Big Eater, Erica Eso, Linear Downfall

Matt Bachmann's feelings.


Erica Eso is a microtonal pop project founded by composer and synthesizer player, Weston Minissali of Cloud Becomes Your Hand. "Erica Eso's synth­heavy pop melodies are a clear departure from the otherworldly avant­rock sound of Cloud Becomes Your Hand, but ...Minissali's talents as an experimental composer span across genres." (The Deli Magazine) The brooklyn­based quartet is comprised of Rhonda Lowry on drums, Nathaniel Morgan on bass and Ellen O'Meara on synthesizer. This October they will be touring the east coast and midwest in support of their debut album "2019" out on Ramp Local Records on October 16th. Primarily composed in an attic, 2019 (a date in time, a lucky anagram, or maybe just an arbitrary value deemed significant) is the debut album of Erica Eso (a name plus music, an empty bracket, not an alter ego). The album exhibits abstract sound palettes willfully submitting to the globalized pop song structure. Synthesizers born of distorted sign waves and quarter tone temperament join with an unknown loner's fragile falsetto singing proudly of loss and rebirth. Songs like "One Hundred Years," "Neer Me Ruuner," and "Crippled Symmetry," celebrate the clean, gridded pulse of the dance floor, but the instinctive spirit of the record lies in the murky, arrhythmic swells and clicks of tracks like "Iris Kyle" and "Am Eve Erica." But whose femininity is hollering out amongst this reverb?


Linear Downfall, an experimental band from Nashville, is known for seamlessly blending psychotic noise along with beautiful melodies. Their music taps into the highs and lows of life and challenges one to look inward. Their live show is intense and jarring captivating the audience from beginning to end. They have self-released three albums, extensively toured the U.S., and caught the attention of the Flaming Lips which led to their side project called the Electric Würms.

In 2014, they toured in support of their third self-released album, "Fragmental Hippocampus" and released the first Electric Würms album, "Musik, die Schwer zu Twerk." A 5-song online release of brand new material was released in November as the band put the finishing touches on a 4th album, "Sufferland." The band plans to release "Sufferland" in 2015 along with a full-length film to correspond with the highly visual music of their new album.