The first thing Shooting Shadows does is make you wonder whether this has really just been released. It sounds as though it has been unearthed from some lost archive somewhere between 1977 and 1982: an impossible collision of punk, synth-punk and art-punk compressed into barely three minutes. Sweeping Promises have been building their sound around precisely that feeling for years now, recording in their own tour house and studio with saturated mixes and a claustrophobic intensity that has become one of the defining traits of the Kansas duo.
What makes “Shooting Shadows” work is how brutally direct it is. Intro, verse, repeated chorus and outro. No unnecessary displays of virtuosity, no elaborate structural detours. Everything is reduced to rhythm and tension. The relentless rhythm section drives the song forward, while the synths appear as thin, unsettling layers more reminiscent of The Screamers or early Pere Ubu than anything atmospheric. The guitar sets the song’s wild pace before the rest of the instruments lock together like a perfectly oiled machine, pushing the track forward with brutal force. Beneath it all, the bass keeps everything moving with a hypnotic pulse.
Lira Mondal‘s performance is the true centre of gravity of the track. There is something of Poly Styrene in the rawness and grit with which she delivers certain lines, but also echoes of Siouxsie Sioux in the menacing, almost ritualistic tone of some repetitions. Mondal does not simply sing about paranoia; she embodies it. She sounds as though she is trying to cut through the noise itself, her presence so immediate that she almost seems to be standing right in front of you.
The lyrics reinforce that feeling precisely. “Shooting Shadows” is a song about the invasion of personal space, whether real or imagined, and the psychological spiral that follows. Ambiguous images, starting with the title itself and the repeated question “What are you doing here?”, pile up until paranoia takes complete hold of the song. And when the line “I don’t really care anyway” finally arrives, the paranoia does not disappear; it simply stops fighting itself.
The connection to riot grrrl is unmistakable, although “Shooting Shadows” feels closer to early Le Tigre with its tense, repetitive loops. The synths are not there for decoration or atmosphere; they push the tension even further. Even when everything sounds chaotic and on the verge of collapse, Sweeping Promises remain completely in control, never leaving a single element to chance.
“Shooting Shadows” is not revivalism for its own sake. Sweeping Promises take a sound that never really disappeared and find a way to make it feel tense, immediate and genuinely alive again. It is exactly the kind of song that will resonate with anyone still searching for the rawest and most unhinged edges of punk.
You Say I Romanticize is released on 14 August via Sub Pop Records. If I were you, I’d get my hands on it.
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