It’s hard to know what to make of the newly-formed Madison music collective, Exercise in Futility Project, other than they have a knack for making interesting, bizarre, but ultimately appealing music.
Since its formation this summer, the group’s founders Rob Saunders and Mathias Sheehy have maintained a steady output of releases, including four in the past week.
These tracks include one from the pair’s band, the collective’s namesake Exercise in Futility, as well as some from Saunders’ side projects. All the tracks are completely different from one another and demonstrate the diverse musical talents of the pair.
“Gear Shift,” by Saunders under the name Robimeaus is a synthy throwback tune described by him as the “opening credits to the ’80s dystopian film I never made.”
Also by Robimeaus, “Pedro and Juan” is a delightfully instrumental indie track that features a conventional song structure with avant-garde parts. A heavy bass line, delightfully twangy guitars, and eerie synth textures intermingle to produce a song that’s familiar and alien at the same time.
From Saunder’s other side project IDiot CRises, “RLS Dancyndrome” is an up-tempo dance track with unlikely parts. Saunders mixes stadium-rock guitars, airy synth patterns and a typical dance snare beat to create a song that’s intriguing while still being very groovy.
Lastly, a track from the actual band Exercise in Futility, which, to really shake things up, is an experimental-metal song. Six minutes long, the track starts of inconspicuously before quickly degrading into cacophony with screamed vocals and scrambled instrumental parts.
That’s all in the first minute — it only gets crazier from there.
From these tracks, it’s clear that these two have talent, and eyes should be kept on this “experiment” in the future. They’re also looking for new members/collaborators, and urge people to get in touch with them on Facebook or email.
