A Fascination With Heights

Having signed some of the US’s most Anglophilic postpunk acts to Independent Project Records in the 1980s, Bruce Licher showed he had the same touch when it came to similarly Stateside bands in the 1990s going nuts for a newer UK sound: shoegaze. Part of an initial hotbed of acts out of Arizona in that era, including Alison’s Halo and Lovesliescrushing, Half String followed up some initial EPs on that label with their sole full-length, 1996’s A Fascination With Heights. With bandleader Brandon Capps leading the way on vocals, guitar and production, it’s still very much a lovely combination of talents at its core, with Matt Kruse adding extra guitar texture and melodies and David Rogers and Kimber Lanning an energetic, warm rhythm section. Not many albums might start off with a winsomely sung song to a tortoise (perhaps metaphorically) but “Shell Life” sets the tone just right with the feedback, hooks and gentle harmonies, and from there the quartet couldn’t put a foot wrong. Among the remarkable standouts: the exuberant indie-pop start of “Hurrah?,” the woozy kick of “Momentum” and the quick rush of “Departures.”