Divided By Infinity – Lockdown EP
I’ll tell ya this much…if you’ve got the band This Will Destroy You in your list of influences & inspirations, believe me when I say, you’ll always be getting my attention. Divided By Infinity has’em posted up in reference to their sound on their Twitter page, along with a couple new names I didn’t know myself, and then of course Mogwai, who’s recent video for “Ritchie Sacramento” was actually the last thing I have posted up on my own personal page at Facebook. The point is, clearly we have a lot in common when it comes to the music we like to listen to – and in my own humble opinion, Divided By Infinity has killer taste. To make things even easier on me, and on us all, they live up to the inspiration of their influences.
To be honest, that would have already made this a highlight just for that spectacular reason alone…to be reaching for a certain style & sound akin to the music Divided By Infinity loves to listen to themselves, and then go out & nail it this solidly as they have on the Lockdown EP…that deserves genuine credit where credit is due; this all is entirely consistent with the original vision they started this whole pursuit to begin with. It’s also a real highlight & achievement for this band for other reasons as well, none the least of which includes this being what’s essentially their real debut record – you’ll find one additional EP in their back catalog put out on Record Store Day 2019, but essentially that was a reworking of singles they’d already released in the past more or less. They’ve gone on to put out a handful of singles post-release of the Record Store Day self-titled EP including tracks like “Uphill” in that same year, and “Freedom” from 2020 – which was notably dropped online somewhere close to the start of the worldwide pandemic…maybe on the inside of the madness by just about a month or two at the end of March. The resulting aftermath…the isolation we all blockaded ourselves into…the heavy melancholy and tangible angst, the brooding moods and peaceful moments of serenity & calm – the sheer array of emotions we’ve all been experiencing collectively across the globe since then…the very texture of those feelings we share…all of this & more has been documented extraordinarily well through range of style & sound you’ll find flowing throughout the six-track set-list on the new Lockdown EP by Divided By Infinity.
If you tuned in to the recent episode of the SBS Podcast, you’ll find I commented on this a little bit already before we jammed a couple tracks from the Lockdown EP on the show – I mentioned that this pandemic-based record reveals itself both directly & indirectly, which works brilliantly overall. You’ve got the more easy-to-spot references like the title of the record itself, or the vocal samples you’ll find through the INTENSITY generated on “New Norm,” or again, in other visual cues like the last song name in the set-list, “I Miss Your Birthday.” These are just a few ways you can get to the heart about what this EP is all about – but more importantly, you can FEEL IT – and that dear readers, dear friends…is where the magic in what Divided By Infinity really is; every track on this record will resemble thoughts, feelings, and emotions you’ve had building up inside you over this past year…and listening along with it really allows us all to tap into that. This is the indirect part of it all…the parts you can’t see, but can only hear – and on the strengths of that alone, I’d be more than stoked about giving this band a massively enthusiastic shout of support for everything I’ve heard on the Lockdown EP from start to finish. The more I listened to it, the more this all felt like the perfect representation of what this past year has been like – and to think that it’s all been accomplished without the band themselves speaking so much as a single word…I mean…c’mon now folks, you know that’s no small accomplishment – that’s monumental. From hypnotic, trance-inducing atmospheres like “Pu” has, to the punishing grind of distorted instrumental awesomeness on display on “New Norm” – we gave you two excellent reasons on the SBS Podcast back-to-back to give you a sample dose of what Divided By Infinity is all about, and I can absolutely assure you that you’ll find the other four tracks surrounding those are every bit as excellent, or even better. In fact, if you tuned in to our last episode, you would have heard me ranting & raving about how incredible the final track “I Miss Your Birthday” is – which actually takes Divided By Infinity all the way from that This Will Destroy You type-sound of “New Norm,” and way over into sonic terrain so much closer to say, something like Boards Of Canada. Right from the very first hollow & spaced-out tones of “Outbreak” starting up, believe me, you’ll find a whole trip well worth your time as you tour through this lineup…in all truth, I would have been more than happy to have played ANY of these songs on our show…and I’d be more than willing to bet we’ll be featuring them again in the future to follow. This band breaking out of Malaysia has officially landed permanently on my radar over here in Canada – they’re absolutely deadly at their most intense like on “New Norm” & “Enmity” – and they’re stunningly moving in their most atmospheric moments like you’ll find on “Paralysis” & certainly within the final cut “I Miss Your Birthday.” All-in-all, Divided By Infinity leaves you zero reasons to complain about anything you’ll discover on the Lockdown EP, and supplies you with countless reasons to turn it UP that are every bit as genuinely thought-provoking as powerfully entertaining. They’ve got the best outta their band on this record & they should be seriously proud of what they’ve put out there in these six tracks, 100%; there’s stellar musicianship, bold textures & ideas, a wild range of sound, & undeniably engaging material through the length of the Lockdown EP, from its brilliantly haunting & eerie start, to its spectacularly chilled-out finale.
Find out more about Divided By Infinity from the official pages below!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dvdbyinft
Bandcamp: https://dividedbyinfinity.bandcamp.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DividedByInfin1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dvdbyinft
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