Falmouth, MA-based solo artist SMIC unveils a lifetime of musical exploration on the home-recorded album loge. The release marks a forty-year milestone of creating music, blending DIY punk-rock roots with diverse influences ranging from The Beatles to The Clash. Capturing raw spontaneity, the album venturing through post-punk energy and moody, versatile productions.
Opening track “Hold” stirs with heavy rhythmic propulsions and whirring guitar tones to start, while intense vocal proclamations move with ardor into a steadier alt-rock and post-punk fusion. The two-minute turn is an especially compelling moment, its “on my mind” lyrical introspections combine with a playful guitar progression and ensuing bass-y rumbling — culminating into shout-y vocal finality.
Ensuing track “2×4” maintains that post-punk rhythmic edge, while the vocals embrace a punk-ready raucousness. loge consistently delights with its cohesive blends of moody rock/post-punk and ferocious fervency, and it’s apparent as well on “2×4” in its shifts from the commencing aggression into the ghostly midpoint interlude.
Elsewhere, “Fumes” succeeds with a more sentimental, warming rock twanginess. Showing shades of Foxygen in its throwback-friendly organs and “it’s all yesterday’s news” lyrical bites, the track enamors in its expressive backing vocals, jangly guitar charms, and themes of weariness through tumult. “Sixty” enthralls as well, with its gentle acoustics and solemn piano, showing SMIC as plenty capable of ballad-forward standouts as well. loge is a dynamic, consistently melodic success of an album from SMIC.
—
“Fumes” and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
