Let’s throw it out there and say many mainstream music listeners are afraid of darkness. By darkness I mean certain musical tones, the lyrical concepts picked by the songwriter, a feeling you get when you listen to a song and a shudder controls your whole body. Darkness has been associated with solitude and, unquestionably, evil for centuries. Even spaghetti westerns would dress the antagonist in a black costume to symbolize his intentions in a film.
Darkness can also be a place to redefine your existence, balancing out the “ying”, as well as a way of appreciating the positivity experienced in life to its fullest. Underground music has always had strong characters as its followers; people who would argue to death about a band they love that hardly anyone knows about. What I love about Toba Caldera is that they seem to embrace the darkness within music to create beautiful pieces. The songs found on this EP are paradoxically uplifting and tinted with a slight depression.
Strong influences heard in their work include The Stone Roses, Kasabian, Oasis and Nirvana. With such a great collection of bands to draw ideas from, there’s no wonder these songs grab your hand and clench it all the way through the 6 journeys. The effort starts off with a minimalist approach on the song ‘The Devil In Me’, with a beautifully written guitar riff. The track builds up slowly into a very emotional middle with a great use of two vocals. “I can’t escape just for the day. There you lay,” is a great piece of lyric writing; delivered with a sombre tone, the singing is very powerful.
The next track, ‘Still’, is another dark adventure for the listener and experiments greatly with more guitar work. There is a small hint of Pink Floyd in this piece. It is a beautiful song to experience and again the vocals are immensely powerful. Later on in the EP you will find some incredible punchy riffs that give a big energy in the last half and lifts it up another level. ‘Desolation brings the journey to a close with a steady build up in volume and tone. The song ends and the hand that held you all the way through is finally released, but you can still feel the print for a long while afterwards.
Toba Caldera need to keep making songs like this, if not only to give it’s listeners a feeling of solitude where they can reflect, and then work their way out of darkness. This is surely what writing melancholy songs is about and each track in this fantastic EP is perfectly written to appeal to our inner darkness. All I can say to end, and forgive me for being philosophical, but we need darkness to find a light. Thank you, Toba Caldera.
**Send in tracks, EPs and Albums to eanddpromotions@gmail.com**
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