Rubblebucket – Sound of Erasing
SoundCloud
At the core of their art, Rubblebucket has always been about expressing and living as amplified and vibrantly as possible. Their entire aesthetic is centered around embracing the weirdness of life while their art pop is a celebration of the beauty of living up the present. Last year one of Rubblebucket’s co-founders and frontwoman, Kalmia Traver, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer (read her letter about it here), but unsurprisingly the band drew tightly together and continued to create throughout her brawl with the disease. Survival Sounds is heavily shaded by this experience in that the band’s intensified gratitude for life takes the party to the next level.
In the album’s first song, “On the Ground”, Kalmia sends out a request to the universe for a gentler ride while on earth and is answered with divine affection. “In the clouds there I saw a message/Said ,‘Quantum love child I like your visage.’” The last track, “Hey Everybody”, sings of the fragility of life and the need for connection. “Our hearts will break, I need to say it loud/Our bones can’t take, oh let me be a cloud/I’m thankful for this chance to breath as you and me/And I know for sure that I need to feel you totally.” In between, Rubblebucket urge us to see how gorgeous, excruciating and exhilarating life is, to embrace every damn inch we can and to dance off the rest. “We were baptized in the ocean/To the sound of us erasing/All the demons that were chasing us/Drown them out out out out out.” Of course there’s ambiguous phrasing and oddball terminology scattered throughout, but the message is pretty clear: “We’re in the middle/Holding onto one another/We’re in the middle/Love is all around us/We’re in the middle.”
While all of the themes run together to form an overarching front, the sound isn’t as united although it has the intention. Survival Sounds is classic Rubblebucket in its refusal to stay put — an amalgamation of experimental funk, psych rock, jazz, dance, afropop, disco, art pop and even a little trip hop thrown in this time. With such a spinning kaleidoscope of sounds, previous releases have felt a bit sonically disjointed at times. Now John Congleton’s magic touch on Survival Sounds has smoothed the fused edges to draw all our aural attention on the band’s mastery of their individual elements. There’s the tight drum rhythms in “Middle”, the deft incorporation of horns all throughout (but especially tasty) in “Origami”, the searing guitar solo on “Shake Me Around” and Traver’s super chill vocals with killer range (such as the falsetto in “On the Ground”). Survival Sounds never sits down — it’s a dance party in a jar. Boring doesn’t exist where they exist. Every song surprises the listener and every song contains an ace hook. There are no duds to be found.
Survival Sounds is stunning in its ability to embody so much yet remain so unified. Impossible to classify, Rubblebucket’s sound perseveres as one of the most unique in the game, yet Survival Sounds is also their most accessible record to date. Rubblebucket makes no superhuman claims, but their capacity for positivity and creativity suggests extraterrestrial activity. I’d like to propose that Survival Sounds originated from this “netherworld” they speak of on track one. “In this netherworld there’s nether trees/Nether gardens I’m on my knees/In the heathers come walk with me/Neon letters flash L-O-V-E.” Well, there you go — an alien admission and formal invitation. See ya there.
