Violet Age

Vancouver shoegaze outfit Violet Age dish out a healthy serving of seasick guitars, screeching noise and washed out vocals on their new EP ‘Prescriptions’. The opener ‘Padded Cell’ kicks off with an atmospheric intro that warms into the vocals. Before long, Violet Age lovingly split your eardrums with a mother load of feedback. For lovers of Sonic Youth, Spacemen 3, The Jesus & Mary Chain etc etc! - Sounds Better With Reverb

Violet Age provided the pleasant surprise of the evening. Described as “the poppier side of shoegaze,” their performance dripped with ‘90s nostalgia with a lush, reverb-backed nod to My Bloody Valentine or the dronier side of Yo La Tengo. Jason Wong, guitarist and singer, has a completely unobtrusive, dreamy way of inserting mellow lyrics into each track that float on top of beautiful, if sometimes cacophonous, instrumental progressions. Even when the four-piece clicked on all the overdrive, their music never lost its peaceful sense of pace and flow. - Discorder

Pulsing Krautrock-style drumming and bass playing characterize the Prescriptions EP by the Violet Age. Beautiful, psychedelic guitar work and chord choices abound throughout the EP. I didn’t actually expect vocals to come in at all on “Padded Cell”, but my jaw dropped when they did. The vocals remind me a bit of a shoegaze Bernard Sumner.
“Prescriptions” is a bit darker in tone than the previous song. It’s ominous in its choice of guitar tones, with a very metallic sound at the forefront of the song.
This three track EP is very different from what I have reviewed so far (maybe with the exception of Slowness). I like it, though. I have to say, it’s far more original than much of the MBV-cloning that seems to be commonplace these days. I can’t wait to hear more.
Check it out:
http://violetage.bandcamp.com/ - Blue Aurora Audio