New Music Review – From The Petrified Forest – Neon On The Inside

Band: From The Petrified Forest
EP: Neon On The Inside
Genre: Space-rock, post-rock, post-metal, shoegaze
Social-media: Facebook/Bandcamp

Listen:

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I’ve been here before, not exactly here, but I’ve certainly reviewed From The Petrified Forest before – you can and should check the review of their EP, Mostly Mort, out here. Mostly Mort was a brilliant release that utilised a mixture of space-rock and post-metal, there were lots of massive walls of distortion, mellowed out moments and was generally, quite an ambitious release. How does the newest release, Neon On The Inside, hold up against it?

In fact, it holds up in a familiar way. Similar song structures and distortions bring about this creeping sense of familiarity, but this time, everything sounds crisper and for Neon On The Inside, it’s works well. What’s essential on a release like this in the post-metal and space-rock scene is clarity, otherwise everything rages together into a disappointing mess that makes it impossible to understand what’s going on. Thankfully, that’s not the case here – everything is clear and bright, never does it sound muddy or misshapen.

So with the familiar sounds and song structures, this album must be rather boring, right? Not at all – From The Petrified Forest have gone to work on this release giving every song hear an epic tinge of brilliance. Everything sounds so punchy and colossal, Anything In Your Heart is probably my favourite track with its smashing outro – the guitar pickings and the massive open chords are amazing. The drumming sounds really bold as well, which is always a nice touch on a release like this. I would have liked to have seen some more bass work on Neon On The Inside, I mean, Mostly Mort didn’t have much, but there were moments where the bass was allowed to shine, but here, the bass is overshadowed by the lens-flare of guitar.

The clean moments on this EP sound like you’re typical post-rock song, which isn’t much to write home about, but I see a lot in these heavy and bright walls of distortion, it just seems like some more variety would not have gone amiss. Speaking of clean moments, the singing on the title track just seems out of place when played besides the rest of the EP – there’s no other vocals and that’s cool, but after hearing some at the start, I was hyped for some vocal experimentation. I think overall, the influences on this band shine through much clearer on this album, the heavies are heavier and the cleans are shinier and wondrous.

Final Thoughts:

A welcome return to the music scene for From The Petrified Forest. If you like post-metal with a focus on the bright side of tone, then this EP is for you. Some variation would have been nice, but considering the length of the release, it’s nothing to complain (that much) about. I salute you From The Petrified Forest! Give him some of your hard earned cash if you like what yo hear, the EP is a name your price, price on Bandcamp. What does this sound like? Take a bunch of metal songs, mix them together with sugar and what do you get? From The Petrified Forest!

New Music Review – Waveless – Hopelessness

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

Listen:

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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 – Sound Awakener – hidden

Artist: Sound Awakener
EP: hidden
Genre: Noise, experimental 
Social-media: Facebook/Bandcamp/Soundcloud

Listen:

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Sound Awakener is the instrumental solo project of Nhung Nguyen from Hanoi, Vietnam. She began learning the piano back in 2002 and since 2007 has been developing her own personal composition and improvisation techniques. At the end of November, she put out a short EP titled, hidden, which from the beginning, feels much darker and experimental than her previous album, Five Chapters. Most of her work is incredibly experimental, noisy and jagged and hidden follows this trend in true experimental fashion, but to get a true understanding of this music, you have to give it a deep and patient listen.

hidden is a lot more difficult than Five Chapters to get into but that’s mostly owing to the concept behind it: ‘The EP focus largely and extensively on using intended, “unwanted” and “disturbing” elements, which is easily misunderstood as production flaws, especially clicks, buzzing/hiss and distortion.’ Whilst I do think that this is an admirable concept, I personally find it incredibly difficult to listen to for long periods of time.

The ferocious first track, around, is this harsh rampage of industrial sounds becoming more and more distorted, until it eventually fades away into this soft(er) soundscape. Even when the calmer moments come, they’re still relentless in their flat and still, surprisingly hard-hitting sounds – it fails to give you a break.

Sound Awakener’s title track on this album, hidden, feels like the soundtrack to a very strange day, where you feel permanently disconnected from the reality that you’re expected to live. I mean, there’s no semblance of melody or anything musical here, but if you close your eyes, it sounds like the people you hear going about their day’s every single day. You could even say that it feels like a track for hypnosis, or immersion – everything is so heavy here.

The final track, diary, also takes this strange route of insane noises and builds around this, with increasing industrial samples that dabble around for a long time. That long time becomes incredibly grating after about seven minutes, but I can’t help but feel like this might be the intention – it feels like those moments where every little bad thing that happens to you, just makes things increasingly worse until you eventually snap. Except there’s no snap here.

Final Notes:

I’m not sure I understand hidden and that makes me feel awful, but it’s an incredibly difficult album to listen to without wanting to take a break every so often. It could be because I’m not really into noise, but this album is much more difficult to listen to that Sound Awakener’s previous release and since the previous album was already, pretty inaccessible, it just seems to be getting too obscure for me. If you enjoy noise and some industrial elements, I’d recommend this listen for you, but for me, not so much.

New Music Review – BJM Mario Bajardi – Inverse

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

Listen:

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.

Witchingseason Release New Single ‘Codeine’

Debut EP to be released at the end of November

Witchingseason are a post-grunge act that I’ve featured before and are planning to release their first EP soon. Before that though, they’ve released another single titled Codeine. This track is much longer than the previously featured Spiders, but more or less features a similar grunge vibe that slides between Nirvana and Queens of The Stone Age, at least on this song it does. The guitar sounds suitably bleak and thick with the bass, while the drums all sound fiery and as usual, singer, Tom Reynolds hits all the right grunge spots.

The interlude that occurs about five minutes in is a nice change in pace, but I feel is somewhat unfulfilled and could be drawn out in a different direction, just to make the stab of snarly guitar at the end that little bit more striking. When said snarly guitar does come in, the drums really go for it here as well which sounds top, which also reminds me of a problem I had with these guys last time – the instruments all just mold together at some points in Spiders, but here there seems to be more distinction. The bass can be heard grooving away in the background and the drums have some fantastic parts.

I can only hope that this transfers over, more so in fact, into Witchingseason’s EP. There will be a review next week, hopefully. Probably.

So stay tuned, this is not over.

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.

The Familiar Reveal New Video For ‘World Ends’

Ice Chill Electropop Duo Release New Video

The Familiar are an electropop duo from the not so sunny world of Norway and the USA – let me explain this: we have one member, Mads(the gentleman that makes the sounds), living in Brooklyn, NY and we have Ruth (the lass singing), who lives in Norway. Back in May, they released their debut EP, Rooms. Even more recently than that (about one day ago to be exact), The Familiar released a video to go with their single, World Ends, that features some rather darkly imagery to go along with their sinister sounding tune.

World Ends, itself is a heavily synth based track that revolves around one main synth hook and a few others that waver into existence every now and then. There’s also some fitting and minimal percussion in there, but takes a back seat, like, waaaaay back – they’re so back-seat, that they make the seats at the back of a cinema look close. That doesn’t mean that they’re bad, I just don’t think it would be practical to have some strange, erratic drums featuring in a track like this.

The song really comes together with the ending and the lovely vocal performance of the singer. The ending in itself is nicely put together and everything swells in without sounding like a mess of synthetic bleeps and bloops – everything feels very controlled, the percussion steps up its presence and it works.

Like what you hear? Why don’t you buy their material? Or follow them:

Facebook/Bandcamp/iTunes

New Music Review – Daisy Victoria – Nobody Dies

Band: Daisy Victoria
EP: Nobody Dies
Genre: Indie-rock
Social Media: Facebook/Twitter/Bandcamp/Soundcloud

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Daisy Victoria is the singer-songwriter, indie-rocker that released her debut EP, Heart full Of Beef, back in March of this year. I reviewed said EP, over here and thought that it was a fantastic way of strutting into the indie-rock scene, with confident songs, fantastically delivered vocals and a generally well put together, if a little bit raw, release. And she’s been continuing to make waves in the blogoshpere, by developing a substantial following. That and airtime on radio-stations, new videos and such, Daisy Victoria is not only cooking with gas, but with a hob, a pan and some food.

Now a few months later, we have the next EP, Nobody Dies, set to be released on the 30^th of November, although it is available to stream now through Miss Victoria’s Soundcloud.

It’s clear from the start of the EP that strides are being made in some new and exciting directions for Victoria, not massive steps, but steps none the less. For one, there seem to be some dabbling in effects and bigger, more bombastic elements of rock music. I mean, there are plenty of subtle effects here, but strangely enough, the songs sound at their best when the guitars sound tarty. Like the flanged guitar on Ammonite and the occasional flares of it on Blue Arc.There’s also a ton of effects on nearly everything in Coals as well, this would usually turn me off of a song, but here it doesn’t feel offensive – Just a positive feeling towards it. I guess, I could say, that it doesn’t feel like the effects are trying to hide lazy or boring instrumentation, so it just adds and builds-up the song, as opposed to just muddling it all up.

I’m really enjoying the bass focus on this EP, it’s been brought forward in the production and sounds like it’s been given the centre stage, if only to ground the effect drunk guitars. Still, I’m glad to see the bass take a well-deserved turn in the spotlight. On top of that, I think the general production on this EP surpasses Heart Full Of Beef – the instruments sound punchy and the vocals are as clear as they need to be.

This is just great, the production being upped has made some great moments on this EP even greater. Like the bridge, just before the outro of the title track, Nobody Dies, it’s wonderfully driving and fun to listen to – the way the guitars screech in the background, while the drum and bass steer in no wrong direction, just good, fun rock. The song Ammonite is rather great too – the bass through this song reminds me of a very Cure influenced bass guitar. There’s also some organ on this track which really chunks the whole thing out and doesn’t stick out, at least in my opinion.

While I do think that a lot of the darkness from the first EP has taken a bus home, for now, there are still some incredibly intense moments, for starters, the intro to Another Sky, is wonderfully sultry and so is the whole of Coals, but that could be owing to the effected vocals, ambitious electronics and some erratic guitar (also, is that a harmonica I can hear). Of course though, all of this is held together by Miss Victoria’s vocals.

Nobody Dies, feels again, like an EP of experimentation and that does, somewhat, apply to the singing on this release as well. The vocal line she sings in Coals is my favourite line I’ve heard her do yet. I’d like to see more of this, either the effected vocals, or maybe even an angrier (at least sounding) side of her vocals. Blue Arc has some low vocals, which I really appreciated, but it’d be nice to see those be dragged out a little bit more. Besides that, its business as usual Daisy Victoria vocals, which is great, I can’t really see why people would have a problem with them; they tie these brilliant songs together.

Final Notes:

Nobody Dies is another killer release from Daisy Victoria that promises fans an interesting ride with ecstatic guitars, more electronic influences, some killer production and an infectious desire to expand on Miss Victoria’s musical empire. Take care and try not to get lost in all the sounds and moments that this EP provides.

New Music Review – k. – k. songs unreleased or not finished

 

Artist: k.
Release: k. songs unreleased or not finished 
Genre: Singer-songwriter, rock
Social-media: Bandcamp

Listen:

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k. is probably the musician with the shortest name I’ve ever had, k.s is also from Ohio and has recently put out a short release of unreleased material, titled, k. songs unreleased or not finished. This was released back in October 21st of this year, so let’s get in to it! Now, what sort of music can you expect from k.? On this release, I’d say you can expect some alt-rock, maybe singer-songwriter style music that is all very restrained and minimal in its instrumentation and production.

The first song, Do You Like It, was difficult to listen to for me, why? Because I found the vocals and lyrics to be so troublesome to listen to. It’s not bad for the first section of the song, while it’s all backed up with the funky bass, but for me the outro vocals were painful to listen to and just made me want to stop the song. That being said, the last little vocal snippet (listen to understand) wins Do You Like it? Some points.

The second song, Lover……………………………………………………………………………………………………………I Miss Her, which will I will now be calling, Lover, for undisclosed reasons, is much preferable. The guitar is rather plain and simple, with some subtle effects over it and it works for a sing-songwriter like song. It’s just rather sweet too, which is nice.

Strangely, I got a very old school rock n’ roll vibe from the next track, 400 miles home at about 60MPH. The vocals at the start get it all kicked off rather quickly and when the guitar gets some distortion slopped over it, it all sounds fun and almost like some Kinks. What I also found rather interesting was the slightly staggered second guitar on this recording – it sort of sticks out and I’m not sure whether this is me mishearing things, or something else, but it struck me as odd.

I wrote a poem, is probably the track that strikes me most, if only because of the way that the guitars mesh together here. It sounds pleasant with the vocals. I also liked the lyrics on this song, because, you know who ever does write their poem correctly after the first draft? Funnily enough, it almost seems like this song is a metaphor for this entire release. ‘I wrote it wrong, so I turned it into this song’.

Final Notes:

While I don’t think this project feels in anyway finished as it is right now, there are some good building blocks here; blocks that demonstrate that k. should be out there searching for a band to create with. The instrumentation is nice at times and the bass is always groovy, so why not expand into other projects and offer something with other musicians? I’d be very interested in seeing what k. has to offer in the future.

P.S. I dig the album art.