Soul Drift

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

In 2008, Hudson Eakin (the man behind The Way Out Is Through & the only official member) made the difficult decision to leave the band Faster! Faster! to pursue a different musical direction to the one they were heading in. He was no longer confined to one genre & was now free to “make as big a mess of things” as he wanted. This new start & months of hard work resulted in Bandages, the project’s first EP.

The more I listen to this EP, the more I like it. You can just tell that Hudson Eakin put his whole heart & soul into this recording. I also love how eclectic this EP is. I am actually getting rather fed up of the amount of terrible music (in my opinion, of course) I get sent to me on a daily basis, so it was a refreshing change to listen to this record. Instead of a concrete line-up, Eakin draws on talented & very different musicians to gain the experimental sound he wanted. They are focused on creating a wide variety of music, and although largely rock-based, they are not afraid to branch out to other genres, including rap, electronica, blues & more. They cite their influences as: Nine Inch Nails, (old school) Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction, Saul Williams, Rage Against The Machine, Radiohead, Incubus, Tool, Jay-Z, Kanye West & Lil’ Wayne – which suggests the music will make for interesting listening before you even hear it!

No two songs are similar on this EP & it is an incredibly emotional & personal record. My favourite tracks would have to be ‘Necronomicon’ & ‘My Best Shot’ because there is so much emotion in his voice & lyrics. I can especially relate to ‘My Best Shot’ at the moment. Although not mentioned in their influences, I can also hear similarities to Rollins Band in the music, which is obviously no bad thing! I love the combination of funky/jazzy music & singing; contrasted by heavy rock & punk-style vocals. They even have a rap track thrown in as a bonus at the end, which is also pretty good!

I will definitely be keeping an eye (& ear) on this project & suggest that everyone downloads the EP. The link is provided below.

Blog | MySpace | Download the EP