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Eventually indie folk rockers make it clear which Beatle they modeled their approach on.

The Folk Implosion - Natural One

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Curtain’s up - Directed by Austin Lynch

Redeemer (2012)

Imaad Wasif

#psych folk #music #the voidist #imaad wasif

Imaad Wasif Shares Meditative New Single & Video “We Are Hunters”

https://music.mxdwn.com/2026/03/19/news/imaad-wasif-shares-meditative-new-single-video-we-are-hunters/

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Imaad Wasif announces seventh solo album Superconsciousness

Voidist Records to release Superconsciousness by Imaad Wasif on March 18 The seventh solo album from Imaad Wasif, titled Superconsciousness, arrives March 18, 2026, via Voidist Records. The release follows a three-year period of tracking and writing between 2022 and 2025, a timeframe intersected by the Eaton Canyon fire which displaced Wasif from his Altadena home. Recorded in various locations…

#Altadena fires #Goth-folk #Imaad Wasif #Lewis Pesacov #lowercase #slowcore #Superconsciousness #Voidist Records #Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Spiderland has been reprinted and celebrated to death, for good reason. My heart was warmed when I finally held a vinyl copy of it.

When I found a copy of this, I cried and shouted and could barely stand. Again shrouded in mystery and mystique of obscurity, but even more so that it feels like mine. I highly doubt anyone feels as deeply about this album as I do, including Imaad Wasif.

I read an instagram post that said he intended this to be his final piece of art before suicide. A genuine going away present. Hearing that made everything align and make sense. The desperation pulls on whatever excuse for a soul I claim to have with each note.

This review may be pretty long, but it'll be more freeform, as I have less to say on certain individual songs. I also plan to write reviews on their other albums at some point, and no documentary exists yet, so the history will be lacking here.

It was released in 1999 by punk in my vitamins, Unwound's Vern Rumsey's label. Their first two releases were on amphetamine reptile, a maybe more well known label but much less fitting as far as I can tell. The band was formed by Imaad Wasif on guitar and vocals, and Brian Girgus on drums out of necessity, since drummers were hard to find.

They began as a two piece worshiping nirvana and unwound, but I believe their uniquely melodic single notes and extra slowcore moments made them unique. Their formula of building elements of slowcore brooding into post-hardcore angularity into explosions of screaming drips of slint's influence, but utilizes melody in both vocals and guitars to push it into a world of its own. The drums are much less flashy here, but they do what needs to be done and keep things exciting and interesting when they can. Their sound is also less afraid to sit in a mid-volume dynamic and explore angularity in this post-hardcore space, which lends to that use of melody really well.

Before we go into our song by song dive, here's my tinfoil hat moment (or just squinting at story archetypes til they align) I see the story arch of Slint's spiderland and Lowercase's the going away present as very similar, almost identical. An introduction of dedicated innocent love, poisoned by infidelity, dragged through social anxiety and unrest, leading to a lost life and an abstract exploration of the afterlife. I have songs that I parallel one-to-one, but the going away present has more songs to try and slot into place.

Floodlit is the perfect introduction to this album. The first riff is stripped down with bass emphasis and a few guitar harmonics, which builds into a great single note noodling on top of the rhythms established. The guitars peel back and re-layer while the vocals swoon on top, singing poetry of a love so dedicated and strong our character would die for their love. It mirrors its blind dedication with an eeriness, the passion lulling them into a fearful haze. Imaad Wasif sings some beautiful falsettos "and it might rise slowly but it's always known that it overflows and it subsides only when you let me go" the beautiful vocals, the twisting rhythms, the intoxication of the lyrics - it all fills me with that excitement of a newfound love and all the hesitation that it includes.

Our character needs that love, we require that love to exist. "and the light dies slowly when you let me go in a darkened room and it will shine only when I wake next to you" a favourite person complex so deep it leaves us blind when we're alone. Please wake up I can't stand to be awake with your sleeping body beside me I need your eyes and ears and heart to feel at ease.

The song meditates on the B flat bass while layers add and disappear until it begins to build, the guitars adding more chords and the vocals adding more volume and passion until that final explosion of screams and distortion, not unlike Good morning, captain

I believe in you.

It ends with a mid-dynamic angular jam, with Imaad's guitars playing Egyptian scales with single notes until the rhythm decides to die off and take the guitar with it. "oh can you say what you can't deny?"

Willing to follow you down and the going away present are two songs that I love but don't have as much to say about. The slide in willing to follow you down is great, and Imaad's vocals are great in both, but the songs fit more like post punk-tinged pop songs than anything flashy or unique. Willing to follow you down alludes to marquis de Sade and the mistress (from nosferatu Man perhaps?), a young person begging for a married woman to slide away her ring. The hooks have a nice guitar lead bouncing between two 8th notes while the bass moves between two chords across 4 bars for some counterpoint, while Imaad's singing and that slide guitar ring out. The verses have a nice dynamic low to make the chorus stand out, and the bridge stays louder to brood and fill us with yearning

The going away present opens with a rolling tom beat behind a fun bouncy guitar riff and some classic Imaad vocals. The chorus introduces ride cymbal and heavier bass strumming, but otherwise doesn't move the harmonic structure or guitar around much. Yet again we have a verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge structure, but the bridge is much less interesting. The lyrics are about a lost love, and the sustain of the words their ex lover said. It feels like the aftermath of the previous affair, a failed relationship and the miscommunication as it falls out. A fine song with some catchy parts, but lacks the movement and dynamics of their best songs. I think as time goes on this becomes my least favourite track on the album.

Glisten to the Pink is a great dynamic and interesting song that makes up for the straightforward nature of the previous two. One of the most slowcore-inspired songs on the album, the guitar barely whispers a harmonic and some reverbed notes strummed above the nut. The bass plays a sparse line on top of a quintessential slowcore drum beat, with slow tempo quarter notes on the ride and kick and snare played half time and off by an eighth note every once in a while to form a recognizable rhythm or space. The lyrics are abstract imagery I don't dare to apply much meaning to, I just know it's sinister. I take the glistening pink referenced a couple times throughout the album to be a perspective on sex, seeing sweaty skin as an absurd and strange thing to enjoy.

One verse builds to a false stop and returns to the second verse, which ends with a true build up with a satisfying catharsis when "don't you weigh your light out" finally crescendos into a long clean belted "next time you're out" it's not screamed but it always feels like a satisfying payoff to a great atmosphere.

This song instrumentally calls back to Don, Aman for me with its sparse and spoken word composition. Lyrically it's much more abstract, but to me the next song thematically blends to pull the parallel together.

The open sea is the first song I ever heard by lowercase, and one that my old band used to cover quite frequently. It opens with a ride bell on persistent 8th notes to count us in, which breaks into a full band sprint. An angular single note melody sings from the guitar as the bass chugs away at eight notes defining the chords, and the drums propel thing forward tying the bass and drums together nicely. Imaad's vocals sing along with the guitar melody but with pitch bends that help it stand out against it.

The verses are broken with a pulled back bass and less guitar, creating more dissonant texture than melody or rhythm. After the second post-verse Interlude the drums slink back to a tom beat and the bass drops an octave to creep and brood. Imaad lays down a single spoken word line repeated ad nauseam as he often does, making it lose meaning and regain a new one as we meditate on it. "yet you're alone yes I know" it builds to a sweet climax as you'd expect, guitar adding small licks and melody, drums throwing in one of the sweetest fills I've ever heard, until the vocals erupt into loud held sung notes then finally screams. Lowercase songs often end on a short instrumental jam, centering a cool guitar lead and the band's locked in sound, and this song is no exception.

This song feels like the ending of Don, Aman's ending lyrically in some ways. "kill all your allies and spare me your dissent" feels like the abandoning of Don's friend, and can enlighten the context of "he knew what he had done, he was responsible, in the mirror he saw his friend" it feels like elements of humanity are being sacrificed for this glory and sin, but some hesitation remains with the loneliness.

On a bender used to be my least favourite song instrumentally. It's a little long for its compressed dynamic range, and also lacks an explosive catharsis at the end. I think as I digest the lyrics and the lowercase discography more, I come to appreciate it more as time goes on. Instrumentally it focuses Imaad's single guitar lines with lots of slides and pull offs, between a main riff and a dissonant but ethereal arpeggio chord. The rhythm section plugs away behind it to serve the song, but doesn't do too much to elevate it.

The lyrics seem to be about this stripping of humanity, pushing away those around you to fall deeper into despair and fervor. "a rescue party sent but when it started in I pushed away the hands and turned them over" the darkness our character is turning to is defined by glass eyes, insomnia, and lost dreams.

Stained and walleyed made to wallow in.

That lines sung notes are so high and strained, replacing the distorted guitar and scream catharsis we know with glazed over held out notes.

The song ends with a pretty long instrumental, with some great guitar lines and the closest we get to a guitar solo rather than repeated melodies. It doesn't feel like a shredding show off though, it all feels very meditated and planned, with notes breathing and lines leading into the chords behind it.

Last stand kicks ass. The end.

But seriously, it's possibly my favourite song on the album. The bass line takes front and center stage, the drums roll around it and form a song that feels great to bang your head or stomp your feet to. The guitars artfully add movement and texture to the rhythms, pulling the bass up to a new chord then dropping it back to its main riff, and the drums follow. The verse builds into the chorus with a sung "I was born to wait" that raises pitch three times before leading into the chorus that hooks you in and kicks ass.

The bridge is fine, again adding to the lowercase vibe with a more held back section that let's the flashy moments breathe more, with a great vocal delivery to bring us home. It ends with a dwindling song that falls to a whisper bit by bit, that leads seamlessly into the final (?) song.

But before that, the lyrics! I think between on a bender and last stand we get a different resolution than washer. Our character isn't committing physical suicide, but instead is having parts of their humanity lost through the self torture and ruminations. This song is salty, with near incel vibes of anger and resentment. The character hates the loneliness that they've felt was handed to them, feeling they're forced to manipulate and be manipulated. Seeking a false love, being deceived, and prolonging suffering as a performance. It's a death of hope more than a death of self.

I uploaded thistrainwillnotstop to YouTube in high school. It's a tapestry of a song, more of a soundscape and novel colliding. It's the softest of slowcore moments on the album, with thin bass and sparse drums. The guitar shimmers a spine chilling whale in between verses of creepy spoken word. I'm sure you could see why it's easy to see this and think of good morning, captain.

The lyrics are as vague and suggesting as the instrumentation. "the little darling was dead like an angelfish ballooning forth over a parade" "the city light with rows of burning beds" "passengers awaiting a train suddenly dove from the platform in the approaching mass of steel" "their secrets settling then into a fine crimson spray" "the Graves were soaking in their latitudes" "a pink glistening procession arising from the submergence, their flesh slick by the moonlight above"

Any meaning I gleam from it is vague senses and images of dread. A woman sacrificed by a mob of delusional ghouls, a vague man introduced as a demon of sorts. Then before the much needed explosion, we learn that his body is soiled and his hands are withdrawn, and the music has halted.

The end isn't the heaviest part of the album but the guitar strums full chords with distortion that feels satisfying along with the drum beat. Wasif sings long melodic notes that define themselves as a catharsis throughout the album, giving us screams only when we deserve them - or need them.

The lyrics clearly paint a guilty man and an abused or otherwise harmed woman running away so he never harms her again. "hey your wide and lovely stare gave away what you did with him" and "you want so to slit your rest in peace while you can" are frankly just great lyrics, especially the slit your rest/wrist in peace. "your skin is also his" along with the wide and lovely stare maybe indicate that the guilt is even across both people. The bottom line is our story started with loving obsession to some vague anger, fear, and avoidance of love.... Or sex? I've held this album so close for so long, through dysphoria and sexual abuse, and it's impossible to see objectively. These songs vent my frustrations about wanting, no NEEDING passionate love, and the way my life has told me that it doesn't exist. The desire to shed these desires, to become less than human so as to avoid pain and love altogether. Since transitioning, I have struggled to actually face these feelings fears and emotions. Part of me buries it in a pursuit of heated kinky sex still, but I hope some day I can find these meditations to be false and find a relatively painless love that makes the heartache worth it.

While I descend into a diary entry, I'll also say that floodlit is what happens when I give into the desire. If a partner asked me to slit my wrists and bleed for them and I could see a material or emotional gain for them from it, I'd do it. This has not changed. I am obsessive, lack self worth, and desire to dedicate my whole heart and soul to someone for their benefit. I don't even want this to change in a fundamental level. I want to learn limits to my sacrifice, and I want to learn my worth so I give this to more worthy people, but I want to serve someone. I always will. It's what humanity was meant for. Compassion and love.

Embedded in the ice is a hidden track at the end of the album, the perfect piano driven instrumental to end on so I can think about all these emotions that I've dragged out to analyze throughout the album. It's beautiful and melancholic. The album ends with Imaad and Brian bickering at each other, and my heart yearns for love and friendship and companionship as they are cut short.

The album art is mid, but the albums sounds own my heart.