Terry Presume’s exciting first step
What Box? by Terry Presume
Music recommendation
Terry Presume – What box?
A Sunday during August lockdown, my thirst for new music arose out of nowhere and often times I would go through David Dean Burkhart’s channel on YouTube or just go down rabbit holes on Instagram until I find a new musician or music to listen to. However on this day, for the first time I chose instead to have a look through the superior music streaming platform, Apple Music. So for reference my favourite music to listen to is indie rock or alternative, I browsed through the alternative music section on the app, not having any such criteria, having seeing Clairo and Billie. Out of nowhere I saw this album of a man with a few face tattoos and a white background and out of curiosity I tapped on it and listened to the EP.
Without any such expectations, Terry Presume delivered a cool, techno funk, alternative piece of work that flows, is simple and yet nuanced with a clear concise start to an end. This EP was very impressive from the first listen, as mentioned before, as it wasn’t overwhelming in any way and delicate.
After listening to Terry Presume’s EP I did some research, I come to find out that this was his second official project he has released, and ‘What Box?’ to be so refined, as the intro song, the core and the ending song to flow seamlessly as a whole, with the same vibe, sound, theme recognised throughout has thoroughly impressed me.
The 1st song ‘Don’t wait forever’, is a great start to the project, where it slowly introduces the theme and vibe of the EP and Terry Presume’s musical vision, as the techno funk and yet a bit of pop has you immediately hooked. Now coming to the second song, ‘Act Up’, was such an easy song to listen to, catchy chorus, and the song you would recommend to introduce the California Native artist. Following this my personal favourite from the EP ‘None of this alone’, the acoustic guitar, his unique voice, and soothing backing vocals, is the most laidback and passionate song in the album, as he delivers a message that is important to him that whatever you go through he will be there.
‘Personal’ comes in heavy with the techno guitar sound to deliver, in my opinion, his therapy song, where he talks of potential heartbreak or devastation that happened in his personal life. His penultimate song ‘Zaza and some Runtz’ is simply such a cool song, the funky vibe, bass, backing vocals and the interlude complement each other so well, and his lyrics seemingly feeling like spoken poetry exudes a sense of sex appeal. The finale of ‘What box?’ is great closure for the album, as ‘Swimming’ addresses the pain and growth and ultimately tying it back to a lyric in the opening song, ‘concrete water’, that however hard it is life will go on and he will keep on ‘Swimming’.
Overall this was one of my favourite projects from 2021, this was such a cool, funky project to listen to, where there was not any skippable songs and a seamless flow from the start to end of the EP that is desired from many artists these day. I would highly recommend you take 20 minutes out of your day to listen and thoroughly get to enjoy this great work from Terry Presume.