It’s been a pretty stellar year for projects with smaller numbers on their rosters – solo projects and two-pieces will be popping up all over the upcoming Top 50 Math Rock Releases of 2023, but we hadn’t really realized it till we sat down for this exclusive cut from Inoculous.
Inoculous, for the un-inoculated, is Demetri Wolfe’s musical endeavor through math rock and prog as assisted on drums by Kyle McComb. It’s a solid and familiar concept, but between Wolfe’s fretboard intensity and McComb’s tasteful drum licks, one easily finds a distinct flavor that’s easily recognizable. We’re not sure if it’s a tuning thing, a phrasing thing, or even just a rocking thing, but in the end, you can tell Inoculous is just built different.
Enough words, though – check out “Inspo Song” below to see what we’re talking about.
It’s a jangly one, to be sure – but let’s talk about the artwork. Illustration hasn’t made us feel like this since watching Nickelodeon shows like Rocket Power and Ah! Real Monsters. Hell, it’s even giving even giving us Angela Anaconda vibes. Weird tangent, we know – even weirder, did you know Billy Talent‘s Ian D’Sa helped with the animation on that show? Maybe that was just a rumor, but it stuck with us. Anyway.
“Inspo Song” as a piece is a little more dense than previous single “Sonder,” but not in terms of dexterity – it’s still got nifty parts, but we mean dense by way of the interlocking dynamics and music theory behind it. As the song glints and glides towards the 2:00 minute mark, there’s a distinct change towards murky, otherworldly atmospheres.
And UGH, that ghost-bend at 2:23 is slick amongst the watery ambience. We’re really hoping 2024 brings us an EP or LP of some kind from these guys, because at this point, singles are just teasing us. Check out more from Inoculous here.