Bandcamp Apewards call themselves a heavy psych band, but Liminal Choices is a good deal harder to pin down than that. The Marburg group’s record, out on the reliably cosmic Tonzonen Records, spends its twelve tracks roaming: bluesy instrumental post-rock, funk-broken alternative rock, 80s-leaning melodic hard rock, fingerpicked acoustic interludes and a fair amount of straight riff-driven heavy rock, all delivered in a rough, clear voice. It is less a single statement than a sampler of everything this band can do, and what holds it together is not a style but a sound.
Warmth as a production choice
The thing worth celebrating here is the mix. In an era of brickwalled loudness, Liminal Choices is refreshingly, almost defiantly dynamic: nothing is squashed, the drums breathe in a real room with no plastic click, the guitars carry a warm tube crunch, and the quiet-loud swings actually swing. “Red Mountains” rides that uncompressed warmth from a melancholic open to a fast outro, “Ashes” struts an 80s-melodic-rock strut without ever flattening, and the instrumental “The Call” and the acoustic “Melancholia” prove the band can hold a room with almost nothing at all. This is analog-minded production that trusts the songs, and it pays off across the runtime.
The cost of the range is focus. Twelve tracks that swing from funk crossover to power-metal gallop to neofolk fingerstyle make for a generous but slightly diffuse record, one that shows off breadth at the expense of a fixed identity, and here and there the low mids congest where the bass and rhythm guitars crowd the same band. A tighter, meaner edit would have hit harder.
But taken as a warm, varied, genuinely well-made heavy-rock record from a band with more tools than most, Liminal Choices is an easy hang. Fans of the songful, un-crushed end of the Tonzonen roster, where heavy rock still swings and breathes, will find a lot to like. Windows down, no rush.
Refreshingly un-brickwalled and dynamic across twelve stylistically restless tracks, the real strength being a warm, analog-minded production that trusts the songs. Nothing is squashed: the drums breathe in a real room with no plastic click, the guitars carry a warm tube crunch, and the quiet-loud swings actually register. “Red Mountains” runs uncompressed from a melancholic open to a fast outro, “Ashes” struts 80s melodic hard rock without flattening, and the instrumental “The Call” plus the acoustic “Melancholia” hold a room on almost nothing. The rough clean vocal sits legible and centered. The recurring flaw is low-mid congestion around 150 to 300 Hz where bass and rhythm guitars crowd, and the sheer stylistic sprawl leaves the record a touch diffuse. Warm, varied, well-made.
Standout tracks: Red Mountains, Ashes, Machines In
