Even though it runs a little over six minutes in total length, the progressive electronica tune “Spores in My Dermis” is actually the shortest song on Earthadelik, the new album from Silvermouse released late last year, and let me tell you – it uses every second of time it occupies our speakers to crater the listener with as much of a textural wallop as the blistering “Venus Feels Like That,” which directly precedes it in the tracklist, has to offer. From complex minimalism ala “Beef in D Minor” to the exotic ambient experimentations of “Hot Button Wild Boom,” Silvermouse came dressed to impress in this latest release, which may well be their greatest yet.
The nine and a half minute “Freaks and Lovers” is the longest composition on Earthadelik (barely edging out “Dream Valley”), but I think that had its cosmopolitan melody been abridged or condensed into a different framework than this one, it wouldn’t be nearly as entrancing as it is in this instance. Silvermouse take their time assembling an arrangement in this album, and while some moments were clearly born of more complicated structures than others were, there’s rarely an occasion here on which they don’t sound completely cohesive and in-sync with that they’re trying to present listeners with.
BANDCAMP: https://silvermouse.bandcamp.com/album/earthadelik
If you’re going to listen to “Down,” then I highly recommend listening to “Little Ratty” immediately afterwards, as was intended by the way this tracklist was organized, because together they create one of the best one-two punches that Silvermouse have ever put onto a record. They’re three albums-deep into their career together, and despite making some really mature content prior to this most recent release, I think they’re flexing muscles a lot of us didn’t even know they had in Earthadelik, and critics (myself included) are definitely taking note right now.
Synth-accentuated beats chase after us like a wild beast in the jungle in “Existence Experience” just as they forge the perfect groove for hitting the dancefloor in “New Moon,” but even when this LP is at its most unpredictable stylistically, its aesthetical core always remains intact. Silvermouse know who they are and precisely what kind of music they want to be known for, and in Earthadelik, they make it just about impossible for even the harshest of critics among us to dismiss their sound as just a passing underground phase. They’re hear for the long haul, and I’m pleased to have the opportunity to witness their professional ascent.
Jodi Marxbury