Songwriter and guitarist, musicFlood, from Staffordshire, UK, has released his 15 track album entitled “Systemic Polemic”. The album is an eclectic mix of electronic and rock guitar driven songs, as well as instrumental and vocal tracks. More than go for production shine, musicFlood has opted for creativity. There are no lasers, no pyrotechnics, no dancing girls, no crowd surfing, no adult beverages, and no foul language.
So you will find lots of raw over-driven guitar noise and plenty of instrumental intensity. Of course you will also find softer tracks like the acoustic ballad “Butterfly”, or the weird electronic and funky guitar blend of “Corporate Jargon Song”. Even weirder still is the foot-stomping, tongue-in-cheek, EDM track, “I’m Simon Cowell”, dedicated to the one and only.
Running through this album one question kept jumping to mind, how does a songwriter go from penning and executing a rock driven track like “Sonic Wall”, with its screaming guitars and banging drums, to the synth and electro ambient washes of “Island Sunset Perspective”? And moreover, what degree of courage is needed to put them both on the same album.
My assumption was that musicFlood is a total genius, beyond normal human comprehension, or he is seriously suffering from disorganized schizophrenia. The question is would you put David Guetta on the same album as Metallica? And more confusing still, how could you possibly BE, both Guetta and Metallica, at the same time?
I still don’t know the answer to any of these questions, but I can confirm that any of the above combinations seems to come naturally to musicFlood, as he moves from one contrasting sound and genre to the next. To be perfectly honest though, it’s the rock thing he sticks with most. So you will find decidedly more crunchy guitar-driven songs like “Drunk Or Working On It”, “Handle This”, or my favorite “GirlTrain Blues”.
Through the light and shade of a few well-chosen rock compositions, we experience some powerful aural moments; as we get to hear musicFlood’s dirty, gritty six-string playing. Some songs have extreme edge, while others have an almost, offhand unplugged approach. musicFlood throws in some lead vocal too, but clearly his strengths lie in the guitar playing.
With all the garbage that has saturated the market for the past several years I about gave up on finding anyone with real free-thinking balls. I mean so much of music is just forced or just someone trying so hard to sound mean or badass that it is plain silly, and actually stupid.
musicFlood does none of those things, nothing is forced or contrived as he lets his creativity run free, and doesn’t bother too much about sticking it inside a glossy, shiny package either…except for those electronic arrangements, which are all dressed up and ready to dance!
Even though the album title “Systemic Polemic”, alludes to some serious contrasting, in my humble opinion the album would have been more cohesive with just the rock stuff. And then he could have slapped together a separate Ep with the electronic stuff, but then I suppose it couldn’t be called “Systemic Polemic”!
I get the impression that musicFlood was out to showcase all his musical skills in one album, and that’s what he does, regardless of genre. No selling out, no laboratory productions and no formula songs. Some people like to have their meat cut up for them; instead musicFlood slams a whole side of beef on the table and says “You figure it out”.
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