Milwaukee Music Premiere: Offtide, ‘Sky Is the Limit’

Every week, the Milwaukee Music Premiere sponsored by Density Studios connects the city’s artists with our listening audience. If you’re an artist with a track you’d like us to debut exclusively on Radio Milwaukee, head over to our Music Submission page to learn how.

In a discordant wave, Offtide bring a noisy flush to the Milwaukee music scene with “Sky Is the Limit,” the single getting its premiere today.

Consisting of Sam Balestreri, Alex Keimel and Matt Martell, the Milwaukee-based band blends sonic elements of post-rock and alternative indie to create a rich atmosphere within their music, stretching the texture of each instrument to its limit. Honing this rawness to a sharp edge allows for a rich Slint-like quality that emanates from a deep chord structure.

After the loss of a close friend and former bandmate, the trio found solace in each other and their shared art, which mirrors the grief that comes from the loss of a loved one. For many, it’s a consistent black hole in your heart that continues to thump and thump — something that emanates from “Sky Is the Limit” through a crunchy guitar tone backed by a delirious bass line.

While the track was made within the confines of DIY home recording, that doesn’t make it a rough listen. The limitations forced the band to engage in more creative production that a more “industry standard” setup could easily solve. The resulting wall of sound-esque earbursts that come from the guitar add more weight to the song, especially considering the tonal differences between each section.

“Sky Is the Limit” opens with a toned-down chord pattern backed by a steady beat. It’s a simple but decisive opening that allows for the lyrics to guide the listener into the noise:

There’s a big wave running like the gears in a vending machine
Telling us to keep on buying things in our dreams
Stealing away the concrete beneath our feet
The gears keep on turning till there’s nothing left for us to breathe

The song itself is about the reconciliation that stems from arguments. The need to make one’s point during a heated moment is integral to the human experience, but the comedown afterward and the attempts to make peace are what makes these moments important. The track mirrors this thought process with a verse/chorus structure that drastically shifts between tones, akin to how easily emotions can run wild.

A shattering guitar abruptly breaks up the song once the distortion is turned on, forcing the drums and bass to snarl in response. It’s a fight to maintain balance in a deregulated soundscape:

There’s an engine running on the work of a legend
Feels like an anvil dropping on society
Leaving thousands of people to cry in an empty room 
The sky is the limit let us bathe in it

Near the three-minute mark, “Sky Is the Limit” bursts like an atom bomb in a surge of sound that forcefully clears the mind of all other thoughts, achieving pure focus through an avalanche of hard noise:

Well I know you have a plan
No, I don’t understand 
You drew it out for me 
Now it’s getting hard to read

Through a deeply melancholic guitar solo, the song trembles to achieve clarity, mirroring the lack of understanding that comes from different perspectives that are seemingly trying so hard to reach the same conclusion. The band channels the pain of misunderstanding through two minutes of fuzz that fades into a deeply somber, yet nostalgic melody.

The new single is a teaser for Offtide’s new record, Reconcile, that will be out via the group’s Bandcamp page and all other streaming platforms May 5. For now, listen to “Sky Is the Limit” on 88Nine today (6:30 and 10:30 a.m.; 2:30 and 6:30 p.m.) or enjoy it anytime by clicking the player at the top of the page.

Jonathan Joseph is a Milwaukee-based multimedia freelance journalist who specializes in art and culture writing (and all things Milwaukee), with work appearing on Radio Milwaukee and in Milwaukee Magazine. Contact him via email or find him on LinkedIn.