SOUNDTRACK REVIEW: Kid Reno - In Your Dreams

Kid Reno's soundtrack to Laura Obermeyer's short film In Your Dreams is a successful artistic detour that captures a new kind of beauty in Reno's music.

Reviewed by Alex "Ash" Han

 

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a review that was originally written in early 2023, but due to various unforeseen challenges (read: life) remained unpublished until today! Although the project has been out for upwards of a year at this point, I want to remind you all to support Kid Reno and stream the project! The links to the project can be found via Kid Reno's Linktree. My previous review of Kid Reno's preceding LP, Techno for Children and Dogs, can be found here!

 

Also, don't forget to check out the film for which the soundtrack was written! Laura Obermeyer's In Your Dreams is available to watch on YouTube.

 

FOR THOSE OF US IN MUSIC TECHNOLOGY, the prospect of eventually finding work in the film industry is not an unrealistic one, and in many ways, us musicians are just as tied to the world of film as we are to the world of music. Our skills as audio engineers are in heavy demand, and the fact that our graduation requirements stipulate that all of us must take Audio for Video serves as further proof of this; in my own time in Audio for Video, I actually seemed to have somewhat of a knack for ADR and even Foley, which was a pleasant surprise! In my time in MTech, I've seen a healthy amount of undergraduates come out of that Audio for Video course and start working on student productions all over campus, armed with a newfound passion for the world of film music. That said, I myself still have yet to take a gander at actually composing original music for a film; it seems like a decidedly scary endeavor I haven't plucked up the courage to attempt yet. Thus, when Reno Haas told me he was working on the score for Laura Obermeyer's short film In Your Dreams, I found myself rather excited for him—not least because I was hyped to see him gain some work experience in this context, but also because I was secretly very intrigued to see how the brand of off-the-wall, high-octane techno-house I associate with Kid Reno would translate to a film scoring setting.

 

I went into this soundtrack album unsure of what to expect, and sure enough, the result I got was certainly very interesting! Kid Reno's soundtrack to In Your Dreams marks a significant artistic departure from the established sound of the Renoverse. Whereas Reno's previous body of work, the full-length LP Techno for Children & Dogs, was defined by its heady, spirited, and wildly energetic techno sound, In Your Dreams embraces a softer, more ethereal aesthetic, resulting in a collection of songs that skirts significantly closer to alternative pop and indie rock territory than anything I've heard from Reno so far. The new sound is hugely fitting in context; I also watched In Your Dreams, the film, in preparation for this review, which I very much enjoyed. The film plays like a cross between a skiing stunt montage and an extended music video in which director Laura Obermeyer follows the thrill-seeking adventures of a group of female skiers; coupling some genuinely insane stunts with beautiful footage of the Utah Rockies, I thought the film was a wonderfully endearing piece of work that captured a really special bond and mutual camaraderie between the group of friends depicted in the film. Reno's music underscores a good portion of the film's runtime, and makes for a wonderful, emotionally impactful addition; Reno's sweeping, majestic soundtrack manages to capture both the desolate beauty of the Utah backcountry as well as the adrenaline-filled, youthful exultation of tearing down the mountainside alongside friends cheering you on. In short, while I think In Your Dreams works best when consumed alongside its parent film, it's still an incredibly enjoyable body of music in its own right, and it makes for an excellent showcase of the kind of head-spinning creativity only Reno can pull off.

 

"I reached out to [Reno] about using some of their music back in 2020, when the project was first taking shape. Since then, they've become my best friend and biggest supporter during the process of making the movie." –Laura Obermeyer, director of In Your Dreams

 

We begin with "Aetherian (Intro)", a one-minute intro track which opens up the album on an icy, reverb-heavy synth pad that feels like a bird's eye view soaring over the snowcapped alpines of the Rockies; this synth pad soon becomes layered amidst other pads that convey a similarly spacious feeling as a spoken-word poetry sample enters over the top and a heavenly, blue-tinted synth lead plays a sparse, major key melody. I thought Reno's sound selection was absolutely perfect here; he conveys the cinematic buildup of this moment extremely well without hitting the listener over the head with a wall of sound, and the soundscape manages to feel immense and vast without being overstuffed with elements, which I thought made for a nice parallel with the duality of In Your Dreams' mountain-range setting: vertigo-inducing heights and towering peaks juxtaposed with huge empty space in between. I haven't been skiing in a long time, but for me, this track felt like the moment just before pushing off from the peak, like standing at the top of the mountain and taking in the view for a second before beginning the thrilling plunge downward into the rest of the soundtrack. "Aetherian (Intro)" was a wonderful way to set the stage, both on this album and in the actual film, and I thought it made an excellent showcase for Reno's expertise in sound selection and design.

 

 

Pictured above: Kid Reno (left) and Doggy Collar (right) performing together at Moodring on April 19th, 2024. Photograph by me.
 

The second track, titled "giribaldi's party (street) [kill the landlord]", begins with a muffled, distorted sung vocal sample that leads us into an electronic indie four-on-the-floor drum groove propelled by a crunchy snare and glassy hi-hats. We're dropped right into a killer chorus, led by digitized and slightly robotic-sounding feminine vocals in two-part harmony; I couldn't quite make out the lyrics underneath all the processing, but the melody and the chord progression combine for a lethally catchy combination that kept me tapping my feet and enthusiastically mumbling along! Reno also does some really nice work meshing together caterwauling synthesizers alongside a ripping electric guitar melody in a combination that feels impressively natural. The ensuing amalgamation sees Reno's uniquely edgy sound design and electronic/dance-centric sensibilities recontextualized inside of a pop-oriented framework, which is a combination I hadn't expected to enjoy so much! After the first chorus, we lapse into an arpeggiated tonic bass line and a subdued, moody vocal refrain of "don't listen to girls when they want you" that makes this section almost feel like an edgier, crunchier take on Billie Eilish. From here, Reno gifts us one more screaming, soaring chorus before the track ends. I feel compelled to once again revive my most common (albeit slightly tongue-in-cheek) criticism of Techno for Children and Dogs here and point out Reno's tendency to gift us hugely catchy tracks that I feel end too soon, and "giribaldi's party" is no exception! I feel like I could have listened to this track for another verse or two and not gotten bored. For what it's worth, though, the two minutes of runtime we did get were super enjoyable, and Reno's zany production hit as hard as always here.

 

The short, 37-second "Aetherian [Overture]" follows next, reviving the frosty synth lead from the intro track and pairing it with a set of loosely vocal-sounding synth pads that make me picture wind blowing through massive, resonant stone pipes on a mountainside somewhere (almost like the stone statues from "SpongeHenge"… never thought I'd make a Spongebob reference on this blog like this!) in a combination that takes us right back to the mountaintops. I love the little vocal notes and synth textures that periodically ornament the soundscape; otherwise, we stay on a simple major triad for the duration of the piece, which gave this short track a decidedly ambient feel. For whatever reason, the master seems to be really quiet on this track, and came in several decibels lower than the previous track, which did diminish the impact of the track's opening for me somewhat.

 

Pictured above: Kid Reno spinning at Kittypool, a party that took place at Ginger's on April 19th into the early morning of the 20th, raising funds for the humanitarian crisis in Palestine. Photograph by me.

 

"I Remember the Gloves On Your Hands [british columbia]" opens with a snippet of the same poetry sample that kicked off the album in "Aetherian (intro)", looped and progressively mangled more and more until it becomes unrecognizable. A heavy synth bass overlays itself with a bass guitar and peppy, doubled major key vocals as the track's instrumental comes crashing in; this song is based on Finom's "Water", a track which is heavily sampled and augmented with Reno's trademark, hard-edged electronicisms. It sounds to me like Reno's added additional synth parts and drums, which layer over each other and interweave themselves seamlessly into the original track's squealing, doubled electric guitars. As the track builds to its peak, Reno layers multiple drum kits over each other, combining a halftime drum pattern with another drum pattern at regular tempo to create a sideways-listing groove that takes us to the climax, wherein the vocalist asks "why is there water in my eyes?" over and over again through an increasingly unhinged vocal timbre as the drums bang out tumultuous, complex fills and the guitars articulate some heavy, chromatic metal riffs. We emerge from this brief moment of chaos as the track collapses back into the major key and ethereal, panned, staggered vocals close out the track in a decidedly heavenly manner. In the end, I ended up not being a massive fan of this track; I think the original track sampled here might have had a bit too much presence in the final mix, and I would have loved to hear Reno add more elements and mess with the sample some more to create something that felt more congruent with the wild creativity I normally associate with his music. Nonetheless, though, I do love the additions Reno made to the track, and I think in context with the rest of the soundtrack, it works well.

 

The fifth track, "In Your Dreams [freeride]", opens with some distant vocal notes hidden behind a layer of reverb and crackle, which lead us into a heavy arpeggiated bassline and faraway indie electronic drums; the overall vibe of this section is distinctly meditative and astral, and loosely reminds me of late 2000's retro-influenced indie synthpop acts like MGMT and Passion Pit. This track marks another point in the album where I grew really impressed with Reno's sound design, as he once again manages to evoke the lonely, hyperborean, windswept beauty of the Utah wilderness through a meticulous combination of scintillating, far-flung vocal chops and icy, howling reverb. I'm not in love with the mix on this track; the bass arpeggiator comes through kinda loud and masks over the drums, which end up feeling somewhat obscured and distant throughout the song, resulting in a pulse that felt sort of indistinct. Maybe the bass-heavy mix is an intentional creative choice, but even so, I felt like it detracted (albeit just a tad) from the listener's ability to latch onto the rest of the instrumental and appreciate its beauty. Nonetheless, though, the vibe of this track is absolutely there, and it channels the imagery of the Utah mountains exceptionally well.

 

After the brief, twelve-second "some[interlude] (where)", which I thought was a serious candidate for the most cleverly named album interlude I've seen in a hot minute, we segue into "In Your Dreams [director's cut]", a reprise/alternative cut of the title track that gives us a longer, more drawn-out intro and a different, slower-paced arrangement that sees us spend more time in drumless territory, led by ethereal and dreamy (get it? because it's… in your dreams) synth arps, majestic vocal chops, and a slowly-building kick drum. After a long buildup, we drop into a sparse drum pattern with plenty of hard-panned elements and gated reverb; the resulting vibe feels much clearer and more polished than the earlier "In Your Dreams [freeride]", and perhaps more indebted to the stark, reverb-heavy minimalism of the 1980s than the computerized electro retro-fantasy emulation of the 2000s. I really love this alternative version of "In Your Dreams", as it embraces a much more wide-open aesthetic that feels like it gives the track a lot more room to breathe, and all of Reno's little bits of ear candy and production choices get space to shine. Reno even gives us a totally new drum pattern during the track's final moments before letting the creatively-arranged vocal chops take us out.

The final track, "outer(bonus track) [limits]", feels like a loose nod to the aesthetic of Techno for Children & Dogs, mixed with a healthy amount of retro synthpop to boot! The track opens with some celestial synth pads alongside some pitched & mangled spoken vocal samples layered on top of one another to form a chattering chorus of voices; the aesthetic of this moment felt very much like Dog Collar's Jungle Fairy Tale EP from last December for me, as well as being a callback of sorts to Reno's sample-based roots. A fast-paced, building synth arp takes us into the drop, which gives us a synthpop 2/4 drum groove complete with pounding toms and a bright, animated major key melody swallowed behind a veil of reverb and delay. Reno does some entertaining stuff with the drum programming on this track, swapping out the established rhythm for a D&B-esque double-time groove and regularly subtracting and re-adding elements for a consistently dynamic feel. In contrast to the rest of the soundtrack, "outer" felt like a means for Reno to freely express his own artistry outside of the context of the film, and its aesthetic feels a lot more electronic and synth-heavy than the rest of the album does. On the whole, I thought it made for a strong addition to the record, and it was a nice way to end things off with a fun extra track!

"Reno executed my challenging vision and intense direction with impeccable grace and attention to detail, particularly on the last track. Sampling the children's choir song used in the early interlude as an "intro into the dream sequence", the final track… brings the viewer back in to end the experience in the same space… Reno spent hours and hours on FaceTime with me while I sat in isolation over the summer staring at my computer screen, and helped shape the creation of In Your Dreams into what it is in a big, big way. Forever grateful for this one." –Laura Obermeyer, director of In Your Dreams

 

At the end of the day, this album really threw me on first listen. I wasn't quite sure how to feel about the new sound, especially in comparison to Reno's previous works. I felt like there wasn't as much in the way of cool production tricks and sheer harebrained creativity for me to grab onto as there had been on Techno for Children & Dogs, which consistently threw new sounds and progressively expanding ideas at me for pretty much the whole duration of its runtime. Additionally, I developed another point of contention with this record, which mainly has to do with the mixing and mastering. Mixes on tracks like "I Remember the Gloves On Your Hands [british columbia]" and "In Your Dreams [freeride]" feel a tad unbalanced to me, and the sampled preexisting sounds don't always feel totally congruent with the new instrumentation Reno's added. Additionally, I felt like the mastering work was a bit uneven in terms of level; "outer(bonus track) [limits]" and "giribaldi's party (street) [kill the landlord]" sounded significantly louder than the other tracks on the record, and I found myself having to constantly adjust my monitors while listening to the project in order to maintain a consistent listening level, resulting in my feeling a bit like I had to arm wrestle with Spotify in order to hear the music at an appreciable volume without damaging my own hearing!

 

All that said—while In Your Dreams was definitely a curveball of sorts, and it subverted my preconceived notions of what I should expect from a Kid Reno album in a big way, I ended up coming away from it with a newfound love for the music. Despite the fact that Reno's previous penchant for serrated, edgy, unapologetically breakneck electronic dancefloor bangers is mostly absent from this new soundtrack, and is replaced with a more mellow aesthetic that takes us away from the nightclub floor and sends us deep into nature, I found myself quite taken with this new collection of songs. That said, it took me until I'd gotten around to actually watching In Your Dreams, the film, before it really clicked for me. Though the emphasis on the spirit of dance is definitely toned down a bit, Reno's sound design and selection is no less integral to the final product here, as his carefully-chosen synth patches and sample choices manage a truly impressive evocation of cold mountain air and snowcapped bluffs that for me is impossible to divorce from the film's strikingly beautiful imagery. Whereas Reno's existing work in the sphere of techno is more about making the listener want to dance, I feel like In Your Dreams is less about providing suitable background music for a dance floor and more about celebrating youth, companionship, and the process of finding joy. Laura Obermeyer's artistic vision has a lot to do with that, of course, and I'm not sure Reno's soundtrack would evoke these deep, thought-provoking themes for me without Laura's kinetic, sweeping cinematography and expert direction. In short, the soundtrack captures something very special to me, and communicates the imagery of its parent film as if it's an aural painting of friendship. And even beyond the context of the film, the album brings us some relentlessly catchy pop earworms that even now remain stuck in my head, looping over and over, proving that Reno can absolutely bring his uncompromisingly ingenious production and excel within the sphere of vocal music—so I suppose at the end of this review, the only complaint I have that matters is that I wish Reno gave us more songs like the ones on this album, and I wouldn't complain if these songs were to signal a broader artistic shift towards a more pop-adjacent sound for Kid Reno! In Your Dreams thus becomes an earnestly beautiful, ferociously creative body of work that made me develop a newfound appreciation for Kid Reno's artistic prowess and versatility, and as always, I remain ever more excited for what he does next, whether we return to the dance floor to headbang until the sun rises, or forge ever deeper into the icy mountain wilderness, that exciting uncharted territory where we make new friends and celebrate life.

Personal enjoyment score: 8 out of 10

 

Standout tracks: "giribaldi's party (street) [kill the landlord]", "In Your Dreams [director's cut]", "outer(bonus track) [limits]"

ALBUM REVIEW: P.H.0 - Karma

P.H.0's full-length debut, Karma, combines cyber-synthwave, black metal, drum & bass, and East Asian traditional music into a head-spinning, reality-warping fusion.

Reviewed by Alex "Ash" Han

 

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Before reading this review, be sure to stream Karma via P.H.0's Linktree page!

 

FEW THINGS ARE AS EXCITING as an LP which fully commits itself to breaking genre barriers and challenging our preconceived notions of how to categorize music. In this regard, it's hard to think of a more striking example than P.H.0's debut album Karma, released at the tail end of last month. Though this album rollout took place at a bit of an inopportune time for me—mainly because I was getting steamrolled by a particularly brutal final exam period at the time—Karma has soundtracked much of the last three weeks for me, mostly on account of its insane depth and level of commitment to its crossgenre spirit. For me, this is an album which seems to throw me something new every time I put it on, with a seemingly-bottomless repository of details that speak to the amount of love & care that went into this thing.

Borne out of the collision of talents between five alumni of the MTech graduate program—producer Howard "Sen" Ouyang, drummer Pierre Zheyu Pi, guitarist Jun Guo, erhuist Danting "Chi-Chi" Qiao, and modular synth artist Minghim Tong—the eclecticism that defines P.H.0's work is evident just from the lineup. My first taste of P.H.0 came in the form of "Ascension", the lead single from Karma, which showcased an epic, larger-than-life collision between Mongolian morin khuur music, black metal, and breakcore. That song showcased a number of really compelling crossover points between the various artists in P.H.0's lineup, as "Ascension" threw us a ton of moments wherein everyone just seemed to click, their synergy propelling the song forward with an infectious and relentless sense of momentum. In short, hearing a lead single as interesting and driven as "Ascension" really got my hopes up going into Karma, and I found myself hoping that the whole LP would build on the wild eclecticism and impeccable pacing of their prior material. Suffice it to say that that expectation was definitively met, as Karma proved to be nothing less than a rollercoaster ride of mind-boggling proportions, pulling from a world's worth of different sounds to create a very compelling showcase of the artistic identity that makes P.H.0 who they are.

"To say Karma is a meticulously planned project is an absolute exaggeration, as it was initially intended to be an EP but quickly grew into a full-length album because we are an indecisive bunch with a strong tendency toward perfectionism, which can be excessively fastidious at times. However, despite resulting in a very intensive production and engineering process, that insistence on perfectionism is what made us very proud of the end product, and we are finally able to share with you our debut album: Karma." –Howard Ouyang a.k.a. Sen

 

The LP opens with "Vanity", featuring a distant East Asian traditional sample replete with pentatonic woodwind melodies and tangu drumbeats before crashing into a black metal breakdown anchored in heavy guitars and huge acoustic drums. The momentum of the pounding drums lends the LP a very real sense of urgency and energy from the track's opening seconds, blasting out of the gates with a great degree of fanfare. Pierre and Jun combine to make for a very compelling introduction to the universe of P.H.0, combining hard-hitting drumming with thick, distorted metal riffs that jacks the energy up to 11. Minghim also makes an early appearance here, contributing little synthesizer notes and sound effects that flicker in and out of each ear, which add a nice bit of diversification to the rhythmic soundscape provided by Pierre's drums. Before long, we hit a huge curveball of a sudden tempo slowdown that seems ripe for headbanging, giving Minghim's wailing background synth textures and Jun's heavy guitar a moment to shine. Soon after, though, the tempo speeds back up to normal, and Jun throws us some clean arpeggiated guitar picking over tangu drums; Chi-Chi's erhu makes its first appearance here, its weeping, singsong timbre making for an excellent break from the heavy metal wall of sound textures that defined the track's first half. Chi-Chi's erhu playing is truly beautiful, lending the track a really nice expressive and contemplative edge that serves as a nice contrast with the track's more aggressive metal leanings. Chi-Chi maintains her posture as the lead performer throughout this second leg of the track, even as the background synths begin to swell and we collapse into a section backed by electronic drums and sidechained synth bass, serving as a detour into a sort of listing, darkwave-esque groove. I thought the sidechaining of Jun's distorted chords to the kick drum was really well done here, and gave this section a really nice sort of hybrid synthwave/metal vibe I really enjoyed. In short, "Vanity" feels excellent in terms of its pacing; no one section drags for too long, and the arrangement choices made in taking us from metal to erhu soloing to synthwave feel earned and natural. The journey-like experience of this track is excellent, and it does a wonderful job at capturing a meandering, winding path through many different musical territories that sets up the ground we're to cover in the rest of the LP very well.

"…the opening track 'Vanity' started over a year ago, even before the band was formed, as Howard’s experiment with the goal of integrating Beiguan, a traditional form of music that originated in northern Taiwan in the 17th century, with laser-like guitar riffs that aim to imitate the atonality and the articulation of the suona, a traditional Chinese wind instrument commonly used in Beiguan… Jun, bringing his post-rock influences, added an ambient guitar section filled with reverb washes, which inspired Howard to add an erhu solo on top of it as well as Pierre to follow up the post-rock section with a synthwave breakdown combined with Djent-like, palm-muted riffs and a lead part played with a real suona by our friend Tong, a professional Chinese flute and suona player based here in the city. What was originally a straightforward, mosh pit-friendly experimental metal track became an amalgamation of our musical experiences spanning across progressive metal, post-rock, synthwave, and traditional Chinese folk music." –Howard Ouyang a.k.a. Sen

The LP's second track, "Shin (feat. Her Dark Heaven)", opens on a heavy, cinematic sweeping pad sound punctuated by little synth notes here and there. A distant vocal sample soon layers over the soundscape, asking, "where's the substance, the substance of the soul?", which I thought made for a nice meditative vibe. Jun plays a clean, Metallica-esque riff over a heavy, harmonically rich synthwave sub bass as the slowly-building synth arps and touches of Chi-Chi's faraway, reverb-soaked erhu build tension in the back. The track reads like something of an interlude to me, and though I'm not normally a fan of interludes appearing this early in the tracklist, the swell into the subsequent track "Yè" is amazing and works really well as a buildup within the context of the greater project's pacing.

"My life is split into two parts: during the day, I follow the rules, working along the L train between Bushwick and Chinatown. I present myself as the ideal image that my parents, who believe in the Chinese Communist dream, prefer. Every day, they remind me about my life in America—on the other side of the Earth—which they both hate and miss deeply.
At night, I tear off my stockings and immerse myself in the horror of the darkness, enjoying the collective nightmare of a surreal and bizarre humanity, as if the rules and suffering of the daytime no longer exist. I no longer remember how I clutched my visa and struggled to survive on this land, forgetting how people reminded me that different faces and voices were my sins.
At this moment, my music is my scream, it is the only language I have in my panic. It represents me, if you listen." –Danting Qiao a.k.a. Chi-Chi

Jun's riff from "Shin" continues and grows into "Yè (feat. Her Dark Heaven)", the third track on Karma. Heavy metal chugs punctuate the soundscape between shredded melodic passages on electric guitar, loosely echoed by Minghim's screaming synth textures in the background. Distant, almost-androgynous, light vocals enter during the verse, bringing a plaintive timbre alongside octave doubling and supremely catchy, soaring melodies. Vocalist Jack Doyle's vocal performance on the track is awesome, bringing a somewhat disaffected, numb-sounding emotional texture that nonetheless conveys a great deal of pathos, reminding me a bit of Julian Casablancas in the process. Amidst this titanic vocal chorus, we catch little atmospheric washes of erhu and occasional clean guitar chords poking through the soundscape, which I thought made for a really nice touch. The middle section brings a come-down moment where Jun's melodic guitar gradually builds layers on top of itself in polyphonic harmony before pulling back slightly to make room for Minghim's textural synth touches. The whole band feels utterly locked in on this track in particular, with each member seamlessly coming to the forefront at select moments and passing the spotlight around; Jun and Chi-Chi have excellent interplay as the two predominantly "lead" performers, if you will, backed by Minghim, Howard, and Pierre in equal measure. Nevertheless, the soundscape never threatens to overwhelm Jack, whose lead vocals anchor the track and provide a nice sense of pathos to play off of Chi-Chi's expressive erhu playing. In short, I thought the pacing of this track was particularly excellent, and the interplay between each member of P.H.0 was done really smartly as well. After an ending section featuring a half-time breakdown where the vocals return, the track ends and we fade out to the sound of static noise.

"The title track 'Yè' (or 'Karma' in English) and its overture 'Shin' are the only two tracks with vocals (huge props to our great friend Jack Doyle from Her Dark Heaven for contributing their angelic vocal!) that we wrote from scratch and later produced together as a group. 'Yé' started as two guitar parts written by Howard playing pentatonic scales to imitate traditional Chinese plucked string instruments, but what truly defined it was Jun's addition of an ambient guitar lead that set the tone of the track: ethereal, heavy, at times eerie, and most importantly, East Asian — and not in the Western, on-the-surface sense where we could simply add a gong at the beginning of every section or a sample of any traditional East Asian instrument on top of a heavy metal or EDM instrumental." –Howard Ouyang a.k.a. Sen

"Jiva" begins with muffled, sub-heavy, pounding drum pattern, eventually becoming ornamented with additional shakers and percussion. Jun's guitar outlines a distorted, wailing melody in Phrygian dominant mode to introduce us to the harmonic soundscape of the track, setting the mood with a rather alien and desolate vibe. Chittering percussion and ambiguously tonal synth pads contribute to the growing apocalyptic mood of the track, before we hit a short vocoder break, followed by a tempo change that speeds us up and ratchets up the energy of the track. Electronic drums and heavy bass enter in full force, taking us into another synthwave/metal crossover section featuring octave-lead guitar and swelling synth arrangements. The vocoder returns, outlining a cacophony of speaking voices, talking over one another and becoming increasingly digitized in a really cool moment that evokes a sort of robotic symphony. "Jiva" feels like a sonic hurricane, a barrage of sounds that nonetheless remains tightly focused and evocative of some really cool sonic territory.

"The modular synth and the erhu production started later in the entire production pipeline, taking place mostly at Minghim’s studio apartment where he recorded and [engineered] the erhu by himself. Minghim’s addition of modular synth and additional production works also elevate the production value of the entire record, most notably on 'Jiva' and 'Wu Wuo': for example, the fragmented, modular chaos at the end of 'Jiva', which was made using Howard’s and his wife’s recitation of a poem from the game Cyberpunk 2077, and the thick, immersive layers of textures and pads under the erhu solo in 'Wu Wuo'." –Howard Ouyang a.k.a. Sen

The LP's fifth track, "Mo", features drum & bass influences front and center, as we open on a distant, weeping string sample and an uptempo, sped-up breakbeat. Chi-Chi's pentatonic erhu melodies are once again utilized nicely over a huge sub bass and distant, wailing pads. Minghim hits us with a breakdown section augmented with stereoized downers and distant flashes of chopped-up erhu in a moment that I thought made for a really cool moment of calm before the storm. However, in true P.H.0 fashion, it isn't long before we return to the aesthetics of black metal & doom metal. Pierre brings us a rapidly-subdivded kick drum and a syncopated rhythm that synergizes well with Jun's heavy chugs. Soon, the rhythm section finds a steady, driving pulse, where Minghim gets the lead, articulating some cool, icy synth melodies over the top of Jun's wall of guitars. A really cool moment came during a 12/8 time switch, where a plucked string instrument enters the stereo field; I'm not totally certain, but I think the string instrument is a guzheng, which made for a super cool addition that feels right at home amidst the guitars somehow. I remained seriously wowed by the intersectionality of P.H.0's synthesis of traditional East Asian instruments within an electronic metal context, and I thought that the inclusion of the guzheng here was a really tastefully done example of this. Shortly thereafter, Chi-Chi gets an erhu solo where she truly shreds, playing some super impressive fast riffs over Jun's massive guitar backing. In keeping with P.H.0's signature sound, "Mo" is another track which feels like a journey from start to finish, with stops along the way in various musical landscapes which P.H.0 harnesses and makes their own.

"Maruya" is a shorter track, clocking in at just under two minutes, and opens on a distorted, warped, almost-vocal sample. Minghim's synth textures soon enter to provide a steady arpeggiated techno, acid-house bassline, augmented with pleasant dissonances and faraway flashes of percussion. The track maintains a dynamic and constantly shifting soundscape on account of the use of arrangement FX and moving filters, which I thought was really cool. Soon, we get a four-on-the-floor kick which steadily builds energy heading into a huge key change accompanied by icy, howling synth pads and a haunting, arrhythmic vocoder. The cinematic, sweeping energy of this track is truly awesome, and feels like a movie trailer-sized spin on the artistic leanings of artists like Kid Reno. The inclusion of this interlude-like track made for a nice moment of respite from the otherwise-breakneck pace that defines this LP, allowing the listener to take a breath and be quietly immersed in the heady, apocalyptic, cyberpunk world of Karma for a second, while also serving as a very compelling showcase of Minghim and Howard's talents.

"Wu Wuo" returns us to techno territory, kicking off with a steady kick pulse and warped, robotic vocal samples. The Kid Reno & Dog Collar parallels remained strong for me here, with the heavy, subby pulse of the drums reminding me a little of the Ecliptic collaboration track "jacuzzi" from Dog Collar's Jungle Fairy Tale EP last year. Flickering percussion breakbeats (maybe bongos?) pair with offbeat open hats to create an interesting cross-section of traditional music that nonetheless exists in firmly electronic territory. Soon, Jun's guitar comes crashing in, outlining an indisputably sick Phrygian riff that intertwines throughout Chi-Chi's erhu passages. The interplay between Chi-Chi and Jun is showcased really well here, I feel, with both getting plenty of chances to solo and flex their instrumental chops; in particular, Chi-Chi's rapid, nimble sixteenth note shreds made for a really cool addition. A spoken, 1950s radio play-esque vocal sample plays over a short break, proclaiming the forthcoming abolishment of worldly pleasures in a moment that furthers Karma's ominous vision of the future. Finally, there's a really cool halftime break in the last leg of the track where the guitar breaks off into syncopated chugs as Minghim's wailing synth textures take up residence in the background before the track's eventual end. On first listen, the dynamism that so often defines P.H.0's work for me felt less present here, and I felt less like I was being taken on a journey as compared to some of the other more rhapsodic endeavors in the tracklist, but as I've come back to this track more and more, it's slowly entrenched itself as being one of my favorites on the album. The apocalyptic soundscape of Karma is conveyed nowhere better than through the distant spoken proclamations, erhu shredding, pounding subs, and crashing metal riffs of "Wu Wuo", and the vibe of this track is nothing short of incredible.

"Bodhaka" is another short, interlude-style track that opens on soaring, dark-80s cyberwave synths before collapsing into a huge open fifths vocal sample that rides the line between organic and synthetic. Minghim's sound design really shines here, with a ton of cool evolving chord tones that incrementally fade in and out to keep the musical soundscape slowly yet resolutely moving forward. Around halfway through, the track enters a big switchup with a bunch of pseudo-vocal synth pads entering, accompanied by what sounds like a distant howl in the background. It's a really cool sound; I'm not sure whether its origins are organic or fully synthetic in nature, but either way, it makes for a really cool cinematic moment, a cloud-clearing rush that takes us into the LP's final act.

"While most drum parts were pre-programmed by Howard for demo purposes, Pierre, as the drummer of the band, was in charge of programming the drums, selecting kits, and perfecting the flow of the drums to make them sound realistic when they needed to. We used a mix of virtual drum instrument plugins by GetGood Drums and stock Ableton drum samples." –Howard Ouyang a.k.a. Sen

"Genko", the penultimate track on Karma, opens with a pulsing, cybernetic D minor synth groove that rather reminded me of the soundtrack to Detroit: Become Human for some reason. A lead melody soon enters over the faraway, muted pulse of the kick drum, taking the form of an erhu sidechained in quarter notes, which I thought made for a really nice touch of extra dynamism, even amongst Chi-Chi's already very expressive playing. The Phrygian zither countermelodies sound excellent in context, once again showcasing P.H.0's ability to combine melodic textures from synthetic and Asian traditional soundscapes. The track hits with a huge beat drop that takes us into a synthwave drum pattern consisting of a steadily rising & falling hi-hat pattern over a reverbed, snappy snare drum and a solid kick. The momentum of this thing feels very unwavering and purposeful, evoking images like an android factory assembly line, metallic robot arms clanging in unison up and down the way. Eventually, we break into a clanging snare with trap hi-hat rolls over a detuned synth bass and distant claps that shake up the groove a little and take us into loosely cyberpunk-ish Eurobeat territory. I thought this little change in sound selection was really nice, and made for a continuation of the previously-established vibe while still throwing us enough new material to keep us entertained. There's a nice middle section where all the synth lines slowly become more noisy, distorted, and hi-passed, before we fall back into a heavy guitar-driven section. The tempo/meter switch into 5/4 time that happens here didn't quite feel totally natural to me, though it did make the eventual return to common time amidst Jun's syncopated chugs and Chi-Chi's soaring lead that much more satisfying, so I suppose it works as a structural element. "Genko" definitely feels like an ambitious piece of work, and I really appreciated its heavier lean into the cyberpunk aesthetic of P.H.0's work—the seamless evocation of dark, neon-lit skyscrapers under a desolate, gray sky thick with smog works excellently here, and I found myself pulled even more firmly into the world of P.H.0 for a second.

With that vivid image still fresh in my mind, returning to "Ascension" felt like coming home. This song had served as my introduction to the work of P.H.0 in the first place, and it served in that role in remarkable fashion, articulating a sharp, edgy, striking picture through a laser-focused artistic vision. The momentous, cinematic, morin khuur-laden buildup right from the start of the track hits that much harder now that it arrives at album's end, and the arrival of each element one by one—the soaring erhu, the fast-paced breakbeat, the growling sub bass, the chunky, jagged power chords—feels like each band member returning to the stage at the end of the show for one last hurrah, leaving everything out there once and for all. In short, it's a listening experience of epic proportions, and its inclusion here as the last track on the album was a fitting choice. Karma goes out much the same way it came in—as the final whisper of erhu fades away, Karma cements itself as an explosive whirlwind of sounds, sandblasting its way out of the gates, whistling & howling as it whips away amidst the current, leaving behind a windswept cityscape begging for more.

"What we want is to create something new using both Western and Eastern musical elements and based on the musical framework of the East and give these historically rich and now endangered musical instruments, techniques, and ideas the representation and the reinvigoration they deserve and desperately need. We aimed to capture the essence of East Asian music not by merely adding traditional instruments as superficial ornamentation but by reflecting our social, cultural, historical, and religious experiences living in various parts of East Asia, from Taiwan and China to Japan. This very much encompasses the core theme of this record: expand upon the more Western-dominated musical palette, make musical elements derived from Western music traditions serve the musical framework of the East instead of the other way around, and develop our unique musical language, which is authentic and truly East Asian. In that sense, P.H.0 is an 'experimental' band, serving as an experiment in flipping the power dynamic between the musical framework of the East and the current musical landscape dominated by Western music traditions." –Howard Ouyang a.k.a. Sen

 

Karma is an album that exists firmly entrenched in a crossroads of sorts; the various influences from heavy metal, drum and bass, synthwave, and East Asian folk music are combined and incorporated into each other in a tasteful and natural fashion to give rise to a fusion sound that truly belongs to P.H.0 in a way not many artists can claim. Each of the contributions of P.H.0's five members feel clear and distinct, pulling from a diverse selection of different lived experiences & musical backgrounds that nonetheless come together into a cogent & cohesive whole that feels far greater than the sum of its individual parts. For me, the album experience encapsulated a really poignant summation of my own experience as a product of the Asian-American diaspora. Maybe it's the album's ability to adapt familiar Western musical elements to a distinctly Eastern context that feels very evocative of my own longing to reconnect with a culture and heritage from which I have always been distanced; as a child, my own parents made an effort to make sure I assimilated into American life, and I did so successfully, but at the cost of my connections with my Chinese and Korean heritage. My own lack of immersion into my family's culture and inability to speak their languages permanently distances me from ever being truly accepted as being a part of that society and world, and perhaps it is for this reason that I found Karma so powerful. Language might be learned, but music is universal, and as such, this album has a unique ability to bridge the gap across which myself, as well as many others, including the members of P.H.0, exist.

 

In short, this LP is incredible, and hits very close to home. From start to finish, the intentionality of this LP remains its biggest selling point; despite the huge diversity in sounds from which the members of P.H.0 pull, they remain resolutely self-assured as they forge a new path into uncharted territory. The creative vision behind this LP is truly striking—the band's goal of recontextualizing Western sounds in an Eastern framework is compelling from the outset, but it was evident even from the very first listen that their conceptualization of the sound they want to be associated with is crystal clear. Not one single track on this album feels like a half-baked idea, or a loose figment of an ill-fated artistic experiment that never should have left the drawing board. The imagery elicited by this album was also extremely strong, and I found its creative vision to be exceptionally vivid and striking as a result; the conceptualization and execution of Howard's vision was achieved remarkably well on account of everyone's careful contributions, innovative sound design, and excellent management of their own soundscape. Aside from a few minor points of contention with the mix, which are likely stemming from my own personal preferences anyways, this LP is bulletproof. Karma is likely to be one of the most striking debuts I've heard in a long time, and I fully consider myself to be aboard the P.H.0 hype train now—wherever they take us next, I'm sure that both the destination and the journey will deliver something insightful, profound, and ascendant, and I await eagerly for them to take us there.

Personal enjoyment score: 10 out of 10

Standout tracks: "Vanity", "Yè (feat. Her Dark Heaven)", "Mo", "Wu Wuo", "Ascension"

EP REVIEW: Deadbeat Girl - What Will It Take?

Deadbeat Girl's debut EP What Will It Take? delivers five incisive, heart-rending tracks that will leave you longing for more.  

Reviewed by Alex "Ash" Han

 

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Stream this project via Deadbeat Girl's Linktree page! Also available there are the links to some of the music videos associated with this project, so definitely check those out as well!

 

ALL OF US ON THE EIGHTH FLOOR come from humble beginnings, but every once in a blue moon, one MTech student surfaces from the miasmic depths of the streaming algorithm with a breakthrough song that exposes them to a wider audience for the first time—a moment which marks the beginning of a long upwards journey towards the distant prospect of fame. It's not often it happens, but it's usually quite the cause for celebration; our small community can oftentimes be quite diffuse and spread-out, but when someone does strike gold (i.e. streams), the news can fuel days' worth of excited eighth-floor chatter. Though Valentina Olson, perhaps better known under her artist moniker Deadbeat Girl, left MTech last year in favor of Gallatin, her steadily-growing online presence, visible through her constantly-expanding fanbases on Instagram and TikTok, as well as her 30,000 monthly listeners on Spotify at the time of this article's publication—not to mention her surprise appearance at a Brooklyn concert playing guitar for none other than girl in red last year—has granted her a certain reverence amongst the MTech community. Ever since I arrived in MTech myself, Valentina has carried a reputation built on her proclivity for catchy, hard-hitting songwriting rendered through a uniquely anguished and raw artistic presentation—a striking combination which immediately gave her music its own distinctive stamp. So many of us student musicians exist in a perpetual state of feeling around in the dark, trying to find out precisely who we are as artists, and yet Valentina felt like a fully-realized artist from the very first time I heard her music. In a few decisive strokes, she established who she was and what she was here to do with a remarkable artistic clarity that speaks to the strength of her creative vision—one that I hoped would get a chance to come even more into focus with the release of her debut EP.

 

Preceded by the release of its lead single, "Another Day", in September of last year, What Will It Take? represents a long-awaited debut project from a truly exciting titan of an artist. Clocking in at five tracks, spanning 16 minutes and 39 seconds, What Will It Take? promises nothing more than a momentary peek into Deadbeat Girl's universe, a mere taste of an artistic tapestry which myself, alongside the 30,000 other Spotify listeners bumping this EP, have been waiting a very long time to dive into. Heading in, I hoped that the project would provide enough new material that showcases Deadbeat Girl's trademark strengths to give itself the longevity it needs to hold us over until Valentina follows it up with something new. Nevertheless, in any case, What Will It Take? presents a rock-solid collection of songs that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Deadbeat Girl absolutely has what it takes to continue to succeed, both at Gallatin and undoubtedly far beyond.

 

"I started writing [What Will It Take?] while I was in high school living in South Florida in a very Catholic, conservative hometown. A lot of my songs are about the aches and pains of teenager-hood but also the aches and pains of a queer person growing up in an unaccepting environment." –Valentina Olson a.k.a. Deadbeat Girl

 

The EP's first track, "Take Me Home", was also released as a single in January of this year, and opens the project on a decidedly indie-adjacent pop punk note. Opening on charming layers of arpeggiated guitar picking and a loosely '80s new wave drum groove that reminds me a bit of "I Melt With You" by Modern English, Valentina sings what at first glance puts up a convincing masquerade as a straightforward love song, but upon closer inspection reveals suffocating, anxious undertones that point towards themes of toxicity and emotional dependency. Valentina's vocals here are detached, veiled to an extent behind a curtain of reverb and delay that lends her vocal performance a certain obscurity. Nonetheless, Valentina delivers the lines with her trademark brand of pathos—straddling the line between apathetic disaffectedness and overwhelming passion in a way only she can pull off. The refrain of "Don't let me go, don't let me go/I love you so, I love you so" is beautiful in its austerity, and is no less catchy as a result, especially when Valentina's vocals soar over those higher passages. Backed by an almost-cutesy blend of strummed acoustic campfire chords and subtle electric guitar-based counterpoint over handclaps and tambourine, the sonic palette evokes something timeless for me, at once retro and modern, which furthers the Modern English resemblances for me. The hook does suffer a little in the mixing department, though, as the long reverb on the lead vocal tends to disproportionately accentuate sibilant sounds and smear them out over several hundred milliseconds, which sometimes causes the lead vocal to disappear a little—not a huge deal, but it started to get a little distracting on repeated listens. Nonetheless, "Take Me Home" makes for an exciting opening to the EP that introduces the listener to the unique conveyance of the blend between anxiety and romance upon which Deadbeat Girl builds her craft.

 

"…all of these songs started in my childhood bedroom using my acoustic guitar and my mini bedroom studio to create demos for each song that I would later bring to my producer in South Florida, Ferny Coipel, to perfect and polish." –Valentina Olson a.k.a. Deadbeat Girl

 

The EP's second track and second single, "She Loves Me", slows things down a little, as we get an opening of strummed acoustic guitar chords that backs a simple lead acoustic melody out of the right channel. Valentina's vocals once again provide a uniquely gripping performance, as here, she sounds like she's on the verge of tears, choking out each line with a wavering scratchiness to her voice that lends the song a certain level of bedroom-pop vulnerability that only adds to the charm of the whole thing. The first chorus brings a vocal melody that soars into the upper fourth octave over lush, layered acoustic guitar chords and the unmistakable twang of a banjo in the back of the sound field, which I thought made for a really nice addition to the song's folksy singer-songwriter vibe. These melodies never feel like static loops, and continue to evolve and undulate over the course of the song, which is something I really appreciated; in general, the dynamic yet sparse soundscape of this song was really well-managed, and little touches like the single electric piano notes and occasional percussive hits recessed far into the back corners of the stereo field always felt natural and never out-of-place. Though the track approaches five minutes in length, those minutes fly by, and the emotional trajectory provided by "She Loves Me" feels wholly earned and satisfying.

"These Walls" is a new track that opens on ominous triplet finger-picked acoustic guitar passages soaked in a claustrophobic reverb. Soon, we begin the track with a soft four-on-the-floor kick that lends the track a sense of subtle, pulsing momentum. Masked behind a dense, yet relatively short reverb, Valentina sings about the feeling of being trapped and having to constantly chase after someone. Once again, her detached vocal performance makes for a perfect parallel with the track's narrative themes of emotional turmoil and struggle, but also with the soundscape's distinctly closed-in and suffocating vibe. The guitar-based soundscape becomes occasionally punctuated by sound effects: a burst of white noise here, an 808-style clap soaked in reverb there… the overall vibe resolves into something rather desolate and bleak as a result, conveying a sort of big, empty space despite the track's sense of claustrophobia. The instrumental is packed full of cool production & arrangement tricks; acoustic guitar notes suddenly reverse and swell into themselves, synth pads seamlessly interweave themselves through the soundscape before turning tail, duplicates and chops of Valentina's vocals echo distantly like tortured wails from just beyond the horizon. I really appreciate the attention to detail that went into this instrumental; it's clear that every second was meticulously crafted, and the resultant vibe is nothing short of incredible. Straddling a sort of in-between territory indebted to singer-songwriter acoustic pop that also absorbs loose influences from ambient techno and chillwave, "These Walls" is thoroughly haunting and hair-raising, and it's genuinely unlike anything I've ever heard before. Make no mistake: this is no typical alt-rock cut. It's something else entirely, and it may have just carved itself a niche amongst one of my favorite tracks I've ever covered on this blog. Seriously—go listen to this thing. It's absolutely nuts and Valentina, her producers, and engineers deserve all the credit for creating something this uniquely striking and incredible.

"As a person who has grown up listening to all sorts of alternative music in my house, I’ve drawn inspiration from The Neighborhood, Death Cab for Cutie, girl in red, Phoebe Bridgers, Paramore, Foo Fighters, and many more alternative, rock, indie, pop trailblazers in this debut EP." –Valentina Olson a.k.a. Deadbeat Girl

 

It's hard to believe that it's been almost two years since I heard "Another Day" for the first time, and yet, when that familiar opening guitar/piano riff washed over me once again, it hit with all the energy and bombast it had greeted me with during that Collegium listening session all those months ago. How much can I say about this track that hasn't already been said? It's incredible. The atmosphere of the track remains untouchable, providing an ethereal mix of reverb-heavy acoustic elements and in-your-face hard rock in a perfectly-executed intermarriage that hammers home the track's themes of perseverance in the face of suicidal ideation to a tee, meshing influences from iDKHOW to Paramore and back again seamlessly. Valentina's soaring vocals over the crashing walls of guitars and cymbals make for a moment of unparalleled catharsis, perhaps intensified by the song's newfound context as the fourth track on the EP. Indeed, the track's final chorus, where Valentina really lets the vocals rip, hits that much harder now that we've had three other tracks prior to this point in order to build the tension. In short, "Another Day" remains just as strong as the day I first heard it, and is made perhaps even stronger in context with the rest of the EP. I truly don't think I'll ever get bored of this song, and something tells me I can keep coming back to it for weeks or months or years and still be absolutely swept away by Valentina's decisive and evocative rendering of what it's like to struggle with thoughts of suicide. It's truly a track that captures something unforgettable for me, and I do fully believe that you're actively missing out if you haven't heard it yet.

 

"These songs are a time capsule of my personal life experiences for the past two years and it’s nothing but honest and genuine. I created this project for queer people and anyone who is going through emotional turmoil to find a home in… [What Will It Take?] is my most vulnerable yet, for sure." –Valentina Olson a.k.a. Deadbeat Girl

The last track on the EP, "More - Demo", feels a bit like a bonus track to me, perhaps due to its categorization as a demo, and its notably DIY vibe as compared to the rest of the project, which feels very much like a product of the studio. In contrast, "More" opens with a distant false-start take wherein Valentina stops to ask if we're recording before continuing on, over a healthy amount of white noise and tape hiss. The track definitely feels like a demo in terms of scale, consisting solely of a single acoustic guitar, Valentina's trademark plaintive vocals, and a healthy amount of reverb. The track remains small in scale until what I assume to be the chorus section enters for the first time (with only a minute and forty-three seconds of runtime, divining song structure can be hard sometimes!), when some incredible sweeping vocal layers enter, creating some huge, lush harmonies that made for a really nice listen. Soon, though, the vocals fade away, until we're left with just the acoustic guitar, and a soft exhale from Valentina that signals the end of this project. Even so, I can only hope that "More - Demo" was included on this EP to serve as a teaser for what will eventually be a fully-completed & released track, since it bears all the hallmarks of a Deadbeat Girl track to me—the austere yet atmospheric presentation, a catchy yet heart-rending chorus, a distinctly apocalyptic yet somehow hopeful mood that feels like we're watching Valentina bare her soul. It's a shame there's only a demo here, at present, since I feel like we're looking at the skeleton of a song that could easily stack up against "Take Me Home" or "Another Day" once it's been completed. The emotional magnetism and forceful passion that for me serves as a trademark stamp of Deadbeat Girl's music is absolutely present in "More - Demo", and I hope it's not long before Valentina gives us just that - more.

 

What Will It Take? brings a long list of positives to the table during its short sixteen minutes of runtime. First and foremost, it's a resoundingly successful showcase for the songwriting talents of one Valentina Olson, who puts on a tour-de-force performance over this EP's five tracks, capturing head-over-heels romantic capitulation and spiraling anxiety in equal measure. She maintains a very high standard of quality and resolutely sticks to it over the course of the entire EP: every lyric feels like nothing less than Valentina's best, yet also manages to feel like a true and authentic expression of her inner turmoil. I think that dichotomy ultimately forms the project's biggest strength—Valentina never seems like she's straying away from being true to herself, and the consistent incisiveness of her deep-cutting lyrics reveals the strength and precision of her conception of who she is as an artist. Deadbeat Girl is unapologetically flawed, unflinchingly vulnerable, down-to-earth and human through and through, and that contributes to a hugely relatable artist persona universal enough to resonate with 30,000 people at present and untold numbers to come.

 

This EP also feels thoroughly professional in its presentation. The production, mixing, and mastering all boast a level of polish that allows the songs at the core of this thing to really come through and shine. The use of reverb to create atmosphere on this EP was also really well-done, in my opinion; it's easy to overuse reverb in pursuit of creating a unique vibe, but here, it's used tastefully, with just enough of a sense of space to further the songs' suffocating & claustrophobic nature without resulting in significant loss of clarity. Aside from the occasional minor mixing hiccup here and there, most notably the reverb tending to gravitate towards & latch onto sibilant sounds on "Take Me Home" and "Another Day", this EP sounds excellent, and thoroughly subverts the often rough-around-the-edges nature that so many debut projects tend to (inadvertently) adopt.

 

Safe to say that What Will It Take? is a juggernaut of a debut project that sets the bar extremely high for Deadbeat Girl's artistry. I do, however, have one major criticism of the project—which admittedly has as much to do with the songs that are not on the EP as with the songs that are. In total, this EP contains five songs, of which one is a demo, and three of those songs have already been released as singles—namely, "Take Me Home", "She Loves Me", and "Another Day". In the case of such a short project, these songs already having been released became something of a double-edged sword; while I did find that the sheer catharsis of "Another Day" was somewhat elevated by the three tracks that came before, I also felt that my listening experience as to the opening of this EP was damaged somewhat by the fact that "Take Me Home" and "She Loves Me" were already tracks that I had plenty of time to become familiar with. It took until "These Walls" to really get a taste of something new, and that was a shame, because I had come into this project really hoping to get a greater & more comprehensive sense of who Deadbeat Girl is as an artist. In that sense, What Will It Take? simply delivers more of the strengths we know; those of us who knew Valentina as an incisive, passionate songwriter will come out of this project feeling more affirmed in that belief, but those of us who wanted to see what else she could deliver may either have to settle for "These Walls" and "More - Demo" for the foreseeable future, or continue to resolutely wait until the next Deadbeat Girl project. Having said that, I think the lack of content on this project is indicative of Valentina's commitment to a "quality over quantity" sort of ethos. For all I know, maintaining the very high standard of quality set by the five songs that we got may very well not have been possible at all had she felt compelled to finish and include a sixth track, or a seventh. Perhaps it's better this way, and in any case, I have no choice but to have faith that whatever Valentina brings us next will satisfy that desire and keep evolving her music in new and exciting directions.

 

So in the end, I suppose the final takeaway from What Will It Take? goes something like this: This EP showcases a tight collection of five tracks, all of which are universally strong, heavy hitters of alternative & indie rock that truly could not have been written by anyone else. If you're looking for a songwriter who can cut right to the heart of what it's like to struggle with balancing love for another person with your own inner demons, then there's very few who can fulfill that role quite like Deadbeat Girl. And, if, like me, you fell in love with "Another Day" during Collegium all those months ago, then you'll definitely find something to love about this new project. But even so, the question that invariably follows all debut projects—"so what next?"—burns especially intensely here, and the familiarity of Deadbeat Girl's unique, tortured brand of alt rock only partially scratches the itch for more of her music. What Will It Take? itself thus poses the question: if not one of my favorite debut projects I've ever come across, then what will it take to get enough Deadbeat Girl? Only Valentina can answer that question, and I will wait with bated breath until she does.

 

Personal enjoyment score: 8.5 out of 10

Standout tracks: "These Walls", "Another Day"… but seriously, just take 16 minutes and listen to the whole thing. You won't regret it.

EP REVIEW: The Plastic Eyes - Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes

On Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes, The Plastic Eyes deliver a refreshingly modern, polished spin on 1970s classic rock.

Reviewed by Ash

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Before reading this review, please take ten minutes to give the EP a listen! The links to the project on all major streaming platforms can be found via The Plastic Eyes' Linktree page.

A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR from me to you! I hope you all are resting comfortably as your final grades from last semester trickle in. Today, I'm bringing you a bite-sized review of a similarly-sized project. Hailing from Florida, the retro-flavored rock band The Plastic Eyes released their debut EP in October of 2022. Titled Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes, the EP is a tight, three-song collection of 1970s throwback classic rock that showcases the band's three members locked in sync together like a well-oiled machine. Fronted by MTech undergrad Tomas Della Torre, who performs lead vocals and guitars, the EP was recorded as a three-piece, with Pedro Restrepo on bass and Isaac Poler on drums. Tomas also served as chief songwriter and lyricist during the making of the EP, which was recorded at Hit Central in northern Miami and at Isaac's home studio. The end result is a faithful ode to classic rock that sees the band turn in a remarkably tight package of songs, cementing all three members as skilled musicians.

 

Pictured above: The Plastic Eyes. From left to right: drummer Isaac Poler, guitarist & vocalist Tomas Della Torre, bassist Pedro Restrepo, and guitarist Rogelio Bofill. Rogelio joined The Plastic Eyes after the recording sessions for Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes, hence why I haven't really mentioned him in this review.

The EP opens with "Acid Rain", which kicks off the project on a dark, slowly-building guitar riff. The tight guitar & bass interplay on this track reminded me a bit of Fleetwood Mac, with the guitar parts integrating melodic passages and chords together in a way that I thought was pretty cool. Tomas delivers a composed vocal performance through a smooth baritone timbre that I thought was like a cross between Richard Ashcroft of The Verve and classic soul vocalists like Roy Orbison. The vocal melody during the chorus is especially catchy, and the opening line of "We were stuck between the city and the bay" definitely got stuck in my head a few different times while writing this review! I also thought the guitar layering on this track was really nice, as the band combined steady rhythmic power chords with various little countermelodies and hard-panned alternate chord voicings for a complex and diverse soundscape; in particular, I really enjoyed the little stepwise ascending figures in the right channel during the chorus, which I felt added a really great sense of movement to the whole thing. Isaac's drumming is also quite steady here, as he provides a solid pulse to the track while also hitting some tasteful, economical fills and little spot cues that the rest of the band follows very closely; it's evident from this first track that the band is really comfortable playing together, and the feel of everything remains impeccable throughout.

Pictured above: Bassist Pedro Restrepo, performing live with The Plastic Eyes.

The second track, "ORDEP", opens with a four-on-the-floor kick drum and regular power chords that establish a driving rhythm early on; these elements are soon joined by an eighth-note bassline. I really love Pedro's bass tone here; it hits with a rounded low end paired with just the right amount of ferocious, high-mid growl to stand out amidst the rest of the mix and provide some bite to the sound of the song. Pedro was also responsible for composing the chord progression in the chorus, which is another part of this song I particularly enjoyed. The blend of minor and major seventh chords pairs quite well with Tomas's soaring vocal melody, and Isaac's spot cues and fills are once again on point, giving the track a consistent-but-varied pulse. The band remains remarkably tight and each performance feels very locked-in, which I feel speaks to the level of familiarity the band's members have with each other as well as the material. If I do have one piece of constructive feedback for this song, it's that I wish the second verse moved the soundscape of the track forward a little more. As it stands, after the chorus, we mostly return to a fairly minimal instrumental soundscape anchored in pretty austere bass and guitar parts, and I found myself wishing for the addition of maybe one or two small elements to differentiate the second verse from the first more strongly and give it a clearer sense of progression. All things considered though, "ORDEP" is catchy, breezy, and infectious, and the band's tight performances and technical proficiency do a lot to elevate the track.

Pictured above: Isaac Poler, drummer for The Plastic Eyes.

The EP's third and final track, "Next Day's Diary", is a slightly more downtempo soft rock endeavor that feels like Tomas's take on the pop rock songwriting of acts like The Cure and Chicago. I really love the verses on this track; Tomas's opening line of "Selling souls isn't the way to go" is instantly ear-catching, and the chord progression and vocal melodies employed here are both aces. It's a shame we only get one verse, as a short, fiery guitar solo occupies the space between the first and second chorus. Still, though, this guitar solo is a good one, as Tomas gets a moment to shine as a guitarist, employing some tasteful bends and vibrato in a relatively frugal solo that nevertheless elevates the song quite a bit. The melodic guitar passages that crop up during the second chorus are also really nice, and interweave themselves with the vocal melody in a way that creates some interesting interplay. Speaking of the chorus, Tomas's vocal melody here consists mostly of long, sustained notes, resulting in a fairly simple melody with not a lot of variation or "ear candy" moments. On its own, this is fine, but I found myself really wishing for more melodic stuff with which to fill the space. In particular, I thought that some additional harmony layers might elevate the track a little more—chiefly because the limited backing harmonies we do hear sound really nice, and secondly because I think Tomas's smooth, rich baritone voice would sound excellent with some bigger and more expansive vocal layers. After the second chorus, the track breaks into an extended instrumental outro section. Isaac blesses us with some slightly crazier fills during this section to really drive home the catharsis of this moment, and I love Tomas's guitar parts during this section, as he layers nicely-voiced seventh chords and pseudo-melodic passages. The extended outro also sees Tomas let the vocals rip a little, as he gifts us a couple of descending falsetto passages (which represent the only times he leaves his baritone chest voice on the entire EP) and one particularly beautiful belted high note. As great as these vocal moments were, I only wish we'd gotten more of them!

Pictured above: Tomas Della Torre plays his Telecaster-type guitar live in concert.

With that being said, wanting more seems to be a recurring theme when evaluating my overall thoughts on this EP. It's evident that The Plastic Eyes are a very tight, technically skilled band, made up of saavy musicians who know their way around their respective instruments, complete with a skilled vocalist in Tomas. However, because of that, my chief subjective critique is that I find myself wishing that the band were a little more audacious and bold with their creative choices. It's very clear that The Plastic Eyes have absolutely no trouble pulling off this faithful rendering of '70s classic rock, but I'd love to see them get a little wilder and dirtier, with crazier riffs, more innovative sounds, and an ethos that commits itself a little more to breaking the established mold. Similarly, Tomas is a very skilled singer with a great vocal timbre, but I almost find myself wishing he sounded a little less polished & put-together at times. With the exception of the outro on "Next Day's Diary", Tomas doesn't give us a whole lot of moments where he really lets the vocals rip, and I'd love to hear a vocalist of his caliber truly unleash his voice and let it soar and let some more rawness and passion shine through. I have similar thoughts regarding the mixes, done by Dave Poler at Isaac's home studio. The mixes are clear and polished, and everything sounds rather professional while maintaining the project's retro spirit, but at the same time, I wish the project embraced a more striking aesthetic with regard to its sound, and threw more sounds at me that grabbed my attention more strongly, even if that means creating a final product that's a little more rough around the edges. Maybe this is too much to ask of a band that has only just released its debut project, but in my own humble opinion, this band and its members have a veritable ton of potential, and I would be very excited to see them lean into that potential and make something undeniably off-the-wall, crazy, and massive in scope.

However, please don't mistake my desire to see The Plastic Eyes innovate some more for an intrinsic dislike of the band, because I do really enjoy this EP at the end of the day and I think there's a lot to love about these guys. As I mentioned earlier, the whole band is super tight, and they boast an impressive level of cohesion in their playing with each other. A word that I keep coming back to in describing The Plastic Eyes is "economical"; nothing feels overstuffed, and it feels clear to me that each member has an understanding of and is committed to doing what serves the song as a whole. Pedro's bass playing makes for a strong foundation for the instrumental landscape of each track, Isaac's drumming provides a solid, driving rhythm complete with fun spot cues and moments of rhythmic variation that the rest of the band follows to a tee, and Tomas's guitar work is neatly layered and performed with focused precision. The spirit of the 1970s absolutely shines through, and the band has definitely captured the heart and soul of the music of this period to create something that feels like a faithful tribute borne out of genuine artistic respect and love. The main thing I wish for is that The Plastic Eyes take their '70s sensibilities and use them as the jumping-off point for new, exciting, and innovative sounds as they forge their own distinct artistic path. Whatever that looks like, I'll be very excited to see what The Plastic Eyes do next, and I'm certain their next project will be truly something wonderful to behold!

Personal enjoyment score: 7.5 out of 10

Standout tracks: "Next Day's Diary" was my personal favorite, but all three tracks deserve a listen.