Y’all already know that Knox Engler is an established shredder when it comes to two-handed tapping the guts out of a guitar.
We went over this a bit on our last Engler piece, which covered Right Chipper, his latest project and their single “Take Me Down.” Like a slightly mellower Good Game or a slightly heavier Floral depending how you looked at it, it was a great preview of whatever might be coming.
With the EP finally out, it’s a good time to check out one of our other favorite tracks below.
_
As “Caught You Crying” and “Birthday” sink their tech-y hooks into you, you should be able to surmise that there’s an amount of depth here that’s going to require some revisiting despite its simplicity, and this is actually a sign of a job really well done in our opinion.
The fact is Knox’s vocals are sweet enough to add a relatable characteristic to already challenging passages without overdoing it. It can be a hard thing for a creative instrumentalist to show restraint in the vocal department, if not mostly for the fact they’re just used to arranging music that way. But Knox shows a lot of taste here, allowing for pop influence to make itself known while honoring the math rock and post-progressive roots Right Chipper evolved from.
The transition from instrumental to music with vocals can be a rough one no matter how well you do it, but Right Chipper lands all its punches, and in an order that ultimately provides a deceptively deep experience that deserves a fighting chance for your end-of-year playlists.
What a week, again! We had exclusives from Stress Positions and Seven)Suns, got out our second Not Another Fecking Gear Review that also came with our FIRST EVER PEDAL GIVEAWAY, which you can scope out here. Otherwise, we’ve got Marnie Stern, Good Game, Muscle Beach Petting Zoo, Nate Sherman and more coming up, so enjoy the weekend while you can. Thanks for reading!