verdant - Ill Thoughts

​verdant

Ill Thoughts
self-released; 2017

​3.5 out of 5

By Jamie Funk

III thoughts is a recent release from verdant which is a one-man band from Australia. He makes experimental music with dark tendencies which combines multiple genres with varying degrees of success.

​One thing that has to be acknowledged is how distant and almost none existent the vocals are. I couldn't understand a single word he said; in fact I didn’t even know he was singing on the first track at all until I saw there were lyrics. His vocals mostly serve as a pad of atmosphere which are usually caked in so much reverb that they float away into a cloud.

He opens with one of the highlights entitled “Tremors” which has elements of post-rock and ambient music. The initial synths sound similar to tones and textures you might have heard from Kid A. In fact I was reminded of the actual song “Kid A.” The song takes its time building layers and eventually a guitar in classic Godspeed You! Black Emperor fashion enters the picture. This is mainly an ambient song because it's repetitive without many dynamics. The song eventually dissolves into a cloud of cosmic white noise which is one of verdant’s most inspired moments.

“Spirit Soaked Tears” is less ambient if only for the reason of the drums. The song sounds chaotic and disorganized. Not sure how much of that was on purpose but some of it worked to his advantage. If there's one song where the vocals should have been more clear it’s “Ill Thoughts.” I liked the vocal melody but thought it really needed to be more prevalent to support the sparse song. “Sedated Like An Animal (on its deathbed)” is a nine-minute song that really does sound like it’s title. It’s an extremely slow moving and dark ambient piece. As the album progresses”Hollow” and “mortem” were the highlights. 

III Thoughts is almost sixty minutes long A very girthy album no matter how you look at it. The album also moves quite slowly which made me feel the need to take a break.

I think Verdant has some talent and I like where his head's at. On that note he simply overuses reverb which is something I see quite often from bedroom based artists. Putting reverb on multiple things can quickly muddy it up and if you aren’t EQ’ing the reverb itself I can almost guarantee you will lose clarity. I also think that if Verdant is going to have lyrics they should be heard. I’d make proper use of a compressor, EQ and back off the reverb by about at least 50% on most songs. 

Verdant is a young artist with potential and with a little more production experience he could give more prominent artists a run for their money.

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