Shake the Baby til the Love Comes Out - in a pretty suit

As a musician, math rock scares me sometimes. The very essence of such technical music is, well, its technicality—its driven by knowledge, and it’s terribly easy to listen to a band cutting up complex time signatures at lightning speeds and feel like they’re just flexing their music degrees at the rest us plebs. But this means such intellectual music needs heart, needs the human experience, more than ever, and few understand this as well as NY’s Shake the Baby Til the Love Comes Out, whose debut record in a pretty suit distills the chaos of existence into song. 

For only a two-piece, Shake the Baby sound massive, a juggernaut of tone and technicality that goes far beyond odd time signatures and jazzy progressions. The guitar guides the compositions all across the sonic map; “Little Spoon, Big Ego” wails with gritty, ultra-dissonant chords, while “Also Vomit” features one of the most moving melodic intros I’ve ever heard. The drums are just as maddening: “Utility Myth” places swing cymbal hits and thundering toms right next to blastbeats, while the hectic hihat work steering “Mine is Viscera” is nearly anxiety-inducing. 

Shake the Baby Til the Love Comes Out play their instruments with incredible ease, but what’s even more impressive is their innate understanding of tension and release. Their songs undulate between emotive melodics and harsh, grinding riffs; between fluid beats that carry the ear across the kit and haphazard smashing that mimics a five-car pileup. “Someone for Everything” opens with a colorful progression before warping into rasping chords, syncopated hits, and galloping double kick hits. Deceptive pauses pop up between periods of noisy thrashing, turning the song’s beat into an arrhythmic heart desperately trying to get back on track.

Each moment of anarchy on in a pretty suit is precise and masterful; Shake the Baby wield searing distortion and blistering dissonance like weapons, embracing the chaos that is inherent in music and using it to build tension as the song evolves. Their constant alternation between compelling beauty and reckless noise makes each tune play like a horror movie, lulling you with gentle conversation and then forcing you to jump as the killer stabs their way across the screen.

Shake the Baby til the Love Comes Out are making music that is manic and unpredictable, and in a pretty suit is calculated insanity at its finest. Their riffs are fun, their songs full of flair, yet all cut with a healthy dose of noise and chaos. Best of all, every tune is earnest—I can hear how much fun this band has making their music, and it’s that type of honesty that connects with fans. This act is bringing the heart back to an often-heartless genre, and wherever they take it next, I will surely be following them. 

My Top Tracks: “Someone for Everything

 

You can find more from Shake the Baby Til the Love Comes Out, including upcoming shows and news, on their Facebook page. Then head over to Bandcamp and snag your own copy of in a pretty suit.