“Oxygen Thieves” is the latest single by Televised Mind, an outstanding Lincoln, UK-based band. It’s their first piece of work in 2024, arriving as an adequate follow-up of “Marks,” another excellent song released last year. The song talks about self-awareness, self-esteem, and self-preservation, imploring us to be responsible for our actions and protect ourselves from users. Soundwise, Televised Mind combines diverse but complementary music genres to illustrate such rich and luxurious sonic imagery. Perhaps post-punk comes to mind but you’ll notice how some of the finest sonic ingredients borrowed from punk rock, hard rock, garage rock, and alternative found their way into this sonic equation. “Televised Mind” wisely merged all these elements and used them as details, nuances, enhancements, accentuations, and decorations while remaining loyal to the initial sonic direction. Therefore, these experimentations with different musical styles resulted in a catchy, energetic, memorable song that will appeal to true post-punk fans and beyond.
As soon as you press play, you’ll notice that Televised Mind are not joking around with their music. “Oxygen Thieves” immediately strikes hard with powerful vocals, in-your-face sonic maneuvers, and dynamic rhythmic acrobatics. The song carries a perfect structure garnered with many intricate segments and excellent orchestrations, so a pleasing listening experience is more than guaranteed. You’ll immediately notice how the shouty but melodic vocals command attention and guide your listening apparatus while balancing low, mid, and high notes throughout the entire track. The impressive vocal range emphasizes each moment and instrumentation with precision and finesse. In the meantime, the raw, abrasive, fuzzy, heavily distorted basslines offer more than necessary heaviness, clarity, and depth while binding everything together. These low-ends act as a perfect backdrop for all the vocals to shine upon until the guitar kicks in. Speaking of the guitars, the tastefully arranged, flawlessly performed chord progressions, riffs, and themes propel this song to new heights by adding a touch of more than necessary complexity. Televised Mind also added some keys, which unquestionably makes things more interesting. It’s such a nice touch that works to the advantage of the song.
This song wouldn’t sound this good without the rock-solid rhythm section. The experienced drummer keeps the remainder of the band in line while dictating groove and pace with profoundly dynamic, well-accentuated beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics. Every instrument plays a significant role in this sonic equation, ensuring that “Oxygen Thieves” will satisfy even the pickiest listeners. Televised Mind unquestionably deserve your utmost attention because they break all the rules, push all the boundaries, and breathe fresh air into so many music genres at once. With the solid post-punk base and additional elements taken from punk rock, hard rock, garage, and alternative, these folks are paving their way to the top, proving that post-punk music still has so much to offer. The single is available on all streaming platforms. Don’t miss it!
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