Render. Greyscale / Static on the Airwaves 7″
RENDER. is a Southeast UK band with their emotional hardcore influences, bands like INDIAN SUMMER, JULIA, and POLICY OF THREE, pinned right over their hearts. Their two-track lathe-cut 7″, limited to 50 copies with hand-stamped sleeves that could’ve been pulled straight from the ’90s, makes no apologies for any of it. Ten seconds into “Greyscale” and I was checking the calendar. “Static on the Airwaves” opens with atmospheric bass and single-string guitar picking over jazzy drums before the vocals show up around the 1:40 mark. On both tracks, the singing toggles between a Revolution Summer-style yelp of suffering and a screeching attack reminiscent of Chris Fogel from REVERSAL OF MAN, with the music swinging between pretty/dark and discordant mid-tempo hardcore. Look, this style was never my scene and it still isn’t, but the recording is solid, the musicianship is there, and those screeching vocals genuinely deliver. They’re not reinventing the genre, but if returning to the emo dream of ’95 sounds like a good Saturday to you, RENDER. is the sad boy party that you’ve been looking for.