I started working on this entry into the Mixed-Bag Mixtape series right after I submitted my last one. Gotta curb the enthusiasm, whoops!

Anyway, I’m just going to jump straight into it. Here’s Mixed-Bag Mixtape #5!

Casey Wells

Beating Heart embodies a specific kind of emotional world-weariness – trudging forward with heavy footfalls, ruminating over woes, and grappling with how unsustainable everything is. From the moment you press play, you’re thrust into a slow, weary march – the volume and panning oscillate with every beat, like the pounding in your head that comes not from excitement but from having stayed awake for far too long. Every other beat

The single’s title? Beating Heart. Man, I love aural painting.

Along these lines, I’m also a sucker for when pieces of music are deliberately “imperfect” in a brain-scratching way. Specifically, the claps and clicks that play on every other beat don’t align with the snare perfectly – it sounds so tired, so human. The cascading effect has the bonus of resembling how a collapsing pile of tiles sounds, like everything’s falling apart around you. Truly evocative.

That said, while I appreciate how the synth solos are unstructured, like raw impulse, I wish the improvisation were more melodic at times. For example, 0:26-0:41 works – I personally find it akin to an instinctual wail in the midst of exhaustion. During the long stretch of 0:57 to 1:42, however, it’s the synths that take center stage with the vocals gone. Their aimlessness, while perfect as a complementary element, struggles to sustain itself for a whole minute. Something more soulful and lyrical might really help tug at the heart – not that it doesn’t already, of course.

To be clear, the synth solos’ melodic deficiency is only a problem because the vocals sandwiching them are incredibly expressive themselves. Wells’ falsetto is impeccable, and layering it with a lower octave helps anchor its breathy quality for a performance that sells true world-weariness without compromising on oomph. I can definitely see this song eliciting a good cry on a bad day or something. Saving this single for sure.

You can find Casey Wells on Instagram and listen to his music on Spotify!

Eddie Bowers

I’ll Be Damned is quintessential rock. It’s so quintessential that you can visualise, crystal-clear, the archetype of a coming-of-age movie introduction that it ought to accompany. The distorted electric guitars, the steady groove, the charming refrain – I feel nostalgic for an era before I was even alive! Dare I say, this could be a museum artifact in a 90s exhibition, and no one would be the wiser. It’s very much a song that should have existed way before its time, but somehow didn’t.

Once again, just the teeniest smidge of feedback: I wished the single had let loose by the second half! The melody is solid if simple, and it’s begging for some variation by the time the second verse comes around. Maybe even in a higher range. It would also give Bowers’ vocals some time to shine; his vocal quality and enunciation are swoonworthy, but without any attempt at a challenge by shooting for its higher register, it’s hard to feel excited by the time we hear the chorus in its base form for the third time. This goes for the guitar solos too – while a slow, melodic solo is fantastic the first time round, high-octave shredding the second time would have ascended the track to the next level.

That being said, it’s still an absolutely fun song! And I’m sure that the instrumentalists of Prime of Life had a great time playing it – but I’m also absolutely sure they have potential we haven’t heard, and that we haven’t seen everything they’re capable of. I look forward to whatever's next they have in store!

You can find Eddie Bowers on various platforms listed on his site, and the same for the band he’s in, Prime of Life.

Sempiterna

Imagine my surprise to see a submission from Argentina! Here’s something to pick apart that’s out of my comfort zone, unless I unearth a hidden talent as a polyglot. But with Sempiterna’s declaration that “music is a universal language,” who was I to back down from the challenge?

Upon clicking their submission, I was directed to a song titled las distancias olvidadas. I then tried to guess what the lyrics were about based on what I was hearing and the Spanish I couldn’t understand. From the melancholy chord progression, gentle guitar plucks, and the intermittently sparse arrangement, I inferred a grieving through line. I settled on the aftermath of a break-up as my final answer, and guess what!

(Alright, maybe I was cheating a little: distancias in the title obviously translates to distance. From there, the subject matter of loss wasn’t a very far guess. Then, I caught the word aroma in the first few lines, which has more romantic associations than anything else. Surely, I deserve some points for that.)

I think what sells the heartbreak is the occasional octave layering of the melody. The more prominent lower octave sounds as solemn as ever, but the anguish in the backup layer really conveys that aural metaphor of a deep ache beneath the numbness. The wailing chorale-esque harmonies all the way at the end hit you right in the heart, too.

I guess it could be said that, with its slow, indistinct melody and minimal instrumentation, this work suffers structurally, in that it feels aimless and shapeless for the first half and a bit. Then again, it’s not at odds with the subject matter, but it’s not like a stronger melody would necessarily detract from the atmosphere set; if anything, the soul of the vocalists’ expression would have a more conducive medium through which it can be channeled.

Regardless, it’s surreal that I was able to make an accurate, educated guess as to what the theme of the piece was, and I’m inclined to give full credit to Sempertina’s evocative and immersive songwriting. They’ve earned another listener in me, that’s for sure!

You can join me in listening to them on Spotify, or seeing what they’re up to on Instagram!

Conclusion: Mixed-Bag Mixtape #05

I’d like to reaffirm a sentiment we’ve had from the very first entry in this series – if we include you here, it means we like what you’re doing! I’m in awe of all that indie artists have to offer today, and I eagerly await all that’s to come!

If you’d like to continue feeding me (or have your music featured on IAAS Music), please send your tunes over to our submission page! Or, if you’d like to add on to the conversation, do drop a comment below! All you have to do is create an account on iaasmusic.com, and you'll be ready to chime in.