"I found a hole inside my own imagination / we made love to it with real commiseration / Its not your fault, but I've become your hostage / Love, I tell you, is a weapon that they use on you..."
The 80's pitched oscillating fuzz and art rock bending light of "Passengers" by Phoenix, Arizona based The Underwater Believers codes differently depending on your musical knowledge, depending (probably) on how old you are. As I often do, listening to what I consider to be interesting music, interesting as pieces of art that transport you back or forward or both, that transcends precise genre typing, or music that makes you imagine odd things. In this case the bold push of sounds, the slapping drums that help propel, such a wonderfully warbled dirty, fuzz synth sound, a sound that feels layered and thick and monstrous and cinematic but also kind of 80's funkified had me thinking (yes) some weird things.
The combination of sassiness, sultriness, angst, kind of romantic desperation had me thinking of two stellar icons who coincidentally were both born in 1958. In short, I imagined that after releasing his eponymous album in 1979, if Prince took a departure into proto punk / electronica / new wave and collabbed with Gary Numan (and his Tubeway Army) after the release of their album "The Pleasure Principle" (also in 1979), that the resulting sound would approximate "Passengers". I mean even the lyrics have a kind of Prince / Numan bent.
"I found a hole inside my own imagination, we made love to it with real commiseration.
Its not your fault, but I've become your hostage.
Love, I tell you, is a weapon that they use on you.
So I'm becoming a passenger moving away before your reins take control of my heart.
Wanna find a way out.
Haunted by my lover
Now they've got someone who parades for what?
I'm never waiting for you.
Watch me get out.
Finally someone who shows what must be done, my life-force is gone.
I'll never run, take anything that comes, there's no use trying to fight.
I wanna run to Canada, if only, I'm always saying that I'll run and hide.
If you run to Canada take what you must, just don't take my pride"
"I found a hole inside my own imagination, we made love to it with real commiseration.
Its not your fault, but I've become your hostage.
Love, I tell you, is a weapon that they use on you.
So I'm becoming a passenger moving away before your reins take control of my heart.
Wanna find a way out.
Haunted by my lover
Now they've got someone who parades for what?
I'm never waiting for you.
Watch me get out.
Finally someone who shows what must be done, my life-force is gone.
I'll never run, take anything that comes, there's no use trying to fight.
I wanna run to Canada, if only, I'm always saying that I'll run and hide.
If you run to Canada take what you must, just don't take my pride"
The lyrics have sparks of romantic, sexual tensions while feeling very retro-science fiction or maybe, quite possibly I am just fucking seeing things again.
LINER NOTES (bracketed):
["This is the first track off of the new 6 song EP '1983' which releases on 12/14/24. Passengers is a blend of genres ranging from alternative rock to dream pop, new wave, post punk, and everything synthy in between. Maybe a little Brian Jonestown Massacre falling in there. The song is a power progression explaining my frustration and feeling of weakness and fatigue at dealing with being in bands over the years. It explodes initially to sink down into ASMR territory, and then begins a dante-esque journey from hell on up. It is heavy on synths and pitch shifted guitars and is an ever-evolving journey of beautiful opportunities that incorporate the self-destructive tension that defines the life of every artist. How can you love and hate something so equally?"] - - - - - The Underwater Believers
MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW:
[In December of 2024 Underwater Believers is releasing its third album entitled, 1983.
[UB is based in Phoenix, Arizona--far from any water that is not crowned in dust and thorns. UB plays shows often and is the brainchild of a flight attendant who is grounded only by the music of the spheres.]
[ugh...did you know that jellyfish just dissolve on the beach and fly away into the air. organic spaceships...don't you think its about time that we learned from some other creature?]
[UB is based in Phoenix, Arizona--far from any water that is not crowned in dust and thorns. UB plays shows often and is the brainchild of a flight attendant who is grounded only by the music of the spheres.]
[ugh...did you know that jellyfish just dissolve on the beach and fly away into the air. organic spaceships...don't you think its about time that we learned from some other creature?]
That's all I have got. There are some sonic aspects of "Passengers" that (ironically) feel kind of underwater but setting some production or mix aspects that might fall a tiny bit short, the song (to me) feels not only inspired, and poetic but seeded from iconic sonic DNA. I really dig the vocal sounds as well, a lot.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.instagram.com/underwaterbelievers
The Underwater Believers is defining a new genre of sound best described as Immersive. Kind of like ambient in its enveloping aspect, but without the need of a couch. Think more caffeine than red wine. And then, if you threw out the cringe of pop music but left the good stuff behind, drenched it in synthesizers and pitch shifted guitars that masquerade as distorted organs, you'd have half the recipe for the style. Add to it heartfelt lyrics and a penchant for the transcendental nature of the jellyfish, as well as a cassette tape endlessly churning out new wave, post-punk, synth pop, gothic, and almost anything 4AD-styled and you'd have the Underwater Believers.
The Underwater Believers, Arizona, synthwave, electronica, alt rock, art rock, industrial punk, post punk, dream theater, art rock, "Passengers", new 6 song EP '1983',
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