Do you believe in ghosts?
If you’re a skeptic like I was, allow me to introduce you to sleep-rock group, Picastro, whose three members are nothing short of ectoplasm-drenched poltergeists. Lead singer Liz Hysen sounds like the ghost of Joni Mitchell, combining the legend’s deep tones with an unsettling hollowness. Hysen’s voice is a strange combination of spooky and soporific, as if she was trying to lull you into a sleep from which you would never awaken. Cellist Stephanie Vittas, doesn’t make her cello weep; she makes it moan. With a terrifying cello and an incredibly disconcerting voice, Picastro knows exactly how to make your skin crawl.
In their fourth studio album, Become Secret, Picastro made a conscious effort to be disturbing, experimenting to create the most strident chords possible. Become Secret is a subtly striking compilation of moans, sighs and lullaby.
The album starts with “Twilight Parting,” a minimalist song with brazen simplicity and awkward tonalities. Mind you, the awkwardness is the desired effect, not a mistake. The next few songs work together to further the awkward atmosphere, combining self-made chords with constant bass lines to create contrasting textures of harsh instability with calm repetition. In “Split Head,” Hysen truly acts like a ghost, capriciously popping in and out of an instrumental to deliver a sporadic verse.
Picastro then eliminates all doubt of their undead status on “Suttee.” The entire song consists of the band going a cappella and repeating “You will never love again” for one and a half minutes. The final track, “A Neck in the Desert,” sums up the entire album; it starts with simple instrumentation, then builds up with increasingly bitter chords and culminates in an instrumental sigh.
Become Secret made a believer out of me: not just of ghosts, but of the whole Gothic-sleepy rock genre. Picastro is the gothic Beethoven. Their music is the soundtrack to Edgar Allen Poe’s dreams. I have never heard a more melancholy cello or a more unsettling voice. Stereotypes be damned: Picastro is a genuine talent and Become Secret comes highly recommended by this recanting ex-nonbeliever.
Track Listing:
01. Twilight Parting
02. A Dune A Doom
03. Pig & Sucker
04. Split Head
05. I Know My Time Now
06. Neva
07. Suttee
08. A Neck In The Desert
09. The Stiff
