You know what, it’s been a minute and it really is that time. Heading to the doctor just feels like the healthy thing to do. But we’ve also said it a million times that good music is great music, and today we have a bizarrely perfect example of that theory in motion. Paging Dr. Ryan Bland…
Just kidding we know people don’t page anymore. Everything else still applies. Furthermore, sometimes people ask us if math rock is getting more popular, and let’s face it, if we’ve got a doctor in the house now, the answer is a resounding yes. But what does a doctor of math rock actually sound like?
Actually a huge number of things, all of them good – Dr. Ryan Bland’s debut is extremely diverse, but more importantly it’s meticulously tuned for maximum release. “Water Violet” is a dead-ringer for best of West Coast post-rock, but tracks like “Circle of Protection” give off strong Mars Volta and Closure in Moscow vibes. It’s mathy, but it’s also a whole lot more, and overall it’s got a tranquilizing quality that we absolute need more of in our lives.
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In fact, TMV fans, if the drums have a familiar bounce to them, that’s because none other than Thomas Pridgen is at the helm for the majority of the album. Can you imagine if you finally convinced yourself to go to the doctor, and not only did the doctor know about math rock, the nurse that checked you in was Thomas Pridgen? We’d probably ask him to tap the intro to “Wax Simulacra” on our skulls and then faint.
That being said, “DOLORES” just might be our favorite song on the record. It bridges all of the strengths of all the other tracks into something introspective and fuzzy, but also has this beach-y edge that reminds us of Caspian and This Will Destroy You. Between math rock and post-rock is texture, and it seems like Dr. Ryan Bland has a keen awareness on how to use this as a middle ground that effectively bridges both sides. But it seems things didn’t come easily, which is crazy considering the nature of the album:
“I started writing this a long time ago and almost had to sue a studio to get the tracks that I owned legally back to finish this record. They were sent back to me and somehow on the way back to me they got absolutely trashed and I had to have a guy who specialized in Cubase session files cause that’s what the studio used to turn it into a Logic file, and he had to do all of this like audio slicing to get it back to normal.
Then it went to Thomas Pridgen and he randomly accepted my offer to play on the album. He was going on tour and said it wouldn’t be for months and then all of a sudden one week he just said they were done and the whole thing was finished. After that, it went to this guy Alfie in London to do the mixing and he sat on it for almost an entire year and did absolutely nothing.
I got the album back and all the stems back from him and he did nothing and it was confirmed and then I rekindled the relationship with a longtime best friend this guy, Mark Reynolds, who’s known as prismatic mantis and he helped me mix and master the album. It was such a crazy journey.”
Man, you really wouldn’t guess all of that from how chill it sounds! Considering the holistic nature of, say, the theory of a holographic universe, maybe that’s how Holographic Healing got its name in the first place. Throughout the record, no part feels disconnected no matter how disparate or removed it is from any other. For the duration of the album listeners can safely bet that they too will feel that connection, and last weekend while we were healing from a stupidly torn rotator cuff, it really hit the spot. Thanks again, Doc!
(Thanks for reading! If you’re looking for more music, check out our Bandcamp compilations here. If you like us, or possibly even love us, donations are always appreciated at the Buy Me A Coffee page here, but if you’re in a generous mood you can also donate to folks like Doctors Without Borders, the PCRF, Charity Water, Kindness Ranch, One Tail at A Time, Canopy Cat Rescue, or Best Friends Animal Sanctuary that could probably use it more – click on their names above to check ‘em out if you’re so inclined. Thanks again!)