In the improvisational circuit, the rhythm section is often the foundation upon which others build their dreams. But on the self-titled debut from Animonic, bassist Chris DeAngelis and drummer Adrian Tramontano step out from the supporting roles they’ve played in powerhouses like Kung Fu, The Breakfast, and Reprise to build something entirely for themselves. The result is a lightning-fast, 11-song exercise in sonic and emotional exorcism.
The record’s origin story reads like a fever dream of productivity. In late 2024, DeAngelis and Tramontano got together for an unplanned jam session that morphed into a two-week sprint where DeAngelis took the raw drum tracks, edited them into structures, and wrote a song a day. Writing the bass parts and lyrics in real time, DeAngelis captured a “natural and fresh” energy that is usually polished away in traditional studio settings.
The lead single, “Loving You Is Wicked,” brings a gritty, stoner rock edge, a la Brant Bjork, that highlights this rapid-fire process: there is an urgency to the grooves, reflective of their being born out of jams and completed in a blur of inspiration. Tramontano provides the rhythmic skeleton, while DeAngelis dresses it in bass and synth lines with lyrical abstractions. The album also comes with quieter moments like “As Far As We Know,” which would fit right in on an early Foo Fighters record. And “What It’s Worth” is a straight-up, if heavily syncopated, banger.
Lyrically, DeAngelis uses the album as a catharsis, navigating personal struggles and internal demons through verse that is intentionally open to interpretation. The lyrics function as vibes and frequencies rather than rigid narratives, allowing the listener to project their own experiences onto the canvas DeAngelis has painted over Tramontano’s metronomic timekeeping.
Musically, the collaboration feels telepathic, a byproduct of the years these two spent anchoring some of the Northeast’s most technically demanding acts. Yet, Animonic feels different from their past work: it’s darker, more introspective, and less concerned with flashy displays of virtuosity than with the tectonic weight of the groove.
Aided by the visual expertise of MKDevo, who helped bring the first single to life, Animonic constitutes a full sensory assault. It’s an album for the true heads who appreciate the analog mastery of the craft but crave the raw, unfiltered emotion of an artist working through the muck of the human experience. If this debut is any indication, DeAngelis and Tramontano have found a new, vital language to speak, and they’ve found it just in time.
