Recent Music Heroes

12/03/2016

The Hathaway Family Plot – Having No Alternative (2016)

Bandcamp

Free Music Archive

Art pop
Post-pop
Noise pop
Electronic
Avant-pop
Singer-songwriter
Alternative
Leftfield pop
Indie
Experimental pop
Glitch pop
Anti-pop
Post-industrial

Comment: The Hathaway Family Plot’s previous issue before Having No Alternative was Spare Time and it was one of the most outstanding issues in 2015. The same could be said about Having No Alternative because Kevin McFadden provides something similarly qualitative as he has done before. That’s an obvious killer in terms of harshness and softness, in terms of still life and noise keeping on to drift somewhere between the pop scene and underground undercurrents. Because of that Having No Alternative, and Sparing Time represent the true essence of nowadays indie music. More profoundly, he hijacks obvious, easily understandable elements of the established culture to intermingle them with elements of the counterculture and frequently by its furthermost angles (for instance, at Mountain). At the same time it is simple and sophisticated, lofty and oppressive. Visually it can be transported to a desolate wasteland to accompany a walker who is trudging across the gothic and magic realism mixed terrain. At the artist’s Bandcamp site it is stated that he still has not discovered the meaning of life. It can be assumed it is a state of tension which forces Kevin McFadden to thrive and discover new areas around him. By kindred souls there can be drawn parallels with the Estonian musician Mart Avi whose music is to follow the aforementioned aesthetical logic and even chronologically does have a similar path.

Lezet – Aether (2016)

Kermesse

Archive.org

Post-classical
Art music
Modern classical
Chamber music
Avant-garde
Drone
Experimentalism
Minimalism
Electro-acoustic

Comment: The Serb Igor Jovanovic aka Lezet has been a musical hero within the webaudio/netaudio world with his 68 albums for almost 10 years. Indeed, the amount of the issues is immense and only such artists as Buben, The Implicit Order, Cousin Silas, Cagey House/Dave Keifer and Wings Of An Angel can compete with him in this regard. Of course, music is not a topic for competition (only some decayed forms of it like the Eurovision Contest are subject of it). Lezet`s music has been a state of art, a sort of it. He has issued music on such great imprints as Dog Eared Records, Clinical Archives, Sirona-Records. SuRRism-Phonoethics, Buddhist On Fire, PICPACK among others. Aether is a short-running, 3-notch issue under Argentinian imprint Kermesse Records consisting of a simplistic structure at first sight. Indeed, I have to accentuate for once more – at first sight. In truth, those cello-alike major and minor chords have been managed in the way to conjure up enough emotions, fantasy depictions from one`s mind, and awe towards something/someone. One cannot deny its overwhelming touch and impression confluencing at a crossroad of electro-acoustic, minimalism, drone, and post-classical music. In spite of the tags it is primary to perceive all the shades and penumbras of the whole. For instance, one can discern attractive loops and iterative patterns as if running due to inertia and then, at a time it will be jettisoned for impulsive chords and structures. It is one of the best issues in the list of the best albums of 2016. The cover art is painted by (another musician) Jared C. Balogh.

Safir Nòu – Groundless (2016)

La bèl

Bandcamp

Art pop
Chamber pop
Post-pop
Baroque pop
Alternative pop
Indie pop
Post-rock
Balkan folk
Post-classical
Epic

Comment: first of all, I have had a successful day behind. After a day's hard work I visited and bought approximately 10 tapes for 30 Euros by Trash who is curating his own amazing Trash Can Dance label. By the way, I got my personal project's four tapes of the latest issue additionally (Autharktos' Warped Irrpulses). And now I am listening to the Italian one-man-project Safir Nòu's 7-track masterpiece on the amazing La bèl imprint, which used to run in the vein of chamber pop-based easiness and high melodic affinity (it might remind you of Penguin Cafe Orchestra at Blue Dance and other tracks as well), and one of the exceptions do happen at Puppets' Waltz filled in with joyful gypsy melodies and positive sensibility. At New Lunacy cinematic post-rock progressions will take over the course for a 7-minute. It will be ending with a hymnal orchestration which could be considered one of the top moments within the album. In overall, it is fairly enjoyable how these instrumental passages used to elegantly roll over your mind again and again. In a word, the result will appear in the list of the best albums of Recent Music Heroes in 2016. If you like such artists as Bark Cat Bark, Beirut, Tortoise, Esmerine, A Silver Mount Zion, Tindersticks, Yann Tiersen then this issue is also your cup of tea. Get it! Support it!