Ever listen to an album so perfectly unique, so utterly itself, that you can’t possibly imagine its ingredients?
That’s the magic trick Wombos pulls off with the critically adored “Danger In Fives,” a record that sounds like nothing else yet feels hauntingly familiar.
But every masterpiece has its secret blueprints, its hidden inspirations tucked away in the grooves.
Today, we’re cracking the code and pulling back the curtain on the five specific albums that were the creative fuel for this modern classic.
You’re about to hear “Danger In Fives” in a whole new, shocking way.
The Architect of Anxiety: Talking Heads – “Remain in Light”
First up is the art-funk masterpiece that taught Wombos how to build a nervous breakdown into a danceable rhythm.
From Talking Heads’ “Remain in Light,” they absorbed the genius of interlocking, polyrhythmic guitar parts.
It’s not just one guitar line you hear; it’s several minimalist, hypnotic patterns locking together to form a complex, throbbing whole.
This influence is audibly front and center on the track “Crimson Wiring”.
Listen closely to the intro: that’s not a synth pad, but three separate, panicked guitar figures weaving around each other, creating a sense of escalating tension that David Byrne himself would applaud.
It’s anxiety you can move your feet to.
The Blueprint for Bombast: Queen – “A Night at the Opera”
If “Remain in Light” provided the anxious skeleton, Queen’s operatic magnum opus gave Wombos the courage for unapologetic grandeur.
The key takeaway wasn’t just harmony, but the specific technique of stacking countless vocal layers to create a monolithic, cathedral-sized sound from human voices alone.
Wombos rejected digital choirs for the real, painstaking deal.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the soaring, triumphant chorus of “The Architect’s Reply.”
That wall of sound hitting you? It’s a meticulously constructed tapestry of dozens of vocal tracks, panned left and right, echoing the very same “no idea is too big” ethos that birthed “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
It’s pure, unadulterated rock drama.
The Shocking Catalyst: Death Grips – “The Money Store”
Here’s the left turn that will genuinely surprise you: the abrasive, industrial hip-hop of Death Grips.
This is the shocker, the wild card that gives “Danger In Fives” its jagged edge.
From “The Money Store,” Wombos became obsessed with the idea of using harsh, digital glitches and distorted percussion as rhythmic weapons.
They wanted to disrupt their own lush soundscapes.
This inspiration manifests most violently in the bridge of the otherwise melodic “Glass Ceiling.”
Just as the song reaches its peak, the bottom drops out into a chaotic flurry of bit-crushed drums and what sounds like a malfunctioning modem, a direct homage to Death Grips’ sonic terrorism that completely reframes the track.
It’s the audio equivalent of a system crash.
The Master of Melancholy: Joni Mitchell – “Blue”
To balance the chaos, Wombos needed a guide to raw, vulnerable emotion.
They found it in Joni Mitchell’s timeless “Blue.”
The influence here is twofold: the unflinchingly intimate lyrical confession and the unique, open-tuned fingerpicked guitar patterns that defined the album’s sound.
You can hear Mitchell’s ghost haunting the album’s starkest moment, the closing ballad “Five-Sided Dice.”
The song’s complex, weaving acoustic guitar part is played in an open tuning, a direct technical nod to Joni.
Lyrically, the line “I drew a five-sided truth and called it a circle” carries the same devastating, self-aware clarity that Mitchell perfected.
It’s a quiet gut-punch in an album of loud explosions.
The Atmospheric Alchemist: Massive Attack – “Mezzanine”
Finally, we have the album that taught Wombos how to produce a mood.
From Massive Attack’s trip-hop landmark “Mezzanine,” they learned the power of space, bass, and atmospheric dread.
It’s not about what you play, but what you don’t play—the negative space that makes every sound feel heavier and more ominous.
This is the DNA of the album’s title track, “Danger In Fives.”
The song is built around a monstrous, sub-bass line that feels directly imported from Bristol, over which eerie synth pads and a half-whispered vocal drift like smoke.
The production is cavernous, making you lean in, waiting for the danger to reveal itself.
How Five Blueprints Built One Cohesive Masterpiece
So how do you merge art-funk, rock opera, industrial noise, folk intimacy, and trip-hop into something that doesn’t sound like a mess?
The genius of “Danger In Fives” is that Wombos didn’t copy; they absorbed.
They took a specific technique from each influence—the interlocking guitars, the stacked vocals, the digital glitches, the open-tuned honesty, the spacious dread—and filtered them all through their own singular lens.
The album works because each song is a unique alloy of these elements, never just a pastiche.
The nervous energy of Talking Heads is tempered by the warmth of Queen.
The brutality of Death Grips is given emotional weight by the vulnerability of Joni Mitchell.
And it’s all held together by the smoky, atmospheric glue of Massive Attack.
Now go back and listen.
Can you hear the secrets?
Hear Every Layer, Just Like the Band Intended
But here’s the million-dollar question: how do you actually hear all these intricate layers we’ve been geeking out about?
Let’s be honest, trying to dissect the synth arpeggio buried beneath the fuzz-bass on a pair of tinny phone speakers is like trying to appreciate a masterpiece painting through a foggy window.
You might get the gist, but you’re missing the soul, the texture, the very danger in those fives.
This is where a serious pair of Noise-Cancelling Headphones becomes your most essential piece of musical equipment.
Imagine isolating yourself from the chaotic hum of the world, allowing every single creative decision—that subtle tape echo, the panning percussion, the whispered backing vocal—to hit your ears with pristine clarity.
It’s the difference between just listening and truly being inside the music.
For an immersive experience that won’t require a second mortgage, the Anker Soundcore Life Q20 is a game-changer.
Its custom-tuned drivers and hybrid active noise cancellation create a personal auditorium, letting you appreciate the album’s nuanced production in breathtaking hi-res audio.
You’ll finally catch that hidden guitar riff lifted straight from a ’70s krautrock B-side.
So, ready to rediscover Danger In Fives and hear it for the first time, all over again?
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