No Signal – P S D (Spotify)
“"No Signal" created something more than impressive for us. Epic sound with all the meaning of the word. Starting with a soft and etherial touch, "PSD" gradually raises its level of power with vocals that make you hold your breath! ”
-Nagamag.com
A portal into the No Signal world is through a highly conceptual, darkly theatrical, and genre-defying music. Once you enter this captivating universe of sound you’re granted access to a realm of thought-provoking concepts, thrilling narratives, mesmerizing visuals rife with symbolism, and captivating videos. No Signal’s upcoming single “P S D” out January 21, 2021, features a chilling vocal masterpiece that conjures themes from previous releases, as if to mark an end to this era of No Signal, and the spawning of anew.
“No Signal should be an immersive experience with stories and concepts. It’s way more than just the music. My goal is to create a realm of art that truly accentuates just how far you can go with it, and to bring back intelligent music, and make people feel things they haven’t felt before, something words can’t be put to” shares the Boulder, Colorado-based artist. “I take this work very seriously.”
https://www.facebook.com/No-Signal-996061243922398/
No Signal officially released its first EP in February 2018, and, in two years, has released two singles, an EP and a full-length debut album. Riley writes and sings every lyric, every piece of music, and plays every instrument on his recordings. He also storyboards each release, sometimes writing many pages to flesh out his ideas, and he currently has the next 6 albums mapped out. It’s a prolific and weighty outpouring of music from an 18 year old.
Between albums, No Signal releases standalone EPs which are a respite from the LP mindset. These are experimental in music and concept, and they are often independent of No Signal’s established thematic territory.
It’s hard to pin down an epiphany that led a 14-year-old boy to set out to explore the grand artistic statements that permeate No Signal. The facts are that Riley grew up in a musical household, but never took music seriously until he was 14. At that time, a flood devastated his family’s house, warping all the guitars his father owned. Riley and his father went through the lengthy process of restoring each guitar and on that last remaining instrument, Riley began exploring music, and, from there, he began to organically branch out and taught himself to play other instruments.
https://www.instagram.com/4no3signal2/
At first, his tastes encompassed the pop music of the day, but hearing aggressively emotive music shifted his perspective. Discovering Tool was epiphanic for Riley as it showed him music could be a fluid form of creativity. Tool also showed him the power of narratives and symbolism as part of a music package. Soon after his Tool transformation, Riley set out on a journey to establish his own world of creativity. He soon realized that communicating his vision to others was almost futile. So, he began a solitary artistic pursuit as No Signal.
“P S D” is an eerily ethereal track which features melodically foreboding keyboards, thrilling vocals, and an imaginative ambient arrangement. The songs opening conjures calming yet captivating keyboards and ambience which weave appropriately into the falsetto vocals that Riley had yet to present until this very track. Although “P S D” is a far departure from his hard hitting songs like Idée Fixe and The Hunger, Riley always manages to weave his signature style on every one of his songs that to make it distinctly “No Signal”
https://nosignal.storyamp.com/
Reviewed by Nagamag on May 20, 2021