Black Sands collaborates with Martino on genre-bending new single, "High Life"
Review by Austin Sher
Released on July 31st, 2020, Black Sands has released his genre-bending new single, “High Life” featuring Martino. Read along with us as we provide an in-depth review into the track, as well as a bit of background on the artist as well.
Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but now based in Amsterdam, Black Sands is the recording project of Andrew Balfour. Before this particular project came to light, Andrew spent a decade as a touring artist for alternative rock bands, was featured in Alternative Press, Warped Tour and Taste of Chaos. There’s lots of music that’s currently influencing Andrew, such as Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, and Deftones. Each and every one of those artists are audible in his music, specifically through the driving percussion and distorted guitar. Following his touring days, Andrew relocated to Amsterdam to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. Since his move to Amsterdam, Black Sands has been the sole focus musically, and from what we heard on “High Life”, we’d say he absolutely made the right move.
Now before you get into listening for yourself, Andrew provided us with a background on “High Life”. He says here, “The original idea for this song was very different. More like Nine Inch Nails meets Depeche Mode. When the vocal and lyrical ideas started coming through it helped me see the song in a different light. I realized I could have him do something different or change the music to amplify what was great about what his lyrics and vocals brought to the table. So I rewrote the song to fit his lyrical/vocal idea and the final song is completely different than the original direction.”
First impressions on the single were that this beat and overall sound is something truly unique that I hadn’t heard anywhere before. It balanced elements of intensity and a feeling of theatrics from start to finish. While parts of the song surely come in waves of sound, the parts that hit in full force are true bliss to the ears. Listening on a nice pair of headphones really brought out the high quality production that was achieved on this single.
In obvious addition to the instrumentation, Martino’s vocals were also a clear standout. The lyrics fit the overall themes and atmosphere presented in the song and helped in addition to bringing that intensity I had mentioned above. Honestly, some sort of club remix on this track could take it in a bunch of different directions as well. The way that Black Sands crafted the highs and the lows evoked a sense of drama as to where the song was going to go and end up. Overall, we truly enjoyed what we heard on the song and immediately listened to his back catalog of other fantastic singles.
What we’re trying to get at it here is that this is a hit! For everything Black Sands, to listen to “High Life”, and to keep up with all releases and information, please check out the following links below.
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