Channel Tres - Head Rush
Recommended by: KeganExe
I'm completely unfamiliar with Channel Tres, so I had no idea what to expect going into Head Rush. Back in my late teens and early 20s I was really into house music, and initially this brought a lot of nostalgia for that era flooding back to me. The title track and album opener is nice and chilled but still feels both grimy and urgent due to some driving, overly-saturated bass and menacing vocals, and it immediately told me I was going to enjoy this. And once the album starts for real on Black & Mild I was in.
The first half of this album is full of bangers that I'd absolutely lose my shit to if they came on in a club, whether that's today or twenty years ago. There's a real aggression to both the instrumentation and the vocal delivery across the first half of this record that I really love. The beats are deceptively simple, with some interesting syncopation hidden behind classic driving house drums. The bass and drums are soaked in saturation and distortion that gives everything a rough edge that works perfeclty against some cleaner synth leads melodic vocals.
The second half of the album didn't impress me as much. Everything is a little more chill and while I'm sure it will reward repeated listens, I definitely felt my attention slipping after the strong opening. It's an album I'd describe as "front loaded". Black & Mild and Joyful Noise are huge tunes with a lot of intensity, and the rest of the album sort of sits in the shadow of them. Still, this is an album I know I'm going to come back to often, and I'm glad I got to start this blog with it.