Acid Socks – The Extended Play (2013)

I want to start with the release I cherish a lot, and it’s not just because I was involved in it as a vocalist and lyrics-writer :)

The Extended Play is one and only solo release by Acid Socks so far, but I hope this project will return from hiatus it was put in back in 2013, quite soon after The Extended Play came out.

As far as I know, Acid Socks were formed in 2009, it was basically solo project, but some other musicians were briefly involved in it, anyway, not much is known about first couple of years of project’s life, partially because the founder of the project is very modest guy not looking for any fame (by the way, he’s also a talented short story writer and voice actor), moreover, it seemed like he tended to create some kind of halo around Acid Socks, or, better to say, the public image, it was actually a parody to bands’ public images, the approach which is very peculiar to Concern Void artists.

So, the leader of Acid Socks often introduced himself as Socks’ promoter or producer, it’s quite similar to what Jandek’s doing, but I can assure you that back then we didn’t know who Jandek is.

Now I should somehow describe the sound, though it could be different, “Socks can play any style of music”, claimed their founder. The music of Acid Socks is almost entirely electronic, generally, they made awesome short instrumental electronic pieces (often minimalistic), and probably, if you’re interested, we’ll return to Acid Socks’ earlier tracks, and I’ll write another post reviewing them, but now let’s continue talking about the project’s history.

Shadowplay City community releases annual music samplers since 2011, and Acid Socks participated in them ‘til the project was put on hiatus. 2011 was very productive to Socks, and so was 2012, but the project didn’t make albums, all tracks were available for free listening just when they were finished.

And in spring 2013 The Extended Play was released. Working on it was easy and interesting, I had probably nicest impressions I ever had in any musical collaboration. At first, Socks wrote instrumentals, and then I suggested to write lyrics and to add my vocals, Socks agreed, and that’s the way we made this EP.

Its sound was described by a reviewer as “Soft “evening” music; good to listen when you’re coming home tired after a workday”; we consider the style of EP as some kind of synthpop with a bit of post-punk and low range vocals, although synthpop may sound differently than our EP :)

Perhaps, the reviewer was right when he felt the sense of coming back home, but I feel it was more like a story of progressive disappointment with life, all songs were connected with each other, and I even find them sort of cinematic.

The Huge Opportunities, the expectations from life, get destroyed on Corporate Picnic showing the feeling of frustration, which leads to Bedridden’s isolation and turns out into growing despair of Ridiculous. That’s how I felt, but you can interpret the lyrics whatever you want.

See through a window – there is just another wall

We’re locked here, we are still

Immovable

(Bedridden)

This EP is very short but very important for us. Hope you like it!

Have a listen:

 

Or check out Youtube or SoundCloud playlist of The Extended Play

Contact the founder 
(you may need to sign up)

Sincerely yours,

John “Grey Lenses” Grey