neptune blood’s “A Quiet Riot Inside” feels like a memory and a real-time scene

Some songs feel like a throwback, while some strive to sound entirely new. But there are a few cuts that embody both, like neptune blood’s debut EP, “A Quiet Riot Inside.” And it’s the kind of record that feels like a memory and a real-time scene at the same time.

neptune blood is a band from Limerick City, Ireland, consisting of Ronan Mitchell, Manolis Pates, Shane Serrano, and Damien Moore. They’re now back on the stage with a four-part EP A Quiet Riot Inside. Recorded with Ben Wanders (Kneecap, The Scratch, Kingfishr) at Wanderland Recording Studio, they throw you into a retro warmth that’s familiar without being predictable.

Midnight Showing opens like an indie zine poster slapped on a lamppost near the cinema with edges starting to curl up. Think of a classic film grain being put into sound through soft distortions and boxy, crisp percussions as the airy, reverbed vocals widens the space it created. But there’s this undeniable sound brooding underneath the fuzz, the unsettling tension from the Black Dahlia case. It sits between uncomfortable truth and nostalgia, bruised like a Hollywood dream in an old, dusty newspaper where glamour and tragedy is written on the same page.

Best Laid Plans starts with, “there’s a quiet riot inside,” and it indeed sounds like one. The bass pulses, the riffs scratches, the drum hits are tight, making sure you feel the tension of sitting between restraint and adrenaline from its industrial psychedelic layers. At some point, it flips the whole saying, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” arguing that even the best laid plans can slip through your fingers once life decides to shift and swing.

In Calico has that teenage summer-like sound with bright, jangly layers, the kind song that feels like a borrowed youth you’ve never had. This is the kind of nostalgia that goes beyond mere remembering. The peaks and the bittersweet? You’ll feel it in your bones. The hope towards something better and brighter? You’ll also hear it in every note. The band gives you memories and possibilities as they sing “the worst is still the best you’ve ever known.”

The EP wraps up with Huge If True, and it definitely rings like closing credits for every song that came before it. The vocals enter with an AM-washed, compressed filter before it transitions to something hazy and cinematic. One moment it’s slow, one moment it pulses, the kind of ending that’s unguarded, honest, and whole.

One thing about A Quiet Riot Inside is how nostalgic and new it feels, each track could live an old tape or a static-filled radio as much as it belongs to bluetooth speakers and Spotify playlists. Aside from their sound, their lyricism goes beyond the surface. They’re not here to do clichés, lazy tropes that most do and they’ll never leave you with something that’s less lived in. Their songwriting will always be personal and full of traces of life.

Overall, neptune blood’s A Quiet Riot Inside nods to early 2000s indie spirit but it doesn’t entirely live in that, giving you something sharper and refined that fits entirely in the present day cut scene.