DARYL and Black Tie Dynasty- Bloody Basin

A split EP featuring two Black Tie Dynasty tracks, two from [DARYL], and two collaborations between members of the two groups, Bloody Basin is a solid release that offers both bands' sounds separately and then intertwines them for an interesting stylistic mesh. Both bands are fairly dynamic and captivating, albeit in separate ways, and the six tracks here provide a fairly good showcase for their talents.

Both Black Tie Dynasty offerings are excellent, particularly the up-tempo moodiness of "Signs", a radio-friendly bass-driven offering with lovely guitar melodies and nice piano accents. [DARYL]'s tracks, also very good and a bit noisier with an interesting layered vocal approach, include the original "Exploding Hearts" and a cover of Ned's Atomic Dustbin's "Happy". The cover is well done, but their original offering is the better of the two, blending catchy hooks and intertwining melodies with a feedback/noise counterpoint.

"Gloria", a collaboration between the bands' two frontmen, is something of a reverb drenched acoustic guitar ballad filled out by piano and bathed in lovely processed feedback and guitar noise. The disc's title track, however, is a collaboration between the entirety of each band, an upbeat rocker that successfully blends Black Tie Dynasty's dynamic, clean-cut style with [DARYL]'s more raucous rock sound and tempo-changing tendencies.

Split EPs can sometimes be a mixed bag, but while the bands have two somewhat different sonic approaches, their work coexists nicely, and the EP is, as a whole, quite good. Fans of either band will not only find a few new strong tracks by that band here, but will likely also find something worthwhile in the other band's sound, and those that are familiar with neither will stumble upon a solid EP that serves as a decent introduction to both.