One of the most rewarding activities we partake in here at We Own This Town is browsing through the #Nashville tag on Bandcamp looking for music that hasn’t made its way across our radar. One such recent discovery is this five-song instrumental EP from Children of the Night, an absolutely perfect group of songs for Halloween.
The compositions within are delicate but foreboding. They are both lonesome and tortured. They are hinting at a narrative but devoid of specifics. Admittedly, these descriptors sound over the top and esoteric but after spending time with the offerings, they aren’t inaccurate.
Each track has its own unique attribute – warbled vocals on “Axiom of an Unsound Mind”, backwards masking on “The Silent Chamer”, the crashing guitars of “Adrift at Dark” – but they are a cohesive whole strung together with eerie piano, atmospheric keyboards and subtle strings.
The rewards of Bandcamp browsing can also come with a downside. Namely, there’s zero information about this project beyond the songs themselves. The cover art cites a “Spirit Racer Records” which, with some Googling, will lead you to Richmond, VA band Those Maniac Seas and its drummer / now-Nashville resident Daniel Medley but these ties are tenuous at best. The mystery of proper credit for Children of the Night remains unknown but, frankly, it works quite well as an anonymous release.