Boston's jimrat is in a pretty exciting stage of their career. The presently constituted five-piece ensemble has pathogenically established itself in the chrysalis of a previous garage rock band of the same name (give or take a hyphen and or space) and has emerged a delicate fluttery creature whose pigments are barely perceptible within the human ocular range- perceptibly familiar and handsome, and yet comfortingly alien and thoroughly alienated. They seem content to release mostly singles at this stage, covering topics like falling for a fated romance, or alternatively, (possibly inevitably) blowing one's best odds at obtaining happiness due to clandestinely joining a shoegaze band (a subject matter choice that may be based on a true event; yet, unverified). However, jimrat do have some extended players as well... Well, just one actually: their self-titled EP from this past summer. The official tie-in screensaver/visualization/brain-smoothing-distraction associated with the album is fairly indicative of its mood and content, out-of-context images of lanky teens in long coats and fetish-inspired club gear burning out before the backdrop of a crumbling technopolis. The attractively grim-urban and aesthetic shadowplay plainly overlays LiquidTV visuals with something akin to Tsutomu Nihei's Blame! to arouse an ocular-spiritual hybrid of My Chemical Romance's Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and Serial Experiments Lain- a dreary, emanation of emotion and isolation tangled in the wilderness of cyber-enabled-interconnectedness and the listless weight and burden of youth.
Distortion subtly crackles like the ashing of a stale cigarette while guitars claw at the fibers of the spirit, attempting to unravel them like a ball of yarn. Half-moaned vocals whisper in your ear like the ghosts of past regrets, dripping off the senses like oily honey, promising future rendezvous with remorse with a hint of gnashing catharsis. It's kind of a bummer... but in a good way. Sort of how a good hard cry can be followed by a sense of exhausted relief- you might still feel sad, but better in a way, and slightly more thankful to be alive- thankful to be feeling anything other than the well of pain that just burst inside of you. There is no telling if this sort of spirit-shaking shoegaze and weary-making emo will be the trajectory the jimrat stays on (last I heard, they've been collaborating with a hip-hop beat-smith on a new project), but it's a persuasive point for them to pivot from regardless of what they end of doing next.
