I thought a lot about what possible tags are suitable for this kind of music. The first words that came to my mind were: guitar-and-bass-driven grooves, atmospheric, post-punk, gothic, dark and intense. In the end I realized that I was just wasting my time because there are so many sounds in it that is not possible tag it - unless you don’t want to use a lot of tags of course!
This music simply belongs to the genre you want it to be. The band I’m talking about is ERAAS, the Brooklyn based duo and already known among music lovers through their previous works ERAAS (released in 2012) and Reworks (released last July 2013). Robert Toher and Austin Stawiarz are back with a new full length album titled Initiation that will bring you in an illusory and mysterious music journey leaded by seductive vocals that are like enchanting mermaids. Resisting to them is really hard.
Initiation is a collection of 8 songs spread approximately over 30 minutes. The sound flows from one song to the other one and you won’t have the perception of the track changing because the main sound is always the same: the ability of the two artists to build new sounds on the main one in each song is really notable and a characteristic of the album.
‘Looking Glass/Pettibon’ opens the LP and you are already into the album's mood that goes from the chamber music to spice rock to suspended atmosphere. The start is dark with repetitive grooves and echoing vocals that exhort you in a soft dance.
The same mood is in the following track ‘The Dream’ where it is so evident how voice as instrument is really important to Robert and Austin: it almost seems that other instruments play just to support the voice. The short ‘Above’ – a bit less than three minutes – has the same sound-bed but the rhythm is different, definitely pursuing and involving. It’s like being in a music temple and you are right in the middle: percussion and stimulus come from everywhere. This is definitely a spectral dance-rock track.
A particularly interesting track is ‘Old magic’ where the band’s sound evolves: the rhythm is the same of the opening tracks of the album but now is built on a steady percussive beat and the vocal itself is quite different. It’s when the seductive bass of ‘Old Magic’ leaves the scene to the great duo composed by ‘Circling’ and ‘Splitting’ that there’s a change in the album and it seems that now that temple has another, unexpected room when the echoing sound and vocals are there for magical purposes. This song opens the space between our everyday life and our subconscious dreams. It’s magical.
‘Initiation’, like the album title, has the honour of closing the LP and it’s also the longest track of this music collection. It successfully delivers an amazing atmosphere creating an entirely immersive experience. This song, as the entire album, is a brilliant work of art that makes the Brooklyn's dark electro-rock project ERAAS a band that definitely deserves our attention.
Initiation will be released through Felte on November 11th and it’s going to conquer you.
