Portland’s Smoking Room are the cassette label that first gifted us the brilliance of Mo Dotti and a Blurring debut album that was pretty much the soundtrack to my pandemic lockdown. Their latest, Dusty Slims act and their Texaco Star album follows a similar subtle gaze meets jangle trajectory that will perhaps appeal to those who prefer such a sound to be a tad more burnished and simmering with underlying melancholy.

With a core aesthetic that always includes some elements of the most essential reverb, distortion and aural layers that shoegaze has to offer without ever being consumed by them, Dusty Slims are plainly extremely skilled in sublimating different sounds within the parameters of such a hiss, fuzz and swirling whirr.

As such the heavy distortion of Stumble, Powerball and Orange Peeler crackles above apposite jangly introductory riffs before emerging somewhere within the bombastic aural textures of 90s alt rock whereas Limousine, Junebug and the title track merges the essence with the jangly slacker-pop endeavours of Big Thief.

However, despite the strong intra album competition, the finest moments of the album are sentient with more instantly recognizable sounds as the stunning H.Y.F and Truck Stop Ballad thrive on the beautiful jangle-gaze sounds of acts such as Mall Ghost and Lunar Isles.

With Mo Dotti having left several years ago Smoking Room label may well have unearthed their next, brilliant flagship act in Dusty Slims !

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