Falling Through the Clouds EP by Random (Review)

When I first came across this band’s name I wasn’t quite certain as to what to think. I noticed that an MP3 for the first track, “Falling Through the Clouds” was available, and since I’m a dire fan of layered guitars/beautiful voices/pretty words/anything shoegazer, its air had naturally attracted my eye. Upon listening? Oh my. All I could initially wonder was who is this angel singing?

Random is a fourpiece that have thus produced four tracks that are utterly beautiful and intense. Although this CD carries a rather ethereal body, it definitely carries darker, more harmonic pieces as it glides along through your headphones. The song “Soon” is an adequate example of this. Using the band to combine a more harmonic sound, singer Darragh Nolan chimes above, intertwining both voice and instruments to create a song that is more than endearing.

Hailing from the southeast region of Ireland, I imagine cool weather and clear nights giving birth to such heavenly sounds. It does sound delicate, but never quiet. It is pensive, and then urgent. Somber, yet always hopeful. Even more astonishing, this band went the entire DIY route to produce this EP, nixing the actual use of a label for distribution. Not bad for a band that has only been together for less than a year, and has an unavailable EP under their belt.

This is a perfectly crafted CD, both in packaging and in craft, and Random have given me hope in a music scene where I have felt nothing but under-stimulated. It wasn’t until recently that I had noticed its impact, when a friend was gracefully drifting off to sleep with this CD on repeat while I was driving. It was a winter’s night, the stars were bright, and Random was the perfect soundtrack for such beauty.

It is during moments like that when you realize you’ve come across something magical.

Written by Christina Andersson.