Track listing: Dusk, Shale, Hands, Shades, Phantom Punch, Galaxy, Love Letter, or Lepidoptery, Corridor, Deep Blue, Photographs, Everyone is from the Past, Apocalypse

Boston-based Sado-Domestics have a new record coming out with an album release show on Saturday, October 19, 2024 at The Square Root in Roslindale, Massachusetts. Melodically, Camouflage: Stories by T.J. Gerlach is haunting through its eerie vocal melodies and tension-building mandolin. With song titles including "Dusk," "Phantom Punch," "Everyone Is From The Past," and "Apocalypse," there's an inherent mysteriousness to the record; a longing for another place, perhaps even another time.

Conceptually speaking, what Sado-Domestics has done is pretty fascinating. The group replicated a technique harnessed in T.J. Gerlach's Camouflage called "die-cut," in which you take words from another work to create something new of your own. The extent to which Sado-Domestics have adopted that technique varies from song to song but beyond the lyrical technique you've also got a well-produced, well-written Folk/Americana song collection.

Camouflage (the album) embodies a foreboding tone. Heavy reverbs and unidentifiable background sounds and tones dabble amongst deliberate, mid-tempo Americana stylings. At times you get a Country/Western feel, with the seemingly dramatic interpretation of a Spaghetti Western in "Shades." But in "Love Letter, Or Lepidoptery" you find what could easily be a reinterpretation of an undiscovered Nirvana song. At the same time "Deep Blue" wears its old timey style on its sleeve, complete with some nostalgic 'sha la las' that always invite an audience sing-a-long.

The record simultaneously channels influences from multiple genres. "Photographs" has an unmistakable Pink Floydiness to it, including the soaring notes of the outro guitar solo. But at the same time time the song harnesses a sonic optimism harkening The Pretenders (yes, some of that is Lucy Martinez's vocal, but it goes beyond her voice tracks). 

Camouflage: Stories by T.J. Gerlach was engineered, mixed, & produced by Chris Gleason at Noise Floor Delirium in Rosindale, with Gleason co-writing the music and lyrics with bandmate Lucy Martinez. Their use of Gerlach as a lyrical muse seems to bring out moods and nuances not captured in previous projects. The album presents an intrigue that would be good to dive deep into on a rainy summer weekend: read Gerlach's fictional work, listen to the album, and compare notes...perhaps taking it a step further by researching Gerlach's own 'die cut' inspirations.