Track Premier + Review
"The Medicine" is a track made by someone who clearly listens to everything. On this song Rob Ingram is giving us all a glimpse at the singularity. It sounds like a product of the great below and all the aboves – the sum of angelic equations. Or Coevality and Spastic Ink having a gladiator battle during Carnivale in Brazil. The rich, pen-like motions of each instrument paint changing meters, shifting almost every bar within a densely fractalized compounded verse of 9/8 4/4 9/8 4/4 9/8 4/4 9/8 5/4 9/8 5/4 9/8 4/4 9/8 4/4 9/8 5/4 make this a truly complex piece.
"The Medicine" grooves and has no obstacles for the listener or players while conveying pure virtuosity. The sonic tapestry comes on as strongly impassive, yet as alive as Snarky Puppy. But gloriously, it is itself and nothing more – in a true authenticity that’s rarely ventured to, let alone adhered to. It’s what The Mars Volta pretends to be, only actuality-burdened by its inescapable, omnipresence. Rob Ingram's music displays originality without cliche, that is to say: pure, naked and of the 144th design. A designer-drug. A sixty-niner. The palmprints of creative genius are omnipresent within this track, evoking the sharp immediacy of drugs and sleep deprivation. This track is heavily doused with Latin style drumming and syncopated flamboyance. Gospel music type of extensions play out in between complex surf meets fusion-toned guitar voicings seeming to be channeled from another planet entirely.
The highlight moment in this song is at 4:30 when the Greg Howe Dennis part seamlessly transitions into a Lenny White Astral Pirates vibe, blending with captivating EDM soundscapes. The textural pedal play between adjacent riffs adds a cherry on top, culminating in a crescendo peak where Rob's most important guitar sentences shine through – the very essence driving this entire song project with trinary leaping lenses and the frog cop hop. Merging a diverse array of musical influences, from free jazz and art rock to 90s fusion jazz, it creates a math rock diamond amid rough and brash musical landscapes, where contrasting elements tornado in and out of each other seamlessly. The chaos of the universe requires great alignment to reveal its master plan. When met with this grand plan and the vastness of horizons interfering to create a holographic auric effect, one can't help but be awestruck, driven to deeper artistic insights.
This song weaves a tale of venturing through a purple door, a folklore that leads one to a place where they may never return from, dining with gods or perhaps more civilized aliens, away from the tantric tantrums and ecstatic dislocations. In such moments, the ego falls away, and the magician is granted privileged positions to rearrange nature itself. "The Medicine" begins with a frenetic Austin sing-along, unleashing a marathon of math rock akin to Feuding Fathers and Junior Bob tumbling downstairs with a contagious smile. It is an amalgamation of purge solenoid, hollow ran, L.A. renditions, cicadia-laden vocals and music persona. Evolving quickly, this piece oscillates between immense widths and narrowed precision, drawing the listener deep into Rob's mentality and medicine. More than just a chaos magician, Rob Ingram's guitar prowess rivals even Thomas Seminar and peers in Berkelee's gangster scene. His prescience and ecological capabilities astound, creating a visually dense experience of super-technological, futuristic, and ancient elements crafted by a higher calling.
This song has an enduring aftereffect, leaving a taste and sensation in the heart. It doesn't leave the listener empty or starved but rather whole, wholesome, comforted, and embraced by an organic warmth akin to the bonds of family. It's a drug, a medicine, a journey that realigns disaligned ideas, dancing into harmony. With each note, it plays with the concept of structures as a mass consciousness, generating buoyant and extremely organic exchanges between thoughts and sonic illustrations.
A concise description of this track would be: "Tigran meets Holdswoth bass over Hella with a percussion ensemble diluted with pop validity meets the slaughterhouse 5 without the hatred for mankind brimming." Its unfolding is akin to a hive mind, wirelessly on a circuit bent joy toy. The Medicine merges with egregores of Eleanor Rigby and sacrificial cavernous dwelling mystics, while skeptics stand in disbelief. Expect moments of ecstasy reminiscent of Arto Lindsay and an intimate but deliberate surrender to a ride through unhingement and true musical brilliance. This record has the power to rally cult-like followings. It's like being lost in nature, walking until man and forest blend into pure existence, only to be devoured by a lion, pressing repeat once again. - Dead Poet
Composition: Rob Ingram Drums: Marco Cirigliano Percussion: Christopher Patrick Dubuc-Penney Guitar: Rob Ingram Vocals: Rob Ingram, Destiny Tucker Bass: Rob Ingram Keys: Monk Catallo, Rob Ingram Reeds: Jordan Lerner Harp: Sunshine Quan Mixing engineer: Ian Fait Engineer: Connor C Chapman
Lyrics: Scrawl my nails into the bark with squalor, teeth, and toes so stark, Drag my river through the earth, an oasis clawed by need and dearth. I crawl my knees onto the land with a salty tongue and spitting sand, With cheshire grins, a zephyr waits, detangling my outrageous straits.
If you want the medicine, if you want the medicine, Medicine, if you want the medicine... If you want the medicine, if you want the medicine, Medicine, if you want the medicine, medicine... If you want the medicine, if you want the medicine, Medicine, if you want the medicine, medicine, medicine... If you want the medicine, you need your expectations just might be naïve, Perchance, you seize the sought relic with glimpses gleaned but never bought, Hold your own, bring it home; when you relish everything you found, You'll see the truth latent in the sound, woven in the seams to clue you in, But tremble when you know it must begin!
If you want the medicine, if you want the medicine, Medicine, if you want the medicine, medicine, medicine you need! Lifting stairs to meet you as you climb, convergence of the nexus in real time, Sweet elixir purifies your lens and finds you in the middle of bookends. Somedays fate makes fools of each and everyone; the thread is pulled until it's all undone, Will I ever make it back to shore, or will they find me on the ocean floor?
If you want the medicine, if you want the medicine, Medicine, if you want the medicine, medicine, medicine you need! Inner flame to stoke and see you through, to leave behind the husk and start anew, Rupturing the ground on which you tread, illuminates the trail which you have bled. Tangled in a web of all your blues, a spider has you blinking ones and twos, So if you want the medicine, you need the ingredients hidden in your seed...
If you want the medicine, if you want the medicine, Medicine, if you want the medicine... If you want the medicine, if you want the medicine, Medicine, if you want the medicine, medicine... If you want the medicine, if you want the medicine, Medicine, if you want the medicine, medicine, medicine you need! I said I thought that I already knew that I didn't know... I said I thought that I already knew that I didn't know... I said I thought that I already knew that I didn't know... I said I thought that I already knew that I didn't know."
