Music Review // Drowning Effect "Techniculture" (Vibraphone)

https://open.spotify.com/album/24YHhq6cM3Yk4DNjoEf7TO?si=HlEJPLIxSK2ewNcN9ctRwQ&dl_branch=1&nd=1

Listening to music and right away knowing that it's going to be rock n roll- and then the album sticks to that rock n roll sound- is one of the things which makes me happy as someone who listens to a lot of music.  "Techniculture" could have gone off in a number of different directions during these songs to make it seem more experimental, but Drowning Effect stuck with their rock n roll roots and just kept the album rocking throughout, which I highly appreciate.

Through distortion comes guitar riffs which can remind me of classic rock but can also bring about memories of newer (but not that new) artists such as The Damn Personals, BRMC, The Break and just bands along those lines.   The music moves fast to the point where it's almost punk, but it's not.  It's distorted and makes me think of a band from SXSW (especially on "Headlines") but it ends up just being good old fashioned rock n roll to me.

When you think about music and how it can be influenced by other artists, it becomes easy to write about it and explain it when those influences are front and center.  The influences I find within here (such as The Damn Personals) are perhaps less known.  If I had to pick a widely known artist to compare this with I might say something like Kings of Leon but even that isn't entirely fair.  So I do also feel it needs to be recognized that Drowning Effect has pulled off one of those albums where they've created a sound all their own.

One of my favorite genres of music is all of the artists who came out right after grunge was fading from the spotlight and it felt like radio stations, record labels, etc were all searching for that next sound to become mainstream.   Artists like 1000 Mona Lisas and Dandelion come to mind right away, and even though Drowning Effect doesn't really sound like them they do have that quality where it feels like a major record label would've put their album out in the late 1990's to try and see if it would stick and though it might only make one radio hit I'd love every second of it.