Von Haze – Self-Titled EP Album Review (w/ Full Album Stream)

In a way, it’s kind of convenient that this Brooklyn duo Von Haze have the word “haze” right in their band name, as it serves as kind of a suggestion toward the mind-frame ideal for their music’s consumption. I found that in a post-coital euphoria, their dark, pulsing, minimalist come-ons sent my mind spiraling rather pleasantly into the ether with thoughts of accidentally walking in on a naked goth chick in costume antlers crying in the bathtub. Then, almost out of embarrassment, having her feed me pills and fuck me savagely to alleviate her own deep-rooted mental instability.

It’s kind of like a bleaker urban version of the brilliantly simplistic Brightblack Morning Light, Von Haze further demonstrate why sometimes the simplest shit ends up being the coolest. When these cats really strike their groove, it’s with little more than a slow motion drum machine beat, some sparse keyboard and guitar arrangements, and breathy female vocals drenched exotically in swaths of subtle reverb. The few tracks where the band kick up the tempo a notch, let the dude sing, and saunter into more straight-forward garage rock territory tend to be the least interesting in my world, although they’re not throwaways by any stretch of the imagination. It’s just that I could listen to their hypnotically spacey slow jams for an eternity, letting my perverse fantasies wander unfettered toward their natural conclusions.