With his newest release, The Weight of the Moment EP, Richard Maxwell is embarking upon a chill, cinematic, guitar-driven journey across soaring heights and curvy mountain roads, and we’re all invited for the ride.
Instrumental musician Richard Maxwell, hailing from Phoenix, Arizona, has a sound that’s self-described as rooted in rock, but with a strong cinematic vibe, and on his latest EP, he truly pulls off this formula to the letter. Dotted across the five songs composing this album we will find crunchy overdriven guitars, boomy acoustic grooves, alongside inspired compositions through which Maxwell’s cinematic tendencies really shine.
Fully instrumental, the pieces that Maxwell writes feel entirely fleshed out, not in need of any singing to heighten any moods or deliver any messages. Maxwell achieves this through a blend of shorter runtimes and denser arrangements. Using engaging chord changes and weaving a tapestry of melody and harmony using guitars, synths, and pianos, Maxwell’s compositions sound wholesome and bespoke.
Starting from the rear, the EP’s latest cut, titled ‘Start from Where You Are’, is a mostly improvised piano ballad. The lush performance goes through the first half of the song mostly unaccompanied, if it wasn’t for an ingeniously cut beat that starts off all wonky and syncopated, sounding borderline like a mistake, before coming into its own, providing a brand-new perspective on the piece’s time and flow, as it seemingly continues to become more fleshed out as the piece progresses. That is not to say that we were not impressed by any of the four tracks that preceded the last one.
Just like any other good album opener, ‘A Slower Burn’ does an amazing job introducing us to the sound of Richard Maxwell. With a wealth of guitars, the distorted, the overdriven, and the sparkling clean, the song features a healthy guitar arrangement that does truly well to serve its dynamic, moving progressions that seem to owe post-rock quite a bit. The sophomore cut ‘Open Letters in Closed Hands’ is my favorite. With its Satriani-inspired composition, hammering beats, and relatively simple arrangement, the track uses its vibes to push it forward. Running it at just under three minutes long, this piece is a smartly written piece of instrumental hard rock that’s sentimental and memorable. ‘Seven Dances (With 10)’ uses ethnic percussion and instrumentation to deliver a soundtrack for a 2023 jungle adventure, all with unsettled, syncopated beats, lush pan flutes, and processed guitars. ‘Darker Lights’ sits as the album’s lushest and most cinematic centerpiece. The Mixolydian composition instills a sense of drama and adventure into the cut, the open-air nature of the sounds gives the piece an even more amplified sense of movement through space.
This latest EP from GRAMMY nominee Richard Maxwell tastefully fuses his influences, that range from the vintage progressive goodness of Peter Gabriel and Genesis, all the way to modern classics Mogwai and ethereal, post-rock legends Sigur Ros, to create a sound that’s truly captivating, and truly his. ‘The Weight of the Moment’ is a rich EP of carefully and lovingly calculated sounds.
