After spending 2019 & 2020 releasing musical masterpieces and building her reputation, Graywave is finally here with her debut EP Planetary Shift. Graywave is an solo act based in Birmingham, and after playing in a band for some time decided to start to carve their own musical path by going solo. This resulted in three single releases back in 2019 and then two following in 2020. I first discovered Graywave when she released ‘With Me’ in 2020, and it was something ethereal about the track which made it impossible to turn off. The atmospherics and instrumentals of the track were different to other artists I’ve heard and since then I’ve been a big fan, making this EP all the more exciting.
The EP introduces itself with brand new track ‘Dreaming’, a perfect opener for fans of Graywave as you’re getting something new and great for a new listener as you’re thrown into what Graywave is all about. The heavy reverb guitars ring out in the intro, as you’re then thrown into a world of mass noise and jangly hooks. We then have the vocals streaming in from Graywave which are imposing but slightly distorted, making it all the more magical.
After setting the scene so well, we’re then gifted with ‘Swallow’, a track we’ve already been blessed with on a single release but sitting in the context of these other tracks, it has an extra sheen to it. The heavily reverbed guitars once again create a perfect bed for Graywave’s vocals, developing a somewhat shoegazey style which the artist completely leans into.
‘Planetary Shift‘ then drifts in as Graywave delivers a mellow, atmospheric wonderland along with an exceptional vocal performance. The vocals on the song are probably the standout performance on the EP, with harmonies which would make The Beach Boy’s jealous. Like with most songs in her repertoire, they have a dramatic nature to them entwined with ingratiating pop hooks – and ‘Planetary Shift‘ is a great example of his.
Graywave is so good at building up key moments in her songs, and the build-up in the beginning in ‘Like Heaven‘ is up there with one of my favourite builds in music – period. It takes a full minute to to get into full swing, but then this wall of sound hits and I can’t help but think about how hard it would hit in a live show.
‘Before’ is the track which closes the whole EP, and when this was released single it already felt special. It has a slight eerie, neurotic feel to it. Not sure why, but the song reminds me of one of the instrumentals used in the film The Mask, and I loved it in there so some of that love may have carried over to this track. What a way to see out the EP though, the song itself is under 3 minutes, but it’s that powerful it really does put an exclamation mark at the end of the EP.
Graywave continues to grow as an artist, and now with the support of False Peak Records, an Australian record label, this trajectory is only going one way. The fresh ideas on Planetary Shift show that Graywave isn’t going to make songs that just make up the numbers, by pushing to do innovative things on each track. I can confidently say that come the end of the year, this will still be one of my favourite EP’s in 2021, luckily there’s still another half of the year left and I can’t wait to hear more music from Graywave.