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(2018) RLYR - Actual Existence
Review:
The dominant aural effect of Actual Existence, the second LP by RLYR, is exuberance. That’s sort of odd, given the band’s origins. RLYR started as a one-off collaboration of guitarist Trevor de Brauw, from post-metal act Pelican, and percussionist Steven Hess, from industrial/drone/experimental-suffering specialists Locrian; the two quickly discovered more lasting affinities, and they eventually recruited bassist Colin DeKuiper, who’s spent significant time gigging with metal bands Russian Circles and Bloodiest. That’s a whole lot of heavy and dark and unhappy. The record’s surprisingly vibrant, buoyant and grand tones are forecast by the band’s name: RLYR is a shout-out to the seventh record of progressive rock divines Yes. That might amount to a non-starter for those who have an allergic reaction to prog. It’s an understandable affliction. But even if you break out in hives whenever you hear Jon Anderson’s falsetto, RLYR’s record deserves a listen.
All four songs are packed with diverting melodic gestures, ever-shifting rhythms, occasional tremolo breaks that wouldn’t be entirely out of place in a Krallice tune. The record’s second side is more athletic and more intense, and it features the better compositions. “Vacancy” and “Artificial Horizons” are both a mite shorter than the album’s first two songs, and they’re both more focused statements. “Vacancy” shapes itself in rising terraces of sound the band constructs, riff by riff, until they arc up into a speedy, white-out peak through the song’s last three minutes. “Artificial Horizons” commences with a bass-driven churn that knots and unknots and knots again, and then shudders and judders, a sonic big rig seeming to struggle with its downhill trajectory. Then it steers into a clearing, where de Brauw’s inventive fingering leads the song into another whirling cadence, this time ascending, nearing the ecstatic.
All that likely sounds rather proggy — maybe that’s what happens when one tries to describe music that’s this expressive and blithe without any explicit grounding in lyrics or language (beyond song titles). And maybe prog rock is easy to score points off of because of its conceptual self-importance and its tendency toward opulent wankery. But not everything Yes recorded is baggy or saggy or even priggish: the “Würm” section of “Starship Troopers” has some bite, and the opening riff of “Heart of the Sunrise” is pretty great. RLYR channels the musical ambitions of those serpentine, electric sounds into music with teeth, music that has conceptual rigor and emotional vigor. Their music soars, but it also makes you remember that you actually exist.
Tracklist:
01 - Actual Existence.flac
02 - L.Layer.flac
03 - Artificial Horizons.flac
04 - Vacancy.flac
Summary:
Country: USA
Genre: post-rock
Media Report:
Source : CD
Format : FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : ~ 835-892 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits |
