S.Lo on February 1st, 2019

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From the count-off to their new single, “Kaleidoscope,” at “5-4-3-2-1,” there’s an indication that Gypsum (Rosie Tucker on bass, Anna Arboles on guitar, Sapphire Jewell on guitar and Jessy Reed on drums) is about to take listeners on a different kind of ride than your typical indie rock. Like flamenco, but maybe post-flamenco, the rhythm is a cocktail of triplets and doubles that changes directions and combinations even within the same section. Reed keeps all steady and it’s best to just bob to her most dominant counts and fantasize of being able to clap along at the next listen, or the next listen after that.

Also addicting is how much the song rocks, with Tucker, Arboles and Jewell turning a merry-go-round of basslines and sparkling guitar riffs underneath alternating harmonized and doubled vocal melodies that soar from sweet to pleading. Engineered and mixed by Mike Post, it all comes together like a multi-layered, multi-course meal, prix-fixe, as Gypsum curates the architecture of each bite and the transition between tastes. “Art microscopic from butterfly wings makes vision myopic a marvelous thing,” and we are indeed “frozen” in hypnosis at all the shapes and colors of this song.

“Kaleidoscope,” the quartet’s third single and first since 2016, came out this week.

||| Stream: “Kaleidoscope”