Grace Notes: M83, Infinity Shred

Grace Notes is a weekly exploration by Jason Morehead of signs of common grace in the music world. We hope to alert you to wonderful music, some of which will be spiritual in nature but all of which will be unique and worthy of your attention. Each week we will share brief reviews of albums worthy of your attention and maybe a video or two.

M83

M83’s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming was our favorite album of 2011, with its epic shoegazer/electronic anthems and wide-eyed sense of wonder. Or, in the case of the album’s related music videos, glowing eyes. A video for “Reunion” has just surfaced, and it continues the storyline of “Midnight City”‘s video, in which a group of super-powered kids try to avoid capture by some shadowy figures bent on experimenting on them. As befitting the song, the video is appropriately cinematic, and even strangely touching in its execution.

Infinity Shred

If you’re reading this article, then you probably dig M83, and if you dig M83, then I think you’ll probably dig the New York trio Infinity Shred (formerly known as Starscream). Like M83, Infinity Shred traffics in a nostalgia-laced blend of electronica and shoegazer rock, and as their name suggests, they can get fairly celestially minded. Their latest release, EP 001 (Gnar Dream), was released earlier this month, and is full of electro-gaze that can be as kitschy as it is transcendent. “Wayfinder” is especially glorious, as the band’s analog synths merge with searing guitar riffs like some giant spaceship bound for the Large Magellanic Cloud. However, the EP is also full of quieter moments, such as “Untitled 001”, which sounds like Sigur Rós if Jónsi Birgisson traded in his bowed guitar for a couple of Moogs and ARPs.

As a bonus, you can watch Infinity Shred perform “Hologram” on The Verge.