Honey Radar is channeling the spirit of Lou Reed on their dreamy, washed-out release Chain Smoking On Easter. With bending, unstructured, bursts of saturated jangle-rock inspiration, Chain Smoking On Easter sounds like it could have been sampled straight from an old Velvet Underground demo. That is not a bad thing.
A bedroom project started in Philadelphia by singer and guitarist Jason Henn, Honey Radar has released several collections of unpredictably structured songs on Indianapolis label Third Uncle Records.
Henn’s signature short song lengths average out at under two minutes making each one feel more like a quick burst of noise than a song. It’s kind of like Honey Radar is releasing demos; a collection of Henn’s inspirations for moments in music. Each song has a distinct end, but they all run together like one long continuous recording.
A wave of lo-fi, saturated guitar fizzing and loose crashing drums engulfs all of Chain Smoking On Easter. The songs fluctuate between dream-like, psychedelic wisps and louder, crunchier rock jams. Bright, lightly strummed chords and slight drumstick tapping are made just slightly more kaleidoscopic by sitar sounding guitar picking on “Circuit in the Sunlight.” Chain Smoking gets a little raucous on songs like “Alabama Wax Habit” and “Rainbow Lollipop,” where eroded, fuzzed-out humming and turbulent drumming layer over the still good vibes of Honey Radar’s sound.
Henn’s slow, mumbling vocals melt into the music, droning gently beneath the hazy instrumentals. Lyrically incoherent and not always present, Henn’s vocals add a snoozy warble that kind of sounds like his mouth was just injected with novocaine. Henn’s dallying voice piles on even more saturation to Chain Smoking’s swirly jam.
Chain Smoking On Easter is like an assemblage of awesome musical moments from the mind of a fuzz box. Fifteen fragmented sounds all developed just enough to be roughly one minute long songs. Chain Smoking is the definition of short and sweet; just fifteen quick bursts of perfect hazy rock.
