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Trade, Hills: At the Foot of the Mountains

The low-rumbling bass that opens Trade’s debut EP, Hills, and the hypnotic riff repetition that ensues, might lead you to believe the Virginian trio are following Ufomammut’s patterned space doom, and that the three songs that comprise the release are soon to be bent into obscure psychedelics and crushing tones. That’s not really the case. While Aaron Keller’s tonal warmth does greatly thicken out “Dirl,” the extended “Breathe” and “In this Flesh,” Trade on the whole work within a much more unassuming style, using a rawness of production to bolster their natural feel and, arguably, bringing something of their home state’s Appalachian topography into their sound à la North Carolinians Caltrop. The EP is called Hills after all, and sure enough, if they’d gone so far as to call it Mountains, it wouldn’t have worked, as there’s something about these songs that evokes a more rolling than sharp-edged feel, as though the humility of the band’s style was carved out of an erosion-type process. It’s only 20 minutes long, and 10 of those are dedicated to “Breathe,” which is about twice as long as both the opener and closer, but in the true spirit of a successful EP, it serves well to convey some notion of what Trade was looking to do at the time.

Guitarist/vocalist Nick Crabill and drummer Nic McInturff played together in a unit called Stifling that wound up being exactly that, and Trade was born out of a kind of stylistic expansion that occurred after putting their prior project to rest. The addition of Keller on bass can only be seen as working in Trade’s favor on Hills (released on the band’s own Founding Father Records), as the tracks sound organic without being purposefully so and lack pretense even as the stonerly pulse of “Dirl” gives way to the huge Crabill-led jam on “Breathe.” The guitarist’s vocals on the opening cut have a kind of laid-back semi-clean feel, with a punk-ish simplicity in their delivery. He’s not shouting, but he’s close to it, and the screams that come later with “In this Flesh” are convincing enough to give the impression that Hills isn’t the first time he’s ever punished his throat in such a manner. Nonetheless, because it takes up so much time on the release, and because it’s the middle track, and because it has that pervasive spontaneous feel in its second hand, “Breathe” is bound to be the focal point for many listeners, and rightly so. The song starts off in a manner not dissimilar to “Dirl” – McInturff’s kick keeping steady hits without sounding frantic – but after three minutes in, it begins to unfold into a huge instrumental jam. If it wasn’t recorded live and at least partially made up on the spot, then it earns all the more kudos for pulling off the impression so well. Crabill is in the lead position, but Keller and McInturff prove a capable rhythm section behind, and the band as a whole does right by the song, bringing it back to the verse to end, where others might have just noodled their way into oblivion.

Immediately, the atmosphere of “In this Flesh” is different from either of the other two tracks, however consistent the tones of Crabill and Keller and the drum sounds from McInturff might be. The closer (also the shortest song at 4:28) takes a more directly punk route, reminding for a moment in the bridge of some of Suplecs’ early work without being especially derivative of it sonically. Crabill’s vocals remain low in the mix, but move to throaty shouting early, giving way to layered sub-harmonies later on. The idea of diversity is there, anyway, and Hills sets a solid precedent for Trade to build on their next time out. Whenever that is, one almost hopes they maintain the roughness of production that runs throughout Hills, which was recorded in Martinsburg, West Virginia, by Ben Townsend. Everything comes through clear enough to be considered higher than lo-fi, but the songs nonetheless maintain a live immediacy and the naturalistic spirit of the material rings that much truer for its lack of polish. That, coupled with the heady fuzz, makes Trade worth checking out in the present as much as it bodes well for what’s to come. Hills may be a quick listen, but it resounds longer as a first impression and show of the band’s potential.

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Founding Father Records

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