening habits; whenever I end up breaking out my speakers, I've been bumping a lot of heavier, more anguish-filled music across all genres. That new Deafheaven record may be quite charming in its execution, but certainly not in its subject matter. This must've been part of the reason why I felt a gravitation towards Keep when I heard their newest record, Almost Static, was coming out soon, why I didn’t hesitate to give it a listen, and more importantly, how I remembered the band’s ease towards cultivating a dark atmospheric texture from the moment you press play.
Photo by Frankie Ruggiero
The Virginia-based group has become a vital player in this current wave of heavier, distorted guitar-centric music, commonly falling under the now all-encompassing moniker of shoegaze. Their sound feels quite adjacent to contemporaries such as Gleemer, Downward, and the now shoegaze-synonymous heavyweight julie, along with some of the more crushing grunge aspects that have evolved in the wake of this renaissance, akin to work from bands like Soul Blind, Bleed, and a new favorite of mine, Present. My history with Keep dates back to 2023, when they released their full-length record, Happy In Here. Tracks such as “Dasani Daydream” and “Start to Wonder” immediately stood out to me through their simultaneous senses of excitement and dread, thanks to the ghastly guitar tones and textures, but also due to the spine-tingling album cover depicting a spiky lime-green toothbrush in the interior of someone’s mouth from the perspective of a uvula. Maybe that’s what people with the cilantro gene feel whenever they put the coriander plant in their mouth. Regardless, I never have a great time looking at the record’s cover, and maybe that’s the point. In comparison, the miniatures that make up the cover of Almost Static feel like they came straight out of the opening scene of Inland Empire, thanks to the cataclysmic destruction depicted by the miniature plastic and metallic structures.
To get this out of the way, calling Almost Static strictly a shoegaze album would be doing the record a disservice. Most, if not all, of the songs on this album can be attributed to certain strains of alternative rock, but they don't feel particularly indebted to genre heavyweights like my bloody valentine or Slowdive. That’s not to say you won’t get those beautiful yet dismal walls of sound. In fact, you get them right off the bat with opener “Fun Facts,” a track with lyrics bringing together some of the darker aspects of the quartet’s songwriting style, sitting in between hazy guitars and otherworldly keyboards. The following “Smile Down (Into Nothing)” amplifies the unease even further, with almost unintelligible vocals serving as the chorus. For the Glare heads reading this right now, this is the exact song I will point you to, as the guitar tones feel quite reminiscent of their work on Sunset Funeral.
Part of the decision to sideline the vocals is due to the nature of shoegaze music as a genre, but for Keep in particular, there’s the added responsibility of drums for vocalist Nick Yetka. There's a unique opportunity to let your vocals blend into the swirl of noise while you focus on the drums. Plus, that frees up all the other instruments to take on that added creative expression. You can hear the effects of this freedom in all the sonic elements at play in the album’s second single and closer, “Hurt a Fly,” which sees the band run across the finish line with washed-out vocals melding perfectly with heavier guitars once again. You can almost see the band members looking at their pedalboards while you listen to this song, as well as Yetka zeroing in on his drums while letting his voice run wild.
There’s also a sense of Keep’s signature sorrow coming from the track “New Jewelry,” with drummer and vocalist Nick Yetka screaming, “Cause if you see me, you should let me go” in the chorus, like the protagonist who realizes they have become more of the villain than the hero. Think something like [spoilers] Leonardo DiCaprio during the final act of Shutter Island. How do you take apart everything you think you know and reconstruct it in a clean and sensible manner? Can you tell I just watched Shutter Island a few days ago? For the first time, too!
Some of the more exciting moments on the record are when the band ventures out of the traditional confines of the shoegaze moniker. The track “Sodawater” kicks off with a sonic departure from the gloomy aspects that envelop the majority of the first side of the record. The guitars feel more whimsical than despondent, evoking the jangle-pop tones of groups like Wishy or Alvvays. The simple yet anthemic chorus of “I’m all right / I don’t mind” brings a rare feeling of relaxation to the record, making the song a personal highlight. “Bermuda” features eerie guitars that, to my ears, feel more indebted to the work of post-rock outfit HEALTH rather than a shoegaze band. Meanwhile, the vocals are light, reminiscent of something from a mid-2010s Turnover track. It's a fascinating mix of inspirations and sounds that make for one of the more unique tracks on this record.
The title track, “Almost Static,” feels like the darker, moodier, and more decipherable sibling of Nothing’s “Blue Line Baby.” Most of the song features a toned-down guitar passage with simpler drums, allowing for more clarity in Yetka’s voice. Even with things dialed back, the production choices make these instruments sound like they could fill up a warehouse, at least until they all come crashing down in the final leg of the track. The same could be said for “No Pulse,” which amps up the depth of the guitars with a groovy riff and drum pattern.
As the album nears its end and the final chords ring out from “Hurt A Fly,” there’s a sense of a journey completed, like the protagonist has reached where they’ve been trying to get all this time. The cinematic aspects of Almost Static stand out from a growing alternative rock landscape as a project that's greater than the sum of its parts. The band’s decisiveness towards cultivating that overall journey from the darkest parts to the light is a brilliant reminder of the power of a complete project and the care that goes into it. Don’t let that shoegaze moniker on the album fool you: Keep is beyond that simple classification.
Samuel Leon (they/he) is a Brooklyn-based performance photographer, playwright, and semi-retired performer. Sam writes plays about music but not musicals. Sam doesn’t like using the internet, but they will if they have to. If you are even remotely close to Brooklyn and want Sam to make you look cool on camera, hit them up on @sleonpics.
