Group intrigues in debut album
Bosnian Rainbows. The name recalls every other independent collaboration of musicians that decided to pick up instruments and brave the daunting world that is the music industry. It even smacks of hipster-dom by amalgamating two disparate words and mashing them to form something edgy or perhaps ironic.
Shredding · Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s guitar paired with Teri Gender Bender’s vocals create a psychedelic experience on Bosnian Rainbows. – Courtesy of Creative Commons
It turns out that this collaboration — which features experienced musicians from entirely unique realms — is one with potential. On their eponymous album, Bosnian Rainbows isn’t trying to recreate an existing sound or rebel against music by inventing a new genre. Instead, it carries out an experiment that demonstrates the result of two powerhouse musicians colliding and compromising in the attempt of forming a cohesive album. Bosnian Rainbows has potential and showcases multiple strengths throughout, but for no truly obvious reason, the album seems to fall just short.
The four-piece act hails from El Paso, Texas, and has been a project in the making for some time now. Bosnian Rainbows gets its roots from, most notably, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, the former guitarist of The Mars Volta and At The Drive-In. Rodriguez-Lopez, often described as a dynamic and dictatorial band leader, teamed up with Teri Gender Bender (born Teresa Suarez) of the garage-punk band Le Butcherettes. The result is a tortured, alternative rock sound that borrows heavily from electro-synth and psychedelic influences.
Undeniably, Gender Bender is the common thread throughout the album, weaving her passion, power and even softness through each track. She’s easily the standout on each track despite the effort from the guitar, keyboards and drums that support her. Her voice is shrill and piercing yet ghostly, as though she’s cooing but wielding a sharp knife. The vocals cut easily through the instrumentation, sometimes in a way that’s transcendental but just as often sending a pang of unease through the ear. She evokes the ’80s, channeling Blondie at times and Joan Jett at others. She even touches on Heart.
The album begins with a punch in “Eli,” a track that starts off humming eerily before churning into a perpetual crescendo that features Gender Bender’s signature wail amid a creeping synth line and darker guitar riff. The sound is initially a bit jarring; the synth is poppy like The Killers, the guitar would fit in with any of the European alt-rock that’s been migrating westward and Gender Bender is the punk puzzle piece that’s trying to fit in between.
As the album progresses, however, the signature sound created by these three distinct aspects starts to develop. Listeners need to let the album steep before it can be properly absorbed. “Turtle Neck” slows down the pace of the album and becomes a psychedelic rock anthem. The music sways and the vocals soothe — the entire track oozes and flows the way a lava lamp might. It almost makes you forget that Gender Bender is singing, “I don’t know, Turtle Neck, where you’ve been all my life.”
And it’s not just in “Turtle Neck” that the lyrics demonstrate confusing babble. In fact, they can be laughable. Despite its looming sound, on the first track, Gender Bender sings, “Eli, your eyes are black and white,” and proceeds to implore, “Why do you smile at me?” so incessantly that listeners are constantly waiting — even begging — for Eli to respond.
Though the sound is alluring and intriguing — a mix of sounds that haven’t been properly explored since the glory days of rock ‘n’ roll — the album can often feel like it’s being pulled in separate directions. Whether this is because of the clashing genres or two former band leaders that are learning to loosen their grip is impossible to tell. Regardless, many of the songs on the album begin in one direction and then completely transform into something different halfway through. Sometimes these tracks make a full circle, returning to their original sound, but often they’re content to be two different ideas that play tag team.
One of these dissonant tracks is “The Eye Fell In Love.” The vocals start out sultry yet assertive as a popping synth beat and a quivering guitar start to establish a beat in the background. The track seems to be following the trajectory of those that came before it and we’re following along as we learn all the letters of the alphabet that “The Eye” fell in love with when suddenly the instrumentation drops off. The song sails into an interlude before picking up the pace while Gender Bender delves into “oohs” and moans before the song abruptly ends.
Despite its inconsistencies, the album is an experience. It’s unafraid and bold, loud and brave with vocals and instruments that fight to be heard (although they often don’t need to try quite so hard). Bosnian Rainbows definitely taps into a nostalgic sound that’s a welcome change of pace from the patterns that up-and-coming musicians often fall into and it’s refreshing. And, with all the psychedelic influence, the name turns out to be pretty apt after all.