Makara’s Pen doesn’t make a mark

Twenty some years ago, the term “shoegaze” was strictly used to refer to a… Twenty some years ago, the term “shoegaze” was strictly used to refer to a handful of bands from the United Kingdom with a penchant for creating order out of chaos by fusing together distorted guitar work and lush soundscapes.

In 2010, its use seems to have expanded to describe any musical group that utilizes an effects pedal and dreamy vocals. Buffalo-based quintet Makaras Pen, unfortunately, falls into this latter category. Its self-titled release has much more in common sonically with Evanescence than My Bloody Valentine.

The album’s opener, “Currents,” is a case in point. The song begins strongly enough, with a reverb-laden guitar strum and vocalist Emma Willis doing her best Cocteau Twins imitation.

However, at about the minute mark, when the chorus kicks in, the track morphs into what can only be described as an FM radio reject from 2001.

Although not all of Makaras Pen’s 11 tracks fall quite as flat, most of them seem marred by amateurish production as well. Otherwise solid songs such as “Falling Deeper” and “Promises” are the biggest offenders here, sounding more like they were mastered with GarageBand than a professional studio.

The effect of such a sound is that on the former track, when Willis cries that “what’s said between us dies within us,” it sounds less earnestly emotional and more unintentionally comic.

Looking over some of Makaras Pen’s influences — bands such as Lush and Slowdive — it seems puzzling how it deviated so drastically from that sound. Until the band can shift direction, their so-called forbearers will be the ones that I’ll be listening to.