Taking cue from legendary British “shoegazer” band My Bloody Valentine, the EP is filled with textural guitar playing and dream-pop melodies that hover in and out of each other comfortably. The element of that influence is still very apparent, and it may take a few more recordings for the band to fully come into its own, but as a collection of six solid indie-rock tracks (including two covers), See The Eye shows promise.

Floating vocals and echoing-distorted guitars permeates originals like “Shimmer” and “Social Bribe”, which sit nicely alongside the covers of My Bloody Valentine’s “Thorn” and British band Lush’s “De-luxe”. As a collection of introductory songs, the inclusion of the covers is understandable, but it would have been nicer to hear two other original tracks instead.

The production is –  to make a cheap pun – lush, with the guitars preserving their details amid the crisp, overarching distortion. It’s a pleasantly loud sounding record that manages to feel textural and moody, without feeling overbearingly so.

Formed in 2016, See The Eye is made up of Harry Zulhazs and Danny Yuwanda, both on guitars and vocals, Andri Indra “Abee” Kusmara on bass and vocals, and drummer Arya Adita. They started off as hang-out buddies who came together in a Vespa motorcycle club. Harry and Abee planted the seeds of the group and soon enough, asked their two friends two join.

Having been in different bands prior, the band members all missed playing music, or as Abee says, “the mystical smell of a rehearsal room”.

“I was actually in my room, having a bowl of instant noodles and listening to Johnny Cash when Harry invited me to join the band,” recalls Arya.

Whether it was the magic of economically efficient meals or the music of a country legend (or a perfect combination or both), Arya was intrigued and soon began inserting his musicality to the now four-person band. The drummer infused decidedly non-Shoegazer-like influences, such as Jazz and Funk, playing fills that were not usually found in the genre’s music.

“I wanted to explore”, he says.

Danny adds: “We all have good tastes, thankfully. It isn’t just about having a great guitar tone, but also the harmony between the drums and bass. We listened to not only the same [Shoegazer] bands, but also groups like Pinkshinyultrablast, NOTHING, Cocteau Twins, and Nirvana.”

The group’s first official release was for a compilation set up by a Brazilian netlabel The Blog That Celebrates Itself. From there on, the band wanted to jump straight into recording a full-length, though things didn’t turn out the way they planned.

As such, this new EP is the first part of a two-part EP release that they plan to continue later this year. The idea is to build up hype, stay active and then follow it up with a full-length release next year.

The band hasn’t played live much – so much so that they can’t answer questions about the satisfaction of playing live (and the importance of sound to bands of their nature), but the hope is that the EP will result in a lot more invitations to play gigs.

The EP’s lyrics – all written by Harry – revolve around themes that will be familiar to most.

“The song ‘Social Bribe’, for instance, is about a person who wants people to see them as having a high social status, and to appear wealthy to people. But of course, their real life is in reality far from that image,” Harry says.

See The Eye plans to start promoting its EP with live shows and is open to invitations for gigs. They promise to be fun and loud onstage. After all, according to Abbe, the shared motto between the members is always, “More noise please!”

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