Amber Spyglass
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Amber Spyglass

Boston, Massachusetts, United States | INDIE

Boston, Massachusetts, United States | INDIE
Band Alternative Pop

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This band has not uploaded any videos

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""Female vocalist, male on guitar. You think perhaps you've heard it before, but trust me on this one, you haven't.""

"Female vocalist, male on guitar. You think perhaps you've heard it before, but trust me on this one, you haven't. Accelerating Parcae is one of those albums you'll return to again and again, and always hear something new. Kelly Godshall's willful, expressive voice goes boldly into personal and metaphorical territory. It salies and swerves from double-malt smoothness into harmonies that wake you like smelling salts. She's riveting to listen to. There is raw, projecting quality that fires the poetry of her honest lyrics. John DeGregorio is her counterpart rather than her background. He matches her perfectly with a full palette of textures, sharp flavors, and mind-expanding reverb. "Her Dark Swan" features swirled effects that clear and open up at just the right moments. "Catalyst Groove", combines grittier, harsher guitar and echo-haunted vocals. Another favorite is the heartfelt, violin-accompanied memoriam "In White"."

Carolee - GOTHIC BEAUTY - Gothic Beauty


""a good antidote for those who think there's far too much techno bangin' around.""

"High quality stuff…a good antidote for those who think there's far too much techno bangin' around."

Girl the Bourgeois - SORTED MAGAZINE - Sorted Magazine


""...a mishmash of country down home yummy goodness.""

"Amber Spyglass are a band from MA and they are comprised of Kelly Godshall and John DeGregorio. This is a very slow album and I envision molasses dripping down the olden wood porch outside of some bayou in the Southeast, attracting cicada and wasp alike to get stuck in the muck along with the grasses and daffodil seeds, creating a mishmash of country down home yummy goodness."

Azrael - GOTHIC REVUE - Gothic Revue


""just the kind of thing to dispel any lingering worries about darkwave clichés.""

"Inventive construction leads to a changing rhythm and ever-altering pace--just the kind of thing to dispel any lingering worries about darkwave clichés."

Peter Parrish - STYLUS - Stylus


""Amber Spyglass have crafted a subtle twist in the darker pattern of musical fabric.""

"Not content with merely teaching us (ok, me) new words, Amber Spyglass have crafted a subtle twist in the darker pattern of musical fabric. Soft, yet forceful. You know, in that pesky way which forces reviewers to desperately come up with tragic similes resembling this one; Accelerating Parcae is exquisite but dominant, like that deadly field of poppies from The Wizard of Oz. I didn’t want to bring Judy Garland into this, but it happens. Unlike Judy Garland, this album won’t initially promise much but ultimately descends into a personal hell filled with nothing but tormented pain. Well OK, there’s a little bit of tormented pain. What else were you expecting?"

Peter Parrish - STYLUS - Stylus


""a message of love and betrayal, of tribal ecstasy and the bloodiest treachery.""

"A woman with piercing eyes walks out of the desert at sunset, looks directly at you, and delivers a message of love and betrayal, of tribal ecstasy and the bloodiest treachery. Vocalist Kelly Godshall's emotional delivery conveys the anguish of tortured innocents in the anti-vivisectionist "Burning at Sunset;" no matter what your position on animal experimentation, the song is a call to remember the price by which our medical knowledge advances. John DeGregorio's guitar work is alternately expansive and tightly focused, echoed by Ajda Snyder's keyboards and other instrumentation. Most of the five songs on this EP have a tribal, ritual feel, but the delicate "Simple to Say" shows Amber Spyglass' versatility with a tale of lovers' communication gone wretchedly awry. Judging by this work and recent performances in the Boston area, Amber Spyglass are a band to watch out for, combining a unique vision with substantial talent."

Regina Harrison - THE SENTIMENTALIST - The Sentimentalist


""they take you to the Middle East by way of the Wild West...""

"Mix This Mortal Coil with a touch of Nino Rota and you have what Amber Spyglass has become. A pair of lovers with as deep a love for their musical creations as for each other; they take you to the Middle East by way of the Wild West, to create a splendid collection of songs where John has let his expansive musical fantasies run wild to frame his muse, Kelly, with golden gilded splendor."

Leah Callahan - ILLEGITIMATE THEATRE COMPANY - Illegitimate Theatre Company


""like spiced port complements a cold Cambridge winter.""

"Although they’re only a duo, Boston’s Amber Spyglass makes enough beautiful noise for a symphony orchestra. Kelly Godshall’s vocal stylings and keyboard work complement the guitar and programming mastery of John DeGregorio like spiced port complements a cold Cambridge winter. Far too many synthesizer-driven duos create music which is cold, detached and mechanical. The sounds of Amber Spyglass are warm, immediate and organic."

Kevin Filan - STARVOX - Starvox


""more than plundering a boxful of influences.""

"Reviewing CDs, it's always nice to have some reference points - genres, bands, musicians to drop in like subconscious hyperlinks. It's easy - lazy even - but it helps get the message across. Amber Spyglass deny me such short-cuts. And I have to respect them for it - it means they're doing more than plundering a boxful of influences."

Gothvodka - GLITTER N’ BLACK - Glitter n' Black


""Not since Mazzy Star have I heard a more original and soul touching one male one female musical collaboration.""

"I could have tried writing a few paragraphs about how soul moving her voice is or how beautiful Kelly sounds but it would never do her voice justice. So just listen for yourself. Their music is their best advertisement! Amber Spyglass is obviously right on the edge of breaking through to a mass audience. I can't wait to hear more from them. Not since Mazzy Star have I heard a more original and soul touching one male one female musical collaboration. I’m really glad I found them and cant wait to hear more. Check them out for yourself. I predict Amber Spyglass will be a major artist in the gothic and ethereal market."

Incubi - GothTGP - GothTGP


""first-class grasp of melody, makes for one of the better releases that I have heard...""

"I don't think that a better name could be conceived for this band. Amber Spyglass plays emotional darkwave that sounds like a mixture of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sky Cries Mary (that now-defunct band's lead vocalist, Anisa Romero, is listed as a favourite artist by Amber Spyglass' singer, in fact), and Claire Voyant. Gorgeous tapestries of sound blend aching acoustic guitar passages with electronic instrumentation, while Kelly's exquisite voice washes over the soundscape in dreamy, delirious patterns. What separates Amber Spyglass from many of its peers, however, is its ability to move from the gentle, hypnotic lull of darkwave into more immediate, even urgent, passages, where the rhythms become (relatively) more aggressive and the soundscape thickens in density, transforming the latent energy lying beneath the sonic surface into a kinetic release. And that sense of dynamics, not explosive so much as it is cathartic, combined with a first-class grasp of melody, makes for one of the better releases that I have heard from this field."

Tate Bengtston - CHAOTIC CRITIQUES - CHAOTIC CRITIQUES


""Accelerating Parcae is an engaging work of ethereal rock with world music influences.""

"Accelerating Parcae is the newest release from Amber Spyglass, whose sound could be described as somewhere between dark psychedelia and ethereal folk.

“Swan"[sic] is a vivid dreamlike moment, enhanced by harpsichord-like medieval recollections and a humid guitar solo, as Kelly Godshall’s vibrant voice is braised by bursts of horns. Also quite arid is “Red Dust”, a horse-trot paced piece that feels similar to the Cranes, with a bit of an American southwestern twang spicing up its guitar. This dilapidated country feel is still present in the predominantly acoustic “Silent Ravine”, with the howl of synthetic wolves subtly adding to its campfire atmosphere.

Diverging away from the influence of rustic Americana is the lovely “Hand in Position”. Like in “Swan”, brassy horns enhance this piece, and with the peppering of hand drums, the song builds to a nice crescendo. One odd surprise here is a cover of David Bowie’s “I’m Afraid of Americans”. The hard guitar lines of the original are still present, as well as the same electronic burbles and twitters, with Godshall’s emotive vocals being the true separation between the versions. Lastly, the ethereal jam tapestry of the single, “Catalyst Groove” surges and builds with a tumultuous ocean of electric guitar that winds from snaking solos to choppy power chords as their chanteuse’s powerful voice surges to invoke a Middle Eastern motif.

Accelerating Parcae is an engaging work of ethereal rock with world music influences, which should please fans of their genre. The Bowie cover is bit of a disruption, but it is a pleasant distraction that doesn’t tarnish the overall package."

Cedric - SIDE-LINE - Side-Line


""This is Goth with a decidedly different kind of groove.""

"Amber Spyglass is a tight and vastly talented band… They succeed in keeping the listener on their toes and blend genre specific elements found in post rock and college alternative, not to mention a brief, tasteful, and controlled dabbling into progressive metal. The band does a good job at sounding fresh and stands apart from other bands performing similar styles… This is Goth with a decidedly different kind of groove."

Matthew Heilman - STARVOX - Starvox


Discography

Amber Spyglass EP, 2001
"Catalyst Groove" (single) 2002
Accelerating Parcae LP, 2004
"Harmonic Tide", Sky So Grey comp, 2009
"Like Lost Lovers", Infectious Unease Radio Vol1 (AU), 2010
"Violent Silence", Lunar Sea 2 comp, 2011
"Unfortunate One", Deep Heaven IV comp, 2011

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Bio

Amber Spyglass is a duo consisting of Kelly Godshall on vocals and guitar and John DeGregorio on guitar and programming. The music is dark rock that ranges widely from acoustic to electronic, from pop to ambient.