Every day we are giving stunning examples of why we love music so much. Today’s example, is courtesy of Boston alt-rock band, Real Beaut and their epically awesome new EP, “Politics”
You can listen to “Politics” on Spotify Here,
The Boston alt-rock band, composed of all those other rock and roll groups that soundtracked the gritty and messy underbelly of the city’s music scene over the past several years, unleash new EP Politics today, (Friday, April 4) . The official record release party goes down the following night at the band’s unofficial home base, The Middle East in Cambridge, leading a sparkplug bill alongside American Ethos, Dwelley, and Bad at Drawing
And regardless of where one may be on that Saturday night, the might and magnitude of Politics should be audibly heard far and loud. A powderkeg of a four-track record and the follow-up to 2023 debut EP Gentle Messages, it finds Real Beaut’s four members – guitarist Andrew Doherty; drummer and producer Benny Grotto, bassist and vocalist Johnny Northrup; and vocalist Keith Pierce – shifting into creative overdrive and embracing a new creative gear after years of collaboration, chemistry, and friendship.
Our excitement around releasing Politics is fairly boundless,” says Pierce. “We have been trying hard to keep this record under wraps. Creating new interesting guitar-driven music in a relatable, communicative way is difficult but Real Beaut is one of the finest rock experiments I’ve ever been a part of. This new EP is very different from some of our earlier productions but we tried to retain the speed and ferocity of our youth through practice, recording, and respect for the listener.”
An EP, like “Politics ”, is what happens when four next-level musicians get together and make the most spectacular-sounding collection of songs, we have heard in quite some time.
Even with each of the four blistering tracks all assuming its own sonic identity – confrontational opening banger “Politics on the Internet,” abrasively addresses what the title implies; the seismic “Paying Attention,” which hit Bandcamp early as an aural appetizer and has been described as a sort of grunge take on Van Halen; the hypnotic rock murkiness of ”Profane and Pedigree”; and the suffocating guitar assault of closer “Islands” – there is a cohesion that flows across the EP’s breathless and impatient 12 minutes of runtime.
“Real Beaut always strives to find ways for building tension and allowing opportunity for release,” says Doherty. “Sometimes this is achieved by riding the line between discord and melody, or by letting the song sit in a sustained, dark pocket… festering or incubating, before breaking through and emerging as something new. These new tracks are a continuation of a process from our early work, but with more identifiable Real Beaut qualities.”
We hope to meet with the members of Real Beaut someday soon so we can personally congratulate them on crafting a stunningly brilliant EP, with “Politics”
The Whole Kameese 