NYC Artists on the Rise: Mad Love

Hailing from varied locales, including Seoul and Reykjavik, Sunny Kim (vocals), Trevor Dunn (bass, vocals), Ches Smith (drums), Hilmar Jensson (guitar), and Erik Deutsch (keyboards) have relocated to Brooklyn to form Mad Love. The quintet bestows mad love to unconventional piano melodies, crunching guitars, and floating vocals on the dozen tracks of their recently released “White With Foam.” Striking and strong, “Absence and Noise” melts into catching bass lines which underscore the evocative interplay between Kim and Dunn’s airy voices. Howling vocals take over the metal riffs and quick tempo of “Dirty,” while “Art of Denial" settles into a grungy groove overlain by ghostly keyboards. “White With Foam” is not as light and frothy as the title would suggest, instead the cut is heavy with dark distortion and uncanny unpredictability. – Meijin Bruttomesso