Alfa Serenar – Mood Machine (and Other Furnitures) (2019)

TBTCI

Progshine

• Shoegaze 
• Ethereal wave 
• Alternative rock 
• Indie rock 
• Art rock 
• Post-punk 
• Dream pop 
• Progressive 
• Musique concrète

 

Mida arvata brassi Rafael Senra 12-loolisest albumist? Tujuimpulssi aluseks võttes on see hea ja lõdvestav üllitis, mis on tehtud ainult kitarre mängides – atmosfääriline ja endasse süüviv, milles keelpillid ehitavad järjepanu arpedžosid, mis vahetevahel kulmineeruvad või – vastupidi – algavad laelaudu põrnitsevate heliseintega, mille esmapilgu kaootilisuses peitub põhjalik viimistletus. Kauniilmelised hõllandused ja süüviv lummus. Ajaloolises plaanis lisab Senra siiski midagi intrigeerivat, kuigi peaasjalikult triivib The Durutti Column'i, Cocteau Twins'i, The Weekend Guitar Trio tuules. Mis vahe on laelaudade ja kingade põrnitsemises? Esimene on suurema kunstilise, nn progressiivse roki ambitsiooniga, kuigi ka Slowdive'i debüütalbumil “Just For A Day” kostab see läbi. Eelpoolmainitet pundid olid ja on seda, siin albumil on üks lugu, mis vihjab pealkirjas Robert Fripp'i kasutatavale mängutehnikale ("Flippertronic Enigma"); palju enamates lugudes kui üks on seda ka tehniliselt kasutatud. Intriig kerkib eriti esile loos "The Real Integrated Circuit", mille lounge'ilik, päikesest rammestatud foon tuletab meelde Itaalia suurmeistreid Ennio Morricone't ja Bruno Nicolai'd. Suurepärase albumi on üllitanud kahasse Progshine ja The Blog That Celebrates Itself.

Come On Feel The NoiZe, Vol. 3 - Viva Mexico! (2019)

The Blog That Celebrates Itself

• Post-punk 
• Alternative rock 
• Coldwave 
• Indie rock 
• Krautrock 
• Hardcore 
• Art punk 
• Gothic rock 
• Psych-rock

Comment: this miscellany comes to us thanks to Brazilian imprint The Blog That Celebrates Itself. The compilation consists of 14 pieces by Mexican combos based on braveheart rocking sounds of post-punk and coldwave heritage which in turn are supported by some transgressive progressions through ambient, motorik and darkened electronic music. There are up such artists as Tajak, Pure Morning, Los Kowalski, Has a Shadow, Zeit!, The Blue Dress, Car Crash Sisters, El Shirota, Le 1991, Somewhere, Knives, Sunset Images, OCEΔNSS, and Telephone Exchange (their track Machine Learning can be considered the highpoint due to lengthy hypnotic krautrock-ish jamming). In a word, highly enjoyable gathering of ensembles and tracks.

Bye Bye Pride, A Tribute To The Go-Betweens (2018)

The Blog That Celebrates Itself

• Indie pop/rock 
• Alternative pop/rock 
• Chamber pop 
• Art pop/rock 
• Post-punk 
• Conceptual 
• Shoegaze 
• Jangle pop 
• Psych-pop 
• Noise pop

Comment: this bunch of 15 tracks is dedicated to a Brisbane, Australian indie juggernauts The Go-Betweens, a conditional Australian counterpart to The Smiths which probably foretold such groups as Belle and Sebastian, The Concretes. From artsy, keyboards-driven progressions and chamber pop alike expressions to jangly guitar pop to serene indie pop to powerful reverberations by obsessively exploring noise and shoegaze numbers. There are represented such artists as Sinking, Corrections, Leisure Walks, Undone, Waving Blue, Poëtka, Vida Eterna, Soft Layers, Teething Veils, The Vividels, All Sparks Burn Out, Echodrone, Electric LO FI Seresta, Flowers Must Die, and Mevius. This great tribute is issued by The Blog That Celebrates Itself Records. And the compilation is dedicated to Grant McLennan (1958-2006), a founder member of the combo.

VA – The Moon (2017)

The Blog That Celebrates Itself

• Shoegaze 
• Ethereal wave 
• Dream pop 
• Alternative pop/rock 
• Indie pop/rock 
• Post-punk

Comment: I have always thought that a serious compilation should start with the teaser to give it a dynamic boost. Indeed, here it is Eternal Something's September chiming like Cocteaus on synths. As a record label entitles itself The Blog That Celebrates Itself you can be sure it comes out mainly with shoegaze inspired tracks full of purple tinged dreams, hazy beauty, colourful fantasies and psychedelic fringes. But not only this – you can hear also proto-shoegaze sounds the likes of harking back to Cocteau Twins, and Durutti Column. Indeed, all the modern ways bring back to the post-punk sound. By the way, there is represented one track coming very directly from the goth/post-punk breed and there are up a few exceptions additionally. One of those is a favourite of mine the track called Ethereal Love by Dead Serpent at utmost dreams. I would call it infinite darkgaze/ethereal wave. Additionally to the aforementioned artists there are represented such artists as Tropique Noir, Hazed, Bugjar, Pure Confusion, Street Bird, The Wagner Logic, Ikiryo, Strange Things, The Last Passenger, Elegant Dead Star, and European Ghost.

Stereolab in, Metronomic Underground Versions (2017)

• Art pop 
• Noise pop 
• Avant-pop 
• Experimental pop 
• Post-pop 
• Indie 
• Alternative 
• Covers 
• Drone pop 
• Organcore 
• Space pop 
• Neokrautrock 
• Psych-pop 
• Post-rock

Comment: undoubtedly the first half of the 90s predicted what would be happening at the end of 00s and in the beginning of the 10s. By my opinion by experimental side there were many great experimental pop acts in advance but the most important ones were My Bloody Valentine with its Loveless which can freely be considered the most sultry guitar music ever made. It is the representative of perfect/ideal pop where tenderness was seamlessly intertwined with violet noise the music which is the candidate of your very deep dreams. I personally dreamed of Kevin Shields led combo's music for many years and when getting it finally it was bigger than my dreams used to ever be. Stereolab came from the tradition of C86 and jangle pop (from McCarthy to turning out into something very different. By the way, being partly influenced by MBV, and partly by krautrock-driven motorik beat, particularly by such artists as Neu!, and Faust. Yet the combo's idiosyncrasy come to appear and last for the coming decadences and artists because Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadier led distilled something wondrous from a range of diverse styles. From quite straightforward drone pop/organcore in the beginning to more sophisticated incantations through incisive electronic music, psychedelic pop and krautrock and bossa nova and French pop. The future had been presented through the past and present. Like the philosophical proposition that the modes of time cannot be existed without each other. All of that brought the combo forward as a main proponent of the so-called ideal pop. On the other hand, the combo's music justified itself as post-rock essentially rather than the bare stylistic label. If such styles as chillwave came to the terrain it was very understandable for indie people the task of Stereolab as a main linkage and premise to it. The Brazil-based imprint The Blog That Celebrates Itself brings to us a bunch of 15 compositions reflecting upon other possibilities for Stereolab which wouldn't and shouldn't have been realised for. For instance, singing songs with male voices and by employing more rough, lo-fi approach. There are represented such artists as Pia Fraus, Lake Ruth And Listening Center, Nax, Brilliant Beast, The Ludovico Treatment, Sexores, Blue Unit with April Zimont (Glowfriends), A Thousand Hours, The Death of Pop, El Camino de Los Caminos, La Suma de Todos los Tiempos, Waving Blue, Verstarker, Leisure Walks, and Perfectos Extraños. Great miscellany for a great ensemble.

A Tribute To Cocteau Twins (2013)

The Blog That Celebrates Itself

• Alternative rock
• Ethereal pop
• Post-punk
• Indie pop
• Dream pop
• Covers
• Gothic rock
• Electro-rock
• Conceptual

Outstanding tracks:

Bela Infanta - Blind Dumb Deaf

Elegia - Wax And Wane

Schonwald - In Our Angelhood

Suzy Blu - Heaven Or Las Vegas