Describing music as "cold" has so many interpretations and manifestations that it's difficult to quantify a sound based on that description. It can describe an incoherent Black Metal album, Lo-Fi Indie Folk and Field Recordings of wind in a more pure sense, and those are just a few of many examples. What these all do typically have in common is a hollow, thin or just an unembellished production value. Last Summer, Denver's Admiral recorded three songs within a one-hour recording session and then released their astonishing EP the very next day. This demo is one that's sure to gain some kind of an emotional response from any listener, or even just a pure appreciation of the music that the band recorded.
Admiral's July 13th demo offers up a perfect raw clarity that I truly wish was the normality in modern demo tapes. Many artists will try to overproduce their demos with a painful emphasis on compression and MIDI tracks. Others will, sometimes purposefully, ensure that the production is so distorted that there's no point in even listening for a conceivable melody, which I believe has its place, but that place isn't in post-hardcore or math rock. Admiral hits the spot with precision, giving us a fairly thin mix, but one that still allows the listener to hear every present instrument. My favorite aspect about this production value is the unmastered charm of it. There's no master compression that would bring everything to a stagnancy in volume; instead, the lack of production allows this release to be dynamic and interesting throughout every song.
The music is some Post-Hardcore, a little bit of Math Rock, some classic Emo, and various other influences that combine to deliver an inspired, soulful and sonically intriguing demo release. Admiral experiment with dissonance, odd time signatures, feedback and the right amount of silence and pauses that give some of these songs more punch. There's even some Grunge and Sludge influence sprinkled into a couple of these songs, which caught me pleasantly by surprise. Although there are so many genre influences present here, this is a release that I wouldn't refer to as eclectic because of how smooth everything is. This isn't something that follows a structure of "x genre riff that switches to y genre riff, which then changes into a z genre riff," every genre influence here exists essentially as an overtone, but they all combine to create one cohesive and unique sound.
Admiral know how to play their instruments, and they know how to write songs. Listening to this, you know this isn't the first song written by any of these guys, and it's likely not their first music project either. It's confident, and absolutely something that I'd love to experiment live. I look forward to a full-length record, but I don't think that a well-produced album would replace this demo in my listening queue. It would act as just another addition because the raw sound is as enjoyable as any record that had meticulous production effort put into it. With such a proficiently performed recording, it'd be in anyone's best interest to just hit play and let the music do its thing.
This isn't music for the music fan that's looking for more music that exists within a certain genre, it's music for the music fan that's looking for great music. If you approach with an open mind, Admiral is sure to satisfy your cravings. The cold sound that's offered on many demos is most perfectly executed by artists that are from cold areas, so you already know that this Rocky Mountain trio will have the authentic sound that's best-provided by such climates. This pure cold is seamlessly mixed with an emotional mid-west sound, and thus, Admiral reaches aesthetic bliss. The Colorado cold continues to inspire extraordinary material from experienced musicians.
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