Portland quartet Kallai is back with another fine piece of sonic artistry that will unquestionably appeal to anyone who appreciates cleverly assembled and flawlessly performed music. “The Wave” is their first piece of work in 2025, arriving after the critically acclaimed self-titled debut extended play, released on all streaming platforms last year. The song serves as the perfect showcase of what you might expect from “We Are Forever,” their upcoming debut full-length album, slated for release later this year via Little Cloud Records. Lyrically, the song is inspired by “My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix,” written by historian Susan Stryker. Sonically, the band combines various approaches, techniques, and several different yet complementary music genres to illustrate a luxuriant sonic imagery that nicely fits the theme of the song. Perhaps shoegaze comes to mind first, but you’ll undoubtedly stumble upon some of the finest properties of alternative, grunge, and dream pop. All these elements act as more than necessary enhancements, accentuations, decorations, and other details that uplift this fine piece of sonic artistry to an entirely new level while the band simultaneously remains loyal to the primary sonic direction. “The Wave” shines with qualities that meet all the trends in modern music production, yet you’ll definitely notice how late eighties and early nineties shoegaze and alternative music inspired Kallai to write and compose such an incredible track. Therefore, these experimentations with different but complementary music genres resulted in such a catchy, ethereal, hypnotic song that will immediately end up as one of your favorite tracks this year.
From the onset, this composition grabs you by the collar and leads to an epic voyage through the vast sonic universe where each vocal, sonic, and rhythmic maneuver contributes to a tremendous listening experience. From the moment you press play, you’ll be stunned by the soulful, passionate, sincere, confident, emotive, and powerful vocal performance, a standout feature that elevates everything to an entirely new level, commands attention, and guides the listening apparatus from start to finish. These calm, soothing, relaxing, ethereal vocal harmonies seamlessly balance low, mid, and high notes, emphasizing everything Kallai intended to achieve with this composition. Besides decorating all those segments and orchestrations, these vocal maneuvers contribute more than necessary emotional depth and complexity over an already intricate structure. You’ll also notice all those additional vocal layers lurking around beneath. They’re subtle, yet they spice things up and uplift particular segments even more. The interplays between multiple guitar layers play a significant role here, as they craft a perfect backdrop for all the vocals to shine upon. You’ll hear how all those calm, soothing, relaxing themes, melodies, harmonies, and arpeggiated chord progressions shine on one side, while the other delivers all those raw, abrasive, gritty, fuzzy riffs. There’s a decent amount of effects like reverb, echo, and delay applied over these guitar layers for more depth and melancholy. It’s also nearly mindblowing how all these guitar layers pair vocals harmoniously, making “The Wave” even more pleasant to the ears.
Beneath all these lush instrumentations, the bass guitar brings more heaviness, depth, warmth, and clarity with all those clean, intricate, vividly hearable notes while simultaneously acting like a binding element between guitars and rhythmic patterns. These low ends are rich, deep, dense, and heavy, contributing more groove and details to the song. In the meantime, the exceptional drumming performance is based upon tastefully assembled, flawlessly performed, well-accentuated, moderate beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics that keep everything in line while dictating groove and pace. Every instrument has its place and purpose here, contributing to the overall listening experience. With “The Wave,” Kallai showcases a fresh, unique, innovative sound, yet simultaneously they pay homage to the golden years for shoegaze and alternative music. Their sound is complex, luxuriant, powerful, and hypnotic, proving that these four experienced musicians poured heart and soul into this track. They certainly deserve your utmost attention, and you should immediately place “The Wave” on your music radar. Head to your favorite streaming platform and check it out!
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