Deorbit – Retrogradient

An album as cerebral as it is expansive. The band’s debut album comes out of the cosmos, sparks of supernovas, collapsed star gamma rays, pulse through your speakers. An all-instrumental affair, Retrogradient is complex. A few listens before putting words to digital paper, the Milwaukee trio is clearly a musician’s band, yet accessible for the casual music fan. A rare feat.

The lead track, “Retrogradient” is also the album title. An atom splits, bursting into a sonic force. The math rock influence collides with a post punk sensibility. Layers of complex sounds. Track two, “Perihelion” delivers a furious rock n roll sound. Heavy, grooves in an unfamiliar way. It’s stop/start fused hints of classical music with a thrash metal drive. A hammered dulcimer is the light emerging from the speed metal coursing through deep dark outer space. An amalgam of darkness and light. A brain smasher of a song.

The band sound is reminiscent of Jupiter era Cave In, Dazzling Killmen, and Shellac. One word describes their sound, discordant. Heady song titles are not lacking. “Lunambulent” is a powerhouse slab of rock. The dulcimer undertones add a lightness to the chaotic heaviness. A song smartly titled. A glow around a dark brooding celestial body.

Overall the full work is a lightness screaming across timespace, beyond the veiled darkness. The guitarist, Jerry Haupa says about Retrogradient, “A gradual falling out of the gravitational pull of the sun, shown in the note and tempo choices. The record ends on a mournful yet hopeful note, showing that the system we were bound to may have inhibited its full potential.”

The album art is fit for a sci-fi thriller novel. “A double helix mapped over our solar system, showing the relationship between organic and inorganic elements spawned during the creation of the universe.” The group’s bio goes on to note their influence by the great astronomer, Carl Sagan, famous for saying, “we are made of star stuff”.

A heavy complex amalgam of sounds coalesces into a 9-track sonic monster. It’s a very compelling set of finely crafted songs, that will undoubtedly influence a raving fandom or a listener who can’t quite make sense of it all. Will I go see the American heartland trio live? Without a doubt.