

“It’s about how you can lose people in your life but still have their presence and energy around you.” That’s what Blackwater Holylight frontwoman Sunny Faris says about the title of the band’s fourth album. It’s the first record the all-female rock group has written since relocating from Portland, Oregon, to their new home in Los Angeles. Dreamy, psychedelic, and occasionally sludgy, Not Here Not Gone manages to toe the line between Pacific Northwest gloom and Southern California optimism, as heard on “Involuntary Haze” and “Bodies.” Lead single “Heavy, Why?” churns and drones skyward while the instrumental “Giraffe” features beats provided by TV on the Radio’s David Sitek.