Haruspex Palace: Haruspex Palace

At any point in our history, no matter what’s in vogue, there is always a viable alternative. In the case of underground music, that alternative is often one that skirts along the dark frontiers, and that’s where we find Casey Proctor who emerges under her solo recording project, Haruspex Palace.

It’s been some year for the Carrboro-via-Bellingham songwriter, firstly with her band, Verity Den. Also featuring Drag Sounds’ Trevor Reece and Mike Wallace, the trio delivered one of the guitar-based records of the year so far with their self-titled debut.

On Haruspex Palace’s self-titled debut album, Proctor travels across slightly different terrains, guiding us through a sleepy-eyed cosmic trance. Elusively drawing from the influences of ’70s radio and lo-fi, Proctor delivers a distorted, dream-pop document that leapfrog’s every other pop-leaning trope out there.

Warm Flow: In Conversation with Verity Den

Some may find certain touchpoints throughout Haruspex Palace, but they are merely faint echoes, as Proctor successful breaks the rule book with something that blurs the lines from genre to genre and generation to generation.

The journey begins with Distraction – a misty dreamscape of soft colours and subtle melodies, leading us through a sound portal of faint brush strokes and pink noise. Following is Pyre, where Proctor explores the origins of chamber pop but flips the script on it, with woodsy acoustic passages that feel like a fractured dream.

It encapsulates the unintrusive nature of Proctor’s songs. The skeletal Valley Light Show gently drifts along the coastline where you can almost smell the sea breeze. On Plateau and Homecoming, while Proctor explores between the lines of Julia Holter’s early records, what she delivers here are songs that possess the galloping drive which dominated Verity Den. Essentially, the kind of ear worms that inhabit the mind for days on end.

Meanwhile, Spyder sees Proctor’s tapping in to the majesty of Judee Sill. Once again, the comparison is only fleeting, as she sings, “Don’t you have anything better to do than chasing me around the well.” – Proctor’s voice etched in a unique homespun warmth.

Holy Sons: Dread

Finishing with the instrumental, Antica, again it’s not a world away from the beautiful noise of Verity Den. On the last of three tracks that feature Emil Amos, he makes his mark with the similar dark washes of sound that underpin the Holy Sons remit. With Proctor’s ghostly, wordless vocalisations, it caps off Haruspex Palace in a way conventional album shouldn’t, and that’s exactly where beauty lies.

With melodies that hide behind the corners and instrumentation that’s buried slightly beneath the surface, what Proctor orchestrates on Haruspex Palace is something that possesses an aloofness and subtlety that is hard to pin down. It’s the antithesis of pop and folk music. A record steeped in the same no rules mission statement her collaborator Amos has also built a career on, ceaselessly going against the grain.

By masquerading her songs in mystique, Proctor brings something completely new to the world of chamber pop, and that’s what makes Haruspex Palace as enticing as anything released in this space so far in 2024.

Haruspex Palace is out now via Geographic North. Purchase from Bandcamp.