New Music – ELLiS D – Breaking Glass Magazine

New Music – ELLiS D – Drifting

A powerful and ambitious single, Drifting boasts a no-fear attitude to the psych-pop world. The bass introduces the track and becomes the status quo for the 7 minute piece. Yes… people are still allowed to write 7 minute songs!

This shouldn’t deter anyone from lending their time to ELLiS D. D’s whiney and very contemporary vocals cry for honesty and confinement in the repetition of “ I am living in the comfort of my shadow”.

Musically, when it comes to Psych Art Punk – to which D describes himself, I think this song is it. It is fine orchestration of guitar focused melody which is subtle enough to hypnotise while remaining poppy and highly-listenable. The guitar line blesses me with nods to early Sunflower Bean or Candy Moore’s 2018 Under the Weather album.

With all this energy and drive in the chorus towards a certain crescendo the mood shifts… all of a sudden we are being gracefully walked down a psychedelic garden path to what feels like the end of the song. And then the bass returns. The drums kick back in. And we’re back to square one again to an early U2 style instrumentation, love it!

It’s worth pointing out, and although I may be wrong, what felt like programmed drums at the beginning really add to the robotic stop-start elements of the first two minutes of punky attitude before switching to a live performer – something I accepted on the second listen.

I see ELLiS D build greater understanding of himself personally and musically moving away from those around him through his music, “some fuckers say, they’ll sleep when they’re dead” stood out as a strong social critique of what D has been perceiving as a young man.

Take the time to listen to the track and be shot through a 7 minute vacuum that will pull you through the other side only to want to experience it all over again.