#subnovas

The endings of artistic collaborations are often bittersweet; a feeling of release mingles with regret for what might have been. At the end of The Subnovas’ debut release performance, lead singer Michael Taylor smiled as he thanked the band’s supporters and announced that this would be the group’s last show. He did not seem disappointed or bitter about disbanding; he appeared genuinely grateful for the opportunity to share his music with one final live crowd. The Subnovas’ first and last album, Between the Light Years, subtly pulls listeners into a comfortably alienated space through juicy, extended melodic phrases and shifting rock meters. The album unfolds like a narrative. The first track, “Turning and Turning”, offers listeners a sense of the setting and a foreshadowing of melodies that are fleshed out at the end. The second track, “Telescreen”, establishes a protagonist who is fed up with incessant propaganda and emphatically rejects it. The music mirrors a boiling point as the drums shift to quick cymbal hits, the guitar breaks free from its restrained timbre, and Taylor screams, “Enough enough enough enough!” The fourth track, “Echo On”, feels like a dramatic and hopeful turning point; it begins with a sample that asserts, “I believe that man will not merely endure; he will prevail.” The track has a heavy, grounded bass line that winds menacingly through the song and culminates in a thrilling counterpoint to the guitar. The title track ungrounds the listener as the song wanders through different keys and textures and as Taylor sings, “Drifting disparately further into the void.” The song seems caught in a lonely alien space between two distant feelings. “Remain” feels like an extension of the same cold barren landscape, and it ends with a gripping guitar solo. Finally, the melodic theme from the first track returns in a spectacular conclusion in “The Turn”. Although Taylor repeatedly sings, “Where do we go now?” the music feels confident and hopeful, certain of its own path even if the protagonist is not. In the final track, the musical drama fades away like fragments of an obscure dream, and the listener is left to contemplate the pieces. The music is over; The Subnovas entrust it to listeners so that it may be reborn upon each replay.