Heartbreaking Bravery

For this review, I’m going to take on a more personal bent. After a full year of severely restricting first-person narrative and running a year-end campaign that built its identity on deeply personal recollections, it felt like that was something that needed a slight change. I’m not going to sit here and pretend like I don’t know Aaron Ehinger, the guitarist and vocalist of Kodakrome (a new Chicag0-based duo, with Brian Tepps holding down bass, drum programming, and synth duties). Now, normally, when I’m blown away by someone’s music, there’s a deeply-felt kinship to that art and the people responsible for its creation. Every so often, if I’m lucky, those people measure up to their art and my life gets a little better because of their friendship.

Here’s where the intrigue of Kodakrome kicks in: Aaron’s someone I’ve known for a little over a year (and whose photography I’ve admired for about as long) but was largely unfamiliar with his previous bands. Kodakrome is the first one I’ve listened to and if he hadn’t already been a friend, I sure as shit would have liked him to be after hearing this demo. Visceral post-punk that’s inflected with subtle hints of chip-tune- suggesting a previously unthinkable middle-ground between PUP and Crying– is the formula that has this demo frantically gunning right out of the gate (“Skeletons” introduction’s about as abrupt as the intro to Dinosaur Jr.’s “Budge“, another band whose influence on Kodakrome is evidenced fairly easily).

As deliriously breakneck- and ridiculously invigorating- as “Skeletons” winds up being, “Slow Down” (a delightfully ironic title) is the song that seems to be most indicative of the places Kodakrome’s already sprinting towards. Ehinger and Tepps immediately set about lighting “Slow Down” on fire and succeed in doing so by the :30 mark. All wild-eyed momentum and furiously yelped howls that scrutinize the inevitably of death, “Slow Down” is a genuinely impressive punch to the gut. Tepp’s manic synth work, especially, goes a long way in shaping the band’s curious early identity.  Between the two songs, Kodakrome doesn’t even exceed three and a half minutes- but the band makes one hell of an impression during that running time. These are songs that stick and- importantly- hint towards a very promising future.

Listen to Kodakrome below and keep an eye on this site for any future updates regarding the band.