On May 12, 2017, Close Encounter released their single ‘Fade Away’ to Bandcamp and to Youtube as a music video.

Closing out this series of Close Encounter singles is ‘Fade Away’ which is no departure from the style of the other singles, but is very unique in its own right. Though it follows their usual dreamy psychedelic sound philosophy, the track is driven by a more rhythmic guitar backbone. This song also incorporates more pop-like melodic stylings, contrasted by more diverse chord progressions and key changes.

Beginning with a very shimmering intro, the song reveals itself as comparatively very full as the rhythm guitars fade in. Despite the drums sounding like they’re very far away, you can still hear everything on the kit pretty well, and it doesn’t detract from the song. Conversely, the bass sounds very close, which fits the sound but there are a bit too many high frequencies being accentuated. As usual, there are nice keyboard pads that sort of sit in the background of the song, though they aren’t present nearly as much as other releases by Close Encounter. Instead, the rhythm guitar, affected heavily with reverb and delay, acts as the primary atmosphere for the song. The guitar’s rhythm accentuates the differences between parts, effectively keeping the rhythm in parallel with the drums while laying the chord structure basis. The song ends rather abruptly, which is ironic given the name.

This track takes a couple of listens to really get used to it, but once you do it’s a pretty rewarding listen. The vocals are solid and provide an interesting harmonic complexity and all the intruments’ tones fit very well in the mix. The production is by no means pristine, it tends to sit a lot in the mids and not do a whole lot with the highs or low/sub frequencies, but it still plays to the song well, and gives a feeling of spaciousness that a band like Close Encounter needs. Give this and the rest of their singles a listen on closeencounterband.bandcamp.com