TUNES // Spring Silver – Set up a Camera

Post by Tommy

Possibly the most shocking thing about the band Spring Silver is the fact that they’re not really a band at all, mostly birthing Athena-like from the brain of Maryland multi-instrumentalist K Nkanza with a warm embrace of guest collaborators, whose contributions can only ever really only build on the foundational density of Nkanza’s compositions. Take, for instance, the fantastic, simmering “Plead Insanity” which bubbles over with guitar interplay almost to the point of showing off, despite the presence of two of indie rock’s most inventive arrangers of guitar interplay both sitting in just on vocals. 

Spring Silver’s latest, “Set Up A Camera,” draws up an interesting vision of more of the same, Nkanza’s composition this time housing a quicksilver drum take from Ovlov’s Theo Hartlett. Hartlett’s limber performance is a notable highlight but very much makes itself beholden to the wild, maximalist attitude of a bed of guitars, towering and gnarly like the stumps and curling trunks of a barren forest. Nkanza has a Cobain-like knack for wringing melody out of the noise with an acrobatic vocal take that echoes the couple years when pop-punk bands flirted with glam and prog rock influences. 

In the midst of it all it might be easy to miss the bitter poetry of the lyrics, but Nkanza is incisive and sharp-tongued as they manage to find a universal focus inside the lonely and voyeuristic scene. That seething graphic of isolation and idiosyncrasy feels like it takes deep root in the layered arrangement – guitars twist and grab while backing vocals mutate into strange new characters, but Nkanza holds the wheel steady as it goes on. 

“Set Up A Camera” is available now via Bandcamp.