By Deuce

“There’s a madness in the air” on the latest single from Sawmoon entitled, as you likely guessed, “Madness”. But it’s also coming out the speakers, when these gents play. Hell, it’s roaring from their electric guitars, paneling that deceptively sleek bass line they ride on the verses and, if you don’t watch out, it may soon take over your own dome the longer you listen…

“Madness” is a celebration of a deliberate wildness, the sort of organized disassociation of self—and reality—that’s arguably most healthy when writing, playing, or even just listening to music. Thump this one on the forthcoming full lunar eclipse and see what happens. Or, just play it right now, and all the same spectacular effects are likely to come flying out at you.

The delicious disorder that adorns the track is manifest in a number of ways. Sometimes, it’s in the rhythmic dissonance, if you will, of the intro in which the drums seem just a heartbeat or two behind the driving bass and electric guitars. In other moments, it’s dripping in the vocals of the lead singer, who plays the most reserved style imaginable (something akin to talking) on the verses before hanging on the last word in the “madness in the air” refrain.

This musical bedlam is even found in the song structure. This is just about the only tune this reviewer can think of in which there’s no hook (or even vocals) between the first and the second verse. Of course, that simply makes the singer’s declaration about the mounting madness in the atmosphere all the more pointed or even protuberant—since likely no one but him saw it coming.

I mean, when’s the last time you heard a band in which the drummer doubled as the lead singer, as is the case with Frank Lettieri’s role in this number?  That’s to take nothing away from the guitar-infused pathos evoked by Mike Virok, who really goes a step or two beyond reality with his playing just before the final chorus kicks in. And, as previously mentioned, the bass supplied by Scott Miller is so smooth in parts it would work for a funk number or some truly creative rap opus.

Yes, there’s definitely something creeping, growing, and asserting itself when this tune plays. Chances are, by now you know what it is.