ALBUM REVIEW: Distant Populations – Quicksand

New York’s QUICKSAND are one of those quietly influential bands. Initially burning brightly and briefly in the early 90s, the trio were never particularly huge, but there’s no denying their impact on a wealth of alternative music that followed in their wake. AT THE DRIVE-IN, CAVE IN, DEFTONES, TORCHE… these are just a few names that owe a debt to the band’s powerful mix of post-hardcore and alternative metal. Hopes were high then when the New Yorkers announced 2017’s Interiors – their first album in 22 years. It marked a triumphant return for the band, and now gets a welcome and comparatively swift follow-up in Distant Populations. Like Interiors before it, this record shows that time has been kind to QUICKSAND, and makes for another solid addition to a strong back catalogue.

The album gets off to a great start with opener and lead single Inversion. There are parallels to 1993’s Slip here, with a brief fill from drummer Alan Cage rolling straight into weighty riffing. The track itself boasts a floating heaviness that makes it clear why QUICKSAND might enjoy the patronage of a band like DEFTONES. It kicks off a solid opening run in general, with following tracks Lightning Field and Colossus maintaining a similar energy. The former injects a driving, punky pace to proceedings, landing briefly on a big beefy middle-eight breakdown. The latter boasts more of a stomp, with a simple swaggering verse riff and a subtly anthemic chorus. These tracks set the bar high for the album to follow, and the quality doesn’t really drop from there. Sixth track Missile Command is a particular highlight – the product of a rehearsal jam built around a repeated menacing riff.

As the album name indicates, Distant Populations sees QUICKSAND exploring themes of isolation and disconnection. It’s a timely topic, and one that often lends the record a strong sense of emotional weight. Inversion lays this bare, with lines like “Distant populations going nowhere/So far away from us, you wouldn’t know where”. Elsewhere, seventh track Phase 90 deals in feelings of distraction and unfulfillment, with a general musical despondency matching its opening lyrics of “Tried to finish a book I was reading/I put it down for too long/I got distracted by other things, other dreams/Forgot the characters and the names”. Later, album closer Rodan uses the Japanese monster from which it takes its name as a metaphor for the terrifying news cycles many of us spend our lives with our eyes glued to.

With a runtime of 32 and a half minutes, Distant Populations is hardly a long record, but it still benefits greatly from a good sense of pacing, flow and variation. Fourth track Brushed mixes things up well – a floating alt-rock number with processed drum beats and rich acoustic guitars. Katakana after that changes pace again. This one’s a dynamic, moody highlight, with rumbling bass-led verses that explode into some of the record’s heaviest riffing yet. Later, ninth track Compacted Infinity provides even more of a dynamic shift in the form of a short electronic interlude. It’s a delicate piece, and one that hammers home the force of EMDR which follows it.

The record benefits further still from its excellent production job. Handled by the highly respected Will Yip, who was also behind the desk for Interiors, everything sounds huge here. Cage‘s drums cut through brilliantly, laying a foundation for the tight interplay of guitarist Walter Schreifels and bassist Sergio Vega. Schreifels‘ vocals also sit perfectly in the mix, adding a laidback, melodic ethereality to much of the record.

Reunion albums can be quite a mixed bag, as can their follow-ups. With Distant Populations though, QUICKSAND are two for two in their reinvigorated form. This is a solid, well-crafted record with a tight runtime and a load of great songs. We could sit here and lament lost years all we want, but all that really matters is that QUICKSAND are back and producing great records once more. Here’s hoping they have a few more up their sleeves in the years to come.

Rating: 8/10

Distant Populations is set for release on August 13th via Epitaph Records.

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