DI LEO - “New Life”
From Oakland, CA, genre-bending indie artist DI LEO returns to us with “New Life.”
“New Life” is divided into two halves, with the first being built upon a slow and deliberate crescendo, richly populated by finger-plucked guitar textures that have been doused in reverberation. The gentle sound is immediately intriguing and has a way of lifting you up and allowing you to drift amidst its dreamy production.
Artifacts of reverse-tape effects populate the cracks in the arrangement as DI LEO utilizes a seemingly infinite number of vocal layers to capture our undivided attention. Bass notes arrive moments before the percussion, instilling “New Life” with some forward propulsion and allowing the song to gradually rise like a mellifluous sea.
The second half of the song begins at its axis, almost as though the first section was just some sort of otherworldly transition. The rhythm becomes much more upbeat at this point, with muted bass notes adding some bouncy vintage vibes. While all the initial layers remain, this is the part of the track that is sure to bring the crowd to life in a live setting.
With a near six-minute runtime, “New Life“ comes complete with multiple lead guitar sections, abandoning the traditional line between verse and chorus and, instead, providing listeners with a soundtrack to their lives: “Somehow we’ve entered a calmer space where death becomes birth and the ending of things aren’t so bad even if they are terribly sad at face value. Remembering the core of the heart is what forms the deepest memories.”