Mazes reviewed
Mazes
Mazes
(Parasol)
This side-project from the South Side’s 1900s should naturally feel lonely without most of the members present.
Appearing: Thursday, March 12th at Schubas in Chicago.
But the sensation comes not from sparse instrumentation (because harmonizing synths, guitars, banjo, and others abound), but in the songwriting. Though culled from aborted 4-track sessions and all-nighters alike, Mazes’ self-titled debut shows surprising cohesion. You could pin that on Edward Anderson’s melancholic timbre (which once wondered in exasperation, “Why would someone steal my radio?”) meeting again with Caroline Donovan’s breezy coo, but, whether recorded on a friend’s computer with a keyboard from a Czech thrift shop or in a studio, the overriding theme is despondency. Gone are The 1900s’ juxtapositions of sunshine behind clouds; Mazes’ problems (“I never wanted to hurt you bad/Just to get you back/Now you’re leaving,” “Why is it always the same/every time I try?”) don’t blow away with the wind. Electronic gurgles and forced melodies only serve to underline them.
—Steve Forstneger
