Experimental rock/electronic artist max lee recently dropped Colors of Noise.
Based in NYC, lee’s unique brand of music warps the timeline between present and future. His goal is to change the world via music, eradicating complacency towards life through stylistic sonic variables founded on an underlying uniform attitude.
Speaking about the album, lee says, “I recorded everything on the album by myself. I mixed it , mastered it , and released it all on my own – and nobody helped me do it. There were a lot of people who made it possible, don’t get me wrong, but to me that shows something about the individuality and uniqueness that we all have, and that when you set your mind to it – anything is possible. Nobody can really stop you from doing what you want to do but yourself.”
Colors of Noise encompasses 18-tracks, beginning with “finder’s keeper,” featuring a kaleidoscopic guitar seguing into a tight, dirty sounding garage rock number with filtered vocals that take on echoing resonance.
Tracks of note on the album include “no debt,” which is reminiscent of Nirvana without the raging vocals and rampaging guitar riffs. The melody drifts with lingering flavors, trembling and elusively tantalizing. “C U Again” rides shimmering guitars and a compact groove. The melody resembles a stripped down surf rock tune deconstructed to the bare harmonic necessities. The flow of this tune makes it singularly captivating, along with the Jim Morrison-like shouts.
“Painted eyes” rides an eerie industrial garage rock feel. A glowing organ and skintight guitar riffs infuse the tune with almost psychedelic surfaces, as the music mousses up. “Never going back” delivers a So-Cal soft rock vibe attended by a country-lite sensibility. “BTWN” rides a muscular rhythm underscoring the melody’s experimental prog-rock ambience. I love the compact dirty guitars riding over the tinkling piano.
The tracks on the album stream into each other without the usual pauses. This gives the album a continuity that’s both hypercivilized on the one hand, and vaguely uneasy on the other hand. Still, the interconnectivity provides a musical stream-of-consciousness akin to Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury.
With Colors of Noise, max lee delivers experimental music that’s delightful and superb, if somewhat unconventional.
