Style: Progressive Pop, Math Rock (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: The Dear Hunter, modern Leprous/Einar Solberg
Review by: Sam
Country: US-PA
Release date: 14 April, 2023
Some people are just unfairly talented. I always feel a bit cheated when a talented multi-instrumentalist comes by and seemingly churns out better composed, more exciting music than most full-band lineups in an almost casual fashion. The underground isrife with folks like this: be it the mysterious Asthâghul from Esoctrilihum and his experimental black/death metal monstrosities, Déhà from Maladie and a dozen other avant-garde projects, or Danny Mulligan’s eclecticism in Exodus to Infinity, they’re all stupid talented. And now we have Daniel Cupps from Good NightOwl, an experimental progressive rock project. He’s also a television editor, 3D animator, and actor, but we’re here to talk music.
Good NightOwl is a project that has been going on for quite a while. This is their 15th (!!) full length album, the first of which came out in 2011. There are questions to be had as to whether each album listed is actually an album in the traditional sense or just a glorified experimental demo, but it’s an extremely impressive output nonetheless. It’s safe to say that Daniel Cuppsis an experienced songwriter at this point. I dug into some of his older works: The first dozen or so albums seem to be progressive rock with a quirky experimental and psychedelic edge, starting out as instrumental, and adding vocals around 2015 . Around 2019, he started pushing in an increasingly math pop direction with less and less psychedelic and conventional progressive rock elements, to the point where you’d barely recognize that this was the same “band” anymore compared to the earlier sound. And thus we land on Capital, his poppiest album yet.
I say poppy, but this record is by no means straightforward or easy to digest. The music of Good NightOwl is chock full with layers, polyrhythms, time signature changes, and other proggy nuggets that keep you intellectually engaged with the music. What I find most notable about Daniel’s approach is how rhythmic everything is. We have polyrhythms on the drums, acapella vocal layering, synths and guitars accentuating different parts of the rhythms; it’s a pretty mesmerizing combination, simultaneously catchy and complex as it throwsyou off balance with its rhythms. I’ve never heard anything quite like this. At best, I can point to The Dear Hunter for some superficial comparisons like vocal timbre and genres used, but this is far more bright and playful.
Most of the songs are very good. The playful aspects really pop because they’re often contrasted with grander string-driven parts and vocal melodies that have a rather serious inclination despite their almost casual delivery, such as on “The Lion’s Share” which uses goofy synths in the verses, and the chorus is epic with its vocal harmonization and strings. “Unsleep” also stands out in this regard for its goofy deadpan lyrics (“No one to tell you, you suck”), and its use of horns. Sadly though, the vocals can sometimes be a bit too mundane. Especially on “Schrodinger’s Profit” and “Saving Time” the melodies are awfully plain and the underlying rhythms feel regurgitated. The constant mathy rhythms can also detract when overused. Some more straightforward 4/4 would have been appreciated for contrast. Cups makes up for it to an extent by varying the mood a lot, and he plays around with the synths, but it doesn’t save the record from some monotony.
I’m not quite sure what to make of this album. It’s certainly unique with its rhythmic interplay between vocals and instruments, and clever use of synths and orchestration, but on the other hand it can also feel awfully mundane at times and I would like a little more ambition in the vocal lines. I am extremely late with this review, but I wanted to get it out anyway because I think it’d be a shame if this got lost to the sea of Bandcamp releases. If you like clever rhythmic interplay, or you strongly value uniqueness, give this a listen.
Recommended tracks: Resources (Limited), Lion’s Share, Royal Fortunes
You may also like: idk, Pleasures maybe? Meer? Tone of Voice Orchestra (bandcamp)?
Final verdict: 6.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | RYM page
Label: Independent
Good NightOwl is:
– Daniel Cupps (everything)
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