Towering 14, 000 feet above Pike National Forest, Colorado, Pikes Peak was discovered by Spanish explorers and later re-named after short-lived American explorer, Zebulon Pike, nowadays however, its twenty kilometre climb is best known for the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, a dangerous and nerve-wracking dirt time trial at which daredevils in specially designed prototype vehicles weave their way round 156 turns, just metres from deadly precipices.
Like the infamous mountain climb, Wozniak seem perfectly happy with their heads in the clouds, utilising waves of shoegazey guitar to achieve a shimmering, psychedelic wall of sound.
Taking their name from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, there are flashes of Pink Floyd or Irish post-rockers God is an Astronaut on opener ‘Maresme’, as phased guitar give way to industrial creaks and groans.
Second track ‘Paper Hat’ is probably the weakest track on the record with surfy guitar hooks and acoustic guitar no substitute for the grandeur of their more sky-scraping tracks.
Named after the most famous neighbourhood in Berlin, ‘Kreuzberg’ is a swirling cloud of vaporous shoegaze but even at seven and a half minutes, it’s never dull, with sections bringing to mind My Bloody Valentine and Boards of Canada.
‘Columbo’s Car’ is probably the most accessible track on the record with fuzzed up riffs that mark the mid-point between Franz Ferdinand and The Jesus and Mary Chain, but this is quickly shattered by the abrasive ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’, which takes its title from a German phrase meaning a total or universal work of art, a curious closer that buzzes and flickers with energy, despite being little more than four minutes of feedback.
Pikes Peak is a curious record, because though it lacks the driving rhythms of krautrock or the emotive hooks of Sigur Ros, it’s still an EP that can move you, Wozniak are a band with a broad palate and a bright future.
Words: Max Sefton
