rockyourlyricsBrooklyn-based, psychedelic indie rock band, Ritual Talk, announce their debut EP, Rippled Glass, due out in September 2017.
The EP was recorded in several places – 4 out of 5 of the drum tracks were produced in Philly, vibraphone and cello were recorded at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music with Jack Hallenbeck (Scott James, OSHUN) and nearly everything else was produced and recorded in the band’s apartment in NYC. The EP was mixed by Chris Shaw (Modest Mouse, Wilco) and mastered by Chris Gehringer (Yeasayer, Chairlift).
Today, Impose premiered the video for the release’s opening track, “Sense,” calling it “an etherial experience.” The track features pulsating synths, heavy vocal harmonies and fuzzy guitar. (It’s the stoner-rock track of the EP, of sorts).
“Sense,” is a slow burner that tells the personal story of needing to cultivate one’s own path from a singular perspective. Lead single, “Help, I’ve Been Dreaming” premiered last month on The Wild Honey Pie, describing it as “a heartbreaking elegy to a relationship drowning in the waves of passing time. Lyrically, a former love is aloof, or worse, permanently lost.”
The track is a woozy encapsulation of the hesitant feeling of being alone after ending a long-term relationship. Major chords and polyrhythmic structure display the emotional aloofness show through the lyrical narrative.
Primary songwriter, Alex DeSimine (vox, guitar, keys), began writing music in his adolescence as a means of sorting out a jumbled mind. The band came to fruition when DeSimine moved in with bassist, Alex Tremitere and drummer, Tom Criblez, and elicited the help of Dylan Gleit (guitar, vox), who previously performed with Criblez and Tremitere, and TJ Alcala (keys, vox).
The band’s distinct vocal layers, with all five members signing live, added a new level of excitement to their live set.
BIO
One of the first questions Ritual Talk gets is usually one of the hardest questions to answer: what do you sound like? In a world that favors boxes and binaries, they are dubbed “psychedelic indie rock”. And there are certainly moments in the music that fit that bill to a tee, capturing both the headiness and the fervor of the genre. However, like a cold ice cream cone on a warm day, those moments don’t last forever. People walk away hearing influences from Grizzly Bear to Marvin Gaye to CSN&Y to Dirty Projectors, but ultimately, the Brooklyn outfit’s lush instrumentation and exploratory vocal arrangements tinge each song with an unmistakable color, on and off the stage.
Alex DeSimine (vocals, guitar) is the primary songwriter in the band, and has been writing songs for as long as he can remember.
He got a $30 bright blue acoustic guitar when he was thirteen and started putting music to words he’d written on long car rides to Grandma’s.
The craftsmanship has grown, though the adolescent adoration for expression through music has not left.
Writing a song is catharsis to him – the only way he can make sense of his own jumbled mind. These songs represent the ironing out of issues: social, emotional, philosophical – anything that needs sorting out, and some things that just need air. He still plays that guitar today.
By the time Alex and Alex Tremitiere (bass, vocals) moved in together, they had been playing together for almost ten years.
Tom Criblez (drums, vocals) moved in at the same time, but only really got to know his new roommates on that first couch they shared. TJ Alcala (keys, vocals) started dating one Alex after meeting the other at college in the Bronx and playing guitar with the two of them.
It wasn’t until he returned from two years back home in Texas that he took on a new role behind the keys. Dylan Gleit (guitar, percussion, vocals) had played with both Tom and Alex Tremitiere for a while in different projects before heading south for college.
As soon as he moved back to New York, he climbed right back aboard and Ritual Talk was unofficially born.
However, it wasn’t until another year later that the name found its way to their music.
Another big move to Bushwick, some new recordings, and a fresh live show featuring all five members singing garnered a new level of excitement – from both sides of the stage – and led to solidifying this energy under the name Ritual Talk.
Expect their debut EP to trickle out this summer, and be sure to catch some of that energy on the road later this year.
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