The Unset: Decay/Bloom – Single Review

The Unset – Decay/Bloom                                        

Self-Released

Streaming

Out Now

A new Australian alt-rock band, their release schedule and subsequent plans ruined by the lockdown, finally rejoin the fray with the first of three songs to be released as singles. A bright rock future awaits them, writes MK Bennett

According to the website of American after-death clean-up specialists Spaulding Decon, decomposition is a natural process that occurs after death, progressing through four stages: autolysis, bloat, active decay, and skeletonisation. House flies (Muscidae) and blowflies (Calliphoridae) are the first to arrive – pioneer flies – despite sounding like the confused heroes of a light-hearted Shakespearean comedy. Just as the stages of loss or grief are subjective, decay marks the ultimate finish line with no error while life goes on around you; the evolution of insects meets the evolution of love, approximately.

Australia’s The Unset have chosen to clear the lanes and mark a distinct kind of decay and bloom. It’s a song of varied colours and tonal shifts, a travelogue through the life and times of Maynard James Keenan, a church to which many of us happily subscribe. It crawls as if released from a swamp, lumbering into view like a monster with the villagers already in pursuit.

Starting with a lightly distorted picked set of notes that oscillate between discordant and standard, reminiscent of A Perfect Circle yet beautifully moody, it takes its time without rushing to the chorus, simply establishing a groove that effectively accomplishes its aim. At over five minutes long, it is worth the investment to build up to an epic chorus characterized by its grunge-era dynamics and progressive inventiveness. At the same time, the pre-chorus is an unexpected but welcome piano counter melody. There are no derivative or cheap tricks, just absolute solidity in the songwriting despite the oversubscribed arena they work in.

You can think of it as stages or chapters musically, like a ship broken on a sea, the boiling of blood and the disparity of things. It moves its gears and ebbs and flows until some acceptance finds its way to the singer, a man who is metaphorically a few steps away from a water tower and a rifle. Before that, he has a whole road to travel and a point to prove, which he does so admirably because the vocal is a rollercoaster, from barely audible frustration to a medium melody that he rides wearily to great roars of incoherent rage like a reared-up bear without the capacity for speech.

There are some delightful, subtle electronic/sonic touches – background flourishes almost – but it adds to the slightly sinister sound, yet shows an early interest in broadening the music’s horizons. The use of the piano is different, too, with it being less embellishment or backup and more, another voice added to the conversation. The denouement is a wall of beautiful sound, heading towards but not quite reaching Sonic Youth, the mission changing course but remembering the coordinates for another time, maybe.

The aesthetic and the name suggest a strong diasporic vibe that works very well. Moving forward, they will shed the skin of their influences and should be unstoppable, from Adelaide to the arenas of the world, this one song alone proving the mastery of their domain. Now they just have to conquer it.

The Unset’s Instagram | Facebook | Website

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All words by MK Bennett, you can find his author’s archive here plus his Twitter and Instagram

Photos supplied