By It’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring the ethereal North Carolina pop music of Kate de Rosset’s IT WILL BURN and the engaging psych rock of plantoid’s FLARE!
Kate de Rosset – IT WILL BURN
Genre: Ethereal Wave, Ambient Pop, Bedroom Pop
Favorite Tracks: “What Wish,” “Silver Screen,” “The Spark,” “Cool Blue Flame,” “In The New”
Yearning is common for musicians; it’s how they express the feeling that differs. Some keep things straightforward, others give it layered complexity; Kate De Rosset clings onto the feeling like no one ever has before. Yearning is her entire world, the means to escape and breathe freely, straddled across the ambient pop and indie folk that’s plastered all over her entire discography.
IT WILL BURN returns to the ambient pop she started with, but amplifies the dreamy sheen. “What Wish” is swimming in glossy organs and fuzzy drums as Rosset gently ruminates upon her worries that hamper the passions that she wishes to provide for a hurting connection. The gauzy “Silver Screen” emphasizes how the romantic spirit transcends the physical; letting hesitation in only creates separation, and must be let go to feel the majesty of being in love.
The consistent use of distant vocals and glowing atmosphere creates that transcendent passage, the tension that comes with distance and worries. It allows the percussive focus of “The Spark” and the sweeping melodic gloss of “Cool Blue Flame” to sound respectively weighty and soft. As the final song, “In the New,” embraces fleeting moments of time and the acceptance of what’s new in the future, there’s a quiet melancholy in the love that will soon go away. “This shining heart / Can feel you call on me / Soft and strong,” Rosset sings. She acknowledges the strength regained, but carries the ache of what she will leave behind.
IT WILL BURN is true to what is on the tin. It shimmers to the point of gradually lighting up, evoking passion that can move someone to a different space. As de Rosset gets older, she never lets the passage of time tamper her immeasurable yearning. Listen to this ethereal album on Bandcamp.
plantoid – FLARE
Genre: Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Favorite Tracks: “Ultivatum Cultivation,” “The Weaver,” “Dozer,” “Good For You,” “Splatter,” “Slow Moving”
plantoid began as a bud, quickly becoming a full tree. Their debut album plants the seed of their progressive rock sound, unwinding into jagged riffs and sauntering into giddy crescendos. It becomes the statement of a band finding their own footnote, prancing and spinning in their musicality in order to paint their melodic blueprint. All of it changes throughout FLARE.
plantoid’s implementation of pop structures in jazzy progressive rock gives FLARE a remarkable tunefulness. Chloe Spence’s singing makes these songs even more expressive, whether that be the trampling grooves of “Ultimatum Cultivation,” where Spence’s upper register nimbly tiptoes around, or “The Weaver,” where her vocals eagerly float across playful instrumental melodies. The buzzy math rock jam “Dozer” and the lilting flutes, soaring coos, and vibrant melodic crescendos of “Good For You” evoke the desperate need for someone when things are feeling down. This sentiment extends to the raucous, jam-y compositions of “Splatter” and the airy softness of “Slow Moving”; things might fall apart for the partner characters of these songs, but they keep on going, despite the environment they’re in beginning to stagnate and chip away.
FLARE is a continuous progression from what plantoid has previously offered, the band finding new ways to keep their tunes exciting. plantoid has delivered with a full embrace of Spence’s expressive vocals, fascinating writing, and pop structure deepening their melodic and emotional intricacies. Listen to their colorful album on Bandcamp.
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