If anything, Doomsquad is impenetrably unique and unlike any other band you’ll find in the “techno” or electronic dance genre or circles. Hypnotic and experimental-heavy, Doomsquad is the sort of sound that asks for total immersion in its rhythmic landscape to appreciate that group’s utter eclecticism and deviation from pop norms.
Recorded in New Mexico, Doomsquad’s sophomore album differs in tone and feel from their 2014 debut “Kalaboogie,” which was recorded in a cottage deep in the Canadian forest.
The environmental influences are overt, as the New Mexican landscape seems to have evoked the album’s ritualistic overtones of a mystical psychedelic ceremony lost in the infinite desert.
The enticing opener “Who Owns Noon in Sandusky” mends luscious harmonies over sensuous drums and swirling synths. The lyrics lean toward the Earthy, the spiritual, and a celebration of dance and freedom. According to the artists in an interview with Exclaim!, the song was written to inspire the “nakedness” in us all and was written to reclaim our “circadian rhythm.”
“Pyramid on Mars” pries open the third-eye with its coupling of alien-like electronica, phased-out bass riffs, and grounded, earthy percussive melodies. The group’s New Age inclinations run apparent through this tune. The lyrics (“Should I understand / From the ghostly spectrum / That illuminate my eyelids / When they’re closed”) throbs over bass thumps and transcendental inflections.
The ruminations run abstract though occasionally make a poignant observation: (“Is the dream of new frontiers now packaged goods?”).
“The environmental influences are overt, as the New Mexican landscape seems to have evoked the album’s ritualistic overtones of a mystical psychedelic ceremony lost in the infinite desert.”
Following tracks “Collective Insanity” and “It’s the Nail that Counts, Not the Rope” offer slower, ritualistic numbers building off of sly rhythmic foundations as vocals, synths, and distorted guitars puncture the transportive air.
The latter half of the album, including tracks “Farmer’s Almanac,” “The Very Large Array,” and “Eat the Love” are an expression of both physical and spiritual desires.
The tone is playful and wry, at times, orgasmic. The polyphonic dance beats are a simultaneous celebration of the body, and a desperate attempt to escape it when drums become distorted by the trippy sounds of deeply ambient riffs and trance-like moans.
“Total Time” offers dark, pulsating beats interspersed with hypnotic, tribal jams. The album evokes the wonders of the natural world and leads you to a plane of “becoming timeless, while providing a platform for you to dance through your consciousness.”
In the barren regions of New Mexico, the three siblings nestled tightly together without cellphone receptions or any indication of time (they tossed aside all clocks), drew inspiration from their isolation and surroundings. Sifting through track after track of breathy chants, spacey electronica, flutes, earthy rhythms, and harmonious lyrics on a brightly sunny day might just take listeners to that very place of the electrified desert where the tunes were recorded.
Similar Artists: Massive Attack, Dead Can Dance, Brian Eno, Lust for Youth
Recommended Tracks: “Who Owns Noon in Sandusky,” “Pyramids on Mars,” and “Eat the Love”
Dimitri Kandilanaftis is a third-year student majoring in communication studies with a minor in journalism. He can be reached at DK838967@wcupa.edu.