OFFICIAL: https://www.donomatribe.com/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/donomatribe
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/donomatribe
Written
by Montey Zike, posted by blog admin
Already
making waves at the South by Southwest festival and playing shows with lauded
acts such as Soul Asylum, Candlebox, Rusted Root and The Meat Puppets, Donoma
have logged in more than 500 shows in their rather brief career. This Wisconsin machine is a well-oiled unit
of road dogs that additionally have two albums under their belt thanks to this
latest release, Falling Forward. Donoma are great companions to the
experimental, 90s rock underground that included some of the best guitar driven
music since the golden rock n’ roll revolution.
We haven’t had a movement like that in quite some time but this
five-piece band reminds us that pockets of that creativity still exist in the
USA.
You
get twelve tunes all told here and none of them are easy to pin down. Sure you can pick out trace elements of blues
in opener “Sick,” the violin-gussied “Jack in the Box,” the volcanic hard rock
ash of “Memory,” or a “A New Shed of Colors’” nods to outlaw country and
melodic, Bob Dylan-smattered folk, but for as many things that come off as
“standards,” Donoma uses atonal, acerbic tones, unusual instruments and
off-the-cuff vocal patterns to render even the most basic songs into something
otherworldly. This band may be from
another planet; DNA tests pending.
The
strange “Deep Beneath the Woods” has a moonlit, after dark feel comparable to
Hooverphonic if they were less inspired by new wave and 90s industrial; instead
culling the drilling guitars and rhythmic oomph from the vintage hard rock
era. It’s dub for the people who
couldn’t be bothered to touch it. Then
there’s the baroque, cymbal ghosted Las Vegas lounge groove of “He Loves Me Not,”
which features an aggressive, sensually charged performance from vocalist
Stephanie Vogt. Riffs are hammered like
railroad spikes on the fiery cover of “A Change is Gonna Come,” and original
pieces “Unfortunate One” and “Otherside,” but gears a soon shifted for the
acoustic dream-drone of curtain caller “Come with Me.” The album could possibly benefit from a more
unified theme as a cut like “Splinter” is almost so warped and distorted it
could be on an 80s No Wave album, although you can never take too many points
away from this band for throwing in the kitchen sink and running with it. Falling Forward is a diverse,
line-blurring affair that will challenge even the most open-minded
listeners. It’s never content to just
play by the numbers and for that it’s worth checking out even if you come out
scratching your head more than a few times over the course of its
duration.
Comments
Post a Comment