Painted Faces. Coaster

Calling the opening song of your album 'I Want It All' is as ambitious as it is audacious. The former is a great expression of ambition. It tells the world, we are going to make it big time. The latter is harder, as since 1989 this song title has been given away, as far as I'm concerned. It is the fantastic return to form single of Queen. The one that should have been another number 1 but got stuck to number 2. Coaster's version is so different that I'll allow it any way.

Painted Faces is the kind of album that allows the listener to dream away on. Soft songs, soft, mellow vocals and softly played instruments, all in mid-tempo at best. On average a first reaction could be: boring! Beware though. Painted Faces is everything but boring. You will find that all the songs come with intricate arrangements. They keep you on your toes and invite you to follow all the melodies, counter melodies and little extras all the way to the end of a song and album. Only to start all over again.

People with a love for this kind of music will spot comparisons, so allow me to be lazy today and let you fend for yourself here. I just want to point to the beauty this band shares with the world.

Coaster is a duo from Utrecht, Bart Appel and Paul Dijkman, who met during their study and started to create music together. The result of two years of working hard in Dijkman's bedroom is this debut album. In nothing is this a lo-fi album that was associated with bedroom-recorded music some time ago. Painted Faces is an album that is so rich and varied in sound. Although the drums were recorded in a studio and a female voice comes to assistance on background vocals, the main parts all were recorded at home.

Promo photo

The album's bio mentions slow folk and slowcore as genre references. I can live with these descriptions. A band like Low certainly has been heard by Coaster. Except that I like this band's music far better. Coaster is richer in melodies underneath the slowcore singing. The duo obviously likes to explore what a song takes to make it more interesting to listen to. The results are all these little melodies that weave around the central chords of a song that many people will have used successfully or less so over decades. It is all about what happens next and that next is very much alright on Painted Faces. From small to slow rocking, it all comes by, making me curious for each next song. As this is so dreamy music, it falls under my definition of dreampop as well. In a great way.

Since the bedroom recordings Coaster has evolved into a band, so I'm certainly looking forward to see it live some day. In the meantime let me put the album on once again.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and buy Painted Faces here:

https://coaster.bandcamp.com/album/painted-faces