From the lungs, fingers, and heart of David Spalvieri-Kruse comes a new collection of tunes on a co-release with the ridiculously prolific Already Dead label. For those of you with big old question marks hanging over your heads right now, he’s the guy who mailed me a scarf, a bag of tea, and (oh yeah) a vinyl record with some synth-folk tunes some two years ago. And they were nice synth-folk tunes at that. Maybe a little rough around the edges here and there with that unmistakably shy warble of a voice Kruse has and all (still on full display for these new songs). But this time around he sent a very nicely crafted 8 x 8 photo booklet with stitched binding and some pretty pictures. The music he’s making these days is more focused on guitar, strumming out songs that are geared toward sunshine-streaked indie rather than the wint’ry ballads of the aforementioned self-titled effort. The addition of drums is something I noticed right off the bat, giving his heart-beating anthems a real tangible heartbeat. Although the arrangements are obviously more lush, Vision in Flame finds them remaining the squeaky-clean Deep Waters I’d come to know and love, not a single guitar effect to be found and hardly any treatments of the vocals (maybe some slight delay on the backing vox here and there) gives these songs a super-natural feel to them, Kruse’s tremolo-heavy tone flapping out in the band’s open-air breeze. Vision in Flame is a short work that for sure moves the group in a new direction, although it’s one I’d probably call a lateral move rather than a sharp uptick for them. Heck, they’re young, have an obvious knack for a pretty tune, and can place those pretty tunes in a variety of settings, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t the last evolution of Deep Waters’ equally deep imagination.
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