Baby Grendel is a project created by Jonathan Suarez (Small Town Sci-Fi) and Joe Mengis (Eels, Portugal. The Man). Their self-titled EP, Baby Grendel, is the culmination of their hard work over the past two years, and I can gladly say the patience was worth it, as it’s a cracking record. It’s well worth a listen if you’re into your alternative music – find a full stream at the end of this review!
By Jane Howkins
The EP kicks off with From the Mud (main), opening with a minimalist guitar melody that nevertheless adds a lot of tone to the record. The rest of the band kicks in after a while with the vocals, creeping through the track in a cool way. The chorus vocals have a particularly eerie sound to them, portrayed in a lower tone, yet it all works surprisingly well when listening to the piece! The pace picks up towards the end, descending into more of a punk rock song than anything else.
The production quality is a little raw on Baby Grendel, but tracks like From the Mud (end) really benefit from the production style. It’s a sparse, atmospheric piece of music, designed almost as a little interlude between the opening song and the next tune. There’s some interesting bell effects placed in the background, creating an eerie ambiance that will captivate experimental music fans.
Child’s Howl sees Baby Grendel going in an entirely new direction, putting a little folk music into the track. An acoustic guitar is used here over an electric option, as a pretty little fingerpicked melody is played, followed by the vocals. The stringed instruments in the background are the real stars of the show though, making for something rather delightful to behold.
Once again, Baby Grendel turn their genre on its head, with Sidewalk being more of a straight up punk rocker. The beat and guitars are fast and distorted, simply oozing energy throughout the track. The vocals are a little distant underneath the distortion, but they’re prominent enough, having a nice melodic quality that meshes well with the catchy riffs on offer here.
Blood Brother introduces a piano into the mix, seeing Baby Grendel perform one of their poppiest tracks yet. It’s quite a melancholy tune, but despite the slow tempo, it’s still pretty catchy – the vocals follow the piano chords in lovely style, harmonising with them in a cool way.
Song In B Minor is more of a blues rock affair, featuring some cool guitar licks. The guitars are never overstated though, instead used to accentuate the rest of the instrumentation on the track, letting the vocals really shine through. It’s also got another catchy chorus, showing some decent songwriting skills are on offer here.
The final track is a slightly different version of Sidewalk, this time titled Sidewalk – early acoustic version). It’s certainly very different from the original song played earlier on the record, but it’s nice to hear the band trying something a little different.
Baby Grendel’s music won’t be for everyone, but those into their more experimental forms of alt-rock should check out Baby Grendel. With a slightly stronger production quality, the band could really be onto something here!
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