Pittsburgh-based multi-instrumentalist Radical Reecer shapes new album Whimsical : Crestfallen through layered synth textures, funk-rooted grooves, modulated guitar, and detailed sound design. Across its mostly instrumental compositions, shifting densities and tonal contrasts mirror a movement between grief, nostalgia, yearning, and renewed confidence.
“Abandoned Asunder” commences the album with stylish intrigue, quickly showcasing the project’s wide-reaching range between murky rock, buzzy synths, and head-nodding grooves. Hazy guitar twangs and thumping rhythms coexist with a warbled synth presence, shifting seamlessly between percussive intensity and free-flowing atmospheric allure. The expansion from nocturnal creakiness to pit-pattering rhythms invokes a sense of change, from subduedness to empowerment. Ensuing track “Faded Brilliance” also dazzles in its striking shifts, here emphasizing the tonal changes between laid-back keys and chilly guitar resonance in assembling an introspective soundscape.
Continuing the album’s impressive opening run, “Gilded Schematics” is wonderfully climactic in its gradual addition of instrumentation. Glimmering synth tones and sporadic percussion grow into a steadier rhythmic backbone as plucky, playful synths add to the initial electronic presence. The crawling synth-bass meets another illuminated tonal charge past midpoint, for a spine-tingling appeal. Meanwhile, the album’s title track resonates by incorporating the fervent lead presence of Jesse Bloodgood alongside a balanced mixture of expressive guitars and dreamy synths. The multi-layered “do you dance…” performance exclamation is particularly invigorating, with an echo-y, psychedelic effect lending well to the immersive atmosphere and intensely melodic delivery, reminding fondly of Avey Tare.
A fluid coexistence between jazzy guitar tones and spacey electronics shines on “Rising Maelstrom,” while “Claimed Authority” shifts back into a caressing key-forward beginning, reminiscent of Air’s icy atmospherics before shifting into hectic rhythms and stabbing synth injections. Its midpoint envelops as the rhythms fade and the synths form a spacious entrancement, cohesive in balancing punchier percussion and atmospheric blissfulness. Next up, “Exalted Masonry” conjures an intense sound in its grandiose piano tones, ascending from stately chords to glistening heights, and emitting a feeling of overall longing in its glimmering sound.
“Always Enough” is another highlight, especially striking past its first minute as avant-garde guitar chords meld with vibrant synth escalations. Album finale “Blinding Sunrise” is a wholly satiating send-off, with a final minute that infuses spacey, high-pitched synths and warbly, lower-end electronic tones for another melodically memorable production. Delighting in its instrumental sound (and one vocal-laden track), Whimsical : Crestfallen is a wonderfully captivating full-length output from Radical Reecer.
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