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The Strange Vines
Turbulence
Geneva-based rock band The Strange Vines make music that will send a certain set of listeners spinning back to their angsty teenage years, all crunchy guitars and alternative vibes, an attention to detail without being too fussy, and a pretty spectacular stage presence - yes, it’s a real band you can really see on stage, a rarity in this era.
Their new album Turbulence contains most of the material they’ve been working out on stage this last year, and serves as a testimony to the group’s ability to construct memorable and effective set pieces that are made to be heard live.
Frontman Valere de Riedmatten has a voice that will summon instant comparisons to Live’s Ed Kowalczyk, and it can’t help but color the way you experience The Strange Vines’ compositions - which are, in and of themselves, perfectly of a piece with that era of popular music.
Album opener “Bandits” is a high-energy rock romp driven by a classic riff and de Riedmatten’s theatrical delivery, and right off the bat you can hear that these songs have been worked out onstage. The dynamics and transitions that give these songs so much polish in a live setting are all here.
From there we go to “Maze”, powered by the rumble of the rhythm section and a sinister guitar theme that snakes its way through the track, before we arrive at the title track. “Turbulence” is a tight piece of writing, despite the fact that it luxuriates in its atmospheric groove with two different post-chorus instrumental sections and an extended guitar solo from Bilal Qureshi, and features the most memorable lyric on the record (if we’ve heard it correctly): Sometimes this emptiness feels like it’s overflowing - but a life without a mess is a life that’s not worth knowing - there’s nothing to confess, you just have to keep going.
“Nightfall” is where what you might call the signature sound of The Strange Vines starts to become obvious. That blend of the shimmery and melodic with counter-movements of grungier fare, the instrumental breaks that lift the whole track to a higher plane, the sober lyrical fare delivered with just a hint of a smirk.
“Songs of Unity” has a killer, anthemic chorus that was made to be sung on the big stages, and the band carries the momentum of the track through the peaks and valleys brilliantly. It’s capped off with a spoken word outro in Arabic over a wailing grunge backdrop. Terrifically effective.
There’s a fun change of pace towards the end of the album as “Looking For You” unleashes a driving early-punk style tune, complete with a frenetic guitar solo and all in a blistering sub-3-minute package. The jangly but melancholy “Haunt Me” wraps everything up on a pensive note.
Turbulence is a document of a band still largely in the beginning of a journey, and of a songwriter who has a well-defined idea of what he’s after. It’s also a good example of why The Strange Vines perked our ears up instantly on our stage back in January when they showed up for a Battle of the Bands contest.
Recommended for fans of 90s post grunge, early aughts alt rock, or anyone searching for the hidden gems in the area in and around Geneva.
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