7/30/2011
Burning Bright - Freesmiles (2011)
9.0
Monster Rally - Palm Reader (2010)
9.4
Comment: This is a relatively unsung musical project from Columbus which at times is tagged as "chillwave" and "glo-fi". However, its crucial aesthetical point is focused upon exptic pop-tinged progressions and irresistible sampledelic craftiness (compare it to the works by Cagey House, Ergo Phizmiz, Chenard Walcker, and People Like Us, for instance). Altogether, it is summery pop which used to chime in an ancient and modern way simultaneously. For example, are you able to figure out is the date of those examples of Latin-tinged pop coming either from 1930 or 2130?
The Search – The Silverslut 2000-2002 (2011)
/Britpop, Post-punk, New Wave, Alternative pop/rock, Synth rock, Electro-rock/
Comment: This is a 35-track issue of solid rock music from Uppsala, Sweden. In fact, the album consists of 6 EP`s released in 1999-2002, during the first period of the project. Especially the first half of miscellany is vry delicious, showcasing its appeal toward the influences of 80`s dance rock, synth pop/rock, new wave, and post-punk. The second half is up to bring some Britpop and folk-ish influences into the mix. The Search`s obvious influences veer from The Cure and Comsat Angels and Smashing Pumpkins to Suede and Belle & Sebastian and Kent. Altogether, discover and afford a handful of great songs for yourself.
7/29/2011
Sobaki Kachalova - Gryazniye Botinki (2011)
/Art-pop, Indie pop, Alternative pop/rock, Bubblegum pop/
Comment: If to speak about the recent Sobaki Kachalova`s album and the starting point of indie tradition in Russia/and the former Soviet Union we cannot be without making the reference toward the early period of Kino, Viktor Tsoi`s headed band chimed between uncompromising Smiths-esque “ballads” and pouncing post-punk-ish rhythms. Both bands were truesome pop juggernauts by both sides of the Iron Curtain. Here is a set of 10 songs where catchy guitar chords and summery strums and guitar overdrives are sometimes intervened with sheer brass attacks and artistic slo-mo bubblegum pop. Simple but suggestive.
Bing Satellites - Summer Night (2009)
9.4
Comment: This 7-pieced set is a peculiar and wondrous issue by a profilic musician and label founder (BFW Recordings) from Manchester, UK. First of all, therein can be detected for a wide smorgasboard of styles and tendencies, veering from bubbling ambient dub/psyambient and shoegazetronica to cinematic, sometimes bleak synth-induced soundscapes and melancholic quasi-modern classical approach and angrily gazing synth progressions. Regarding his previous experiments, however, the most odd track is Indigo, which used to be an instance of cosmic prog/fusion (with those barking bass interventions). By the way, the last track does have the longitude of 80 minutes (it starts out as melancholic and epic as a steam ship coming slowly out from the fog down the river).
Tobias Faar - Hidden Locations (2011)
8.9
/Minimal, Soundscapes, Dark ambient, Noir, Dystopbient, Sound art/
Comment: The first of those 5 tracks does embark on with bleak, minimal skrees (of grasshoppers?) and bouncing stereo effects and barely “visible” burning around it (back to the nature, isn`t?). However, later all of that gets evolved into a more elemental maelstrom, incorporating more lush ambiences and vivid sonic effects and piano chords for its sake. Thudding and elliptical bass lines and shapes, malicious droning and strangling spasms and vast distances followed are the next characteristics of the album. Yet, inspite of a writhing bulk of sounds the whole brings to fruition itself as an example of B/W, noir-filled motion. Moreover, it could hold good as soundtrack for a sci-fi/horror movie.
7/25/2011
The Post Riot Era - On Zero Sum Living (2011)
/Ambient, Post-rock, Guitar ambient, Minimal music, Crossover, Experimental rock/
Comment: The Post Riot Era is the project by Dean Hinds, a resident from Los Angeles. This 5-pieced set is a kind of tribute to post-rock music (yet not being a crescendo-loaded one, either) and ambient and minimal music. Slowly evoking guitar-based restraint hiss which is surrounded with bare electronics and extending soundscapes does grow organically into more clear-cut structures, moreover, letting no possibility for perception power to draw distinct borders between its particles. All in all, a sequential instance of the Californian avant-garde/experimental power.