Tiptoeing between folk and blues, the imaginatively titled Trickshooted Social Club have a penchant for orchestral arrangements and soundscapes that are holistically all encompassing to any listener. They combine string arrangements with electric guitar, luxurious and grand soundscapes with subtle and groudned vocals, and touching lyricism with uplifting energy. ‘Don’t Settle Me Down’ is the group at the zenith, an immense recording that needs to be experienced in every ounce of its splendour. It’s psychedelic, rock & roll, and folk, all wrapped into a single pill that takes action in less than three minutes.
The Chicago group’s latest piece starts a bit softer, but progresses with purpose in each segment of the song. It moves with seamless sequencing, with each part of the track taking you on a journey of its own. As it moves towards the final minute, the crescendo is resounding and blanketing, the kind that has you completely immersed in every instrument in the complete arrangement at one breadth. It can be unsettling even, to hear such a magnificent and epic explosion, but their skilfulness in progression makes it a welcome catharsis at the end.
You won’t come across much better progressive rock this year, especially so a kind that’s able to inject the emotion and subtlety of folk within as well.