Experimental Dental School – Forest Field [Free!]

Free stuff is sweet. Free music is even better. But like, free-free, artist-endorsed free. Especially when it’s killer art-rock. Portland duo Experimental Dental School is offering their album Forest Field for free at their website here. Forest Field is like giving Deerhoof a more discernible goal while dabbling in the Blonde Redhead male/female vocal dynamic. It’s like Pretty & Nice’s Get Young in that it makes you think about what you’re listening to, with super dense guitar-rock arrangements; angular leads flying over-head while a revolving door of synth and bass pours out churning subsections. It’s a record to go insane to, it’s a record to fall asleep to, and it’s probably a record to make really awkward love to.

“Square Wave Cave” progresses with an ominous guitar squeal reminiscent of Menomena’s “The Pelican.” As the fifth track on “Forest Field,” it acted as my first flashbulb moment of the night. The riff hit, the chorus sank, and something huge resonated. Two songs later, “Vicious Cycle of Life” opens with a sharp, arpegiated guitar and hushed female vocals. It’s the album’s only real come-down moment, before dropping into the reverbed drive of “Argentine Pears.” That resonance I mentioned from “Square Wave Cave”? It exploded with “Argentine Pears,” particularly due to the strange time and the chord change at 1:20. I’m a sucker for inexplicably captivating chord changes.

I’m sort of writing this on the fly, because I don’t want to think too hard. I think it might permanently hurt my brain. Get into it.

From Forest Field:

XDS – Square Wave Cave

XDS – Vicious Cycle of Life

XDS – Argentine Pears

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About Nick

"Don’t ask me why I obsessively look to rock n’ roll bands for some kind of model for a better society. I guess it’s just that I glimpsed something beautiful in a flashbulb moment once, and perhaps mistaking it for prophecy have been seeking it’s fulfillment ever since. And perhaps that nothing else in the world ever seemed to hold even this much promise" - Lester Bangs 1977 That about sums up why I write about music. I go to school at Boston University with Akhil, one of the other indiemusers, and we share similar views on music. I just want people to hear stuff. Sometimes I wish I were more eloquent. I also write for Performer Magazine, and play in the band You Can Be A Wesley. And that's me!

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