Drawing influences from their North Canadian roots, the rocking trio The Dark Fruits are exploring themes of isolation, connection, and relationships on their sophomore record Warm Weather Starter Pack which dropped on the 13th of October 2023. Mixing indie rock with their influences and undeniable will to experiment and explore, Warm Weather Starter Pack is a ride that you don’t wanna miss. Let me tell you more about it.
The Dark Fruits opened Warm Weather Starter Pack with California Beach, a playful tune with an irresistible groove and a unique atmospheric sound that promises a special sonic experience coming ahead. It has a hypnotizing fuzzy sound that makes you want it to keep on going forever and a smooth flow that gets you enjoyably following it. Marianna comes next with some emotional vibes while keeping The Dark Fruits’ fun flow intact, driven by a deep interesting bassline and an engaging chill vocal melody in a simple catchy structure that moves forward keeping the listeners hooked to its easy-going nature.
Introducing a change in mood, Florida comes next with touching melodies and a subtle dark sound. It has a more detailed structure with subtly layered atmospheric elements providing a tint of melancholy to The Dark Fruits’ mix, showing a calmer side of their writing and shaking the record’s dynamics keeping things fresh and organic. Asymptomatic comes with a progressing multi-layered sound that offers a warm guitar/synth/bass conversation, with smooth twists and turns that are unified in a streaming flow that softly escalates moving towards a bigger sound leading to an open-sounding melodic outro. The Threat is Real comes next steering towards a more energetic sound and heavier rocking riffs as we reach the middle of the record. The riffs fit The Dark Fruits’ fuzzy tone perfectly making it sound denser and hard-hitting, and with the significant acoustic, electric guitars, and synth arrangement created an enjoyable detailed structure that kept things interesting. Ten Lakes and a Pool comes next with soothing warm melodies and a dreamy floating flow, all moving together with perfect harmony and smooth progression into a bigger sound with inviting colorful melodies. No Bars picks its predecessor’s warm sound and colorful melodies up while taking the energy a step forward, creating a hooking catchy structure that gets their listeners moving.
The Dark Fruits does an interesting shift on No Blue, introducing a darker sound with psychedelic elements and diverse sounds/effects, all mixed in a Pink Floyd meets Radiohead direction that was perfectly executed. One of the record’s highlights from my humble POV. They keep on pushing into a spacey atmospheric direction with Downtime, offering such a multi-layered sound where multiple textures are powerfully present in a spacious structure that allows every element to be properly heard and digested, without compromising their emotionally touching mood that I believe builds powerful bonds with their fans. Ending the record on a high note comes Serious Celebration, a mellow tune with an irresistible groove and a haunting mood, showing a solid demonstration of The Dark Fruits‘ writing skills and amazing control of their direction. It has an escalating flow that takes its time to build up toward their desired sound smoothly and seamlessly with a mesmerizing progression.
Warm Weather Starter Pack is a diverse, extremely enjoyable sonic journey by The Dark Fruits that offers multiple sound approaches and directions in perfect harmony and flow, fully satisfying their fans and will surely introduce them to a lot of new ones. Looking forward to more from The Dark Fruits, keep on rocking guys. Cheers!
