Experimental rock quartet Pateka released their self-titled debut album, Pateka.
A nine-track, 34-minute EP that blends jazz, psychedelia, and experimental neo-soul–Pateka's let loose on their first full-length effort with a blend of synthesizers, samples, wonky grooves, and uncontrollable time signatures.
Made up of longtime collaborators—Elihu Knowles on vocals and keys, Dylan Ransley on guitar, Quinn Girard on bass, Ryan Higley on drums, and Hayden Dekker on saxophone, flute, and synths—Pateka is a group of old friends who understand each other’s quirks and eccentricities, coming together to create something both weird and special.
Equal parts Discipline-era King Crimson, sparkling 1980s jazz-fusion, and mid-2000s math rock with a smattering of smooth blue-eyed soul, Pateka is a genuinely lush soundscape, revised over months by the band and stuffed full of snippets of recorded dialogue–most notably, a cry of “I’m not going to space, that shit’s too far!”- warm friendship and musical wit.
According to vocalist Elihu Knowles, one particular track, “Teni,” was inspired by their time working together at a Burmese restaurant. “The song plays with the duality of the fast-paced jazz we’d play in the dining room when it was super busy, juxtaposed with whatever was on the radio in the kitchen. Walking between those two zones on a busy day always feels super disorienting, and we wanted to write something that captured that. Most of the dialogue is real stuff we heard from coworkers and customers.”
“Teni” starts up like a whirlwind, almost sinister with its arrival. It then builds, messy layers of dialogue, the ringing of a bell in the background, slow bass, wailing saxophone, and an almost maddening rhythm that refuses to stay consistent.
This same sense of chaos is also adeptly used on track “Gnome’s Orchard,” which shifts between fuzzed-out, background noise-heavy prog bass fighting for dominance with smeary brass, and the quiet moments interspersed throughout, which creates the sense of going through a door from a noisy outside space into a calm house. It’s jarring, and it’s great.
Despite its manically upbeat energy, much of the album is dedicated to the loss of a close friend of the band.
Opener “Cafe Chroma” explores the band members’ personal grief journey and acceptance, and alongside the interludes “Big Red” and aptly-named “Loss,” the emotional insistence of the record is palpable, despite its frenetic energy. “Loss” is a jazz standard in almost every way, but specifically if a jazz standard was being played drunk and was being listened to specifically by someone lying on the floor watching the world spin.
The self-titled track “Pateka” carries a touch of Conor Oberst’s emo sensibilities, the vocals smeared across the song as if reluctant to be there, layered over crashing cymbals, rumbling bass, tweeting synths, and an oddly—but sweetly—melodic guitar. It’s like early Muse put through a fax machine, shredded, then reassembled with strips of an also-shredded Battles. It almost shouldn’t work, but like the rest of the album, the confluence of genres and production choices feels deliberate rather than messy.
Album closer “Rock Night” manages to be almost normal–at least, at first. The track really serves to cap the album off at exactly the right point.
The vocals might be half-there, the background bloops might be as present as ever, and the rest of the instrumentation might be doing its best drone, but it feels like the end result of an automated song machine finally turning its cogs in sync with itself – that is, until the tracks starts speeding up, and turns itself into something that wouldn’t be amiss as the score for an extended chase scene.
Overall, Pateka is something wholly special. Handled by lesser musicians, it would be unbearable; it should be messy, and it shouldn’t make sense. But this is almost certainly the gift of a band who have worked together – and have known each other–as long as Pateka have. It’s one of the most inventive, freshest things I’ve heard all year, and I’ll be listening to it on repeat for months to come.
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