Secret Colors - Days Off (Album Review)

 

Secret Colors - Days Off

(2013)


My copy: 2013 press by Group Tightener Records


Days Off is an instrumental electronic synth-pop album from San Antonio's Secret Colors. The crux of Days Off is its deeply layered production style in which many different synth melodies compete for dominance amidst rhythmic percussion loops and synth bass. “Enter” kicks things off with icy synth melodies and teases listeners by not fully involving bass and drums yet. Many tones on this album are borderline generic, sounding almost as if they were recorded with a child’s toy keyboard; this fits a specific aesthetic but for the most part it just sounds cheap and mildly annoying. 

“Buddies” proves that the songs on this album can get dense. When the bass and percussion come into the mix fully, the tracks become far more danceable. “Buddies” starts off with warbled laughter, almost in the vein of Animal Collective, who have clearly influenced some of the shimmering synth sounds found on Days Off. “King” features a strange growling sample or instrument and has digitized drums that feel as though they’d fit right into a video game. “King” eventually develops a nice wall of sound with staccato key melodies.

“Quicksand” is the best track: it begins with syncopated drums and droning ambiance only to break into a dance beat with very fun call and response style keys. Unfortunately, good tracks like “Quicksand” are bogged down by terrible and cheap sounding synth horns that come in before the beat drops. 

It feels as though Days Off is playing heavily to nostalgia, especially with the childish keyboard sounds, but a lot of the time these attempts fall flat or are produced in a way that makes them more annoying than interesting. There are genuinely great ideas here, and most tracks are patient, slow building walls of melodies that only break into a full drum beat halfway through. “Never End” closes things out with an almost vocal sounding synth, and repeats until fading out. 

Days Off feels like a shy experiment; at times it feels almost afraid to have big breakout moments that it would benefit from. If you listen closely to this record, you will find glimmering bits of gold underneath the surface, and it is a very good piece of electronica for those who like things that are just a bit out-there. 

This album doesn’t go for much despite being the only pressing.


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