Review

The three-track extended play starts with “Never Stayed Too Long”, a five-minute sonic

exploration that showcases the overall sound of the group, which extends to the more upbeat second

track “Yesterday Is Today”. It starts with a guitar arpeggio processed through a modulation pedal, a

delay pedal, and reverb pedal. These three effects form the staple sound of both shoegaze and post-rock

due to the spatial and temporal qualities of these effects with the reverb pedal as an emulation of space

and how sound bounces and diffuses off them, and the time-based parameters of a delay pedal which

acts as a buffer for the reverb pedal to bounce and diffuse the repeats of the guitar sound produced by

the delay pedal. The modulation pedal, also a temporal device, makes these sounds change over a

period of time or on-the-fly as modulation is often done by a low-frequency oscillator (LFO) that

changes its rate and depth with a twist of a knob: modulation rate is how fast the LFO acts in relation to

the modulation depth – how frequent the modulation triggers once it recognizes the inputted sound.

Alcala’s vocals is heavily-processed in a similar fashion while the drums remain somehow raw,

countering the sonic layers of the other instruments. All of these create a feeling of melancholy and as

if one is in a dream. It is here that shoegaze is often referred to or associated with dreampop.

“Verses”, the last track of the album is what I consider the culmination of their experiences and

influences in music up to this point. The seven-minute song is reminiscent of early shoegaze acts from

Britain’s Slowdive and Cocteau Twins with orchestrations similar to post-rock, especially in the song’s

middle section (around 4 minutes into the song) where the guitars get louder and more chaotic and

leaves the listener in a daze until it fades into feedback to close the song, stimulating the senses for as

long as the feedback sustains. Compared to the two previous songs, “Verses” captures the classic

shoegaze aesthetic with fresh approaches to composition. As previously mentioned, this song mixes

both shoegaze and post-rock aesthetics, while the two may seem to overlap with their use of guitar

effects to create textures, post-rock differs because of its different dynamics both in loudness and

groove. Unlike the typical shoegaze sound which focuses on a steady groove, post-rock has the same
feeling but is more climactic which is mostly lacking in the shoegaze sound. What Polar Lows

achieved with “Verses” is the synthesis of these two sounds.

Hereafter has an overall distinct sound that could be easily distinguishable from their

peers. For instance, their guitars do not sound abrasive compared to, say, Identikit (another Filipino

shoegaze band) and their textures are carefully crafted to the point that it beautifully meshes with

Alcala’s unintelligible, reverb-drenched vocals. In effect, all the instruments, including the vocals are

the texture. The band introduces an exciting approach to shoegaze that blends the shoegaze aesthetic

within a pop format while avoiding the abrasiveness of similar-sounding bands.