Power punching garage rock / anti-pop / post punk / alt-rock is a great thing but throw some askew art rock on top and that is even better. That is what you get when you listen to Sweden's AWAZE. Take for example the genre fused "Sorry Looking Boy" that is in incredibly heavy stomper, an assaulting alt rocker highlighted by raw, feral guitars and twisting guitars and the caustic rock vox of guitarist Simon Zion. From the onset, you feel the sweat and spit from a ballistic sonic onslaught but then when the chorus drops in with it's kind of 50's white picket fence sort of diddly doo wop sway (for like only one long breath) before it slams back into disarray and then shifts back into a surreal beautiful mom in a house coat bringing hubby a cigarette and slippers only to spiral back again into this wonderful frenetic head banging thing. The surprising, totally bad ass bridge is also such a heavy, cool piece of art.
"Sorry Looking Boy" (to me) is a sort of bipolar punk / art punk ride filled with so much surprising disarray which makes it so unique and, well, so lovely. Is lovely a strange word to choose? Not really, as a man who writes about music daily, it is hard to find a gem like this which makes it so easy to love.
-Robb Donker Curtius
* * *
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
spotify
Three friends, all working musicians, got together to jam in a basement one day in 2018 with no plans of starting a band whatsoever. The burst of energy that grabbed ahold of them the second they turned their amps up however left them no choice. Stockholm trio AWAZE was formed.
Fans have described the music as ”aggressive but beautiful high energy riffy garage madness” and ”Pieces of Rage Against the Machine and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, a pinch of Arctic Monkeys, one table spoon of 2021 and a fist full of no more fucks to give”. Awaze are all about reacting to each other musically on a gut level. Instinctive human energy being passed through drums, bass, guitar and vocals.
You might recognize the drummer Jonna Löfgren from her ten years of playing with Scottish indie giants Glasvegas, or from tours with major Swedish acts such as Lars Winnerbäck, Vargas & Lagola and Hurula. Lead singer/guitarplayer Simon Zion became famous as ”tie-dye Jesus” on Swedish Idol back in 2015 (where he came in third place), and Olov Domeij will play bass for anyone who pays him cash money - most recently he did 140 shows with Swedish rock legend Ola Salo.
The single Break a Bone was featured on New Music Friday USA, New Noise and about 1500 other playlists, and has also turned out to be a fan favorite at AWAZEs explosive live shows.
Starting February 2021 the band is releasing a song every month for the rest of the year.
No comments:
Post a Comment