100 miles southwest of Philadelphia lies York PA, main exports being business major undergrads, '90's alt-rock also-rans Live, and a general sense of listlessness. Rejecting the premise of their homestead, Reservoir have been churning and building for nearly a decade. Starting out as a more-conventionally leaning emo quartet, the development of the unit's output is, to use a now-popular turn-of-phrase, "shocking, but not surprising." Weight has begun to displace volume, twinkling plucks driven out by a menacing drone, contorted forms sprawling and contracting on their way out of the speakers.
Following a number of US east coast tours in support of 2013's 'I Heard You As I Walked Away,' a New England tour with Seattle WA's Where My Bones Rest Easy led to signing with Glory Kid Ltd. After the release of their GKL debut EP 'Cicurina Vol 1' in early 2015, a darkened, haunted version of emocore owing more to Slint than Sunny Day Real Estate, the quartet scurried further down the sonic rabbit hole. The 2016 west coast leg of the band's touring schedule unveiled a number of new cuts, equal parts menace and anxiety,
Expertly tracked by J Robbins at his Magpie Cage Studios in Silver Springs MD over the course of a week in the spring of 2016, these new compositions are displayed fully across the eight tracks of 'Mirage Sower.' Guitars ducking and weaving like prizefighters, a relentless lock-groove rhythm section corralling them in, dual lead vocals entwining the sonic morass. From the churning build of "Moons" to the banjo plucks of "Lightning Bug," the chiming tension of "A Cadence of Dissonant Threes" to the explosion and sputtering collapse of "Smoke Signals," Reservoir have finessed their craft and are undaunted by the future.