Misc. Day – Pigeons Fly Sideways

With a name like Brad Stank, perhaps the initial idea of harsh shouts and destructive punk performances are the immediate flash to the brain. Instead, Stank is a gracious angelic bounce and shuffle to waking up next to your favorite partner, seeing the sunlight just barely grazing the window.

When Eternal Slowdown first oozes out of the surface and takes the audience into this spacious environment, Stank is quick to orchestrate a melody that is both gentle and enchanting. Similar to drowning in a new place, Eternal Slowdown opens with “Slowdown” and makes no effort to come to the surface.

Ultimately, Stank allows the audience to feel at peace as the light gets further and further away. Rather than giving thoughts of fear or anxiety, “Slowdown” is a slow dive into acceptance and understanding of being present. His simple repetition of the lyrics “Slowdown, slowdown, “with these moans mixed in create placement in beauty. He is almost hypnotizing and emerges from the smoke with the transitional period into “Pond Weed” which captures more to the heart than the ears.

Instrumentally, much of Eternal Slowdown is elegant but simple as well. As a one-man production, Stank never gives the listener this over-complication of performance and instead holds the hand with a gentle thumb stroke. Much of these performances though, like the following work of “Condemned To Be Freaky” are more uplifting and less of a sunken crush. The savior’s hand comes from above and snatches the audience’s drowning mind, reeling them to safety.

“Condemned To Be Freaky” is especially noted as one of Stank’s less foggy presentations on Eternal Slowdown. While the audience is gasping for air, Stank brings soft strings disguised over major chords that flick instead of snap. Almost resembling a sitar in the first moments, “Condemned To Be Freaky” is a reimagining of the allure to love.

The record’s standout appears as “Flirting In Space” though from just the instrumental alone which melts through the speakers like steaming knives over butter. Instead of conquering, Eternal Slowdown pushes and pulls the audience to be more loving and more in touch with being lost within one’s own self.

Through the haze of smoke where Brad Stank first suddenly appears, he disappears after 25 minutes and seven tracks. Left wanting more, the audience is forced to replay the sweet lulling’s until sleep finally reappears.

Listen To Eternal Slowdown Here!!! – BandCamp/Spotify/iTunes