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Video: Haunted Hearts – “Johnny Jupiter”

Haunted Hearts is Dee Dee Penny from Dum Dum Girls and Brandon Welchez from Crocodiles. With “Johnny Jupiter” they are giving us a sample of what will be found on their debut “Initiation,” out now.

Elements of shoegaze mingle with krautrock to create a hazy, dreamlike atmosphere on “Johnny Jupiter.” There is a general MBV-ness to the track, but I’m also picking up glimpses of Deerhunter thanks to those kraut-rock elements. The double vocal deliver from Penny and Welchez creates breathy melodies that drift in and out of layers of guitar. This collaboration can definitely find a lot of ways to make use of only a few chords, tracing extended melodic lines across compact harmonic motion.

It’s not completely shoegaze, there are other elements at work, and I think that Haunted Hearts works to subdue the guitars to a certain extent. There isn’t anything that is distorted and noisy to the point of incoherence. Rather, blurred guitars for the most part form a solid foundation upon which melodies delicately float upon. The bass, meanwhile, locks in to a dependable groove that subtly punctuates the drums.

The aptly titled debut album, “Initiation,” was officially released yesterday and is available for immediate download on iTunes, or as FLAC or MP3 from Midheaven. “Initiation” has also been released on vinyl and CD, which can also be ordered through Midheaven.