Portland, Oregon band Strange Ranger (FKA Sioux Falls) are in the process of making a new album, the follow up to last year’s Daymoon. The record promises to be yet another change in direction for the band, with a “drum loop heavy” style according to lead Isaac Eiger (as described in a piece over at The Grey Estates). In the process of making the album, Strange Ranger created some songs that didn’t fit the overall aesthetic, and so they have decided to release those as an EP to tide us over until the new LP.
As Delaney Mott describes in a bio for Tiny Engines, How it All Went By is “influenced by predecessors like Third Eye Blind and Oasis, [forming] the band’s most radio-ready release yet.” As if to immediately prove this point, ‘New Hair’ comes crashing to life and rushes through in a burst of heavy and catchy emo-tinged melodic rock. “I have new hair though I make no decisions,” Eiger sings, “show up and glare what if I ever listened, they told me it’d all be so great someday.”
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The tone is decidedly more heartfelt feel on ‘I Want It To Be Dark’, the vocals rising above a bed of heavy guitar work to give a buoyant atmosphere. As such, the song is like a confession or secret shared after much silence, the words carrying a great weight which leave the speaker, free of them, as light as air.
There’s a slower, plodding 90s vibe on ‘The Wires’, Fred Nixon taking over vocal duties as the raw and chaotic emo elements are smoothed over in favour of straight indie rock.
“I can see you
know just how to throw your weight around
But I’m keen to
keep my feet planted firmly on the ground”
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The final third of ‘Remember’ treads definitively into hardcore, the vocals a distorted rasping screech. The moment plays as a final release of the vulnerability and emotion that lies latent on the rest of the record, Eiger almost literally screaming into the abyss as drums crash and guitars blare with a post-rock apocalyptic snarl. The EP then ends with ‘Birdies’, a short instrumental outro that woozes and wheezes its way through its 80 second run-time, ending with the cawing of crows.
You can get How It All Went By now on cassette via Tiny Engines, or the Strange Ranger Bandcamp page.