Time Traveller
Morla And The Red Balloon
Reviewed by: Sebastian Mackay
When an EP comes along called Morla And The Red Balloon, you know it’s going to be ace. When that same track listing reads feat: Tyler Carter (ISSUES), Kellin Quinn (Sleeping With Sirens), and Matty Mullins (Memphis May Fire), it’s eminent that this will be a sexy, heavy piece of ear candy that’ll leave you breathless and your brain reconfigured.
“BYW” is packed with rip your face off screams layered delicately with higher cleans that give a contrast equivalent to a soaring emotional disruption before dropping you firmly in the “pissed off as hell and ready for war” camp. This leads perfectly into the vocally intense and musically crushing track “Rokit Man (feat. Matty Mullins)” and by God you could (and should!) listen to this track on repeat several times. It’s an important marker in the journey of this EP, beginning with Kellin Quinn, Mullins hits with the same ferocity that makes Memphis May Fire stand out.
It’s criminal to admit but my Tyler Carter experience is limited. “Super Alcalina” is the perfect marriage between Carter and Cameron Mizell (the genius producer behind many of these bands best songs and the mind behind Time Traveller). You have a track that embodies the beautiful production of the ones before it and then builds on that in a way you wouldn’t expect (I’m not giving it all away).
Then, of course, there’s Mizell. The EP is stitched together by lyrical themes, a relationship gone toxic and what comes after. “CMizell928” is the cure for the disease. Multi textured and with enough clean vocals to sink its claws into feeling anthemic, it’ll lead you perfectly into “Salt and Vinegar”.
If you haven’t destroyed your house, or at least your speakers, you’re not going hard enough. “Salt and Vinegar” is a balance of positivity and aggression that’ll give you time to survey the damage before empowering you again with its sledgehammer sound.
Rating: Bad-Ass
