38. Single Review of Make the Night by Tripendicular

Originally published September 5th, 2024

About the Artist

Tripendicular is the stage name of solo artist, Todd Groemling, a life-long native of Louisville,  Kentucky. When he was younger, he would play open mics in town to showcase in front of listeners and other performers, but now he prefers creating from his in-home studio where he is constantly working on solo and collaborative efforts. 

Tripendicular also likes to release music videos of his songs, deliberately leaving himself out them so the audience can focus on the music and correlated images that encompass his work. He refers to his style as “kaleidoscope music,” because he likes to introduce or remove one textural layer at a time in an effort to enhance his audience’s listening experience.

If you have listened to Tripendicular’s work, and you like what you hear, you’re in luck because he has planned on more releases throughout the remainder of the year.

About the Song

Make the Night Is Tripendicular’s most recent single. It released on August 10th, 2024. It has a runtime of right at 4 minutes. The song features vocal and instrumental performances by Tripendicular, as well as being engineered and produced all by himself. In addition to the self-proclaimed style of kaleidoscope music, Make the Night has an advanced techno vibe, like prime Moby. Vocally, Tripendicular is much better than Moby and his voice actually parallels to Bono of U2. In fact, there is a break that really displays similar energy to their song Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me. They’re two different songs, but there is a relatable energy to them.

About the Music

The instrumental portion of this song is mostly piano and keys/synth parts along with a programmed percussion part. There is a chorus that features a really cool electric guitar part. It introduces an unexpected element to the song, sending the listener in a completely different direction- as if one were to turn a kaleidoscope, you might say. Tripendicular is well-versed and gives fluid performances on each instrument. 

Vocally, his voice is saturated with delay, reverse, and echo effects and his performance stays in a mid to high tenor range. He sounds very comfortable in this range and the performance is executed splendidly. The effects bring about a truly instrumental quality to his performance. Sometimes, it doesn make it difficult to hear the lyrics but it’s a subtle distraction because it goes over so well instrumentally. Tripendicular is a very talented singer.

About the Lyrics

***I honestly am not 100% sure I heard all of the lyrics correctly but I will speak about what I feel confident on***

The overall context seems to be the narrator/author speaking to their subject regarding anticipation for a romantic night.

“Seeing you right now. I think you just opened me. Staying here until morning. You just wait and see.” This speaks to anticipation of something upcoming. Then the author leads into the chorus with this line repeating, “Now we have a chance to make the night.” 

The second verse, ties in the implications of romance or passion. “Our words. So much I could say. So much you don’t. So I light this candle.” 

Lyrically, the words are topically elusive so I can’t be sure this is what Tripendicular is trying to say. On the plus side, the author is leaving the story open for interpretation which has the potential for reaching an audience through a narration he wasn’t intending. One of the special things about music and poetry is how it can mean something completely different to the people who are listening or reading the work. I personally tend to focus more on instrumentation and melody when hearing music and lyrics are typically an afterthought. So, making it a point to analyze the lyrics is a new, challenging experience for me. I’ve obviously heard lyrics before that were resonating and I’ve written lyrics before, but more thought has always gone into the music. Here, there is an element of mystery behind the interpretation and one can actually be detected without a lyric sheet. 

Final Thoughts

When I write reviews of artists, the first thing I generally do is I try to find the story myself from different profiles, posts, and bios on social media, or from bios provided with submissions of their music for review. Some artists are very vocal in their own self-promotion. Some artists don’t put a lot of emphasis on that. When the latter happens, I either make the decision to run with what I have, or I will reach out to the artist and ask them to provide information. 

With Tripendicular, I decided to reach out and speak with him because I wasn’t finding much out about him. First, I found out that he doesn’t like to emphasize himself as he doesn’t like to put anything before a listener’s experience when hearing his music and I have a great respect for that. Second, I would have lost my paycheck on the prediction that I thought he would be European because he is SO good at techno and his vocal performance does almost sound British. To find out that he was born and raised in a city that is just 4 hours north of Nashville, I was floored. 

I learned a valuable lesson. That I already knew. First, the internet has no borders. We can connect to people around the world or people who are just a few hours of a drive up Interstate 65. Second, music is boundless. There is no limit to who it can touch. I would think that, statistically, Todd and I would be country music fans. But here I am listening to fantastic techno music from “The Bluegrass State.” 

Tripendicular has produced an incredible piece of music here. It has a significant groove, it transitions from a very quiet place to a very loud and chaotic one; with a vocal performance that takes us by the hand, guides us through, all the while giving us comfort for the anticipation of what is coming next. For a visual representation of the song check out his video for Make the Night.

As stated, Tripendicular will be releasing more music as the year moves forward. You can follow him on all social media platforms: here, here, here, here, and here.