Chaepter – Companion Music

Written By: Brian Diaz

Often times when it comes to listening to small independent artists or bands, one of the first things I notice is the production of their music. Most of the time the production quality tends to be a weak aspect as they try and find what works for them as they fine tune their sounds. In this case with Chaepter, the production throughout his entire discography, especially on their new album, is actually one of my favorite aspects of their work. 

I absolutely adore the use of distortion for his voice and the chaos of sounds from the instruments coming through in many of his songs yet still allowing for each one of them to shine. There’s a clear sense of purpose in what he sets out to achieve. Whether that’s with the dark, intensity of Nobody Died, the gorgeous lush noise of The Moon Is an Emotional Sound, the urgency and rush of Empire Anthem, you can see how much growth they’ve shown over the years as the signature aspects of his earlier projects are still being used in his most recent work.

Going into their new album Companion Music with no idea on what to expect, I was very pleasantly surprised by what I heard. Jumping into this album, you get three dance heavy tracks “Muses,” “Lock the Door,” and “Dance Dance Die,” I can see these songs being in my rotation for a while, they are simply that catchy. Being kind of literal to the name of “Dance Dance Die,” we move away from the dance sounds and what comes after in the rest of the album is some of the best music I have heard all year and it scratches an itch I’ve been looking for. The best comparison I can give is the 1978 album PACIFIC, a collaborative album from Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki, and Tatsuro Yamashita that I listened to over the summer. It’s an album that’s very instrumental focused and does such a fantastic job of making you feel as if you are at a beach on a nice summer day. I feel that’s what Chaepter also does here on Companion Music where you get heavy emphasis on instrumental focused tracks, and what comes out is some truly beautiful music, with the dreamy guitar sounds paired alongside Chaepter’s vocal cries that strike at the heart. It is an emotionally revealing album where you get transported into the world that they are presenting. “Roku City Animal Council” and “Melting Man” remind me of something you would hear on a video game soundtrack and it pairs very well as a nice little filler in between songs. 

I think my only real criticism would be, I wasn’t necessarily the biggest fan of the song “Cruisin” in the album, it felt very awkward in the track listing compared to “Funny Living” (which I really liked when you get around that point of Companion Music). Overall, I can definitely see myself coming back to this album a lot and even playing a track or two on my radio show. I’ll have to give Companion Music by Chaepter a must listen, especially for music nerds who enjoy “art-rock” and the experimental. 

Review Score – Must Listen