Refract

Refract Tracks Review

3. Under The Rotting Sun

6. Hundredth Monkey

10. Tekaru

Refract are pulling no punches here. There is a journey they want to take you on and they are doing their damnedest to take you places and avoid a sophomore slump.Dynamics are the name of the game here. These aren’t short songs by any means but they actually feel larger due to the dynamics at play. The heavy moments are much heavier because the listener is given room to breathe and absorb those moments. Your neck will thank you!
It’s these moments of heaviness that capture my attention the most. The smooth vocals contrasted with the almost filthy riffs hit that psychedelic sweet spot. A lot more amateurish attempts in the musical realm of psychedelia tend to devolve into aimless noodling for the sake of itself. The firm structure in the ebbs and flows of “Under The Rotting Sun”, for example, dodge that trap and let us just bask in the tale that Refract is telling.
“Hundredth Monkey” is a shorter track and stands as a good encapsulation of what the band is trying to do with their sound. It’s a banger, but I cannot help but feel that it has less of those memorable moments compared to the longer tracks on offer here. That’s simply due to its more compressed nature but you do get all that goodness in a smaller serving size.
“Tekaru” is my absolute favorite here. It’s an absolute roller coaster of a track. You are taken for loops, twists, and turns. At close to ten minutes in length it’s actually longer than a roller coaster and there’s no chance of being puked on by an overfed six-year-old who couldn’t wait until later to eat, forcing dad to buy him a 26 dollar chicken sandwich. A big part of why this track succeeds so strongly is when the bass takes over and tells the story. Having that lower end rumble come to the forefront is a brilliant choice.
There is a lot going on in these tracks. Thankfully they are given the right amount of room to expand and contract as needed, making the journey much easier to digest. You will definitely want to come back to see what you might have missed the first time. If these tracks are anything to go by, Refract is expanding on what made the first album work so well. The tracks are just fun to listen to, period.
- Angelo “Rebel” Reyes (9/2019)