Red Love

Red Love

Written by: LF on 30/05/2017 21:34:26

Red Love is a new rock band started by current Algiers and ex-Bloc Party drummer Matt Tong and the producer Alex Newport. Their self-titled debut album came out earlier this year although the first singles already started appearing in 2015. In their songs, they blend psychedelic, fuzzy shoegaze with layered synths and noisy guitar riffs which all makes for a very thick sound, the fog of which does not always make it easy to get a grip on each of the compositions that rather just float by you as unclear but intriguing shapes.

As opener "Gone Tomorrow" kicks in fully with its almost catatonically delivered linear mantra of "Here today / gone tomorrow", the vibe of most of the record is set with the layered synths, lush guitar riffs, and the tight drumming in the background as the other dominating factors next to the constantly echoing vocals that seem to come at us from somewhere behind this great wall of sound. The most recognizable songs of the record build on this by making extra space for the dynamic bass to shine as well, while also incorporating some oddly bending vocal melodies that are nonetheless very catchy. "Does It Make You" is the foremost example of this, with the later "Float" close behind with a more open-ended sound filled with noisy guitars.

The songs generally stretch from the more rhythmically explicit ones, with especially "I Know A Place to..." and the aforementioned ones as the standout examples, and then ones dominated by slower and more harmonic atmospheres, as "What's Left" or "Down to Dust". Other songs make themselves known through a striking riff, as in "Sure As Day", but overall the floaty, echoing sound of the album makes for a very unified expression across songs that makes it hard to tell them apart when remembering back.

There is, however, some cool guitar work noodling around in the dense sound so if you're into this kind of almost post-punk shoegaze style, the record is definitely worth checking out. To my ears, the more rhythmically grounded songs work the best as they keep the floaty echoes in check and are simply more dynamic to listen to than the dreamier ones that seem to get lost in themselves a little too often. Still, it's a pleasantly sounding record and if the description above doesn't irk you, it makes for a worthy use of your time.

Download: Does It Make You, Float, Gone Tomorrow
For The Fans Of: Parallels, Umbrellas, Real Estate, Bloc Party
Listen: facebook.com/redlovetheband

Release date 03.02.2017
Self-released

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