Other Lives - For Their Love - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Other Lives, which includes Josh Onstott and Jonathon Mooney, remain focused on the search for audible clarity their next expression, their next melody, their next rhythm. Rituals, the band's third and 2015 full-length album, is a pure encapsulation of the trio's relentless drive for precision. Ambient soundscapes (InchNew FogInch) buttress against prog-rock stomp (Inch2 PyramidsInch) lending the album the experience of embarking on a choose-your-own-adventure novel. InchThere's kind of a duality to this record,Inch Tabish says, referencing InchPatternInch - Inchrhythmically kind of up-tempo, really fast-moving, marimbas, this new kind of new-wave orchestra soundInch - in opposition to the closing title track, a slow-building, piano-and-strings-anchored ballad Tabish wrote in the finals weeks of recording.

Steady Holiday is an appropriate name for an artist whose music feels like the soundtrack to your fondest memory. Or your deepest heartbreak. Or the dream sequence from a David Lynch film. There's a nostalgia present in Dre Babinski's songwriting that leaves you longing for the familiarity of a bygone era - just not one you can necessarily pin down. After years growing up playing in bands around Los Angeles, Dre recently began writing and recording for herself - on her own, in secret, developing a body of work about hidden desire itself. Establishing a sound defined by her featherlight voice floating above sweeping strings, her 2016 debut Under the Influence led to opening for artists like Mitski, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Whereas the first record took us on a trip through the deeply personal, Dre's sophomore album Nobody's Watching zooms way out. What began as a concept record about two archetypal crooks developed into an exploration of universal themes like greed, fear and self-interest; the ugly and troubling edges of human nature. It's a good time for that. Dre worked with producer Gus Seyffert (Roger Waters, Beck) to create a sound that echoes the narrative told on Nobody's Watching. From the sunny and observant to the dark and critical, the tone ranges from levity to paranoia through layers of analog synths and chilling strings played by Dre herself. There are moments of cinematic intensity reminiscent of a James Bond score, yet the subtle tape hiss and creaking chairs remind us that this is an album made by people. It is warm, and it breathes, the same way the human touch can both soothe and suffocate. Nobody's Watching is the natural next step for Dre and Steady Holiday, a project that builds worlds we wish to escape to or from. It's an examination of the inner narratives we all share but keep in the shadows, where the characters m

Volume V follows on 5 years after Other Lives' fourth album, For Your Love, a record lovingly nurtured but then swallowed up by the Covid pandemic. The title signifies the latest chapter in the ongoing story of Other Lives, their fifth record of magnificent musical and emotional depth. From the first notes of the opening track and lead single InchMystic,Inch it's clear that the cinematic breadth of their arrangements and melodies has risen several dynamic notches, with a fuller orchestrated reach and more towering drama across the album's 8 songs and 2 instrumentals - evidence of the band's hunger to keep progressing while retaining the essence of what makes them so unique and irresistible.The majority of Volume V was recorded in The Sheerar, a former church that is now the Stillwater History Museum. The Sheerar's acoustics partly accounts for the album's more cathedral-esque take on Other Lives' signature sound, which has it's roots in a form of Americana but is expanded via classical and post-classical forms and the influence of iconic composers such as Ennio Morricone and Henry Mancini. InchI see Volume V as the beginning of Other Lives' second act,Inch says Jesse Tabbish.