The Formalist – In Slow Motion

Today, we’ll talk about “In Slow Motion” by The Formalist, a New York-based indie duo. It’s a lead single from “A Trace of Yourself,” their recently released full-length album. Soundwise, The Formalist combine many different but complementary music genres to illustrate such rich and luxurious sonic imagery. Perhaps contemporary electro-pop comes to mind first, followed up with some of the finest properties borrowed from dream pop and shoegaze, but don’t be surprised if you stumble upon elements of downtempo, chillout, ambient, glitch, leftfield, alternative, and indie rock. The Formalist use all these additional elements as more than necessary enhancements, accentuations, decorations, and other details to uplift and improve their sound on an entirely new level while simultaneously remaining loyal to the primary direction. Therefore, these experimentations with different but complementary styles resulted in a mesmerizing composition that will appeal to your listening apparatus no matter which genre you prefer.

As soon as you press play, you’ll notice that The Formalist thought about everything while writing, composing, arranging, recording, and producing this track. “In Slow Motion” arrives with a perfect song structure, stacked with many segments garnered with brilliant ideas and impressive musicianship. Each section sounds divine, offering marvelous vocal, sonic, and rhythmic performance. The outstanding vocal performance acts as a centerpiece, emphasizing all the mentioned segments and orchestrations. You’ll immediately hear how all those flawlessly sung vocal harmonies balance low, mid, and high notes, commanding attention and retaining your listening apparatus engaged from scratch to finish. The arpeggiated chord progressions, harmonies, melodies, themes, and leads serve as an adequate backdrop for all those vocal maneuvers while simultaneously offering a calm, soothing, relaxing, ethereal feel to the song. It’s nearly mindblowing how the guitars and vocals articulate together harmoniously. There’s also a layer of synth ambiances and accentuations lurking around beneath all these layers, providing a dosage of complexity. The Formalist cleverly incorporated all these layers, ensuring that each element enhances the listening experience.

You’ll be impressed with all those equally intricate, vividly hearable, slightly distorted basslines. The Formalist volumed up low ends to the max, offering more than necessary heaviness, clarity, and depth to this magnificent track. However, you’ll also notice how the duo continuously switches between these heavy moments and nearly cathartic calmness. It’s also good to mention that the bass guitar serves as a glue between all the mentioned instrumentations and the cleverly assembled rhythm section. These folks tastefully arranged all the beats, breaks, fills, and other rhythmic acrobatics. Besides all these drumming patterns, there is also a thick layer of glitchy percussions coming like a cherry on top. “In Slow Motion” undoubtedly deserves your utmost attention. The Formalist put all their experience, knowledge, talent, skills, and ideas into it, and their efforts resulted in a fine piece of sonic artistry worth repeating over and over again. You should put their music on your radar because they put heart and soul into their sound, and their sincere emotion resonates through every note and beat. The single is available on all streaming platforms. Don’t miss it!