Infinite Shuffle

If you’re an avid reader of this blog, then I only need to use two words to adequately describe the music of Craft Spells — “trance mix.”

Alas, you probably don’t come here that often — or ever — and only happened upon the site while searching for SXSW torrents, or you were duped by one of my Facebook posts.

Nevertheless, “trance mix” simply means that Craft Spells would fit perfectly in my correlating iTunes playlist alongside the likes of Wild Nothing, Youth Lagoon, Beach Fossils, Lower Dens and The XX.

It would be very easy to get Craft Spells’ dreamy, shoegazey synth-pop confused with that of the aforementioned bands. In fact, it’ll probably take many more listens before I have any real chance of differentiating them.

From what I can tell from the debut release — 2011’s Idle Labor — this four-piece from Stockton, Calif., plays at a slightly faster pace than its brethren, has a very steady drum beat throughout and mixes in a surf-pop sound from time to time.

Besides the above two videos, other strong tracks on the album include “The Fog Rose High”, “For the Ages”, “Scandinavian Crush”, “From the Morning Heat” and “You Should Close the Door”.

Craft Spells will be hitting the road this Spring, including a stop in Chicago in late April when they’ll open for The Drums. Should be a great show.