Record Setter

I Owe You Nothing

Written by: PP on 02/05/2021 15:33:55

Here's an absolute gem from late last year that almost everyone missed by a tiny, unknown Denton, Texas band called Record Setter. Oh boy, their new album "I Owe You Nothing" is quite something, taking you right back to either the pioneering screamo origins during the 90s, or alternatively to the Topshelf Records-instigated revival about ten years back. It's no surprise to find the record on said label's catalogue, given how closely it emulates and lives the cacophonic quiet/loud dynamics and anguished screams that characterize the genre.

Across eleven tracks and thirty minutes, Record Setter seamlessly transition from ferocious screams full of immediacy and urgency into tempered post-rock instrumental passages and somber, melancholic emo revivalist vibes. There's a constant sense of clarity within the chaos, a hauntingly beautiful clean vocal dynamic that contrasts the throat-devastating screams and howls of desperation, creating an intensely explosive cocktail of something that feels like the sonic equivalent of the walls crashing down on you. Yes, this mixture of emo/screamo is as introspective as it is emotive, as fierce as it is raw and exposed, bringing forth obvious parallels to bands like Saetia, Sed Non Satiata, and their modern counterparts in Suis La Lune, Frameworks and why not the first album by Pianos Become The Teeth as well. Echoes of Touché Amorés punk/post-hardcore fuelled roars are present as well, all the while cooking up a soundscape that could one day become their signature sound.

"I Owe You Nothing" is faithful to the screamo origins, but isn't afraid to mix in lighter elements as evident on a track like "Future Tense". Here, quiet, transitional instrumentation is supported by faint clean vocals, which is a polar opposite of a track like "Humus" or "Someplace" that feels like the very existence of the vocalist is being torn out of him against his will. In other words, "I Owe You Nothing" has all the telltale signs of a cult release. Mark my words, once people start discovering this band in droves, we'll be talking about Record Setter like we do about Pianos Become The Teeth or Touché Amoré today. A brilliant exposition of immediacy and urgency in effect through a hauntingly chaotic emo/screamo concoction that culminates in the six-minute masterpiece "Fail And Fall".

8

Download: Humus, Someplace, Fail And Fall, A Portrayal
For the fans of: Touché Amoré, Saetia, Hot Cross, Sed Non Satiata, Suis La Lune, Frameworks, (old) Pianos Become The Teeth
Listen: Facebook

Release date 06.11.2020
Topshelf Records

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