GSlide: “Survive A Girl’s Mind” – tight, well-layered, and high-caliber indie music

GSlide is Bruce Carter (Guitars/Drums/Vocals), Dara Bradley (Vocals/Piano), Eimear Bradley (Vocals/Guitar) and David Sheehan (Bass). American-born Bruce Carter, the chief writer and producer started recording material in Cork, Ireland. In Cork, Carter became friends with local renown songwriting sister duo Dara and Eimear Bradley and began crafting music with them. “Survive A Girl’s Mind” is GSlide’s third album which debuted April 29th, 2017. Previous releases are “Drink. Love. Rebellion” in 2013, and “This Too Shall Pass” in 2010.

“Survive A Girl’s Mind” is full of candid, heartfelt anecdotes mixed with committee-free experimentation. Strong rock influences ripple throughout, especially on “Yesterday’s Self”; “Addicted To Nothing” has psychedelic qualities; “Misbehaving” and “A Trip Through Georgia” are Americana-infused tracks with a twist ; “Intimate Toys” is indescribable, as a single genre, so I won’t even dare, though I hear strong Eastern European influences in this instrumental.

But it seems that GSlide can switch up, or down, left-field and then into mainstream pop at will. So you’ll find male sung folksy tunes like “Sunday’s Well” and “Basking in the Overﬂow” next to female bellowed alt-pop energy on “Postcard From Hell”.

One moment there are clean jangling guitars in your ear, and then dirty six-string and synth juxtapositions winding their way through the soundscape, as on the title track, “Survive A Girl’s Mind”. Fans respect artists who evolve, improve, and explore new sounds, or some combination of those. And it’s not always perfect, but it’s admirable as long as done valiantly and with curiosity.

GSlide do that here, as they step out of their comfort zone on numerous occasions. Well, we have to consider that ‘comfort zone’ is a very broad term for what this band normally does with their music. So when GSlide move out of their comfort zone, it’s the equivalent of another band moving completely out of their galaxy.

Chief writer Bruce Carter has been able to strike that delicate balance between composing complex yet lucid lyrical arrangements to match GSlide’s lush instrumentation. Notwithstanding the rich instrumentation, “Survive A Girl’s Mind” however exhibits expansive space to really lean into the diverse sounds and let the vocals soar. What results is what fans will surely love come to love about this release – tight, well-layered, and high-caliber indie pop, rock and Americana based music designed to intrigue inquisitive minds.

GSlide’s sound is one of the most eclectic and luscious in the indie universe, and the band’s sonic tinkering often amounts to substantial transmutations, often within the same song. Clearly this is a collective with a ceaseless desire to keep fans on their toes. Throughout the album GSlide prove that their output is well worth the wait.

The totality of the record is enough to engulf listeners in a myriad of textures. Bruce Carter is not only a dynamic songwriter but a producer as well, constantly exploring new, diverse methods to keep ears glued. His antenna to fan expectations for the familiar as well as the unforeseen is rivaled by a precious few in the indie scene.

OFFICIAL LINKS: WEBSITE – FACEBOOK – REVERBNATION – SOUNDCLOUD