Erin Nichols Artwork
On “Time,” the second song from Dizzie Pocket’s eponymous debut release, MC Jesse Ledeatte greets us over soothing chords from an electric piano.
“See, time never stops,” he says. “So neither can we.”
In the next minute, the band makes good on that promise. There’s a quick lick from a guitar, a couple tempo-setting clicks from a crisp hi-hat, and the band — Dylan Champion and Joseph Tine on guitars and synthesizers and Andrew Moore on drums — is off to a groovy start. With the drums as an anchor, the piano and guitar settle into an easy call and response. They let Ledeatte flow through his first verse.
“Don’t know where I’m going, don’t know where I’ll be,” Ledeatte raps. “I just follow my heart, so I follow the beat.”
It all sounds loose, relaxed, lived in. Which makes sense, given that the notes to the album reveal that the band’s members spent three years “crafting their sound behind closed doors.” If that’s true, it was three years well spent. The four songs that made the cut for Dizzie Pocket find the band fully formed, with a polished sound that still leaves plenty of room for variety.
Next to the swinging R&B on “Time” is the more funky, electronics-driven “Zombies,” featuring a buzzy bass and a harder edge to the guitars that Ledeatte matches by leaning into the rasp in his voice. The band builds its heaviest and most sparse rhythm on “Blocks,” giving Ledeatte plenty of space to spit his densest and most complicated bars on the album. It’s a song about wanting to tear everything down and start over, but never tips over into bleakness; just a sense that we can do better.
This sets the stage for Dizzie Pocket’s closer, “Love Song.” The fleet guitar line that starts the songs suggests that the rhythm is going to be a race to the finish. Instead, the drums come in slow and precise. Ledeatte’s flow follows suit. A pulsing synth completes the song’s structure. It’s Ledeatte’s boast song, but in the process he morphs into an alien, turns into a monster. He raises an army and invites us all to come along. It’s a fitting end to this debut album by a band that, after a few years of keeping to itself, is ready to share its music with the world.
