Chicago quintet Polarizer creates what they call “loud, spacey epic rock,” combining heavy walls of sound with echo-laden, introspective passages and progressive-rock sensibilities.

Vocalist Taylor Brennan and keyboardist Stan Tencza, friends since their childhoods in New England, formed the band in 2011 with guitar player Ian Palmer and original drummer Ben Ludwig. The group self-produced a demo and started on the club circuit in Chicago, eventually hitting the road for shows in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, as well as dates at SXSW in Austin, TX.

Polarizer’s first studio release, the 2013 EP “Lightscapes,” was recorded at Chicago’s Rax Trax studios. The EP features a polished, powerful sound with a broad array of sonic textures, augmenting the band’s instrumentation with mandolin, auxiliary percussion, and otherworldly synth effects. Four additional songs from the Rax Trax sessions were released by the band as free digital singles in late 2014.

The group continued to perform in the Chicago area, and started to lay down tracks for what would become their first full-length album. Ludwig departed in 2015, and the remaining members worked in Palmer’s home studio to finish the 11 songs that would make up 2016’s “The Fall and The Swell.” The full-length album further developed the band’s combination of chimey, Pink Floyd-esque textures and monolithic modern rock riffs.

Drummer Johnathan Schiller and bassist Chris Shen, both regulars around the Chicago music scene, joined the lineup shortly before that album’s release. Polarizer opened for national touring act The New Regime (featuring Nine Inch Nails’ Ilan Rubin) in September 2016.


As of early 2018, the band has made preparations to enter the studio to record their 3rd release, with "Lightscapes" producer/engineer Noam Wallenberg at the helm.