Gold Dust 
Over the last few years, Massachusetts psych-folk outfit Gold Dust has become a favorite around here. Started as the solo shingle of Stephen Pierce (Kindling, Ampere), the band has since expanded to a four-piece, pulling their sound out of the private press shadows for an album that crashes against the seawalls of it’s bedroom past. The first album was a departure from the noise and gnash of Pierce’s past projects, often cocooned in the storm of shoegaze. The outlet served as a respite, a hermitage away from the the bluster of belonging to bands, where Pierce’s listening habits could seep into the spools and take center stage. Old habits die hard though, and the quietude of the first LP gave way to bigger squalls on his second, and with that the band found their way out of the shadows and onto the stage. For the third LP, the band operates for the first time as a four-piece, still helmed by Pierce, but embracing the dynamics of a full studio assemblage in tandem with the darkness of a new lyrical direction.
The latter is the driving force of In The Shade of the Living Light, an album that’s about rebirth, a second act set to shed some scars and break through the veil towards the light. The record still centers on the psychedelics that rippled through Gold Dust in the past, but this time the tumult has been turned to the top of the dial. The record ripples with heat, inspired in part by Western Mass’ long history with prickly, communal psych. The community spirit is indeed rife on the new record, inviting in names from his past and present; with Gretchen Williams (Kindling), Meghan Minior (Ampere), and Josh Robbins (Late Bloomer) adding vocals, Fred Thomas synth, Anthony Saffery (Cornershop) sitar, Drew Gardner (Elkhorn) vibraphone. Once again local legend, J Mascis guests, this time on electric sitar, setting fire to “An Early Translation of a Later Work.” The record feels like a bigger vision, a melted meeting house that draws the folk out of Pierce’s wounds and cauterizes them with a new psychedelic heat. If the past records were the incubation, this one is breaks out of its shell brilliantly, a record that draws listeners close, and leaves a few lacerations on the way out.
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