Genetic Drift's "History's Contagious" Review
The American Phytopathological Society describes genetic drift as "a process in which allele frequencies within a population change by chance alone as a result of sampling error from generation to generation." Look it up.
The Minneapolis four-piece returns on October 13th with History's Contagious, their first proper release in six years. The 25-minute album demonstrates maturing songwriting craftsmanship that hasn't faltered in the years since 2015's Sunrise Compromise, with lead single "VIgorous PHantasy" showcasing the group’s brand of garage pop through a refined lens.
History's Contagious spans seven tracks of hooky, lo-fi paragons with enough noodling and noise thrown in to bring the band to greater heights in their experimentation. But in the grand scheme of things, it's all cohesive from start to finish - fluid and polished from the helm of producer and Drop In Media founder Sam Walsh.
The opening track, "Seafoam Grey,'' sets the general light-hearted tone of the album's surf pop-sensibilities with jangly-riffs and tremolo'd leads in between choruses. Keeping up with genre motifs, the short-but-satisfying collection of songs aren't without their “oohs” or falsetto. The vocal performances ring true to the amount of time the band has probably spent together, indicative of their ability to harmonize and without sounding atonal. Standout approaching-mid-album-track "Ol' Country Line" closes unlike any other song of its kind - as if it's taking its rowdy-punk woo's to the grave with them, belting them in an almost reverse fashion.
The band is composed of lifelong friends who've honed their skills over the past decade, which must be good for their live shows because the whiplash tempo changing rarely lets up on this one - that along with the decibels. Lyricist Eric Martin describes the thematic content of the album as being representative of "the distillation of infinite moments into the relatable confines of life," seemingly narrating from track to track the hopelessness that comes with being human.
The collection of topics bounces seamlessly from anxieties, the environment, and their own locale with first-person observational menageries and wordplay of the aforementioned.
“Each track is a vignette where a character faces the insurmountable inevitabilities of life on their own terms. As we see, again and again, history repeats itself, and try as they may, nobody is able to free themselves from this cycle.”
Genetic Drift's fair shake has garnered them a presence in Minneapolis' music community over the course of almost a decade of going from stage to studio and back again.
Listen to “History’s Contagious” on Bandcamp or wherever you stream you music:
