Music Review // HOL1D4Y "Topology"

If you've not yet heard any song by HOL1D4Y then "Topology" would be a good place to start.   The first song- "Holotropic"- begins in this way that when you listen to it with headphones on it goes back and forth from ear to ear.  The way that the guitar on these songs not only seems to play around with how it can sound but also just seems to have mastered it shows a lot about what you'll hear in the coming songs.  The second track is called "Panoptic" and it reminds me of something between The Beatles, Modest Mouse and Franz Ferdinand.  "Veridream" was a single but still has those David Bowie vibes for me.

Big, distorted guitar riffs highlight "Autonomatic" while there are somewhat lighter sounds on "Constellations", which is also an instrumental number.  "Metacognition" brings back out those guitar riffs with the vocals that can make this feel both trippy and dreamy, in a Pin Floyd type of way.   This takes us into "Crism", which is a near twelve minute epic song that begins with these dark guitar notes and percussion with a purpose.  The guitar cuts through in this big 90210 way, where it feels like someone is walking through smoke on an empty sidewalk.  The pace picks up and it really seems to tell a story, with this one song just being so powerful on its own.  If you think of songs on an album as chapters in a book, "Crism" is really its own book.

The way that the synth sort of bounces us back into the sound on "Equanimity" just also takes us back to that way which I feel like this is telling that overall story in a Pink Floyd or Flaming Lips way.  This is also a song which brings out the influences of Stone Temple Pilots for me.  "Love of Separation" closes out the album by beginning with soft, complicated acoustic guitar notes.  This is also an instrumental song and it is not quite as loud and heavy as the others on this album.  As far as final tracks go, it is fitting because it can put you at ease and help you get back into the world without this rock music more gradually than the shock of just going from loud to quiet.

One of the fun but also somewhat wild parts about "Topology" is that it has a physical release as a record.  This is interesting because it isn't just a single record with four songs on one side and five on the other, which is how the nine would split.  It's actually divided up across two records.  The first three songs and then the next three songs are split across the first record, while the second record is the song "Crism" on one side and the last two songs on the final side.  This just goes to show that while listening to this the songs can not only be grouped up, but they all this weight to them.  Even though there have been singles, each song just carries that same heft that other artists take as an entire album and I absolutely love that depth.