I had the good fortune of listening to ROWDY’s Bungalow as a single last year. It was an electrifying number, blending several genres with the prog aura that this music carries. Otherworld is their first EP, and their debut has the charisma that the first impression had. There’s a melancholy joy to finishing the album the first time, so let’s get into this vortex.
The title track sets the record straight for all listeners. Using phasers and shifting, dancing sounds, Otherworld serves to be your escape route. Your Millenium Falcon to the races at Tatooine. It’s a well deserved escape from your side, a well created one from theirs. In all its enriching broth, this track has the elements of jazz and funk laid out for our layman ears to enjoy.
If the proverbial portal had to open, let it be with some surf rock. Surfing takes control with a punk feel, yet has the original clocks and gears that ROWDY operates with. For a three piece band, their sound is quite textural. They’ve managed to give the bass a good niche so that it makes a difference. Many a times we see an overlap rendering the complex work by bassists useless. Great bluesy solo that closes out the song.
In flight delight
Shouldn’t have expected a prog reboot of Billy Idol. My bad on this one. Rebel Yell 100 is a whole other planet that we’ve visited. The vocal delivery and rhythm section during the verses make a lasagna like to and fro chemistry that makes it stand out. The keys work will not go unnoticed if you’re a true fan of music, it elevates the lyric less section to a fictional paradise. Being able to switch between the crunch and clean tones during live shows will be really exciting, it is a spectrum shift that is unexpected.
Bungalow is the track that put ROWDY in the radar. I had reviewed this track as a single, and was blown away by the genre hopping done with a nonchalance. Their sound has power and character, and is able to blur many lines that would put a knot on many purists’ underwear. I however, enjoy how it hopped types of sound to create a journey of sorts, that too an exciting one if you approach without expectation.
Excelsior-in excess
Dragon of the Darkness Flame has to be my favorite track. This is owing to not only the fantastic opening progression for the track and overall atmosphere the song gives. It shifts to a quicker, simple and swingable riff that has a groove of its own. The rhythm section joining in is icing on the cake. Breaking out into a jam that might be the most exciting part of the evening during live shows makes this an absolute smashing swinger.
Full Moon Blues is a surprise package. For a bass line that would be the headline in a jazz or funk song, the coin has been flipped. This track opens with a soulful guitar piece that teases moments of prog trickling in within the cage of the bass line. The rhythm section is untouched, yet can crumble into a cocktail of sound with the guitar. By the time the vocals set in and keys add to the frequency, the track has evolved like a fictional creature with mystical powers.
Stressin‘ utilizes a great hard rock riff to instill some change, yet have the spine that ROWDY proudly own. It is an interesting approach to songwriting, with mini jams with virtuosic instrumental quality gracing your ears ever so often. It is a perfect closer for the kind of album that it has been, elemental yet with the experiments of a young group. If they were planning on lift off, they’ve successfully done it. This is a multi-dimensional, multiverse teasing effect of sound. ROWDY own the otherworlds.
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Discovered via http://musosoup.com
Self professed metalhead, moderately well read. If the music has soul, it's whole to me. The fact that my bio could have ended on a rhyme and doesn't should tell you a lot about my personality.
