Math rock and contemporary emo are like chalk and cheese in many ways. Emo is warm and inviting; math rock, at its extreme, is brash, impetuous and divisive. Perhaps that’s why many bands try to bring these elements together, to offer the happies and feelies but execute them with a knotty and unpredictable approach. This week we are hoping to show to you that a band like Shipley Hollow are a case exemplar.
The Toronto outfit first broke through in 2012 with Animal Magnetism, recalibrated their lineup and modus operandi in 2017 with Change, and instilled their new direction with Eating The Entertainment later that year. Nowadays, they are seasoning the broth. It’s almost hard to believe that the band have been in the game for what is nearing a decade. This has evidently provided the band with enough experience to finely weave their wares, to get the perfect balance of polarity between major-chord huggin’ emo cheer and choppy, odd-metered math rock madness.
This is what ‘Nymph Chimpski’ offers. The new single, to be featured in the band’s upcoming album Infinite Zest, brings wild changes in tone and style, crisp instrumentation, and metrical fluidity. It’s all polarising here, from the emo/math contrasts to the quirky album artwork, an Impressionist canvas painting of a jet-skier. We are damned sure you’re gonna have fun here.
Shipley Hollow’s full length bonanza ‘Infinite Zest’ is out December 21st. Hop over to Shipley Hollow’s bandcamp page and get pre-orderin’.