Album Review: Founds - Hadean

Inspired by the unknown, Brisbane sextet Founds have created an album based on the mystery of the world's beginnings. Hadean – the album's namesake and the term given to the world roughly 400 billion years ago – is a boundless, celestial journey through enigmatic vocals and soaring orchestral compositions.

Despite the young age of the band, Founds have delivered a refreshingly mature and articulate debut album that guides the listener through the perplexities and mysteries of an era so veiled and cryptic. Their musical compositions are breathtaking for such a fledgling band. From the rattling drumbeats and urgent horns in Avalanches to the commanding violin in the breathtakingly beautiful Quartz, each instrument and each melody is constructed in the most seamless and immaculate of ways.

The delicate vocals on Hadean are like an astral force of their own, transcending the basic structure on the album, weaving in and out between songs, sometimes dominant and sometimes invisible. The harmonies on tracks such as Gypsy Horse and Hadean Earth are fragile yet powerful, guiding the songs through their highs and lows flawlessly.

Whether or not Founds will have commercial success with Hadean is questionable. The few songs that could be released as singles are far stronger emotionally and instrumentally when harnessed within the context of Hadean. As far as standout tracks go, Quartz is one of the most powerful instrumental tracks from recent memory, and to have been composed by such a young band is an achievement in itself.