Puerto Rico’s independent music scene shows growth with every new entry into the movement’s catalogue. As of recent, many bands and artists experiment with a variety of sounds. While Campo Formio explores how far they can take progressive rock and mix it with post-hardcore, Dan Siego takes their noise-rock and hardcore sounds to a new level, and Sr. Langosta continues to mix jazz and funk with the psychedelia of the 1960s and Caribbean sounds of yesterday. Then there’s bands like Space Corolla, who decide to mix the pop-punk of the 2000s with math-rock, progressive rock, and a little bit of psychedelia too. With the release of their EP “Never Happy”, Space Corolla shows how they are one of the bands to look out for in the scene with their passion for music and their hunger to be one of the best.
(cover for “Never Happy” by Sofía Ramirez de Arellano)
In “Never Happy”, we find Space Corolla putting many of their musical influences out there. Featuring pop-punk influenced vocals with math-rock guitars, psychedelic soundscapes, and some breakdowns that would make noise-rock fans proud to make a mosh pit, this EP has got a lot of everything. Starting off with “Copamarina”, one is immediately hit by a math-rock influenced sound that will have first listeners looking to catch the breaks in order to properly headbang to then be caught off guard by a smooth transition in the middle. Meanwhile, “David Bowie Whacks Postmodernism With A Crowbar” features an intro that would make Bowie and Rush followers love it with its electronic and space-rock influenced math-rock guitar and sound effects accompanied with lyrics that would make pop-punk fans proud. Meanwhile, “Safety Net” is a much calmer track until its final section that continues to display the progressive rock influences alongside with the powerful instrumental “Eight Years Of Self-Doubt And All I Got Was This Lousy Epiphany.” To sum up the EP, Space Corolla delivers “Mind your Meds” and “Stranger Danger”, two more tunes which display their perfect balance of pop-punk, math-rock, and post-hardcore along with a bit of psychedelic sounds.
(picture of the band as found on Facebook)
Space Corolla’s “Never Happy” is a perfect display of how bands and artists should display themselves to the public: by putting it all out there. However, while the project is a very positive presentation by the band, one could not leave the project without questioning “What if?” The EP is a great compilation of six songs that show the band’s many influences, but all of the tracks last around three to four minutes. Usually, progressive rock is a genre which features a variety of long compositions, but I am one who enjoys these types of tunes to last. So after listening to the project I wondered,“Did the band make shorter songs to appeal to the mainstream?”, “Did they do this due to the lack of attention in this fast-paced time?”, and “What would’ve happened had they made longer songs?” These are all questions to which I have no answers yet, but some of which I hope to answers to in the band’s future projects.
(picture of the band performing as found on Facebook)
Space Corolla is a band that has a lot of potential. Their latest EP “Never Happy” demonstrates many of their influences which range from pop-punk and math rock to psychedelia and post-hardcore. However, while the project is a fantastic entry, one cannot help but question what they would do if they had expanded their songs to last for more than three to four minutes. Hopefully, in future projects the band will continue to explore their current and other influences as they continue to expand and, perhaps, make longer tracks.
Listen and buy “Never Happy” on Bandcamp