philojain, “Riff Raff”

philojain, “Riff Raff” – New Music

Guide

I stumbled across philojain’s “Riff Raff” on Press Noise and it became one of those late night rabbit holes where you keep hitting play on things you’ve never heard before.

The second it started I turned my volume up. That guitar comes in like it has something to prove and the sub bass underneath it is genuinely one of the heaviest things I’ve heard in a while. Not heavy in a trendy way. Heavy in the way that you actually feel it in your chest.

Vibes

I kept trying to figure out what to compare it to. There are hints of Pantera in the attitude, maybe some Lamb of God in the aggression, a little Pink Floyd weirdness floating around the edges. But it never really settles into sounding like any of those bands. It finds its own corner somewhere between progressive metal and post rock and just lives there.

What got me was how unpredictable the whole thing is. Every time I thought I had a read on where the song was heading, it went somewhere else. One minute you’re getting these fast technical runs that take real skill to pull off, and then out of nowhere it drops into these massive slow chords that feel like the floor is giving out beneath you. The transitions shouldn’t work as well as they do but they always land.

Instruments

There are no vocals anywhere. No lyrics to latch onto. Just the instruments doing all the talking and somehow that makes it hit harder. You have to pay attention. It demands that from you.

Jain plays and produces everything himself which is wild when you consider how full and layered the whole thing sounds. It never feels thin or like something is missing. If anything it feels like too much in the best possible way, like the track is barely holding itself together but never actually falls apart.

I’ve gone back to it multiple times today. It’s the kind of song that earns repeat listens because you keep catching things you missed the first time around.