"It's a plague of madness / Sick of witness / Grab a camera / Here's a hitlist..."
The post punk artfully bloody sledgehammer of "comatose" by Louisville Kentucky based BARCLAY'S, and the lead single off of their debut EP "To a Candid World", is clearly one of the most sonically heavy tracks I have heard this year. It is not only the density of sound punctuated by a viciously big and brash bass and drums marriage with guitar layers that manage to feel massive but still have a sense of jangle (and loving the tweaky, bendy bullets of feedback) but, ultimately, the brilliantly manic, rabid, scowling vocal countenance that feels literally unhinged and out of breath.
Now mind you with all that, the running downhill cadence that barrels and opens up (breathes some) with tribal tom tom beats leaves little room for letting up. The amazing thing to me is that I receive a whole lot of submissions that are audaciously massive and heavy but, in the end, feel horribly harsh on the ears. Somehow, the mix here as huge as it is does not feel harsh on the ears, just artfully harsh to the soul like this kind of track should be. Bravo to the recording, the engineering, the universe building here.
BARCLAY'S debut EP "To a Candid World" set to release June 18.
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2Ag8QAgtOcrmCvO4IcXwVa
https://barclays.bandcamp.com/track/hot-dog-millionaire-2
https://www.instagram.com/barrclayss/
https://soundcloud.com/barrclayss
Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky!! My music taste began with the Fallout 3 and Tony Hawk soundtracks (Billie Holiday, Madlib, The Dead Kennedys, etc.). By the time I was in high school, I was trying to produce my own stuff on a pirated copy of FL studio. Fast-forward through college, I’ve learned guitar and piano while getting a degree in philosophy. But before I really started taking music seriously, I got a Fulbright scholarship to teach in Spain for 6 months during Covid.
When I was living alone halfway across the world, that's when I realized I couldn't do anything else well… besides music well. So I bought a used flamenco guitar on Spain’s version of Craigslist, started playing and singing at local bars, and eventually began writing songs. I returned to the States at 24 y/o, skipped around the country for a bit living out of a car for 3 months, and then scooted back to Louisville, KY.
Now I'm 27—I’ve been playing these songs with a band for a little over a year now, and with them, the debut BARCLAY’S EP has been recorded and is set to release in June. To the Louisville music scene, we’ve got a small group of people actually eagerly awaiting this release which is kind of crazy to me. But I suppose we’ve planted ourselves firmly here and, in my humble opinion, do have a more unique sound than what Louisville is typically known for musically. So yeah, we’ll have a pretty solid EP rollout, at least here in the city.
LINER NOTES (on the seeds):
["comatose" was inspired by a line in Terry Gillman's film "12 Monkeys" that references a "Cassandra complex." Having never heard that term, I was intrigued and so I researched: Cassandra, a Greek goddess, was blessed by Apollo to always prophesy the truth, but also cursed to have nobody ever believe her. Cassandra has since come to symbolize an individual’s accurate prediction of a crisis that is fatefully ignored. I'm not Cassandra by any means, but those defending against climate crises, fascism, etc. might empathize.]
BARCLAY'S debut EP "To a Candid World" set to release June 18.
BARCLAY'S is...
Kameron Burns, Harry Clark, Hunter Crump, Chanler James, Alex McGrath, and Adrianna Riggs
Kameron Burns, Harry Clark, Hunter Crump, Chanler James, Alex McGrath, and Adrianna Riggs
I will leave you all with my favorite lyrical passages of this song (truth be told I love them all):
"Have you seen the news?
It's been discovered
Behind the eye is the key to slumber
They found it searching for forgiveness
Instead they found the seventh wonder
But excuse my language!
It's in the past now
The newest trend is the newest cash cow
So get your phone out
And press record now
And post it to the feed for all of us to blackout to!
It's automated
It's automated
It's automated
It's automated
It's automated
Comatose
Comatose
Comatose
Comatose"
It's been discovered
Behind the eye is the key to slumber
They found it searching for forgiveness
Instead they found the seventh wonder
But excuse my language!
It's in the past now
The newest trend is the newest cash cow
So get your phone out
And press record now
And post it to the feed for all of us to blackout to!
It's automated
It's automated
It's automated
It's automated
It's automated
Comatose
Comatose
Comatose
Comatose"
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2Ag8QAgtOcrmCvO4IcXwVa
https://barclays.bandcamp.com/track/hot-dog-millionaire-2
https://www.instagram.com/barrclayss/
https://soundcloud.com/barrclayss
Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky!! My music taste began with the Fallout 3 and Tony Hawk soundtracks (Billie Holiday, Madlib, The Dead Kennedys, etc.). By the time I was in high school, I was trying to produce my own stuff on a pirated copy of FL studio. Fast-forward through college, I’ve learned guitar and piano while getting a degree in philosophy. But before I really started taking music seriously, I got a Fulbright scholarship to teach in Spain for 6 months during Covid.
When I was living alone halfway across the world, that's when I realized I couldn't do anything else well… besides music well. So I bought a used flamenco guitar on Spain’s version of Craigslist, started playing and singing at local bars, and eventually began writing songs. I returned to the States at 24 y/o, skipped around the country for a bit living out of a car for 3 months, and then scooted back to Louisville, KY.
Now I'm 27—I’ve been playing these songs with a band for a little over a year now, and with them, the debut BARCLAY’S EP has been recorded and is set to release in June. To the Louisville music scene, we’ve got a small group of people actually eagerly awaiting this release which is kind of crazy to me. But I suppose we’ve planted ourselves firmly here and, in my humble opinion, do have a more unique sound than what Louisville is typically known for musically. So yeah, we’ll have a pretty solid EP rollout, at least here in the city.
BARCLAY'S, Louisville Kentucky, "comatose", massive, audaciously heavy, alt rock, punk, post punk, acid rock, vicious, scowling vocal style, brilliantly unhinged, manic, debut EP "To a Candid World",
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