Tetsuians from Australia reached out to Blood Makes Noise with their newest effort “Elephant Hexagon” and it’s a delightful brand of jangly indie pop. Track 1 starts off as a pretty straight forward garage indie rock song with your standard indie vocal. It was very interesting though when I got to track 2 “Pack a Little Bag” and the first thing that hit me was a cool dissonant chord thrown in with a major chord progression and a voice that was reminiscent of Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders.
Tracks 3 & 4 return back to the male vocals in songs that are reminiscent of kind of what was going on in indie rock in the 90’s and the early 2000’s. I can’t quite place the nasally vocal but it definitely reminds me of that specific era of indie rock. I like how the band throws interesting chord progressions in here and there you notice the off kilter almost Pavement like chords.
The album has a nice flow to it and is produced exceptionally well. The one thing I really like is when the songs start they definitely don’t just do the typical chord progression and melody that a band with this sort of sound could easily do. They twist the melody and chords in an interesting way that isn’t very typical. Around track 7 the female vocal returns to the forefront. I think in the future I would love to hear these two distinct vocals play off one another in a bunch of songs because they are both unique.
The music overall has this odd feel like if you used chords and played along to a Joy Division song or you tried your best to come up with gothy versions of Smith’s songs. Other songs feel like they are borrowing from 90’s brit rock. I can appreciate how the band seems to be fans of many bands and they kind of throw it all into a blender to create this release. Although having two distinct singers in a way sometimes makes it feel disjointed like you are listening to a mix tape and not just an album by one band. By albums end Tracks 9 and 10 blend both vocalists very well into one song and in a way that’s what I think I’d love to hear a full album of, both of them trading off.
I see a lot of potential in this band to really write an indie rock masterpiece of an album. They seem to have all of the components and although this is a great release I can see them pushing the envelope further in the future and this is just the start.
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- Sam Lowry, BMN Contributor