Single Premiere: Inhale – FM Rodeo (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Some people think that rock music is all about volume and velocity, that it is impact and immediacy that is required to make your presence felt. While that might be true for those who want their music delivered to them on a plate and perhaps don’t want to have to think beyond the obvious, there are those, and I count myself as one of them, who like music with inbuilt intrigue and intelligence, music that is beguiling and that doesn’t always do what you expect it to. Music that thwarts preconceptions and plays by its own rules. Inhale, the new one from FM Rodeo, is just such a track.

So if the opposite of those sonic traits I listed above would be elements such as stealth and slow-burning intrigue, space, and atmosphere, anticipation and delicacy—yes, delicacy—then Inhale certainly encapsulates this, let’s call it, cerebral rock approach.

It isn’t that they don’t use the same instrumentation a other rock bands; there are undoubtedly big guitars and thunderous drums, scintillating synth washes and energy that drive things almost to the point of euphoria; it’s just that they employ these tried and tested rock sounds in much more clever and orchestrated ways. And space is the factor that makes it all work. As the music rises and forms towering and imposing walls of sound, it is the space between that allows everything to breathe, letting the light in and making room for all those more-than-the-sum-of-their-parts atmospherics to pool and percolate between the sonic cliffs and pounding beats.

That is the difference between the way most people approach rock music and the way that FM Rodeo does here. They take their time, tread carefully, and position everything with poise, poignancy, and perfect pace, and that is what results in such a cavernous eventual playoff.

Most rock bands opt to use power to make their mark. FM Rodeo couples power with precision, and the results are extraordinary.