A seven-song album, Psalms to Strip to, inspired by the fiction, poetry and art consumed while locked away against such harsh conditions. The work of Jim Harrison, Gabriel García Márquez, William Blake, Jeff Vandermeer, Herman Hesse and the letters of Vincent Van Gogh all shaped the record in one form or another, though lead single ‘Death In Spring’ takes its inspiration from Rodoreda. A song from an ugly world, a fallen world subject to the violence of the wild as though undergoing some form of punishment or test. Erickson’s drums compel the track forward as though toward some great reckoning, Sustarich locked into the momentum and committed to its frenzy.

In the Spring
When the world is ill
Fury and blind will
Consumes everything

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Released on Temporal Records, the EP finds Curfews primarily as a duo, with Sustarich on guitar and vocals and Erickson on drums, Henry Johns lending bass to several tracks. Despite their modest numbers, the band craft a rich and sometimes noisy brand of garage rock, embracing the textures of the lo-fi aesthetic to create a sound both immersive and immediate.

As Post-Trash described in their premiere of the song, the title track is “a big swooning song full of hooks though without an actual ‘hook’,” the song instead supporting itself with nothing beyond its own glimmering translucence. ‘Anything Worth Keeping’ follows this with its own airy rhythm, rising out of noodling guitar into a shiny slice of garage rock, like some glorious throwback to the the late 00s buzz band era. Lyrically, the track takes on ideas of confinement and containment, nurturing the small instances of love like a bug in a jar.

Keep my love in a jar
Poke some holes in the lid
Make it cozy with a stick and some leaves

Feed it bits of my heart
Syrupy crimson shards
Wash my hands with warm water
Imagine the warmth of another

With its edge of darkness, ‘Faded Mask’ turns the EP in a brooding direction, the vocals haunted by a wistful reflection and sense of loss. The energy is still present, though the peaks here are less celebratory and more bittersweet, coloured by a mix of fondness and sadness. ‘Root Cellar’ emerges in a dreamy shuffling intro, the vocals floating in and out before the track finds its full vivid form around the minute mark.

Featuring Curfews at their most expansive and vivid, the song threatens to break into clattering energy but never quite follows through, instead favouring a more spacious, drifting style. Set against the momentum of the first tracks, the closer is a lesson in patience, and one which shows the versatility and emotion of a band you will want to keep your eye on.

Stunted is out now via Temporal Records and is available from the Curfews Bandcamp page.

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