Pretend took primordial form in 2004, half a decade before releasing their mammoth debut Bones in the Soil, Rust in the Oil, a 75-minute+ project capturing the Southern California quartet’s passion for possibilities in music. While partly influenced by bands like American Football and Dilute, structured improvisation was key to Pretend’s sound, resulting in something akin to a stretched out math- or post-rock, emphasizing organic flow and the trust of your fellow player in lieu of ostentatious maximalism or overproduced climaxes.

Tapestry’d Life, the band’s second and final full-length released in 2015, totals just under 80 minutes long and leans into the formula established on their debut. Raindrop guitar and delicately delivered vocals cross with unpredictable drumming to transport listeners to a dreamlike world where formal music instruction is irrelevant to the cause of intuitive performance and songwriting.

While Pretend prized clean tone and dispensed with overwrought effects and production, the band occasionally made room for passages of reversed guitar (such as on "Doors" and "Your Own Embrace"), subtle experimentation that didn’t infringe on the band’s self imposed limits. Similarly, bouncing between numerous custom tunings allowed the band to break free of habits and explore new ways to play, leaving an indelible imprint on underground rock music.

In the space between the beats, Pretend never encountered a risk they weren’t willing to take. On Tapestry’d Life, these rhythmic leaps of faith and compositional gasps for air play out like trust falls between the players, each member challenging the other to take the leap and trust the next to break their fall.