Geekd – The Fairytale Starlight (2020)
Through the hypnotic and gothic tones of The Fairytale Starlight, Geekd looks to document and report on the troubled human psyche. With a touch of scathing lyrics wrapped around dreamy melodic textures, he washes you with waves of colourful distortion. Bringing a new life to neo-psychedelic rock, he has you thinking about his lyrics while riding the awesome wave of musical colours.
This journey into the human psyche comes from Christian Moreno. All the instruments and vocals for the EP were recorded by Moreno before Vince Ippolito took over for engineering. If the hypnotic grooves of the tracks have you hooked to the psychedelic sound of the project, Moreno is already working on a follow-up to sate your needs.
The EP comes to sonic awareness with ‘Rema’ which draws you in using a creeping opening. The melody has the feeling of mist whirling around your ankles as you walk through it in the early morning. Moreno’s vocals are soft and gentle like the first rays of dawn reaching out into the world. There is a seriously hypnotic flow to the music that casts a spell over you. As the song progresses, you get a greater hit of psychedelic tones that jingle and jangle against your ears. While this is the longest track on the EP, you would never guess that it is just over 5 minutes long. There are some delightful guitar riffs that wrap around the psychedelic tones for an increase in pace.
‘Hikikomori’ uses a really interesting guitar to grab your attention before you slide into a heavier rock melody. The vocals continue some of the airiness of the opening track but this is tempered with something a little harder. While bringing a heavier rock influence to the music, you still get that light dusting of psychedelia. The guitar movement has a great toe-tapping quality to it that is complemented by the rolling drums. At times, the vocals have an almost call and response flow to them that just makes the song even more enjoyable.
Everything takes a different turn for ‘Taylor-Taylor’. The opening has a slightly distorted feeling to it like colours on water that are bleeding into each other. The distortion of the opening gives way to a more melodic guitar flow. This movement is amazing as it captures something unique about the human psyche and the ever-changing flow of emotion. The lyrics bring a sombre edge to the track while the instrumentation continues to hit you with the warping colour waves of psychedelia. Like the other tracks on the EP, this has been delicately handled through the light dusting of tones resting on rock sensibilities.
The EP comes to a close with ‘Daydream’ and its vocal sample opening. Under the vocal sample is a hazy and gentle melody that invites you to sink into its pastel tones. The floating of the melody is really relaxing and puts you in a peaceful mindset which is a wonderful way to end the EP. As the shortest track on the EP, you will wish that it could last a little longer because of the de-stressing effect of the melody. While floating on the melody, you get the feeling of being in that space of just waking on a warm day.
Geekd casts his spell over you and has you riding the waves of his music in The Fairytale Starlight. The four tracks of the EP each bring a different movement of the human psyche to your ears while touches with a light dusting of psychedelia. The underlying rock sensibilities get your feet tapping while the vocals add a misty wave of colour to your brain.
Find out more about Geekd on his Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
