Carpet Golf : Brock Lensar
Carpet Golf
Brock Lensar
Emo-heads rejoice, this’ll sit right home with you. A self-described “friendship-core” band, Carpet Golf debuts with appropriate gusto, formed with names not unfamiliar to the Singaporean scene – with Daniel Borces from Subsonic Eye, Nathaniel Soh from Neptune Waves and Spencer Tan from Charm conjuring some banging emo riffs on this new project.
Much like its cartoonishly hyper-masculine eponym, “Brock Lensar” gloriously enters the stage and demands attention from the get-go with ferociously catchy hooks. Here, the band tastefully strings together playful math-y melodies with Soh’s robust vocal delivery. These two don’t compete for front-of-stage real estate, but instead intertwine neatly to elevate each other in the mix.
While their bright and distinctive riffs precariously teeter on the brink of being brashly shrill, Carpet Golf commendably manages to reign in their colourful melodies away from overplaying. “Brock Lensar” is a short yet sweet minute and 45 seconds of well-paced riffs that allow just the right amount of breathing room – this is where their songwriting abilities shine. The bridging lines demonstrate this well, winding down at “I’m too busy / telling lies to my friends / about how I’m feeling” to culminate back into an energetic outro, “Aaron and Miyuki / lying down on the bed”.
Soh’s lyrics marry the indifferent jest of pop-punk lyricism with subtle commentary on societal perspectives of masculinity: “Brock, I wish I was you...sometimes I wanna be a big meatball”. Their album art builds upon this discourse, with the use of embroidered imagery (an activity generally perceived to be feminine) to draw attention to perceived societal definitions of masculinity. Though indirect, the combination of light-hearted lyrics with the surreptitious topic is a meaningful approach to introspection in our tight-lipped Singaporean culture.
“Brock Lensar” sets a promising pace for the upcoming album. If the WWE wrestler is an over-exaggeration of masculinity, I’m pretty sure Carpet Golf has to be at least decent at fishing. Not as Good a Fisherman as Brock Lesnar is a Man will be eagerly anticipated.
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