By Will Yannacoulias & Aidan Orison
It’s always rewarding for the audience when a familiar artist paints with an unexpected palette. Prince Albert LoFi producer Patrick Moon Bird has built an impressive reputation over the last several years releasing dreamy, chill, jazz-tinged music with original beats and tasteful, effortless guitar playing. October 31st saw Bird trick-or-treat longtime listeners by releasing Headache, a full length album from his back burner rock project Red Clay Earth.
Red Clay Earth actually predates the LoFi releases Bird has made his signature style. As a teenager he played guitar in a metal band, Dreadship, and began recording and releasing heavy solo music as Red Clay Earth after moving away from his band mates in 2014. Headache is supported by a sizeable SoundCloud back catalog from that era, as well as a pair of excellent streaming singles in 2021, “Blood” and “A Way Out Of Here”. “Some of the songs go back two or three years” Bird told NSMZ. “I’d never done anything with them and thought it was time to release them. Things have been settling now with the Patrick Moon Bird music and I felt it was a good time to focus on another project.”
Headache is a satisfying listen, a natural guitar player letting his instrument kick down the fence and run free. Heavy riffs, melodic solos, complex song arrangements and layered tracks bring the songs to life. From swirling walls of sound on tracks like “Headache” to the sparse wide open riffs on “Take It Out” and the haunting shimmering closing track “The City Under Water”, Bird’s versatile talents are on display. Heavy alternative rock songwriters such as Dave Grohl and Josh Homme are an obvious influence, especially on the vocal tracks. “Heavier guitar driven music can be more expressive” Bird offered. “It helps me voice the angrier thoughts in my head, like venting in a way.”
Headache is available on all streaming services.