No Signal – P S D

Wow. Once again, 18 year-old Riley Schmelzer aka No Signal manages to send goosebumps down my spine. (For the record, I’m over twice as old as that guy.) It’s not the first time that he manages to do so, back in 2020 I did reviews on ‘Vanished‘ and ‘Shadow People‘ , songs which also connected to me instantly. With every new track, there’s something attached to the music of No Signal that feel intense on an unreal level.

With ‘P S D’, it’s like a tortured soul crying out all of what has been kept inside for so long that it couldn’t be held back anymore. What starts silently, with a lost and helpless undertone, gains emotional force over time. With a vulnerable and fragile core, the tune feels like it gathers all the braveness and confidence for one last cry for attention. Of course, the high damped notes are not exactly the strong suite of Schmelzer, but that’s not the point. In my opinion, he went out of his comfort zone deliberately to show a more vulnerable side, and boy, it works perfectly. The tune doesn’t need any rhythm section because its emotional drive is enough already. Backed with a careful arranged set of synths, the track feels like you’re hearing every nuance of uncertainty lying curled up in a dark corner of your own mind. If any song managed to get me off-balance this year emotionally, it’s this one.

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