Bedolina has today released their new eponymous album. Delightfully dystopian in parts with revelational hooks and feelings of clarity in audio form, Bedolina feels mor like a concept than and album. A bookended story line set to varied and vivid pieces of music that you have to listen to with the shades drawn and the eyes closed.
While the album is obviously experimental, it also remains accessable. That’s a rare thing in any genre of music. But you will listen to this all the way through. Honestly, the songs don’t sound as complete unless listened to as a total construct.
About Bedolina
Ken Gould is the mastermind behind Bedolina, an exciting new experimental rock project debuting out of Philadelphia. With engineering, production, and arrangements by Miner Street Recording experts Brian McTear (Kurt Vile, Sharon van Etten) and Matt Poirier (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, So Percussion), the band offer an intriguing sound that combs its way through an experimental rock landscape.
Throughout the upcoming self-titled LP, themes of surrealism, fascist dystopia, and the unsettling nature of the modern world are highlighted. Ken Gould of Bedolina is no stranger to the music industry, and has been spending over the past two decades actively performing or crafting art of his own. Gould most notably led 90’s band The Keeners, who were among the first to record at Tiny Telephone Studio (a place where Explosions in the Sky, Ra Ra Riot, and Death Cab for Cutie would later record at).
“Bedolina” combines an infectious stew of alternative rock, indie-electronic, and refined pop melodies. Lyrically, the album dissects the imperfections with the modern age and the ways in which human beings course through them. A handful of the tracks feature notorious figures in the indie rock scene, including Charlie Hall and Robbie Bennett of The War On Drugs on drums and piano respectively, and Frank McElroy of Dr. Dog. on backup vocals. The end result is an excellent display of the unexpected, with pulsating tracks that give an off-kilter, more rambunctious Radiohead feel to tracks with vocal timbres similar to Peter Gabriel.