by Patrick Pilch (@pratprilch)
ROCK formed after MALK’s tweet and Chris Adams’ (Hood/Bracket) reply. The former was in search of a vocalist and the latter obliged. The proposed task: MALK was looking for autotune vocals on a “10 track Elliot Smith/Alex G album.” Adams said ‘done’ and does a proper good job and more on the duo’s excellent self-titled debut.
MALK has been plugging at sample-heavy, experimental lo-fi work since as early as 2017, but leans into a more intricately patch-worked cut of indie rock with the arrival of ROCK’s first tape. ROCK’s warm production, with its modest instrumentation and low-pitched melodies, sets a tone sure to have steered Chris Adams toward distorted vocal textures and selectively scrutable lyrics. The singer has a clear understanding of MALK’s vision and executes a seamless vocal performance as half of ROCK.
The album opens with “Shimmering in Freefall,” a foggy, dirge-paced opener setting the tone with distant and hazy percussion, open cymbals and overblown snares. The record’s wash of sweeping effects and warbling pitch shifts mimic a damp tape played back at deployed-parachute speed. The pair smudge down-tuned guitars and pixelated vocal harmonies into the backgrounds of standouts “Quarter in the Sky” and “NHS Biblical,” blurring the boundaries between shoegaze, pop, electronica, collagist hip-hop, and auto-tuned hyperpop into further ambiguity.
ROCK’s most pensive slow-burn “Meadows Unwind” amasses an arpeggiated stockpile of thick six-strings and whisper-sung vocals. It’s one of the record’s most straightforward moments, becoming especially clear next to ROCK’s most experimental flirtation with cloud rap on “A New Vision of the Wild.” But don’t be fooled, the album’s sludgy overtones hold these tracks firm, building an aesthetic to bridge nodding slow-core anthems with forward-thinking pop trends. ROCK’s self-titled album is a powerful, genre-less debut and a testament to the diminishing limitations of distanced collaboration.