“Lovely melodies and reverb-drenched harmonies abound; think Ecstasy and Wine-era My Bloody Valentine with a Smiths fetish. While there have been some wonderful moments scattered across this Brooklyn trio’s prior releases, this album is where the band pulls it all together and truly earns its place alongside top-tier early-’90s shoegaze predecessors like Lush, Ride, and especially Ian Masters-era Pale Saints (to whom the band most closely resembles). It’s a modern masterpiece of the genre.”

– Blackbook

Indie pop trio Violens performs new album, “True,” [Slumberland Records] (release date: May 15) at Rock & Roll Hotel on May 4.

True finds the Brooklyn three-piece further amplifying their innovative songwriting with a palette of exquisitely crafted sound. The band’s music expertly blends percussive guitar work and silky harmonies, seeking the silver lining yet to be discovered between the sounds we know and love. With a wash of 90s sonic pop drawn from artists like Cocteau Twins and McCarthy and sitting pretty alongside contemporaries such as Deerhunter and Wild Nothing, Violens paint soft watercolor notes across their compositions, adding crucial emotional depth via layered vocal harmonies.

This will no doubt be one of the best indie rock performances in Washington DC of 2012.

Violens was formed in 2007 by Jorge Elbrecht (a producer, multi-instrumentalist, and founding member of the art company Lansing-Dreiden). Their debut album Amoral was self-recorded, self-produced, and is best understood as digital collage; a dark, guitar and synth-pop voyage of melodic and rhythmic collision.