The Family Battenberg – Spider Rock Forever EP

The garage rock scene has thrived in recent years, with many new music outlets delivering excellent music. Still, it seems like the majority overly exploits their influences, experiment too much with various music genres, or try to reinvent the same old wheel by mimicking something the greats recorded and performed decades ago. Thankfully, there are bands like The Family Battenberg whose music brings fresh, unique, innovative ideas and sonic maneuvers to the table. With “Spider Rock Forever,” their debut extended play, released on October 10th, this marvelous quartet vividly showcases a brand-new, improved, and charming garage rock sound. Heavily promoted with “Foggy,” “Spiders,” and “Anteater,” three exceptional singles released earlier this year that vividly demonstrate what you might expect from the remainder of the material, “Spider Rock Forever” carries everything you ever needed from this longstanding music genre, plus many, many more. Perhaps The Family Battenberg dominantly relies on this style, as many fundamental elements are present from start to finish, yet they have incorporated other complementary genres along the way. You’ll notice how some of the finest properties borrowed from psychedelic rock, alternative, classic rock, rock ‘n’ roll, and folk lurk around, enhancing, decorating, and accentuating these songs while the band simultaneously remains loyal to the primary sonic direction. They also incorporated various techniques, approaches, and directions, making “Spider Rock Forever” such a pleasant listening experience worth repeating over and over again. Perhaps The Family Battenberg showcases all those qualities that meet the trends in contemporary music production, but you’ll notice how they added a subtle touch of nostalgia, evoking sixties and seventies music, two eras when garage rock sound ruled the airwaves. This dedication to the craft is rarely heard or seen nowadays, and these experimentations with various approaches, techniques, and complementary music genres resulted in one of the finest garage rock recordings you’ll hear in a while.

This epic sonic voyage commences with “Foggy,” a perfect introductory piece that sets the tone for the remainder of the extended play. The entire composition is decorated with excellent vocal performance, uplifting back vocals, fuzzy guitar works, equally impressive basslines, and flawless drumming performance. “Foggy” arrives with a perfect structure, adorned with many profoundly detailed segments, brilliant ideas, and marvelous orchestrations that elevate this song to new heights. These are the moments where The Family Battenberg demonstrates their tremendous dedication to the craft, creativity, talent, and skills. “Gwyllgi” expands their sound even more, with all those heavily distorted guitar riffs and chord progression shaping a perfect ambiance for all the vocals to shine upon. The guitars continuously levitate from calm, soothing, relaxing, ethereal to more raw, abrasive, gritty, powerful, and aggressive. These sonic levitations construct a dynamic, detailed, luxuriant sound which immediately wraps around your listening apparatus and refuses to let go. The Family Battenberg expertly balances noise with melody, calmness with aggression, emotion with grit. Besides guitars, there are all those complex low-end notes, helping out the mentioned instrumentations by contributing more heaviness, clarity, and depth, which the drumming performance keeps all the orchestrations with thoughtfully assembled rhythmic sequences, providing dynamics, groove, and pace. “Friend Of Mine,” the third song on this material, showcases The Family Battenberg’s admiration for folk rock music. It’s a stripped-down, semi-acoustic composition where carefully assembled chord progressions and tambourine craft a soundscape for a soulful, passionate, sincere, emotive vocal performance. The band keeps this composition as hypnotic, addictive, irresistible, and catchy as possible, letting the listener dive deep into a soothing atmosphere. It’s a beautiful composition that will immediately grab your attention thanks to its ethereal, otherworldly nature.

With “Spiders,” The Family Battenberg brings back heavy rock atmosphere, capable of satisfying even the pickiest listeners. They fully stacked this song with some of the finest guitar works, which immediately constructs a colossal, expansive, fascinating ambiance. These chord progressions and riffs are so thoughtfully paired with all those intricate, semi-distorted basslines for some extra punch, while another barrage of tasteful beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics accentuates and uplifts the entire song on an entirely new level. The vocal harmonies give this track more emotion and soul, as they serve as one of the main sources of melody, besides the guitars. “Anteater” carries a fine blend of some of the finest elements borrowed from hard rock, classic rock, and garage rock, merged together with such precision and finesse. You’ll immediately notice how The Family Battenberg infused even more fuzz into those guitar works, making this song as raw, abrasive, and dirty as possible while retaining a decent dosage of melody intact. It’s a wise move, considering that this track almost solely relies upon sheer power, energy, and aggression, also delivered through low-end burst and wild drumming performances. This epic sonic voyage comes to an end with “Ghouls! Conga Line!,” a marvelous psych-infused garage rock composition that sums up everything you ever needed to know about this incredible band. It carries all the traits that make The Family Battenberg such a fascinating band. It’s packed with a comprehensive collection of heavy riffs and additional themes, heavy beats, powerful basslines, and catchy vocal lines. Such a treat for every loyal garage rock fan!

“Spider Rock Forever” is a perfect debut release, carrying everything you ever needed from garage rock music. The Family Battenberg poured heart and soul into this material, resulting in six impressive sonic explorations that will immediately grab you by the collar and transport you into a completely different realm. It’s surely one of those recordings you do not want to miss. “Spider Rock Forever” is available on all streaming platforms. Listen to it loud!

https://open.spotify.com/album/5rzGyjP6fJoznfkPlYnbG4?si=QJ_-sCYAQDmfDF8du89IFQ

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