Sans Merit – Early Grave LP

Birds chirp through a tape-hiss breeze atop a bed of airy pads, and a clear-eyed, forlorn guitar springs forth: this is the beginning of the debut album from Sans Merit, a new rock project from Griffin James, otherwise known as Francis Inferno Orchestra.
For over a decade, the Naarm (Melbourne) -raised—and now L.A.-based—producer has been indulging his indie and alt interests, and this fuzzed-out bedroom jangle-pop and shoegaze LP, Early Grave, is his first extensive deliverance.