Oceanless, Landing's newest release, contains five vivacious songs created with Landing's unmistakable pulsating synthesizers, airy drums, and gliding guitars. There is a lot of contrast between songs and within the songs on the album. Each song has its own mood and intensity, and the sounds in each song play off each other, bringing out different elements.
I noticed the contrast between tracks one and two on my first listen. "How Did You Feel?" has a dark, steady tone gradually joined by deep electric guitar and bass. The synthesizers and repeating drum sound almost oppressive. The song ends in confusion, with what sounds like feedback and synthesizers jumbling up together, but eventually thins to a tone that carries to the next song, "Harmonies."
In "Harmonies," the drums are bright with cymbals, and a very electric buzz is the backbone while the guitars play off each other, one making a loose melody, the other shimmering in the back. There is a sense of motion in this song, and it's a pleasant contrast with gloomy "How Did You Feel?"
"Are you gone to vast hues?" was recorded live at a restaurant, and you can hear people talking and laughing, and silverware clinking in the background. The background noise fits well with the song, its human voices contrasting with spacey synthesizers and guitars, making everything sort of surreal. As in many songs on Oceanless, instruments gradually build to a crescendo and fade out slowly.
Since the songs in Oceanless don't have a rigid structure, or at least a traditional structure, listening for the song's progression can be one of the most enjoyable things about the music, but for some people, it may be hard to wait for. Some of Oceanless's songs take a long time to progress from beginning to end because the instruments are gradually building the song, but eventually something always happens. In many songs, the drums become more complicated, the bass becomes more prominent and more melodic, and the guitars and synthesizers constantly go new places.
Oceanless is a lovely collection of songs that have just the right amounts of airiness and solidity, constant sounds, and beats. This album is yet another example of Landing's ability to shape vibrant, full sounds into interesting, well put together songs.
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