Making Strangers have released a follow up to their 2021 album Monster. When Time Moves Slow features a new percussion player Ty Whitbeck, who is an integral part of the grooves that are all over this album. Whether it’s a soft egg shaker adding a just the right amount of textural rhythm, a woodblock (I think) tucked into a tight groove like on the track “Body Body”, or a shaking tambourine that makes it impossible to not bop your head to the beat like on “Running from Bombs.”
From their first album, Making Strangers has stood strong as a very unique band. Pulling from bands across multiple genres but also keeping the listener on their toes with time signature changes, key changes and just overall shifts in mood. Something you would expect to hear in prog rock, post punk or math rock. But Making Strangers doesn’t fall into any of those genres and I’m hesitant to assign labels to this band because as soon as I start to think it falls into a category, it changes. But it doesn’t change for the sake of confusing the listener, or just for the sake of being different. It’s not like they are just smushing genres back to back, playing jazz, then playing rock, then playing metal. No, they are taking consideration stitching together sections that are seemingly in opposition. The Strangers sound is brought to life by the band as a whole with direction from the writer, singer, and guitarist Sean Cummings.
They certainly continued their unique sound with When Time Moves Slow. The first song, “Lights,” has pillowy soft intro and verses. Very warm acoustic tones, percolating synths, a light egg shaker, a heartbeat kick drum and lovely phase shifting cymbals. These verses give way to choruses that break through like the sun on a cloudy day. I also really love how each instrument on this album has moments of both reinforcing the groove or adding to the unsettling aesthetic of a song, or section of a song. On the track “Momento,” the drums, bass and guitar hold down this pensive groove while the synth and aux percussion add a swirling sparkly atmosphere. Until the first post-chorus hits, which is in a major key while the verses/choruses are in a minor key. The piano in the post-choruses takes the role of reinforcing the rhythm along with the drums, bass and guitar. I strongly recommend spending time with this album, it goes in a lot of different directions but never feeling like it’s being forced. If you enjoy bands like the Talking Heads, Radiohead, Akron/Family I think you would enjoy this band.
Follow their Instagram page for updates on music and shows! They are also fantastic live!