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Have you ever noticed how rushed everything is these days? People on the city streets are always hurriedly making their way through the overcrowded side walks, traffic darts from lane to lane on the freeway in an attempt to beat out the slow grind of peak hour… so many people are constantly moving through life in fast forward. If you’re one of the many who are feeling the weight of the hustle and bustle of each day coming down on you fear not! Sydney-sider Arms Akimbo has the perfect cure to melt away your stresses and put everything else on hold just long enough for you to come back down to earth.
Whether you’re crossing the finish line of Rainbow Road or facing down Gary at Indigo Plateau, there’s nothing more appropriate to play than Arms Akimbo’s Level Completed.
Arms Akimbo is the solo project of Low Lux drummer Josh Bush (and formerly Bridezilla), who has recently dropped his enthralling debut single, Level Completed. Crediting his inspiration to the likes of Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Drake, along with some of his favourite Aussie musicians Tame Impala, Andy Bull and Big White, the track is a tricky one to pinpoint into a particular genre or sound. There are elements of 80’s pop, laid-back electronica, and even a few subtle undertones of indie-pop.
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Throughout the whole track and layers of beats though, there remains an essence of calmness and tranquility that shines through, soothing every inch of your mind and body. The light vocals float over the airy instrumentation, and could easily sweep you away from reality for a few minutes. For a debut solo track, Level Completed houses a stunning maturity and seamless production, giving listeners the impression that this guy has been flying solo and doing his own thing for years.
Proving that his talents are as natural as the grass that grows in the ground, Bush explained how he became involved in producing music, saying “I always fooled around on Garageband growing up. I never really finished anything though, it was just a melody or a bass line here and there. I didn’t really try to do anything of my own while I was drumming for Bridezilla. I always felt that anything I wrote was never going to be at the standard of the people around me. They were an intimidating, talented bunch. It’s not until I got the iPhone 6 Garageband app that I started to write full songs. I had no experience with any music programs and was unable play any other instruments. The interface really worked for a novice like me and I just started pumping stuff out.”
Excited at the prospect of working solo for the first time, without the comfort of a band dynamic and different ideas intertwining between different people, Bush hopes to release the first single off his mini album early next year. If Level Completed is anything to go by, a high standard has quickly been set for the solo project, and Arms Akimbo is certainly an act to keep an eye.
