I Wish You Were Here - 5 Parsecs To Home EP

I Wish You Were Here’s EP 5 Parsecs To Home does many things in its five tracks but on the initial listen, it surprises you. Have a glance at their myspace and their genre is listed as Grindcore, Screamo and Experimental and there’s an altogether mysterious vibe surrounding these Russians, it leaves you ponderous as to what cacophony is about to be unleashed.

Opener 'Mothership' is a divertive work to say the least considering its subsequent tracks. It is frantic and convoluted with torturous vocals running on a bed of grimy riffs. It’s an abstruse barrage, which is putting it lightly. So, it comes with somewhat of a shock that the aura plummets into a calm soothing cadence in the band’s title track – 'I Wish You Were Here'. It then flows into 'Nebula'’s gentle twists and turns eventually colliding with towering riffs – its crescendo is akin to that of Red Sparowes at their most broody.

Another instrumental, 'Glimmer' continues the eerie pace for just over another two minutes – creating, again a vaporous post rock hued backdrop. But then, 'To Home' sees the return of vocals, again recklessly and erratically placed. In many ways it brings the proceedings back around to its commencement. However this time all is more thick textured with emphasis placed heavily on the atmospheric instrumentation, which in turn, weaves in and out of math-laden eruptions only to be brought to a close with hypnotic, restful fretwork.

For a substantial chunk of 5 Parsecs To Home, i.e. the middle 3 songs, there’s just a spectral ambience that’s ever relaxing. It’s merely introduced with a gushing, violent opener that hurls the listeners into a land of extremity only to be quickly spun a 180 to the EP’s preponderant themes.

8/10