Babel Map is an experimental indie rock band from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Sentiment from their debut LP "Raw Tomato, My Heart" is, from the onset, a gloriously messy affair. I don't mean this in a pejorative sense like a messy house (although I will take a messy house over perfectly pristine orderly house any day) but like messy hair, I love messy hair. The bottom heavy drumming with the beginning noisy hi-hat splashes give way to big bass and a strident killer fanning guitar jag that feels so surf punk meets spaghetti western meets Billy Zoom (X) that I could feel my blood pressure raise. The lovely mess refers to the noise here in a shoegaze way (but not). The entire atmosphere, the room here is dense with wailing guitars, this formidable beat that swings so cooly and mid tones droning synths.
The vocal edges are many. Keyboardist Jessica Drummer's vox push out divergent melodies through the dense wash. Her sound that sometimes feels inward will erupt into beautiful croons and wild wails has (to me) a sort of new wave, romance wave tone and, dare I say, even horror punk (punk with doo wop, torture pop propensities). In fact, I would say that the overall style here feels like proto / horror punk (late 70's) car crashed with 90's goth pop but that's just me. Very, very cool sound. Do I wish the dense mix would be a bit less so, less shoegaze, maybe... but then they wouldn't be who they are then, would they?
Infinitely interesting.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
The second single from Babel Map's debut LP "Raw Tomato, My Heart" released in partnership with Rock Hand Records. Pre-Order the pearly-white Vinyl or CD at www.rockhandrecords.com
NOTICE: If you enjoyed this article, please consider donating to AP as we are in need of support to keep our coverage of Indie Artists like this one alive: click here > https://gf.me/u/yp5ich
No comments:
Post a Comment