We’re in an Instagram and TikTok era of music.
Songs are being gauged by how catchy they are, whether they sound good sped up or slowed down, whether there’s a part where everyone can mime along & dance, or whether the song can fit over an aesthetic cat video.
For musicians, it can be stressful to constantly plan music releases around a schedule that favors the algorithm, getting playlists to feature your new single, to get enough streams so that festivals will book you or to actually get enough streams to buy lunch.
In the middle of all this chaos, you have someone like Nazrin and his post-rock project Call Me Home. Within 6 songs and just under 20 minutes, you are transported into a guitar drenched world where the melodic Instagram guitar aesthetic still lives but you also get to bop to slowly developing guitar textures that play around a polyrhythmic contrapuntal dance.
The six tracks imply a concept album vibe with the titles hinting at it:
- Intro
- Possibilities
- Uncertain
- Hope/Chance
- Hope/Action
- Home
Possibilities sets the tone the tone of the album with the repetitive guitar part gradually building up into variations and nice interplay between the guitar and drums.
With Uncertain, we hear Nazrin’s thoughts expressed instrumentally, beginning with gentle sparse clean melodic guitar building into more intense strumming before the lead guitar takes over.
Hope/Chance has some exciting guitar work especially towards the end that is pure ear candy.
Hope/Action has that tasty R&B/Neo-Soul melodic phrasing that you might dig if you’re into the more recent sounds of trending cool guitar playing… and the lead work is all singing and hypnotic.
Home closes the album with drums leading in, guitar setting the mood and a build-up to the wordless vocals that are probably perfect for a concert stage sing-along at the next show you catch them.
For fans of tasty understated guitar playing, this might be something you wanna check out. It’s still at the early stages of development but there’s a lot to enjoy here. I for one look forward to more releases from Call Me Home. Have a listen and see where the music takes you.
Rating: 4/5
You might be able to get a physical copy of this directly from Nazrin on his Instagram and check out where the band is performing next here.
Listen to the Call Me Home on Spotify here.
[Submissions for Review Consideration]
If you are an artist, record label or press outreach interested for me to feature your new release on this site, please email me at azsamad3 at gmail dot com.
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I cannot guarantee a review for every submission & if I’m not too into it, I may opt not to review it. I mean, it’s better to get a good review than for me to write a bad review just because it’s not a match for the kind of stuff I dig right? :p
NOTE: All reviews reflect my honest personal opinion so be aware that I will point out both cool Pros and Cons that I see in the work. Thanks!
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