LUCA ROBINSON "A PATTERN IN THE WAY" REVIEW
Album art for A Pattern In The Way.
Luca Robinson - A Pattern In The Way
Expression
“My shit’s not that important,” Luca says, with a grin. We’re sitting on his couch having yet another conversation about artistic authenticity. It’s a topic the two of us have talked about a lot, but this time it’s attached to an interview about his latest album, A Pattern In The Way. “Like, it’s important in that I believe it’s good for me to be making music and expressing myself,” he elaborates. “Self-expression is a good thing... It’s just, if I take myself too seriously, it’s when I feel like I’m starting to make music for the wrong reasons.”
Patterns
Luca Robinson has been crafting his own style of bass-led, genre-bending, DIY post-rock for years, and A Pattern In The Way might be his most unique and personal collection of tracks yet. There’s a perfectly balanced tension inside this album between art-rock ambition and authentic, down-to-earth emotion. This album sets a high bar for itself with ornately composed songs whose runtimes can reach prog-rock levels of grandiosity, yet the sounds here manage to jump clear of pretentious excesses and deliver an abstract yet honest depiction of depression. “I realized that most of my depression came from a series of patterns,” says Robinson. “Thought patterns, behavioral patterns... it’s usually repetitive and cyclical in that way.” Listening to the songs here, you can hear Robinson constantly introducing patterns and then subverting them, much like how someone trapped in a negative thought cycle might try to break out of their own pattern of thinking just to be confronted with a new pattern in its place. In a lot of ways, A Pattern In The Way is a very meta album about being an artist writing original music while actively engaging with their own self-doubt.
This internal struggle is invoked up front with the opener, “Pattern Down,” whose anthemic gang-vocal refrain of “questioning my self-worth” is the first of many ecstatic highs reached on this song alone. The track is a six-minute multi-phased combo attack of emotional boiling point after boiling point, with heavy emo guitar passages in the first half segueing seamlessly into vocodered spoken word over glitchy synths before the song is carried off by layers of deadpan voices slowly counting as they fade into an ambient field recording. Yep, that’s all in one song, and it sounds fucking amazing. This track sets the stage for the continuous texture-shifting that occurs throughout the album, all of which is pulled off seamlessly, except of course for the parts where it’s not supposed to be.
Eruption
“Again, the Flood” is another highlight on the album with an infectious synth hook that burrows its way into your brain immediately as Robinson pours his heart out through these densely harmonized vocal passages. Robinson’s pop sensibilities shine through on this track; his trademark vocodered lyrics and grooving basslines blend here perfectly, and the emotion on display creates a sob-inducingly catchy moment that is uniquely Luca Robinson. Even the unexpected computerized choral breakdown in this tune’s last leg is so intriguing and over so quickly that it makes me want to restart the song just to hear it again. It’s instantly replayable and definitely a standout moment for the album as a whole.
The record definitely saves the best for last with “Surgery”, a twelve-minute moody slow-burn that is constantly increasing in intensity. Robinson’s melancholy bass chords set the tone as layer upon layer of synths start to come into focus, draped over samples of people being interviewed about their experiences with depression. Robinson’s longtime collaborator, Wither Rivers, whose virtuosic guitar playing appears on almost every track here, delivers his best performance on the whole record, urging the track on with subtle arpeggiated chords that finally erupt into a wailing lead passage over the track’s explosive climax. All the tension that has been immaculately built up over the preceding five songs is released in this catharsis before entering the subdued final act of the song that feels like a “credits roll” moment to the album as a whole. Wither Rivers blesses us with a beautiful guitar solo here as well. It’s a gorgeous post-rock downer of a song that’s guaranteed to move even the most jaded of listeners, and it sends the album off perfectly.
Getting Lost
A Pattern In The Way is a collection of dense, richly textured alt-rock and post-rock whose lyrics explore all the negative mental patterns you might find yourself in be it dwelling on moments from the past, struggling with self-doubt, or lengthy contemplations on depression, all pulled together seamlessly by Robinson’s evocative bass playing and his keen ear for composition. Every song is packed with subtle details, and repeat listens reward you with cleverly hidden sounds you may not have noticed before. “I like mixing,” he says, surprising no one. “I can get lost mixing for like eight hours in a day. Like I don’t eat sometimes, I just forget to do bodily functions. I’m just so engrossed in what I’m doing.” Take a step into Luca Robinson’s world, and you’ll be engrossed by what he’s doing too.
You can watch the full interview on the Melodic Noise Patreon.
Listen to A Pattern In The Way on Spotify or wherever you stream your music:
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Review by: Dan DeMarco, Writer @itsadmiralfox
Edited by: Eric Martin, Writer/Assistant Editor @eamartin95