Album Review: We Will Ride Fast – Emotional Molecules

We Will Ride Fast – Emotional Molecules
(898826 Records DK)

Reviewed by Bridget Herlihy.

The brainchild of multi-media artist Kyle Sattler (Frayden, The Bennies, Seedy Business), We Will Ride Fast is back with a new LP, ‘Emotional Molecules’. The follow-up to 2018’s self-titled album, the eight tracks that feature on ‘Emotional Molecules’ take the listener on a multi-faceted journey through sound.

In many ways We Will Ride Fast delivers a genre-defying, hybridised sound. It plays with and intertwines elements of alt-pop, psychedelic/gloom/industrial rock with heavy bass; a sound that Sattler asserts “howls red fumes somewhere on a reservoir of gnarled and desperate snakes”, beckoning the listener to “reverberate in the sea of melodic chaos beneath”. Yet this chaos is also oddly soothing, with the ability to gently transport the listener into a state of relaxed daydreaming while still actively listening (as was the case for this reviewer).

Opening track ‘Juggling Versions of Primal Soup’ provides a rich taster of what is to come on the album; compositions that are paradoxically alienating yet comforting. At times it appears that there are very subtle echoes of some of greatest post-punk rock bands of the ‘80s, such as Bauhaus, Killing Joke, The Cure, Sisters of Mercy, and Aotearoa’s own Skeptics. However, this is not to say that We Will Ride Fast draws heavily from such artists – far from it. Rather, Sattler has honed a sound that is very much his own; one that is distinctive in its own right.

The scaled-back instrumentation, vocal distortions and slower pace of ‘The Real Kids’ are hypnotising in a very good way. Another of the album’s highlights is the instrumental ‘Bring Back My Bass’; a track that begins slowly and softly with a piano, building momentum as it adds additional instruments and layers. The perfect catalyst for auditory escapism.

‘Emotional Molecules’ provides a fascinating listening experience; one that continues to reveal additional layers with each listen. If you are looking for something outside of the proverbial box to broaden your musical horizons with, ‘Emotional Molecules’ may just be that album.

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