London (UK) based alt rock band, Calling All Astronauts, have just released their latest single, Rapture, and we’ve been taking several listens here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today.
In the words of the band; “Rapture is a full on assault on Climate Change and how the lack of real action has led to a genuine threat to the world, so much so that the band can envisage the planet partying on the eve of its destruction because it has reached a pint of no return.”
Rapture is, unsurprisingly, a very powerful track, with an accompanying video that doesn’t hold back. Calling All Astronauts are serious about getting their message across here.
Rapture is a very industrial sounding rock track with a great blend of synths and guitars. The repeated stabs riff is present throughout the track and keeps returning to haunt the listener, almost urging them to take action.
There are patches within the track that the song has some almost disco feeling moments. This is a really superb crossover track that takes elements from many different genres from glam rock to industrial to punk. This is a truly quirky, yet demanding song.
The distant sounding guttural screamed “Here comes the rapture” sends a chill down your spine. A well managed vocal technique that has clearly been practiced and perfected. This isn’t a style of singing to take lightly as it can cause vocal nodules if performed incorrectly. Lead singer David B very clearly knows what he’s doing here.
With a quarter of a century of working together, Calling All Astronauts are unsurprisingly tight. There’s an almost unspoken coherence interplaying between the musicians that only comes from considerable time playing together.
There’s a lovely genre-appropriate click and presence in the kick drum and we love how melodic and present the bass guitar is in the mix.
With regard to the production, we would suggest a couple of EQ edits to try. Firstly, a hi-pass filter set around 35Hz to remove some excess rumble not necessary in the track. A small cut around 95-100Hz to level out a slight peak in the low end. It also feels like the track could use a small boost in the low mids around 250Hz which would add some warmth and clarity in that area. Finally a boost in the highs centred around 10kHz for brightness and presence, maybe an additional high shelf boost in the top octave for some extra ‘air’. The track could benefit from some light compression and a little make up gain simply for more volume.
Calling All Astronauts latest single, Rapture, deserves attention. The message of this track is of supreme importance at this time and the delivery and performance are simply stunning.