Blogiarhiiv

12/09/2010

[Artists] Inverness






Inverness
Jamendo
Myspace
Lastfm

Music For Your Plants S/T (MFYP)


Though I come from Estonia I have been quite critical about the most of phenomenons regarding somehow the Estonian indie music and its musical appearances over the previous and last decade. The reason is simple because my native country does have the community of musical critics/activists and musicians very densely related to each other, however, some of them through the job, the other through dense friendship connections. This is why I am not used to believe in maximum-rated overviews in local newspapers after I had listened to some of the albums being classified as really second-rate ones in principle. Once again, I really hope I am not being misunderstood - it is not a complaint it is just admission about the inevitable shortcoming of the small communities.

The debut album by the Tallinn-based trio Music For Your Plants is one of the best issues growing out from the local scene in recent years. Their 8-track release reflects upon past, present and future, where technical know-how is finely arranged with shitloads of ideas and a decent spiritual touch, where all needful is kindly presented and played up into the balance. First off, their affinity toward retrodelic fusion and progressive rock is showed up via impressive light-hearted guitar noodlings and synthesized psychedelic electronics-based vortexes altogether reminiscent of the doings of Kaseke, Radar, and In Spe, the Estonian jazz rock and progressive rock legends by the 80`s, respectively. (Though I am aware of the facts being compared to the likes of Tortoise, Tame Impala and other experimental rock luminaries already). On the other side, though through a narrow slot, you can be a witness about the dodges toward enchanting chillwave moulds (Dr. Mudawi), or the tropicalia/surf pop-mixed-up excellence of Enchanted Sister. Undoubtedly Music For Your Plants is a record which has acquired the potential to be written into progressive rock annuals sometime. In fact, I mean it very seriously.

Listen to it here

9.5

12/07/2010

The Dog Pòstumo (Transienda)


The 9-track album of the Spanish band The Dog does start out with an ancient advertisement clip against the marijuana smoking, which soon delves into scuffed guitar riffs and electronic mix-based turmoil. As a whole one it seems in its very beginning to pretend for a kind of soundscape searching for its source between silence-infused images and furious yet controlled guitar ascents. A bit later it is used to get evolved into melancholy-pitched post-rock reflexions accompanied with subtle classical/baroque/chamber music elements, and soon, on the other side irreversibly setting itself up for dream folk-esque status unwinded via fingerpicked guitars, airy vocal arrangements and its whispering modifications, violins, glockenspiel thrums and harmonica-alike ingoings. Sometimes it sounds quite close to A Silver Mt Zion (especially No sè què cenar), at the another time it is used to sound like a sort of wistful Penguin Cafe Orchestra. In a nutshell, I shall have to admit that Pòstumo is full of outstanding examples which can be classified as "post-folk", as it was precisely described by Rajsank from the Yamanotedreams blog, indeed.

Listen to it here

9.2

[Artists] Wake The Giant


Wake The Giant
Myspace
Lastfm

[Old but important] The Transmitters Count Your Blessings (You Are Not Stealing Music)


I can not even hesitate for some seconds that the British-rooted post-punk movement has probably offered one of the most impressive moments during the overall pop course, spawning a lot of bands with different point of views, from mocking dadaistic pop ideas to artistical endeavor for creating new exhilarating near-pop conceptions. More concretely, from industrial music-driven vanguard conceptions (This Heat) to danceable krautrock-influenced experimental punk occurences (The Magazine; Public Image Limited; Gang Of Four) were only some ways to illustrate this wave of new offsprings. There were also an array consisting of The Fall, The Mekons, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cure, The Slits, Swell Maps, The Pop Group among others. This is music I like to consider a kind of punk music instead of so-called punk music I am used to really despise for its empty twitch (Public Image Limited pisses off Sex Pistols for sure).

Undoubtedly The Transmitters has been among the best examples of the kind of. They released three albums all in all from which the last one Count Your Blessings (1987/1989) was reissued under the Portugese label You Are Not Stealing Music in 2006. The album of 8 tracks reveals psychedelic spaced-out avant-rock environments, even the elements of world music are up here to be infused into a vibrant universe of funk rock guitars, hysteric singing/manifesting manner and detail-riched drummings, remembering the albums of CAN by the second half of 70`s. Especially outstanding number is Radio Studente, mixing burning psychedelia (of caustic synths and abrasively repeating space fusion-alike guitars) and sufi music into an exhilarating whole. However, after the hiatus of The Transmitters, the members of the band continued to make up their cult position in the line-up of Transglobal Underground, and Loop Guru.

Listen to it here

12/06/2010

Weldroid Attitude Indicator (Kahvi)


I suppose, there is no question about Tamas Zsiros aka Weldroid`s ability to proof himself as an artistically established musician among the IDM-niks in worldwide. No doubt, his previous releases Stranglehold (2008, Kahvi), and Splines (2010, Soft Phase) has showcased his strength to reach off mesmerizing rhythmic patterns, playing out in abstract cadences at the one time, or keen likely to harmony-based occurences at the second time, or infused versions of the two abovementioned ones at the third time. Yet, it is not a kind of near-softcore IDM appearance, having its flow on a blend of motorik gears and electro-esque blurbing of the robot-alikeness in the style of Autechre or Dopplereffekt, respectively. In a word, based upon a sheer cutting edge conception.

However, the Hungarian`s third release (15 tracks within approximately 80 minutes) under the legendary Kahvi Collective seems to be more outstripping vis à vis with the two previous issues. Aside every kind of obligatory nucleus-based angular metallic techno beat variations around here you can detect for krautrock-alike Moog-based blurbs in the vein of Tangerine Dream or its members` solo projects (Silicon Man Extraterrestrial), deliciously malicious sonic effects, in-deep-psychedelia-poking-around synth brooding or elemental cosmic layers to overlap and spice up the whole record. One of the best electronic albums of 2010 to date.

Listen to it here

9.6