Filtered drums roll into prototypical pained screamo vocals before taking a sharp turn into clean singing. By the time we hit the first peak of this song you can already feel the amalgamation of styles presented on the debut record from Valatie. “Dragged Through the Garden” is 7-songs over 23-minutes from the new Chicago-based act. The band released the track Valerie in the middle of March and played their first show on May 18th this year.

My journey to discovery of Valatie does not feel dissimilar to discovery of screamo in the early aughts (resident screamo elder checking-in). We all have our our creation myths and our origin stories that reveal how we came to this new frontier, prospecting for gold and finding some track embedded on livejournal, or the early days of file sharing, or some local musicians tee shirt. The nature by which we share things these days has shifted drastically. Social media is an absolute force, larger than it was in the days of livejournal, MySpace, or Tumblr. Finding your niche community is as simple as a search or tapping a couple of hashtags and letting the algorithm do its work.

This article owes a hearty thank you to YouTube I guess, who somehow pointed me at the YouTube Channel of Valatie’s guitarist, Dylan, also known as Jam Econo. Dylan’s approach to content creation, along the content he delivered, kept me engaged for several months while at work and when he announced this project it felt like a real “about damn time” moment. That said, this project isn’t simply his brainchild, but the work of some incredible musicians, so let’s get into it.

Listening to the record I could feel the push and pull of the bands influences. It felt contemporary yet held on to the influences of the past. “Alex and I started writing for this project with the intention of doing a more chaotic screamo band like Mahria or Nuvolascura. I think we kind of drifted into a more metalcore and nu-gaze influenced sound as we worked the record, but there’s definitely some elements of skramz in there as well,” Dylan says of the bands beginnings. But Alex, the 6-string counterpart, chimes in with, “I believe we’re continuing to develop our voice as a band. Eventually, I think we’ll probably settle into a little bit more of a consistent sound.”

I’m not sure what they could offer that would be more consistent than these seven songs. The record feels cohesive, and the styles blend effortlessly. You can certainly hear the influence of a band like Novoluscura. The primary screams certainly remind me of Billy Werner and hearing “Venus and Bacchus” for the first time, and probably a fine reference point for many of us on our quest for new music and the discovery of screamo.

There is, however, this “nu gaze” influence the band cites, and you can feel some of that influence leak into the structure and production of the tracks, you can especially hear it on sections where reverb is a prominent effect. Oddly enough, the clean vocals help to lend additional credence to some of those gaze-esque elements.

“THIS BAND IS A FIRST FOR ME. MY BACKGROUND AND TRAINING IS IN CLASSICAL MUSIC, BUT I FOUND MYSELF FRUSTRATED IN THAT INDUSTRY. THIS GROUP HAS HELPED ME LOVE PERFORMING AGAIN, AND I’M HOPING THAT COMES THROUGH AT OUR SHOWS.”

- IZ, @VALATIE

The dual vocals, the strangled and manic, lending credence to screamo predecessors blending with incredibly clean, soft, and ethereal vocals. There is no doubt the influence of Hayley Williams and Courtney LaPlanet had on Iz during the song writing. You hear the bright, effervescent pop-sensibilities of Williams in the single “Valerie.” But these clean vocals don’t just sit atop a bed of power chords and octaves, rather they sit aloft chugs and panic chords, screeching and dissonant.

Tracks like Presage and Sentient Walls demonstrate the bands ability to slow down and write riffs that are spartan and intentional in the placement of notes. The influence of early 2000s post-hardcore remains constant throughout the record. I’d be remiss if I didn’t call out the spoken word poetry of Isolator and the nod it seems to give the genre, and I absolutely love the ambient instrumentation to this track and this might be the first time I’ve heard a whistle in a DIY record since the release of “As the Roots Undo.”

Noor and Big Al driving the rhythm section forward with their own unique approaches and influences. Both cite a wide range of influences from sludgy, crusty punk, to pop and indie. The fills and kick drum work are memorable, tastefully added in ways that keep heads nodding and toes tapping. Stubborn Sun seems to be full of these moments. Meanwhile Noor’s low-end brings a power and gravitas to the record. Echoes in the Dark with its harmonics is moved forward entirely thanks to the bass riff navigating.

The title-track Dragged Through the Garden seems to be the band at its finest, touching down, if only briefly, on so many of the aspects that made the six songs before it so powerful. Opening with dual vocals attacking over chords held out, a metalcore riff into Iz’s clean vocals. Chugs and panic chords, and the most screamo sing/talk over an incredibly satisfying slide inspired guitar riff.

“THIS IS THE FIRST PROJECT I’VE WRITTEN, RECORDED, MIXED, MASTERED AND RELEASED SUCCESSFULLY. I WAS IN ONE PROJECT PREVIOUSLY BUT DID NOT PLAY MUCH OF A PART IN THE WRITING PROCESS, SO GETTING TO CONTRIBUTE MY MUSICAL VOICE TO THIS HAS BEEN INCREDIBLY FULFILLING.

I’M PROUD OF WHAT WE’VE MANAGED TO DO IN A FAIRLY SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME SINCE STARTING THE BAND.”

- ALEX, @VALATIE

The band recorded the album across various Windy City spaces, including their apartments and practice space. The record is DIY down to its bones, as Alex mixed and mastered the entire project. As a result, the record is self-released by the band, who worked on this project to their own timeline. The album is available for streaming now and you can listen to their single Presage in the embedded audio player linked below.

Valatie will be playing shows in and around Chicago and the Midwest while continuing to create incredible art that might as Noor said, “inspire [people] to move around, smile, or pickup an instrument for even a split second." So go listen to the track, stream the album, buy it on Bandcamp, whatever it takes to make sure this album hits your ear holes.