Really From - Really From (March 12, 2021) Album

ItsAndrew · Jan 27, 2021

Drawing on influences of jazz improvisation, minimalist composition, and punk rock ethos, the Boston-based band Really From dismiss traditional genre and formulae in favor of explorative, indie rock amalgamations. Since 2014, their ever-evolving sound has incorporated stylistic touchstones from math rock to ambient, exploring themes of place, self, and culture through a dialect entirely their own. Michi Tassey (keys, synth bass) and Chris Lee-Rodriguez (guitar) exchange vocal leads regularly, shifting perspectives and ranges as their songs cascade through varied musical worlds, refracting their thematic questions concerned with intergenerational trauma, tokenism, and immigrant parenthood. Trumpeter Matt Hull and drummer Sander Bryce often take on lead voices of their own, further reconfiguring traditional notions of genre and songwriting.

“Try Lingual,” the lead single from Really From’s self-titled and third album, sees the quartet at their most all-encompassing. Thematically, it’s an apt setting for exploring Lee-Rodriguez’s personal struggles with learning Spanish, and Tassey's with Japanese, in order to better communicate with their families and communities. At first calm and collected, then brassy, chaotic, and disjointed, “Try Lingual” is wrought with the anxiety of struggling to keep up. Tassey and Lee-Rodriguez sing as foils to one another, as if to encourage the other to unlearn their self-blaming habits. Trumpeter Hull’s jazzy sensibility often sings in unison with his melodic counterparts, but when let loose between and around the beats, Hull’s calculated, eruptive wailing mirrors the eureka moments that abound when learning a new language. Like a linguistic epiphany, new worlds are revealed. Previously impossible conversations become accessible. New communities come to life.

Really From are especially adept at bending their somewhat unusual instrumentation of trumpet, keys, guitar, and drums into both abstract and intentional forms. On the album’s second single, “Quirk,” a warm swell of synth welcomes listeners into a bouncing, odd-timed exploration of inherited trauma, qualities, and laughter. Underscored by JD Beck-like flourishes of drummer Sander Bryce, the opening 5/8 groove builds unpredictably, but with a precise foundation for Lee-Rodriguez’s lyrical unpacking of intergenerational trauma. While “Quirk” might not offer definitive resolution to its raised questions, its lines are punctuated with poetic acceptance—“As you sow your seed / I’ll reap from everything that stays.” “Your father knew this / your mother did too / the fault’s not on them.”

These reflections on identity permeate the entirety of Really From, whose name is drawn from a question often thrust at the band’s mixed raced members—"where are you really from?" The foreboding phrase conjures a complex web of daunting subject matter, but it’s nothing new to the band. It is their lived experience, and so it is woven organically into their emotive, jazz-inflected experimental rock fabric, crucially blurring the line between the Personal and the Political. The raw vulnerability of this substance melds fluidly with the band’s collaborative spirit, so much so that they called on dear friend and former bandmate Sai Boddupalli to produce the album. The band describes Boddupalli’s efforts as “putting the album where it needed to be,” adding a newfound cohesion and vibrance to the intricate group effort that is Really From—a candid, kinetic album of unbound style.

Apartment Song

Quirk

Yellow Fever

Try Lingual

I Live Here Now

Last Kneeplay

I'm From Here

In the Spaces

The House

cherrywaves · Jan 27, 2021

Finally

Leftandleaving · Jan 27, 2021

I don’t think it’s technically officially announced yet. I’m hyped for it tho

jordalsh · Jan 27, 2021

Carrow · Jan 27, 2021

Confirmed as March 12th. Preorders and single soon I guess?

Leftandleaving · Jan 27, 2021

when tf we getting this single

TheBaroness · Jan 27, 2021

Stoked

Leftandleaving · Jan 27, 2021

single not for a while. this is different than I expected. much darker musically

ItsAndrew · Jan 28, 2021

Carrow · Feb 4, 2021

Leftandleaving · Feb 4, 2021

its true

TheBaroness · Feb 4, 2021

The new song is dope

Leftandleaving · Feb 4, 2021

bedwettingcosmo · Feb 5, 2021

damn this is awesome.

Drew Beringer · Feb 5, 2021

the record is gorgeous

Leftandleaving · Feb 18, 2021

Justin Roux · Mar 10, 2021

Band To Watch: Really From

This is streaming!

trevorshmevor · Mar 11, 2021

Sheeeeesh this is beautiful

Justin Roux · Mar 12, 2021

It’s been rainy here all week and the last couple mornings I’ve started work with a cup of coffee and this album and I couldn’t imagine a more perfect combo

Importer/Exporter · Mar 12, 2021

Really like this! Love the drumming and the lyrics especially.

sean_rugy · Mar 12, 2021

okay! this is stunning.

yung_ting · Mar 12, 2021

Yeah this is incredible

sawhney[rusted]2 · Mar 12, 2021

uh wow where did this come from

username · Mar 12, 2021

This one really got me on the second listen, damn

ItsAndrew · Mar 12, 2021

Haven't gotten around to this yet, but very excited to listen tonight!

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Really From - Really From (March 12, 2021) Album

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