Sculpt Rock, the genre listed for Lubec‘s Nothing is Enough! EP, must be a reference to the deeply layered sound that the band has developed. It starts like a stone: minerals sink to the bottom of the sea and are compacted together under the pressure of the ocean until they are ejected, scalded and scarred, from a volcano, eons later. Lubec sculpt this imperfect rock into an amorphous, yet densely textured monolith, using layer upon layer of effects.

The record echoes early 90′s shoegaze bands by hiding the faux-british vocals in the miasma of distortion. The drums are deep in the mix and the whole record feels like it’s playing from across the room no matter how close you get to the speakers. Like the other shoegaze bands, Lubec might end up being a gateway drug to a Goth comeback. More specifically, Lubec are a more depressing My Bloody Valentine with a fuzzier sound, reminiscent of Dinosaur Jr’s penchant for fuzz and lackadaisical vocals.

Sometimes the similarities to these bands is downright uncanny. The intro to the first track, “You’ll Know Then,” is almost identical to the intro to The Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Just Like Honey,” with Lubec layers in several vocal tracks and a meandering bass line. The song builds from the basic backbeat to a stirring chorus; all the layers chime in for the big, chaotic ending.

The penultimate song, “Your Magic Wand,” departs drastically from this format. It’s a straight pop song designed to please fans of dance. The fuzz and reverb on everything creates an awkward song that is disjointed amidst the other tracks. It’s like those Cure songs where Robert Smith pretends like he hasn’t just spent an hour on his make up and is really pretty excited about life (“Friday I’m In Love”).

Nothing Is Enough! will be interesting to those nostalgic for the heady days of the early 90′s or those too young to remember how boring it got to look down all the time. Lubec layer their melodies too deep and process the raw sounds too much. It’s difficult to want to sift through the noise to find the difference between this record and the ones that it is based on. Like many sculptures, Nothing is Enough! is a copy of an original and lacks the same quality and feeling.