Based in Chicago, Mentalease is Spencer Harris, Wesley Hunt and Daniel Martinson. The three-piece explore the intersection of humanity and technology, and how the encroachment of the latter shapes not only surface-level society but the way in which we relate to our position as living, breathing creatures.
Such lofty aims require idiosyncratic approach, and Mentalease have crafted a singular style that weaves electronic, dream pop, shoegaze and ambient into a patchwork genre for the digital world. Opening track ‘Push a Button’ serves as a perfect example, the bedroom pop sincerity buried beneath electronic layers, a human soul looking for cracks in its robotic surroundings.
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The slow-burn ‘Selfie’ is a brooding march of a song, though the assured sound belies the confused lyrical position (“Staring / Into a reflection / Maybe it’s just fiction / Baby what’s the difference?”), while confident rock of ‘Lost Opportunities” is lighter on its feet. However, the track’s sense of motion is interrupted by digital squeals and distortion, as though the track is actually a representation of a song, a hologram caught out by the errors in its matrix.
Closer ‘Avert a Gaze’ continues such themes, casting a world of ghosts and echoes, the truth buried beneath a million reflections. Mentalease offer no way out beyond the reminder that some kernel of reality exists within the sea of simulacra, and though their tone veers from cynical to hysterical to suddenly sad, the range of emotions serves as a reminder of that very fact.
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Push a Button is out now and you can get it from Bandcamp.