Please be silent and lean closer to your monitor as I will be saying this softly and quietly.
Coastal’s sound drifts across the same soporific plain as Slowdive, Galaxie 500 and most tellingly, Low. Their calm music is a fragile piece of glacial art, constantly threatening to crack and break into tiny shards: instruments are not played, they are brushed; words are not sung, they are hushed. As important, the silent spacing within reflects the meditative ambience of Eno/Budd collaborations such as ‘The Plateaux of Mirror’.
To sustain hymnal reverie over 10 tracks takes some discipline and Coastal almost pull it off. That they fail is less to do with the singularity of their approach but more with the lack of tension that additional instrumentation or a variation in tempo, albeit subtle or disguised, would have provided. Their sentiment and approach are well placed but for the moment they fall short of a defining musical signature that artists such as Low have managed to find.
Ultimately these are minor quibbles when ‘Halfway To You’ is experienced by the listener at a suitable time and in a sympathetic environment. Married couple, Jason and Luisa Gough supply the voices: his has the husky and intimate characteristics of a late night bar while hers counters with an angelic, far-off quality that bears comparison to Julee Cruise. Together they bestow both an auditory contrast and a vibrant harmony that should provide Coastal with sufficient scope to experiment within their musical template.
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‘Until You Sleep’ and ‘We Won’t Last Another Year’ are the best of the vocal collaborations, the interplay gratefully caressing you. The last three tracks ‘Drift’, ‘London In February’ and the eight minute ‘So Close’ are the finest as regards instrumentation and experimentation; they suggest that the band have the will and the wherewithal to stretch themselves and it’s to be hoped that their next collection will pick up sonically where these tracks have left off.
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