Screen Vinyl Image – Strange Behavior (2012) [Custom Made/Northern Star] // Grade: A-

Screen Vinyl Image need to be huge. Just larger than life. From their early work with Alcian Blue to 2009’s incredible Interceptors and its follow-up EP Ice Station, the D.C. duo have been tirelessly building their shadowy noisegaze to epic, monumental heights.  It’s not surprising that latest release Strange Behavior is ultimately their cleanest and most grand; they’ve been creeping toward this since the first notes rang out on “Synthetic Apparition”. Since they first discovered the balance between snarling gothgaze and the dreamworld their jams so often inhabit.

And despite this newfound cleanliness — the more pronounced vocal focus, shimmer that stems from more from melody than effect — Strange Behavior still exists firmly in that deep, dark dreamworld. From the shoegaze meets power-pop ballad “We Don’t Belong” to the glittering Cure-ishness of “Station 4”, most of the album feels like an glimpse into some feathery, unknown place. Harmonies combine like watercolor, dripping down the page, every note and texture living in an overwhelming sense of half-lucid reality. Even the heavy fuzz of “Rx” — definitely the darkest, most aggressive, most earthly of the tracks — has that just-out-of-focus quality. Like a dream you only sorta remember, no matter how hard you try.

But beside all that (and maybe most importantly) these tracks are just gigantic. They propel themselves to satellite height, build and squeal and scream, asking nothing but that you let yourself be lifted with them. It’s tough to hear Strange Behavior and not feel like too much of the world is missing out on something; that one of the most emotionally affecting modern bands is right here, in our midst, breaking into a skyward run for perfection. Screen Vinyl Image need to be huge. But we’ll sit patiently with this bevy of can’t-miss releases until they are.

- Rue Sauvage