Shout Out Out Out Out – Reintegration Time

Before you can discuss Shout Out Out Out Out in any real way, it’s always most important to note that this is a band you have to witness live. Their recordings are impressive reproductions of a stellar in-person experience, and while satisfying, it’s still kind of tough to understand the full picture without that last element.

The good news, though, is that the album itself, Reintegration Time, is still enough to whet taste buds. Self-described as a band with an “ongoing obsession and devotion to the world of analog synthesizers,” Shout Out Out Out Out is a Canadian band who specialize in not only building but perfecting catchy synth-driven soundscapes.

Now let’s first address the obvious: Is it all synth? Well, yes, but no. After the first few tracks, synth layers and distorted vocals could start to leave listeners cold, but for the most part, Shout Out Out Out Out do their best to keep people on their toes. In “Guilt Trips, Sink Ships,” the first track to really make me stop and listen, listeners hear a mostly instrumental track with minimal vocals set through a vocoder that somehow doesn’t lose pace even after eight full minutes of music. Another standout track, “Coming Home,” finds the band seeking help from fellow Edmonton artist, rapper Cadence Weapon. The former would appeal to pickier music aficionados who don’t respond upfront pop, and the latter could easily be heard on a dance floor. In two tracks Shout Out Out Out Out prove that they’re strong on their own, but then they also play well with others. Their music can be accessible for more mainstream-friendly fare just as well as it hangs with the indie crowd into something less easy to categorize immediately.

Best of all, for the most part these songs get stuck in your head no matter which side of the spectrum a track fits. That shouldn’t come as a surprise though, since Shout Out Out Out was highly anticipated here in the states even without having released their debut disc in the US. My only real wish is that they’d taken the opportunity include maybe one more track with some guest vocal, perhaps a singer, to show even more variety. Even without that, though, Reintegration Time is deeply pleasing and solid synth/electronica record—interesting enough to feel different but nothing so off the wall that it’s hard to want to get lost in it for a while. And it’s all stuff they can reproduce live. Within the first listen through the album, I was convinced.

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Tagged as: edmonton, electronic

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