Single Review: "Sunshine" (2022) by Hazard

Living in the postmodern era, one can sometimes not know what to expect from a song. The genres seem to intertwine, leaving you with a load of sounds without an eclectic understanding of music to fit the pieces together. For a long time, the catalyzer of such sounds was genres, which made it easier for us to set some boundaries and craft between the lines to come up with a consistent artistic expression. Time changes, and culture changes, but shouldn’t there be a way to find a griddle and a standpoint? Well, considering Progressive music, it is not a genre to be intertwined with another. It is a way of putting things together properly to extend our understanding of music by great artists with great minds and souls. It has always been that way, the musical and philosophical stance against consumption and cyclicity, the standpoint. Maybe that's why prog music attracts more listeners every day, to shape random sounds back to music Having these minds in today's music, gets harder with time, but the scene bares some young blood to show that this understanding will continue as long as the history of music will go. The newcomers, Hazard are set to carry the flag, showcasing that they are today's minds to progress the music. Certainly young, but even from their first single, very high potential. Hailing from Paris, born into this postmodern era of music and consumption, they learned from the latest greats of the genre—such as Porcupine Tree, Haken, Tool, etc.— and expanded to themselves, crafting many songs to reactivate today's scene of intelligent music. Their first single, Sunshine, shows the DNA of their music, and understanding of Prog, and pours all the charms that make them different from other bands. Into the song, the syncopated intro where the guitars are being played in triplets and the drums enter a self-dependant groove, so to say, you get a sense of Hazard is not just a collective of great composers but also good jam musicians aware and very much in charge of their instruments. The atmospheric keys are meant to speak for the whole mood of the song except for the chorus, which is as unexpected as possible for such an intro and verses, is the gift to them from the progressive music heritage of the late 90s and early 2000s—which they proved that the heritage is in good hands with the use of very high variety sounds and methods to keep the long together. The angelic voice of Mathieu kicks in and blends with the atmosphere so well that you almost forget the beautiful transition between the intro and verse, exemplifying great songwriting. The harmonies at the pre-chorus feel very pure and touch on the only aspect of the song that is maybe questionable, which is production. The guitar sounds sometimes tend to be so far apart from each other and the intro’s guitar feels (although intentionally) a little bit out of the edge and husky. With the chorus, you get different parts that are stuck together, which is a way of composition that is very hard to succeed in, but in the end, feels very fresh and authentic and opens up creative opportunities. Well, they did succeed, and the chorus felt so that indeed you feel like walking through ‘’sunshine’’ in a setting full of nature. The keyboardist Sylvain Fouché is a special mention for this special single. However, every member's contribution is equally important and professional since the sounds-melodies-and contributions are very on-point and tone-setters. The chorus hits very hard on the listener--and his keys which sound like air flowing in and out, and the arpeggiating Rush-ian guitars of Thomas Léon just build up the refreshing chorus to Mathieu’s voice, while Mael Le Fevre and Pierre-Olivier Tirmant’s on point touches create the rhythmical elements carry the chorus’ and song’s dynamics. After the showcase of musical brilliance with the bridge and transition to the final chorus, the chorus’s potential is fully discovered with a bluesy solo while highlighting the progression and its feelings. Overall, considering all the influences and creative choices discovered, the band didn’t just create another prog song, but with the bringing together compositional and partial elements to create a Representation of their ideals—a great art showcasing a strong potential to carry the flag of Music.