New music review – Blanck Mass – Silent Treament

Never heard of Blanck Mass before this, although I remember plenty of people getting on my case for not listening to Dumb Flesh, but I love the mix of heavier electronic sounds mixed with the dreamier/ethereal bleeps and bloops that make for an interesting listen.

Well, it makes for interesting multiple listens. It certainly feels like there are a lot of changes in this song that you might not fully appreciate on your first listen through.

Silent Treatment is taken of Blanck Mass‘ new album, World Eater, set to be released on March 3rd 2017 via Sacred Bones.

Check it out.

New Music Review – RedWater – Day 1

Artist: RedWater
Album: Day 1
Genre: Electronic, ambient
Social media: Soundcloud/Bandcamp

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Let’s do some more ambient/electronic music, because why not? I mean I’m totally getting encapsulated within it recently with all this Boards of Canada and such.

RedWater, is the instrumental, electronic project of this Utah based produced that has previously released two other bits (an EP and another LP) both of which sound surprisingly different to RedWater’s most recent effort, the effort we’re looking at today, Day 1. When I say different, I don’t mean anything leaps and light-years away from the previous sound, but there’s a bigger focus on some interesting synth textures and percussion than the previous album, Natural Division.

Every track on this little album feels like an intimate little snapshot of RedWater’s life and composition style, and because of this, nothing ever feels too similar. From the poppy/lounge feel of Second Chance, to the largely progressive electronics going on in Temporary Permanence, you’ll find a brief little moment to fall for. Even the tracks I’d consider to be lesser than the others still have aspects that make them interesting and worth listening to – Entropy and the Intervals didn’t particularly thrill me, but I appreciated some of the fascinating aspects in each tune. I mean Entropy almost sounds industrial at times and that’s sweet when you consider the majority of the material here is all rather major sounding.

The End Of April, also contrasts this major sound well by being one of the more serene tracks that I’ve heard this year.

I guess if we’re nit-picking, I’d like to nit-pick at the intro to Day And Night, it seems to go on way to long with some rather plain piano and synth chords before things take a more interesting turn later in the song. However, I do like the erratic percussion on this track and the twinkling arpeggios in the second half… Oh and the skanky beat that in the second half as well. Oh, I suppose the track RedWater is a little dull when compared to the rest as well…

Final Thoughts:

I don’t really have much to say on this album because I think it’s worth your time in its gorgeous simplicity. Day 1 is varied, curious and delightful for it’s short playtime, so why not at least give it a quick listen? If you like music from electronic producers, or you love music you can stick on in the background while you enjoy a book, grab this album. It’s a name your price album and it’s worth however much you can give RedWater and then some.

New Music Review – Waveless – Hopelessness

Artist: Waveless
EP: Hopelessness
Genre: Electronic, ambient, IDM
Social-media: Facebook/Twitter/Soundcloud/Bandcamp

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Hopelessness is the debut EP from Australian producer, Waveless, published through the electronic record label SVNSET WΛVES, on May 2nd. The label itself is one I’ve been working through recently, thanks to all the chilled releases that put their material up for a cool, ‘name your price’, price, so if you like what you hear at all, then don’t be afraid to contribute a to these hardworking artists.

Waveless has, like the title of the EP, a hopeless and melancholic sound. The chords are minor as fuck, the tempo crawls along and the instrumentation is so thick, it’s an emotionally heavy sounding EP that has a surprisingly large amount of colour in it. The second track here, Numb, is probably the most dreary piece of work, with its tragic keys and synths backing up the gorgeous guest vocals of self-confessed gloom-popper, Mothica (who is also rather talented). I think these vocals bring a lot to the table of Waveless’ compositions, if only to fill up the music a spell more.

That’s not to say that these songs are empty, but the vocals do Numb a lot of favours. There are subtle touches in these songs that fill them up adequately, but not to the extent of the vocals. For example, Hurricane, has some quaint arpeggios rolling up and down near the end; Forever Forgotten has lots of synth extras whirring off near the end; Oceanic had some vocal samplings during the outro. The format of these songs is predictable, but it gets the job done and each of these tunes has a thick sense of Hopelessness to them, except ESID, which didn’t strike me as particularly moody, but it was a cute little track.

I also liked the beats going on here, nothing complex, but for what this EP is, I don’t think they needed to be flashy at all, but what does matter is the use of synths and texture in this release.= and Waveless has some brilliant textures here. There’s a great sense of overwhelming textures that come hand-in-hand with the saddening chords and melodies here and it’s all channelled in a small period of time that doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.

Final thoughts:

Waveless says that ‘the EP aims to evoke a sense of emotional fatigue’ and it accomplishes that with some stunning synth work and killer manipulations of atmosphere. And although I don’t agree that these songs are, ‘The perfect soundtrack to drown to’, they do feel like the soundtrack to something less than favourable. But until that less than favourable thing happens, I’ll just enjoy the laid back ambiance of them though – a must for anyone that favours the chilled side of electronic music.

New Music Review – Låpsley – Understudy

Artist: Låpsley
EP: Understudy
Genre: Electronic-pop, ambient
Social-media: Facebook/Twitter/Soundcloud

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Låpsley is an electronic-pop artist from the Southport, UK (even if her voice does conjure up thoughts of winter-wastelands/wonderlands) and recently (January 5^th) she put out her debut (label) EP, Understudy through XL Recordings – these guys are responsible for some rather top acts, including FKA Twigs, Jungle and Radiohead(Although, King Of Limbs was not very top, just sayin’) – which means that people will be expecting good things from Låpsley in the future. She has already gained a massive following thanks to her bedroom project EP, Monday, which is a simple and effective release that’s fun to listen to with its bouncy beats and cute textures from the synths. Hopefully, this means that people will place their expectations in the right hands.

What about Understudy though?! Understudy feels similar (initially), but treads larger, more refined ground and as such, feels like an ambitious EP by the end of track one. The beats feel meaningful on this release, for example, the gentle flutters of hi-hats on Falling Short add something simple but effective at expanding on the already expansive sound. There’s also Brownlow, which has some incredibly punchy percussions which add a nice precursor to the gorgeous twinkling synths in the chorus of this track.

This is another really strong point for this EP: the instrumentation is wonderful, blissful and at times nostalgic with the use of synths. Like the retro sounding synths that flare in and out during 8896, very cool. Couple this generally fun instrumentation with a voice that is accessible and beautiful, you’re on to a real winning number.

Let’s talk about 8896 some more: it’s very ambient and IDM at the same time with its quiet drum loops and graceful playing of piano keys – it all really harmonises with the vocal performance. It all comes together to feel, as I previously said, quite nostalgic. While the final track, Dancing,initially had me rather bored, it surprised me as it hit this surprisingly epic wall of, almost drone-like synths and it got me thinking where else Låpsley might take her material in in the future. It’s moments like that that create hype and show-off what an interesting composer Låpsley really is.

Final thoughts:

A great EP that proves that coming out from being a bedroom artist and onto a label does not compromise an artist’s desire for experimentation. Understudy is a calming and beautiful release that prepares listeners for one of the more interesting artists of 2015. Well done Låpsley, A+ and a few gold stars!

New Music Review – BJM Mario Bajardi – Inverse

Artist: BJM Mario Bajardi
EP: Inverse
Genre: Electronic, ambient
Social-media: Facebook/Soundcloud/Twitter/iTunes

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BJM Mario Bajardi is an electro-acoustic composer of many talents and projects going on all at once. Most notable, right now, is his work on the film score to the upcoming indie movie, Sweetheart. Recently, Bajardi also released a song called, Crusty, that was set to feature on his new EP, Inverse, which was dropped on the 28^th of November. You can take a look at that song, over on the Soundcloud, OR, you can continue reading and find out what I thought about Inverse and the rest of its tracks. Either way, you should probably keep reading, because my opinion matters, somewhat.

From the beginning, Inverse is full of depth with its sound, each song is dense with thick ambient textures, lush instrumentation and some rather wonderful violin playing. The tracks on here that I’d consider more ‘beautiful’ than the others stand out with some ideal melodies and textures. Obviously, Crusty is one of these tracks in my opinion, with its distorted piano chords, twisted and swishing synths going on – It’s a mess, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Missing is also very comparable to this with these as it starts off with some simple violin plucking’s and then works around that. This piece feels very neo-classical with some gorgeous violin playing and other barres of strings going off to emphasise the movements. There’s also the track, Standing, another killer example of some fancy string work.

That being said, the real bad boys of this album are the strange and slightly warped electro sounds that you get on tracks like Interlude and the title track, Inverse. They do house, again some violin, but these songs focus much more on the electro side. With Inverse, dancing with some guttural bass sounds and a keyboard fiddling, the track folds and twists around some very basic elements until you get something not so basic.

This seems to be what Bajardi relishes to working, at least in my opinion – the order in his mental chaos. I think that this is when his work truly comes to life and becomes it’s most interesting state of affairs. Inverse is an incredibly detailed track, but it’s also, as I said before, a mess when it loses its marbles all over the shop. The prettier sounding tracks like Standing and Crusty show why this guy is so comfortable working with soundtracks, whereas the tracks like Inverse and Interlude show a darkly versatility that I think is essential for someone that has their fingers in as many projects as Bajardi.

My only real complaint with this EP is the first track, Rest. It didn’t grab me at all and the featuring singer Eleza didn’t take my fancy either, but I can certainly see why other people might like her voice. But yeah, this track just seems to be so basic and rather humdrum when compared to the other tracks on this EP, which are all rather great. Even the remix of Crusty by Carlo Ascrizzi is interesting and adds some great depth to the track and changes enough for it to be worth multiple listens. That being said, I do still prefer the original.

Final Notes:

BJM Mario Bajardi has created an killer EP that shows off all the flare this guy can pull off with synths, strings and a few simple percussions. The darkly, the elegant and the disorganised all flourish in Inverse and it’s just overall a charming and pleasant listen. Despite a false start Bajardi has created a wonderful first release. Top banana!

BJM Mario Bajardi Releases New Track ‘Crusty’

Busy Composer continues being busy!

I’ve had a great new track come through from the Italian composer, that’s just released his new EP, titled Inverse. I will be doing a review for this release, but i’m dropping this in now so you can get some more background here. Mario Bajardi is the behind this music and it turns out, he is a busy boy! He’s been busy working on a track titled Insemina for Sweetheart a short movie directed by Quentin Tarantino’s assistant Miguel Angelo Pate. So this guy is moving up in the world!

The movie has only been teased at so far, but looks like it could be rather top!

But yeah, the review is coming this week (the first week of December) and until then, I hope you enjoy listening to Crusty.

New Music Review – HAU – HAU

Band: HAU
EP: HAU
Genre: Noise-rock, electronic, abrasive-core
Social-media: Bandcamp/Soundcloud/Blogspot

Listen:

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HAU are a noise-rock, abrasive-core, band from Greece. The sound behind these guys is one of angered percussion, destructive guitar, ugly vocals and brief dabbles in electronic elements, such as synth work and sampling (?). Put all of this together and you get a very cut-throat act that refuses to pander to any strict structure or reason. Back in May of this year, HAU put out their first EP, which was also a self-titled EP and these are my thoughts on said EP:

The animalistic nature behind HAU is very comparable to that of bands like Lightning Bolt, with their incomprehensible, heavily effected, lyrics, jagged stringed instruments and pounding percussion – everything is just GO, from the start with both these bands. When HAU are playing to their strengths, they are incredibly effective and satisfying to listen to, especially when you enjoy the moaning guitar as much as I do. However, there is still a rather diverse selection of sounds on this EP – both Pattern 5 and Pattern 7, are messy noise-rock charges on your ears, but the other two tracks are much more experimental.

Cunts & Needles (with A†D) is a slow boiling track that slithers around with some sporadic drumming and some almost alien-like vocals. Oh, and the way, these alien-like vocals don’t just occur on this track, they’re a persistent presence throughout, which is fine, they suit the style of music perfectly. But yeah, the track itself fiddles with various electronic improvisations that feel very unsettled at times, as they just flicker around with the occasional percussion – It’s a difficult track to pin down. By the end though, it’s just as loud and proud as the Pattern tracks.

These Pattern tunes are my favourite tracks on this release, without a shadow of a doubt. The guitars a bass sounds on Pattern 5 and Pattern 7 are incredible and the way that they take no prisoners with their approach to their music, is just phenomenal. If you enjoy vicious sounding… everything, you need to listen to these songs, they are ruthless and unforgiving – the way this sort of music should be.

Norma, is also a hard track to strip down to something more than, ‘experimental’ and ‘woah’. It’s probably the most eccentric track on the album, mainly because it starts out so deceptively quiet, with brief flickers of drums and synth screeches, with some very sudden and haunting stabs of synth latter in the track. But then, halfway through the track unrolls completely into a real horror of intimidating vocals, primal beats and more stabs. Norma is probably the most fidgety track on this release, it just can’t sit still for more than three minutes!

What HAU have done with this release is set a very chilling bar for themselves that will lead to, hopefully, more music that’s as angry and powerful as this.

Final Notes:

HAU’s self-titled EP is everything that you’re afraid of listening to and proud of it. It’s malicious sounding songs are immediate and have a forceful staying power and if you like any kind of hard music, then you should check these guys out.

Wonderful Humans (band) Cover ‘Shake It Off’

Taylor Swift Taken In New, Darker, Direction

Wonderful Humans are a NYC based electro-pop duo that have recently decided to cover one of the bigger songs from the last few months. I am of course talking about Taylor Swift’s August hit, Shake It Off.

The first major change you’ll notice is the change in tempo, mood, and instrumentation – so basically everything. What we have is, not quite a complete re-imagining (atleast not in the same way that a band like Biffy Clyro might re-imagine something), but rather a slight fiddling with, which is totally cool with me. However, it is rather odd, considering that the rest of their music has a great variation in sound and moods about it, Edge Of The Night is especially groovy.

Everything here is incredibly stripped and it does work, for the most part. Like the when the song comes alive during the chorus and some synths start to ripple away over the limited percussion – it’s a nice sounding track, I just wish there was more to appreciate, because at times it can feel a little too bare-bones. But I guess, that’s the direction Wonderful Humans wanted to take the track.

The vocals here are easily the high-point of the track, they fit perfectly with the instrumentation and feel like they could be very versatile in any other situation. I really like the way that the vocalist, Amanda Carl, rolls out the ‘shake it off’ line.

Still, these guys are an interesting duo that are just starting to grow into their shoes and it’s probably for the best that we keep a close eye on them. How do you do that? With social-media, obviously!

Facebook/Twitter/Soundcloud

New Music Review – Polysemy – Extras

Artist: Polysemy
Demo: Extras
Genre: Electronic, experimental-electronic
Social-media: Bandcamp/Facebook/Soundcloud

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Today, we have another experimental electronic musician named Dalton Moehnke, who spearheads his solo musical project, Polysemy . Despite there being another 3 track EP planned for this month, I’m looking at the demo release, Extras, which was released on the 26^th of September. Polysemy is also planning to release a full-length album, through LOF Records, before the end of the year.

What is Extras, then? This release consists of two rather short songs that utilise a rather strange vibe that I can only really associate with water and some delightfully bright synth work. Despite being rather short in time, I think that this release does a good job of teasing at what Moehnke has in store for us.

If this release has proved anything to me, it’s that Polysemy can throw down something rather unique in a short space of time. His song, People, which is a 3 minute wonder has this brilliant synth that comes about during the ‘chorus’ and fits so well with the vibe that the little keys are playing from the start. There’s also some guitar sampled here, that on paper, could sound out of place, but because of the way it’s been produced, fits in perfectly and leads well into another chorus. Everything on this song has been caked in reverb and if you don’t use reverb sparingly, it can sound incredibly tarty, but here with this underwater vibe, I think it suits it.

This use of reverb and water like sounds echoes into the shorter piece, Family. Although this track is just over a minute long, I believe it carries on what People started and doesn’t end up sounding repetitive – thanks mostly to its short run-time.

Final Notes:

I honestly don’t believe needs to be said about this release: it’s short, sweet, sounds wonderfully produced and with the promise of more material by the end of the month, I don’t feel too cheated by its length. So why not get this free release and submerge yourself in this mini release of Polysemy .

New Music Review – Back To Akert – Better Than More

Artist: Back To Akert
Album: Better Than More
Genre: Experimental, noise, electronic
Social-media: Bandcamp/Soundcloud/Twitter

Listen:

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Back To Akert is an electronic/noise composer from Brazil that cites his music as a purely experimental and ‘stream-of-consciousness style’ affair. And after listening to his album, Better Than More, I can see why. What I have here is an incredibly experimental album that challenges the listener in both their patience and their taste of music. When listening through to Better Than More on the first try, I felt lost, but tried to bear in mind the background and style of Back To Akert.

When listening here, you have to be careful to not write off a track straight away as things aren’t as simple as they seem – there is a lot to listen to and understand here. With every track, I felt like I was looking at a surrealist painting that had me questioning myself: ‘Is this too deep for me?’ On certain tracks, I felt this to be very true, like Hundreds Thousands. Hundreds Thousands was, for me an incredibly difficult track to listen to: the constant stopping and starting of the lead synth felt like an attack on my ears. Then you try and listen out for the melody and the changes in progression and you start to wonder why you think you don’t like the track.

The bloody synth did me in.

There are plenty of tracks, like Hundreds Thousands, that are incredibly difficult to listen to, but not because they sound bad, but because they feel so challenging – I have a hard time pinning them down. Like the track Always on the Point, which feels like a barrage of retro samples, sweetie synths and a bag of surprises. This track, like others was always contorting and changing, forcing multiple listens and even some thoughts to be cast on YOUR opinion of music. By the by, I love the synth that comes in during the ending of Always on the Point and how it mutates, grossly.

After listening through a few times, you can pick out some of the more down to earth tracks and I started feeling like these ones were trying to cheat me. Tracks like, Savour Patience (a solo piano track) and Capybara Family (a strange collections of blown synth and keys), all felt like they were the ‘singles’ of this album and they’re nice breaks between the madness, but they almost feel out of place.

What I really know that I like from this album, is how sinister it sounds in its quieter moments. Gyorsan vesszo Ritmikusan, Break Fourth and Repose, all have this unsettling vibe about the instrumentation in a similar way to Aphex Twin and his earlier ambient work. It’s not just in the instruments, but the progressions themselves and how Back to Akert unravels his stream of madness in both the notes he’s playing and the way he’s playing them.

Final Notes:

I think something as abstract as Better Than More, can catch an amateur like me off guard – on the one hand I can come up with multiple reasons why I dislike and like the album, but at the same time, I cannot articulate any real criticism. Again, it’s much like art in a museum and YOUR opinion of it – You may think it doesn’t deserve to be there because of the colour the artist has used and you may like something else because of the things the artist didn’t paint.

However you look at it, Back To Akert’s album, Better Than More, will challenge the you and push your boundaries to new lengths. Whether you like it or not, this is the sort of music that can try and test both a writer and a listener.

Also, there is another album to be released soon and it’s ‘very conceptual and deals with war and loss with a sci-fi theme. If that sounds like your thing, you can check it out, here.

Listen to it and tell me what YOU think.

Please excuse me, this was difficult to review.