With the release of their sole self-titled debut release on the Kscope label a year ago, Envy of None have proven to grow a little stronger, bit by bit. While it marks a new chapter for Alex Lifeson, he along with Curran, Wynne, and Annibalini are more than just a band, but more like a family. No matter what.
Their latest EP That Was Then, This is Now, is the band’s feature. Featuring two remixes and three new songs from the band’s incredible voyage that is waiting for them. Songs like ‘You’ll Be Sorry’ and ‘Lethe River’ are like lyrical structures during a landscape sequence in this dystopian wasteland filled with decay and everything going to hell in a handbasket.
Wynne channels the lyrical textures of Steven Wilson as she was listening to The Future Bites whilst delving into the second side of Bowie’s Low album for inspiration to capture the electro-harmonies in her vocal range. The remixes of ‘Dumb’ and ‘Dog’s Life’ bring an industrial attitude with a Trent Reznor approach and the minimalistic textures of David Torn’s loop from Sonar.
You can feel the heat, the anger, trip-hop sequences, and the fire burning through those remixes as if the dance floor had already been filled with incredible beats and buckets of sweat to those two songs from their 2022 debut. ‘That Was Then’ closes the EP as the band walk into the unknown.
The last-minute sees Annibalini, giving Lifeson, centre stage channeling his bluesy tight walk, honouring the Gilmour-sque approach between Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell, by going across time and space with Wynne’s instruction to push the self-destruct button at any second before reaching towards a cliffhanger, not knowing what will happen in the next episode.
