Here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today, we’ve been listening to the latest single from Charleston, US band, Elohyek. What’s the Use? is released today and crosses Industrial rock, trip hop and shoegaze.
Elohyek is an experimental alternative rock collective from Charleston, South Carolina. The project was formed in 2021 by songwriter/producer Matt “Maku” Hancock.
What’s The Use? starts with some interesting industrial-sounding percussion. When the guitar and bass join the mix they are very warm sounding, with the stereo guitars feeling positively dreamy and psychedelic.
There’s a touch of The Doors to this track. We loved the hypnotic repeated bass line and drum patterns that remain almost the same throughout the track.
By the time you reach the chorus, you’ve already been numbed to the stresses of the day by the mesmerising bass line. Heavier crunchy guitars join the mix in the choruses and give the song some extra power. The guitar solo with distant delays has some great note choices in it and leads to a breakdown with panned left tremolo guitar and that hypnotic bass line again. The song bursts back into the chorus with heavy guitars again and takes the listener off on a rollercoaster ride of nostalgia with its Doors-like sound here.
Vocally, the lead singer sounds a little like Paul Heaton, Beautiful South, his voice fitting well over the instrumentation.
We feel this is a great track to be considered for a sync deal for placement in a TV show. It’s a slow-burn track and one which we feel would work perfectly in a scene montage. It’s also, we feel, a great late-night playlist track to wind down after a busy day.
Ideas from our ears.
A small cut around 550Hz in the vocal track would reduce some slightly ‘honky’ tones. A boost on the whole track right across the top 3 octaves would increase the presence and definition in the track, however, this could result in increased harshness in the snare track (5kHz?) as well as an unwanted boost in the sibilant (9-10kHz?) parts of the vocal track. As always, these are just some ideas from our ears.
Final thoughts
Elohyek’s, What’s The Use? is a charming and spellbinding track that will appeal to a wide audience. For fans of industrial rock, trip-hop and 60s-influenced psychedelia.