An Experimental Psych-Rock Release from The Dharma Chain
- BuzzSlayers
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
An outstanding new release from The Dharma Chain builds together elements of progressive, experimental, psychedelic, alternative, and indie rock, all mended into each other, creating this atmospheric but edgy set of songs and tones that have a lot of spaciousness, but still hit hard when they want to.
The record opens up with "Inside A New", which starts giving you an example of some of that vastness right off the bat. The guitar work is certainly bordering on that indie rock feel, and this is an amazing track to introduce the record with because, although there are surprises around its corners, this track sort of opens the door really well for the aesthetic that you're about to step into.
The guitars throughout this record, at times, are dripping with different kinds of effects, breeding more of that experimental or even psychedelia that I mentioned earlier, but there is always a structure. The songs are arranged in such unique ways that you end up getting engulfed by not just the soundscapes but how the tracks themselves unfold.
A lot of times you have layers of guitars overlapping each other, creating different kinds of textures and melodies.
You'll have one that has a dripping Reverb on it, while the other has a very fast-paced tremolo or chorus effect on it. These elements of freedom in terms of creating are really what make this record strangely elegant.
Now, don't get me wrong, as I mentioned a little earlier, some tracks definitely open up and hit harder, with an alternative rock tendency, crunchy guitar tones, and still have a progressive approach to them.
Songs like "Borderline" serve as a pretty perfect example of this.
Meanwhile, the vocals almost always have this sort of smooth and alluring approach, drifting like a dream in and out of different sections of songs, creating new layers and a bit of a sensual feel at times.
There are moments where vocals are used almost like instruments themselves. They create different textures in the background and forefront, while guitars wind, dip, and bend, building those atmospheres out, and pull you into a very particular but different, worldly space that the whole record manages to provide.
"Love's Confusion" is probably one of the tracks that holds more of the pop Sensibility to Heart. This one is very catchy, but still gets experimental with delayed, effected guitars and some tripped-out elements. Still, they managed to hold tightly to that pop feel and give the song extra color to go along with that edginess.
Tracks like "Cross Over" delve deep into the experimental and layered progressiveness, and definitely swallow you up. Some of these songs, like this one, let you get engulfed by the soundscapes of everything. Some of the tracks go really deep, and you can sort of swim through those tones amazingly.
The drumming across this record is absolutely killer. They had such a different kind of liveliness to the songs themselves and how they came across.
I certainly feel like the percussion is the more driving element in a lot of these tracks and that at times, the rest of the band has a way of pushing off of that.
Either way, this is definitely a record you want to dive into and not miss much of.
It does have some different approaches, surprises, and ways of branching out and into different styles, but it's all confluent and consistent.
The track called "How Far" has a brilliant and cinematic piano, and these sort of calms before the storm. I love how they create songs like this one because it feels alive and breathing.
It exhales before exploding, and I also really enjoyed the fact that they never let go of the experimental side of things.
They're always thinking outside the box and creating songs that are a little different than what you might expect.
This is a record built with fewer norms than whatever you may be used to, and because of that, it is insatiably freeing.
Definitely dive deep into the progressive, grungy, experimental, and psychedelic rock of The Dharma Chain.
The record is called Some Kind of Pure State, and the entire thing is well worth a listen.
This is a bit of an ever-expanding album, and when you listen to the whole thing all in one shot, you'll have to shake it off when it's over.
Turn it on, turn it up, and remember where you heard it first.
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