So full disclosure I run a record label and I’ve come to an agreement with Blood Makes Noise to let me promote releases every week. The idea is every week I will present a playlist with some new Mint 400 Records music and what I think inspired our songwriters. This week it’s an EP all the way from Toronto Canada’s Indie Pop group Gelax. Gelax is a great mix of 90’s alternative feel mixed with an aesthetic that feels like early aughts indie pop. However to me it feels like in tracks like “Life” you can hear the groups middle eastern roots.
Self-described as “Genre-bending, fantasy rock “ it certainly fits that description as each song sounds like an epic anthem. The vocals have a dramatic flair to them like a personality as big as PJ Harvey is singing them or someone along those lines. The band says of this new release that “it explores themes of what it means to be human, infinite time, pursuit of happiness & misogyny all while staying in an escapist’s fantasy land.” Singer Gelareh brings such personality and bite to every track. The band states it’s influences as Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Massive Attack and others but it’s clear to hear they’ve taken many genre’s and moods and thrown them into a blender to come up with this EP.
Gelareh, the bands lead vocalist, escaped an oppressive Iranian regime that prosecuted female singers, & Tareq, the bands multi-instrumentalist’s sexuality was punishable in his middle-eastern home so the band members relocated and met in Toronto to form this new project. Their backgrounds and a hard life lived contributes to the genuine feel of this group of songs and just knowing tracks like Mr. Square are directed at some real misogynistic asshole makes them all the better. The comparisons are approximations because I really feel like Gelax does their own thing.
- Neil Sabatino, BMN Contributor
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