Odds & Ends: July 1, 2024

Band: April 1830 | Album: The Adventures of Space Pig | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp

This Philadelphian band claims to write songs about “pig failure,” and that alone grabbed my attention enough to give this record a spin. (For what it’s worth, the vocals are relatively low in the mix and somewhat willowy, so actual themes of pig failure can be hard to discern.) The music is energetic, often drawing from pop and punk. Certain passages remind me of Cardiacs, if Cardiacs were a very synth-forward, female-fronted band. It’s fun and inventive, and I had a good time listening to this.

Score: 78/100

Band: Custard Flux | Album: Einsteinium Delirium | Genre: Psychedelic rock | Bandcamp

Custard Flux’s fifth full length album is their first fully-electric endeavor. They’ve ditched their (mostly) acoustic schtick, and it has resulted in a pretty good release. The band tightened up their songwriting after 2022’s bloated-as-hell Phosphorus, and that renewed focus is appreciated. The music here is catchy and punchy, and the swirling, psychedelic textures are enjoyable. Hints of alternative rock crop up on occasion, too. 

Score: 76/100

Band: Night Verses | Album: Every Sound Has a Color in the Valley of Night | Genre: Progressive metal | Bandcamp

Let me preface this by saying that, in isolation, I like all these songs. They’re fun, clever, and exciting compositions that artfully blend rock, metal, and jazz. The tones of the individual instruments are nice, and even the long songs feel shorter than their runtimes. The playing is impressive from a technical standpoint, and it (almost) never veers off into bloat and excess. However, when taken as a whole, this is a very long-feeling album. Over an hour of instrumental djent-adjacent (ad-djent-cent?) music will, for me at least, almost always blend into some sonic mush. Half of this album was released last year as Part 1, and had they simply titled the second half of the songs Part 2, I probably would have preferred that. Instead, they re-released Part 1 with this batch of new songs, and it pushes it firmly into “too long” territory.

Score: 72/100

Band: OU | Album: 蘇醒 II: Frailty | Genre: Progressive metal, Progressive pop | Bandcamp

The sophomore release from this Chinese act has a very Devin Townsend vibe to it. Heavy Devy himself even shows up on one track! The music on Frailty is an intriguing mix of chugging, rapidfire, borderline-djenty riffs contrasted against delicate vocals and thin, shimmering ethereal synths. The melodies are pop friendly, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The place where this album loses me is its production. It’s really thin and airy and, well, frail-sounding. That might be kinda neat for a song or two, but it’s a bit much for an entire album. 

Score: 66/100

Artist: Tom Penaguin | Album: Tom Penaguin | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp

The debut record from French multi-instrumentalist Tom Penaguin leans heavily on the classic Canterbury sounds. Electric piano and organ tones galore swirl and twinkle around each other in Baroque-inspired passages. I also really like how forward, rubbery, and in-your-face the bass is. Bands like Camel, Egg, and Caravan are all obvious influences here. Most acts which draw this heavily on the past will at least have a few markers that give them away as more modern, but had I been given this album sans context, I could have easily guessed it was from the early 1970s.

Score: 74/100

Band: 假日貞操 Virgin Vacation | Album: Dapple Patterns | Genre: Math rock | Bandcamp

Hong Kong-based Virgin Vacation plays a strange, off-kilter variety of math rock. Guitars and synths swirl and weave together–sometimes smoothly, sometimes stiffly–and elements of jazz and krautrock surface throughout, too. None of the songs linger for too long. They come in, make an interesting statement, and then step aside to make room for the next one. Dapple Patterns is an interesting listen, and the band does a great job at putting forward a varied but coherent record.

Score: 77/100