I’ve fallen in love with the ska scene from the arctic Midwest; the part of America between Chicago and the Dakotas. Every band I write about from this area seems incredibly talented, passionate, and deeply concerned with social justice. Musically, Runaway Ricochet is probably the most unique of all of these bands, writing incredibly mathy and complex music that strays so far from the simple pop melodies or familiar structures. They always play with beautiful writing and interesting and intriguing melodies that tempt and tease.
Made From Recycled Materials, Vol. 2 is the spiritual sequel to their 2020 EP, Made from Recycled Material. The band is dedicated to the core philosophies of “reduce, reuse, and recycle”, and while that generally applies to material products, they took it a step further, applying it to their music as well. Their 2020 EP was full of previously written songs which they had re-recorded and remastered. For this release, they did something similar, including a pair of cover songs as well.
The most intriguing song on the album is the first song, “Tele Por Día”. This song was originally released in 2018 as “Daytime TV”. Last year Runaway Ricochet added Dante Leyva to the lineup on saxophone, who is bilingual. Dante recommended the band play the song in Spanish, and the band ran with the idea. The new recording feels at times a little heavier and cleaner, but that is likely just the result of the musicians having eight more years of experience behind their craft. There is now a really exciting instrumental breakdown in the middle of the song that’s terrific, but overall, the whole song slaps. The song also gives the band a way to reach across to their Spanish language neighbors, something that is very important given the current state of the world. Hailing from the Twin Cities in Minnesota, the band just released an anti-ICE song, and has been very active and vocal in their community in opposition to ICE deporting their neighbors.
The second song on the EP is “Presumably Dead Arm”, a cover of a song originally written and performed by Sidney Gish. The band brought in Ivy from Poison Ivy and the People for guest vocals. The original is a stripped down acoustic track, with just a guitar, a little synth, and solo vocals. In this cover, Runaway Ricochet largely replaced the guitar for trumpet and turned the song into a duet. As the song progresses, the drums become more important to the song, perfectly setting the pace and tone even when they are pulled, allowing the vocals to lead. The duet becomes a chorus in portions near the end, adding to the tension in what is my favorite track on the album.
“Gossip” is over four minutes of what might be some of the most quintessentially fundamental Runaway Ricochet music you’ll find. It features almost everything I associate with the band. It’s catchy and complex: A lot is going on, but it never feels lost in the complexity. It’s catchy enough that you’ll want to hum along at times, and in the middle there are pure phenomenal sax and guitar solos that fill the song with life. And at the end of the song, we even get a little bit of screaming which balances the occasional hardcore elements that Runaway Ricochet has started to embrace. If you had to use one song to define the band, you could do worse than selecting this track.
The fourth track is a cover of Pierce the Veil’s “Bulls in the Bronx”, and for this one, they took the guitar melodies and played them with competing horns and the effect is brilliant. About halfway through the song, there is an extended instrumental portion that plays with tempos, ending with competing horn lines before easing into the next verse. It brings me about 45 seconds of pure joy to hear this song reimagined. It still holds that character and sound of the original: It is not a ska cover where they made it sound happy or upbeat. This is just another excellent performance.
The album closes with “Autumn Leaves”, which was the final song on their first album in 2017. The band has definitely grown since this point and improved by leaps and bounds. The original album was written in high school. The production and performance is rough on the original, but it definitely had a charm to it. By resurrecting the song you can tell that the original concept had a ton of merit and that the songwriting was outstanding from the very beginning. Once the execution — the editing, mixing, and mastering — were improved, the song became a masterpiece. This song perfectly captures the entire concept of the album: Recycling and improving the world that already exists.
Five simple songs, no new songwriting, and five flawless performances. Runaway Ricochet is such an incredible band and the entire concept of this album is worth checking out. Even without any new songwriting, this album is a perfect gateway into the Runaway Ricochet discography. Take a listen to Made From Recycled Materials, Vol. 2 below.
Written by Gimp Leg
