Slingshot Dakota rounds out the lineup of that fateful Shondes concert, certainly one of the best I saw this past year. When the duo took the stage, I had concerns: the drummer had an elaborate kit and the singer was armed with a synthesizer. To be honest, I am dubious of music that doesn’t include at least a guitar (see the blog’s tagline.) It did not take me long to be blow away. Tom Patterson, it turns out, is a force of nature who uses his entire body while playing the dreams, using each symbol and tom to draw musicality out of the beat even as he’s careening through top speeds. Carly Comando wields the synth like a guitar, exuding tones that sound like distorted strings while maintaining the modular tones of a piano.
Break represents the duo’s struggles and triumphs from their recent shift to pursuing music full-time. They write in the liner notes, “Sometimes we try so hard to keep it together that we don’t realize what we gain from having it all fall apart. Breaking allows the bad to escape so all of the good things can seep into the cracks.” I recently had a year where I learned this the hard way (though there’s no easy way to learn it.) At times euphoric like “You,” with its unusual, brain-candy hook; at times triumphant like “Doreen,” and despairing as in “Too Much”, Break is the soundtrack to anyone’s toughest year. But it can also help us remember the strength needed to get through it. Either way, Break is what you’ll need for the upcoming year.