ALBUM: Strange & Primitive 'Strange & Primitive'

Are you ready to be blown into another era? With Strange and Primitive‘s electrifying new self titled album, you will be transported to a whole new age, simply by listening.

Stated by their name, the 90s-esque duo hold a quirky, mixed sound throughout their album and, undisputedly, it works. Busy synthetic tones of their prehistoric instruments contrast with their melodic vocals, sending their listeners on a metaphorical rollercoaster.

From hearing the album first hand, you certainly wouldn’t assume the band purely consisted of a duo – Graham Fish from Ontario and Jeff Musgrave from Japan, creating the band in 2014.

Accompanied by the peculiar choice of instruments, highlighting the effect of the duo’s individually eerie vocals, most songs flow with intense crescendos or diminuendos. Resembling Matt Bellamy’s voice when singing octaves higher, Musgrave’s vocals are contrasted by surround-sound guitar, enabling the listener to be cinematically engaged.

From the album’s explosive beginning in ‘Difficulties Be Damned’, to the acoustic guitar in the final track “The Seventh Shot”, diminuendos are carried throughout.

Hidden behind the synthesised beats, however, the ghostly vocals are suggestive of the undeniably darker poetic lyrics: “if id been singing, you’d be dead, poisoned by a song in your head” (‘The Hunt Is Over’).

Strange and Primitive combine aspects of pop, indie, wave, synthesised dance, all fused together with a unique collection of instruments. Their daring sound encompasses fans of multiple genres; they’re definitely a band to watch in the upcoming future.

With one track titled ‘I Don’t Like Music’, I suggest that those of you who do listen to Strange and Primitive’s.

Strange and Primitive’s self titled album is available for download from iTunes, Amazon and their own site. Visit them at http://music.strangeandprimitive.com/album/strange-primitive

Lottie Stuart