Metabards self-titled EP has strong Eastern influences that resonate as much as the smoky spice filled rooms that each track paints. Metabards brings a unique brand of Eastern inspired trip hop that’s as refreshing as a good blend of Jasmine tea. The EP contains two tracks with a trio of remixes, which tease to Metabards’s debut album Mythos scheduled for release in early 2016.
Each track on the EP is an out of body experience that will have you either scratching your head struggling to describe what you listened to or praising them for their innovation in creating such a unique brand of music. Metabards’s EP is a story of Wisa1’s elastic rhythms and electronic ecstasy meeting Tianya’s journey around the world as a musical nomad. As the track titles “Prometheus” and “Paradise Found” suggest, the EP ultimately tells the story of birth and discovery. The duo’s distinct musical backgrounds clash in the genesis of their styles melding together to create “Prometheus,” which is trip hop peppered with bits of Hindi influences that take the track to an almost ethereal plane of listening. It is definitely a track that needs to be listened multiple times. Fortunately, the EP includes a remixes of “Prometheus” by Krimshok.” The remix show subtle differences such as Krimshok ‘s remix having a lot less funk.
“Paradise Found” shares a similar vibe as the track is a trance-like journey into what I can only assume as “paradise.” Many Eastern influences that are depicted, which highlights the experience and message of the track. The chant-like sounds that persist throughout the track are accompanied with a very charged lyrics that express the need to “transcend the comfortable and what exists in our heads.” The track suggest that “all this non-believing is the greatest faith I’ve found,” which leads to where paradise can be found. Dopamine offers two remixes of “Paradise Found” that offer a more psychedelic 80’s electronic vibe to it in both a dub and non-dub version.
It is clear that Metabards lives up to their name of being postmodern “bards.” Their music is almost self-referring to the metaphysical experience that music can have in exploring the endless universes that exist in the mind. The group has performed three shows at Teknival in France, Warmer Fest in Brussels and Santiago de Cuba with great audience reactions. Metabards’s EP can be found here. Metabards is definitely a group to keep an eye on. Check them out at their Facebook page and Twitter handle for details on their debut album Mythos. It continues the theme of contemporary narratives that the duo has established. The album is said to be a retelling of classic Greek myths with psychedelic-electro-melodic-harpsichordic-rhapsodically-fused soundwaves.
