A new EP released from daarling has very unique soundscape as it blends together elements of math, garage, grunge, indie, and even alternative rock and manages to pull all of those together to create its own sound and atmosphere which ends up being super engulfing because of the vast undertones and whole approach to how they put the songs together.
The Arrangements to Change EP is very in-depth and has layers that can be peeled back which is incredibly fun to do and I can also say that this is one of those records that you want to listen to from beginning to end because listening to a few tracks from the record does indeed give you a bit of a gist of what you can expect next, it does not give you the full spectrum of what the album is all about.
What lets this EP stand out is its tonalities because the guitar tone is very specific and has a little bit of wetness to it which is in the form of a very tight echo and some reverb a lot of the time which gives the sound of the record a bit of a distance feeling but that's part of its aesthetic.
This is strangely cinematic in its own way which is something else that I really enjoyed about it, and this comes back to how it's all put together tone wise as well.
The arrangements themselves are killer because they're a little bit outside the box but still very explosive as you go from those clean guitars to big heavy grungy guitars at the drop of a dime and those elements hit really hard and also add to that vastness as well.
A lot of the attitude of the record comes not only from the instruments but also from the vocals because the vocalist has a wonderful way of adding a swagger to everything and it's strangely unique to the songs themselves as well. I dig the drive between the instruments and the vocals because they push each other and that makes the whole thing work even better.
This was different but in a really good way because you have that spaciousness and expansive sound in the underbelly of every single track and the energy of the performances back in something of a live show in a way.
It feels almost like each of the players are feeding off of each other during the recording of these songs so maybe they were actually done live on the floor.
I wasn't there of course so I couldn't be sure about that, but it certainly feels that way. Even if I'm wrong about that, listening to the record makes you want to go see them play it live because again, this is electric energy wise.
The honesty of the lyrics is something else that really stands out because you can tell that the singer is giving pieces of themselves and that is an important attribute to the authenticity of the songs as a whole.
There are more than a few surprises around the corners of this release and the blending of this sort of 90s old school heavy rock sounds, and that underground approach really works wonderfully across this record.
These songs weren't recorded with some absolutely pristine and crisp, massive production. It wasn't overproduced at all. It was actually balanced really well in terms of that production between a slightly low-fi feeling and still a well-produced record so that is a big part of the aesthetic as well.
The drummer's killer. Between all the instruments, the drums, the bass guitar, the guitars, vocals, you do get such an intricate level of precision and inventiveness in terms of the riffs and how they build the songs in general.
This was perfectly avant-garde, it had loads of charisma, it was performed with a vivacious energy, it was colorful but still edgy, and super fun.
This record took me away from my surroundings and put me in this sort of spacious world for a while and I totally loved it.
An awesome record from a band I'm going to be paying a lot more attention to.
Definitely have a listen to Arrangements to Change from daarling.
Remember where you heard it first.
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