Washington, D.C.’s Skymender follows up their 2023 debut If and Only with a four-song EP set for release on May 23, recorded at Baltimore’s Magpie Cage with producer J. Robbins (Jawbox, Government Issue, Burning Airlines).
The new material retains their shoegaze-adjacent framework while tightening the screws on structure and intensity.
Lead single “Blown” is the first track to surface—a layered wash of feedback and melodic haze that balances noise with composure. The band’s sound continues to hinge on the intertwined vocals of Ashley Scurto and Kenny Grose, who trade and blend lines like a slow-burn signal lost in a snowstorm.
Guitarist James Banta adds glinting textures that blur around the edges, while Zahin Huq’s bass and S. Dwayne Bruner’s precise percussion shape the track’s undercurrent with a low-end pulse.
The EP opens with “U.S.S.R.,” a track that leans into ’90s UK textures—reverb-heavy and melancholic, until Bruner cuts through with a tempo shift that jolts the song into urgency.
“Billows” places Banta’s guitar work front and center, pairing staccato clarity with a fluid chorus delivered by Scurto, while Huq holds the low frequencies in a trance-like loop.
Closing track “Liminal” finds the band at their most fragile and tense—Scurto’s vocals drift in a fog of distortion as Grose’s voice merges into the ether.
According to the band, this EP is not about replicating a sound but refining it. The combination of influences—dreampop, shoegaze, post-hardcore—isn’t stitched together for nostalgia.
It’s deliberate craft. Jack Rabid of Big Takeover once described Skymender as a “dreampop everything bagel.” That still applies, but the new EP sharpens the edges and burns a little brighter.
Recorded again with J. Robbins, who also co-produced their debut, the EP shows a band building upward from an already solid foundation.
If and Only reached #29 on Rabid’s Top 200 LPs of 2023 and helped establish Skymender as a notable entry in the current U.S. shoegaze and noise pop landscape. With this new release, they don’t pivot—they distill.
