Full Review:

I’ll give it to Handstand Records- they always surprise with something completely unexpected. The label has released everything from thrashing toxic punk, to pop-dirge indie, and now to the dreamy, breezy melancholy of War Honey. This is the kind of band you’d expect to find holed up in a dark corner of some smoky basement bar three nights a week crooning away to an ethereal, almost jazzy backbeat. This relatively short EP (three songs and a brief instrumental interlude) give a hint at what they offer. It’s honestly very outside my wheelhouse, but my only reference point here is that it strongly reminds me of that early 2000’s Jade Tree Records band Denali. And while the vocals here soar in that same, highly trained sort of way it’s a little bit lower of a register pouring out of Gabrielle Dana with every fiber of her being. This is a slick looking record too for being so short- pressed on a semi-translucent black vinyl with a screened b-side that shows through the darkened A-side. Pretty cool.