SANDŌKAÏ Releases A Brilliant Electronic and Rock Opus

It's been quite a while since I've heard anything as sonically driving and bright as the new LP from SANDŌKAÏ.

The record gives you such an outstanding combination of rock and electronic blending in experimental elements throughout the entire release, and all giving off the energy and air of a live performance that seems to surround you with this vibrancy you can't turn away from.

The album is called Special Computer, and introduces itself with a short burst of electronic gadgets, glitches, and feedback. It's completely synthesized, and underneath the overlaying keys, you have a synth pad that adds a little bit of depth to the background of it.

The track leads right into its first full song and title track, "Special Computer", and here you start to get a feel for their progressive and almost outlandish rock approaches that blend tons of different influences to create a brilliant and vivacious atmosphere that you can sort of swim through.

This is an outstanding track to bring you into the record and open the door for the full release simply because it gives you a lot of this tonality that you're going to hear throughout the course of the full album.

Outstanding guitar work and a lot of thought behind the tone of those guitars as well, still keeping to this vast underbelly behind everything, and just inventive, progressive riffs that are outside the box.

Have alternative, indie, progressive, classic, and pop rock all fused with a psychedelic approach at times, making things robust and pretty unforgettable.

There's a lot of unique approach behind this entire release and this first full track gives you the essence of what you're about to dive into.

"8.1.0.0" is the track that follows, and this has clean guitars but still just so progressive and bordering on a math guitar performance, that vibrancy is still there, and the guitarist just bounces off the walls left and right all before bursting into a bit of thrashy heaviness influenced by elements of punk rock.

The drive and liveliness that the drummer actually adds to this entire thing, and it's probably why a lot of it feels like a live performance, and manages to put you right there in the moment with the songs.

Coming up with inventive and clever Time signatures, fills, and always managing to stay perfectly in the pocket, the drummer does such a killer job of really pushing this record forward because the entire thing is intelligent

There's a certain level of intelligence behind this performance by all parties. Everybody is on another level of musicianship here. They are flowing, intricate, precise, yet still somehow a little loose around the edges, and alive and breathing.

It's a very impressive set of attributes to bring together on record.

The album is not without those spacious and atmospheric tonalities as well, and they are certainly not afraid to push those forward a lot of the time to make sure that you remember that the whole thing has depth, layers, and textures.

There are times when the synths and keys are used almost like an orchestra, and it fills the space to the point where things become almost cinematic, in a sense.

It becomes very lush and full-bodied so that you have all of those layers to really soak in.

Throughout the semi-rambunctious and intensities of songs, you have many, many melodies that come at times, can fly by, and you have to start songs over to sort of soak them all in again.

You also have these little interludes. These are called a "Glitch". 

I mentioned the introduction to the record earlier, which is the first glitch called "Glitch S". 

You get a few more glitch tracks, including the closing of the record, and this sort of reminds you of some of the concept behind the release.

It is meant to keep you in the electronic world between vastness and the rock.

There are a couple of tracks in the middle of the record called "Tonal Recal" Parts one and two.

I love these two because they go together really well, and they use the first part as more of a cinematic and tripped-out synth-based piece, which then goes into part 2, with a much heavier rock feel, deeper distortion, a bit of a crazy set of riffs, and it feels almost doomish in a way.

Every single track on this record has a way of branching out and going in its own direction somehow.

By the time you get to the middle of the record, which again is another glitch track and interlude, you begin to expect the unexpected.

There are more than a handful of surprises throughout this release, and this is an album you're supposed to listen to all the way through in one shot.

If you're only going to do one track, I suggest the title track, "Special Computer", but again, this is meant to be heard as a whole because only then can you get the full spectrum of what it offers.

There is a great level of depth to this set of soundscapes that they put out there, and although they are vibrant and avant-garde at times, they come together like puzzle pieces, somehow.

Despite its heavy rock feel, the record can also feel graceful.

Quite a brilliant release, and again, it delivers a certain level of intelligent songwriting and performance all the way through.

Definitely be ready to hear some approaches that you haven't quite heard before or that Ben genres whenever they want to, and again, I advise you to go through the entire record in one shot.

It's an amazing journey and an awesome escape to do it that way.

Take a deep dive into this one right now and remember where you heard it first.

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