Dasher‘s Kylee Kimbrough has had to fight for her music: After uprooting herself from the Atlanta scene that spawned the band, she relocated to Bloomington, Indiana to rebuild Dasher and her life — and to cope with her diagnosis of high-functioning autism. This determination rubbed off on the band’s first full-length, Sodium.
Kimbrough is a singer/drummer — an unusual combination that’s matched by her band’s uncommon mix of indie, hardcore, and shoegaze. And it’s no coincidence that Dasher named themselves after the blade in a blender, given how they slice and dice those influences with stunning force on songs like “Soviet” and the breakneck “Resume.” These tracks and several others first appeared on 2013’s Yeah I Know, a demo tape…
…that was so well-recorded that it was reissued by Scavenger of Death a few years later.
On Sodium, Kimbrough and company make the Yeah I Know material even bigger and more claustrophobic, taking it beyond catharsis to exorcism on “Go Rambo,” and “Eye See,” where the effects on Kimbrough’s voice (a trick she borrowed from her favorite Japanese hardcore bands) add eerie complexity to what could have been straightforward punk songs. Similarly, the title track’s mix of fire-breathing vocals and epic guitars proves that even when Dasher slows down a little, their beauty and rage are just as formidable. While Kimbrough may be the band’s focus, bassist Gary Magilla and guitarists Steve Garcia and Derek McCain offer strong support on lunging numbers such as “Slugg” and “Trespass.” At times, Dasher’s miasma of riffs and screams gets a little too murky; they’re at their best when they give their fury some structure, as on the dive-bombing opener “We Know So” or “Get So Low,” which closes the album with their version of a pop song. Nevertheless, Sodium proves that at their best, Dasher are a truly powerful band.