Take a load of white laundry and mix it with rock, reggae, metal and hip-hop. Aside from sinfully disregarding everything your disappointed mother taught you, you’ll end up with the colorful mix proposed by Midnight High, an Astoria-based trio, on their eponymous debut.
As the genre fusion would suggest, this record is completely void of any pop sensibility, but it is also clear that is knowingly and unashamedly so. The band mixes genres that are far too different to make the songs flow together, and it is likely that while someone may love a track, they could easily end up hating the next one. Still, it is not to say the band doesn’t know what they’re doing, and the stylistic fusion is mostly contained to a couple of genres per song.
Prog rock/metal seems to be the weapon of choice for the majority of the album, mixed with funky guitar and bass on “She Knows,” hip-hop on “This Life Is Me,” ‘70s hard rock on “Do It Again” and “End Of The Line,” and finally with reggae on “Prevail” and “My Way.” The highest note for the album is that, despite not providing any track catchy or appealing enough to really stand out, the quality of the songs remains constant throughout; there are no hits, but also no fillers.
Conventional goes out this trio of, as we called them in high school, “nerd rockers,” but it does so pretty effectively. Their debut may not attract many audiences, mainstream or underground, but gets a nod of recognition for songcraft and boldness. Not everyone may enjoy it, but their intent to make a record of music they love is solid enough to make for an EP that will at least get objective recognition, and may very well find a niche audience obsessed enough to worship them.
In A Word: Idionsycratic
