Los Angeles-based band Rivermaker delves into moody alt-rock and post-punk textures with two new tracks. “Content” blends solemn guitar twangs and hypnotic layered vocals to explore the pursuit of release and patience, while “Redo” combines nocturnal twangs and buzzing distortion to confront emptiness and the ongoing work of self-recalibration.
“Content” moves quickly into a solemn guitar twanging, achieving a nostalgic post-punk pull in the steady rhythmic backing and moody “couldn’t help but think” vocal introspection. The “gotta let it go” urgings coexist with striving to “find release” from the constant tumults within life — traversing into jangling guitar glistening as the layered vocals meld into the “goes on and on” hypnotics. Alongside its stellar production, the track enthralls in depicting the elusive nature of perfection, suggesting it emerges over time through patience, understanding, and forgiveness rather than through surface appearances.
Another standout, “Redo” furthers the band’s knack for soul-searching contemplation — here succeeding again within an atmospheric rock spell, built from both buzzing distortion and nocturnal twangs. “Feel your fingers starting to shake, fuel in the tank is dry,” Austin Smith’s lead vocals describe, expressing a sense of emptiness — though singing “it’s never too late to come around” and ultimately emphasizing the need to master one’s mind, confront the past, and continuously meditate, manifest, and recalibrate to navigate life’s inescapable pulls. Both tracks thoroughly succeed in their atmospheric productions and emotive thematic precision.
Stream these two tracks — in addition to “Move” — below:
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These and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
