Can screamo be cozy? We've reached a point in human history when this question must be answered. And I think the answer is yes. There was a time when the concept of hardcore, and connected styles of music, pretty much-impelled people to bust out their doors and run wild in the streets like a partially singed-bat fleeing the hovel of a burning tree. But since COVID has religated many of us to housecat status, punk musicians have had to accommodate their sounds to a more domestic setting. This has not resulted in a neutering of the urgency or power of their music but rather caused them to have to reorient the compelling aspects of their work to be delivered in tighter, more compact packages. To illustrate my point, we have the four-song split between Baltimore's The Civil War in France and Argentinian artist Mis Sueños Son De Tu Adiós. Both of whom have sounds that land squarely within, what they themselves describe as, bedroom screamo. A style that mainly consists of extremely lofi guitars performed often in a stuttering, Poison The Well-style groove, with compressed percussion, and toy-like keys and synths that help to provide a melodic bumper for the lurching, shrieking vocals to press into and bay against. While both artists share a lot of similarities in terms of style, they obviously have their own identities as well. Mis Sueños Son De Tu Adiós has a harder edge to their guitar playing, and a wild kind of whiplash sense of melodicism that delightfully batters itself against its confines as if refusing to accept the restrictions of its existence as an audio file and home-recorded piece of music. In contrast, The Civil War in France leans into the homespun aspect of her chosen aesthetic with wheezy organs, plastic-fan-like drum loops, and quiet, thin guitar tuning, seemingly calibrated so as not to wake the neighbors. It's all pretty strange and highly expressive in a way that we all have the right and desire to be when we think no one is looking. This split is an international release that will make you feel right at home wherever you hear it.
