Neel Madala is a solo artist based out of Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. He released a DIY effort entitled shaken up, tossed about. It contains three songs and is less than ten minutes long.
He opens with “only nose” which contains a beat and a unique melodic pattern. Madala sounded like he barely had enough energy to get out the words. It’s very subdued and seems like he is lamenting about someone not reciprocating his romantic intentions. There are no major changes in the song musically and because of that combined with the short run time it felt more like an intro. The next is “specs” which is actually felt a little meaty. Similar to the first song I really liked the groove. His vocal affectation is a little different. In fact I would say it felt a little more natural compared to the first. There is still this melancholy coming from his voice but it’s not so dramatic. I fe Last but not least is “when you care, you know” which is the most musically inventive. The groove that opens towards the end is his best yet. I liked how he decided to wait with the percussion and als thought the elements were unique. I remember studying composition in college about twenty years after playing in bands throughout high school. That was a time where things started to blossom for me musically and I started to experiment. I think Madala's story is similar to mine and the next couple of years will be where he grows as an artist if he keeps at it/. I think he had some great ideas with these songs. That being said I encourage him to think about where these ideas can go as in a hook, an ambient breakdown, utilizing crescendos as he continues to evolve or much more. Once he introduced an idea it really doesn't get much farther than what was presented. Overall, I thought this was a solid release. I hope to hear more of his music in the not too distant future.
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Alistair O’Brien is a Melbourne, Australia based musician who is usually seen in the band The Thod. But O’Brien stepped out on his own and released the solo project Who Fell on Their Head? this year. Who Fell on Their Head? is a somber and stripped back project that mixes the bluntness of anti-folk with the grooves of The Velvet Underground.
O’Brien went for a stream of consciousness approach to the lyrics on Who Fell on Their Head?. O’Brien’s delivery is nearly spoken word, which creates a feeling that we are inside his mind as he moves from one thought to another. Some songs feature the sound of pages turning as if O’Brien is speaking straight from a journal. “Waking Up Slow” is a prime example of stream of consciousness, as it begins with, “Waking up slow / numbers / numbers / kittens / mittens / laundry tumbles, spins.” Moments like this, though troubling and difficult to interpret, are still intriguing. They even highlight the more relatable proclamations found on the album, such as “Staring out vacantly / and the feeling just runs away / when you realize close bonds take years and years to form.” Overall, O’Brien successfully balances rambling with insightfulness. The sound of Who Fell on Their Head? is lo-fi, repetitive and dreary. The tracks feature natural reverb, and the droning instrumentation acts as a pedestal for O’Brien’s words. On the downtempo tune “Bullet Town,” a simple drum beat repeats unchanged and noisy electric guitar whirs throughout. This style works well on the album until the final track, “Devil’s Ointment.” The song is four minutes of the same repetitious guitar progression. It’s a tense track that features haunting synth and ominous guitar. But it should have had words or been cut in half. After two minutes, it gets stale which is unfortunate because it has the appropriate atmosphere to end the album. Overall, Who Fell On Their Head? is a captivating album. Its eerie folk-punk foundation is a fitting sound for O’Brien’s intriguing lyrics. He explores his mind through a stream of consciousness approach that makes Who Fell on Their Head? feel both unsettling and enlightening.
The musician/artist known as The Dead Magnolia grew up in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, and started playing guitar with his best friend at the age of 14. At that time, he focused on being the best guitarist he could be by writing complicated guitar rhythms and solos, while listening to Nirvana, Metallica, Steve Ray Vaughn and many other rock bands. After going through an early band break up at 18 and going off to college, a co-worker of his asked if he would teach her and her husband a little something of what he knew on the guitar. After playing a little SRV (Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “Pride and Joy”), he felt inspired again and decided to get back into writing music. During the last year and a half, the artist wrote and recorded songs for his debut album Bury Me. Even though the whole process was lonely and seemingly directionless, he was determined to find his voice and to get the album recorded.
As luck would have it, the album’s title track was played by a local radio station, which got favorable attention. You can also see the video to this song on YouTube. Thematically, the album is an “emotional anthology of painful times,” “struggles of close friends” and “a desire to regain control.” The foundation of the artist’s music is built with a focus on strong vocal melodies and purposeful chord progressions to create memorable harmonies – no two songs are the same in their message or delivery. Lyrically, whether direct or ambiguous, the words to Bury Me illustrate the deep-felt emotions tied to events in the artist’s life. His work has been likened to Shinedown and Nirvana. “Dear Carousel” begins things with heavy bass lines, and a thick, distorted guitar. The riff and drums remind me of old school KISS, like something from Hotter Than Hell, but with the modern edge of Soundgarden. The lyrics suggest being on a carousel of “ups and downs” where life gets really dark. The beginning to the album’s title “Bury Me” gave me the chills, as I heard a child singing the lyrics – “I’m not dead but I feel like dying.” This was a song of desperation to be sure. Something about it also made me think of Glen Danzig, although I am not totally familiar with a lot of this music. “Songs for Children” has got this fuzzy, edginess about it that sounded awesome, especially how the drums came out in the recording. Lyrically, it’s another dark one – “Razor blades and the tooth decay / Our innocence has gone away.” And further, “Self-aborted unborn children / imagine life and being with them…” Damn man, I’m at a loss. “Turning Blue” caught me off guard with it’s synth keyboard beginning, but you’ll hear no happy ‘80s new wave flair here. It’s a pretty dark but interesting song overall. The beginning to “Theta” creeped the hell out of me, but I’m not sure if this one’s about the Greek letter or the star constellation. I vote probably neither. But at any rate, the artist pleads for help and to “put my mind at ease” from this “Theta” and comes to terms with the trouble in his mind. “Stranger in You” may be the most introspective song on the album, as the words are written in first person. They also cleverly address the songwriter as “you” in second person – “I’m your crazy / I’m your insane / I’m the stranger in you.” Next up is “Coraline” and it is perhaps Dead Magnolia’s darkest number, as it deals with a drowning child. The piano adds effective chills up the spine, as does the chiming bell clock and talking children in the chorus. I’m not going to lie; this was a hard one to stomach. My only hope is that this was not based on a true event. “Mother’s Friend’s Nicotine” is another number which features synths and also a gritty low drumbeat. As you might expect, this is another song that deals with a dark theme, as the words suggest “mother” dies from her addiction to nicotine, having “no will” she slips away – “ashes to ashes…dust to dust.” The last song is “Intentions” and this one had a different feel style wise. I liked the synths playing in the background, the melody reminded me of some suspenseful horror movie. The words suggest doing some “stuff” with someone else who has “bad intentions” but I wasn’t sure what those were. But what I liked most was the artist’s guitar solo – holy crap – that was pretty awesome! The ending had a haunting feel to it, too. In the end, the album as a whole was hard to put into one genre, however, like the artists’ Bandcamp site states, “post-grunge alternative rock” sounds about right. And I really didn’t get any Nirvana influence here, I was thinking more along the lines of old gritty metal from the ‘70s meets up with Soundgarden, laid on top of some deep, dark lyrics a la black metal. I’ll let you be the judge, and I hope we see more from this Minneapolis songwriter in the future.
Art Tawanghar is a prolific artist that we reviewed here at Divide & Conquer plenty of times before. I’ve heard a lot of his songs and am very familiar with his style. He is a dynamic and diverse songwriter. The production is always incredible and usually ends with a mix of Eastern and Western style. “Don't Call Me A Princess” was by far the most straightforward pop song I have heard from him.
The song starts with reverb laced guitars and prominent female vocals. I was expecting exceptional production and it delivers right away. Soon enough electronic percussion comes into the mix between a heavy hitting kick and some kind of sample acting as the snare. The song soon takes off with sub-bass frequencies. I liked how subdued the song was. It rides these cool waves of atmosphere and doesn't try to go much past that. There are soaring crescendos on this song and was all the better for it. The song felt like it was accessible and appropriate to play in a number of different ways. At first I thought it would sound great in an after hours club when the real raging is done. It made me want to hang out in the lounge where the mood is a little chill but not so relaxed where people are falling asleep. The other thing that this song reminded me of was a Disney movie. Let me explain. If you have kids and have seen the movie Frozen you may notice some similarities to the theme. The theme, the vibe and the lyrics kept on making me think this song would start playing when the credits start to roll in a Pixar movie. That’s just me but if anyone in charge of that type of thing is reading this I would take a listen. This is a style I never heard Tawanghar attempt before. I wasn’t surprised however that he was able to pull it off. Recommended.
Clash Bowley is trying something different. He explains that “I am exploring the genre Venn diagram here, using my own style - effect laden guitar, strong bass lines, electronic polyrhythms and odd, idiosyncratic vocals” on his recent release Burning Chariot.
He opens with “The World Is Ice” and the main thing I noticed on this song was the resonant frequency filter that keeps going back and forth every measure. In fact it sounded like he had two of them going. The rest of the music is pretty subdued. In fact the vocals are as well. “Rough and Tumble” is sort of funky in a robotic and metallic way. The drum machines in particular gave me this robotic feeling. I feel this is a good way to describe most of the song. There are a lot of manipulated synths, electronic percussion and other elements that make it feel like almost everything besides the vocals is being done within a computer. I think some people might think that is a negative but it’s dependent on who you ask. Two of my favorite artists are Aphex Twin and Autechre and most of their songs sound like they was made by robots and is intended for robots. Although the songs have a similar vibe I did have some favorites. The dark and ominous sounding “Fly Tonight” was a highlight as was “Glory” which contained some of the best vocal work from Bowley. He reminded me of Bowie on this song. I thought the album ended really strong with the inventive “The World Inside,” the subdued “Are You On Fire?” and the hopeful “When the Heart Is Full.” HIs vocal work sounded great on all three of these songs. I’ve heard his previous efforts and I can say this might be my favorite. It’s definitely up there. At this rate Bowley is a prolific artist and hopefully isn’t slowing down. Recommended.
Mad Wet Sea is a three-piece hard rock band from Ontario, Canada, composed of Ægir, Logi and Karì. They said, “We believe that rock has gotten too polished, and we are here to bring back the raw grittiness of it.” As far as commercial and mainstream goes I would have to agree (I have to admit there are plenty of more underground bands that tear it up hard).
The Sirens Call is a seven-song album. It’s definitely a throwback to ’70s hard rock and metal. There are a lot of moves you hear on this album that are heard from hard rock and metal bands of that era. The album opens with “Heed the Warning…” which seems to be a sonic version of the album cover which contains samples of the ocean, a boat and what sounds like a siren. I understand why they chose that as sort of an intro but it really doesn't feel musically integrated into the rest of their songs. They sound more like a band on “Heed the Warning…” and for the most part the song consists of distorted chords, a steady and driving bass. The main riff harks back to ’70s rock and in particular Led Zeppelin came to mind. “Lullaby” was the arguable highlight. The song is straightforward like the others but I just felt the hook was memorable. I liked “Sun Goes Down.” It just sounds like a completely different band at points. The first minute or so sounds like an Americana/folk band and they do sound good but it was a little unexpected. They get back on their signature sound with “God of War” and “The Sirens Song.” I have to admit I felt “The Sirens Song” was a good way to close. “Sun Goes Down (reprise)” revisits the song that felt a little out of place and then fades into the waves that introduced the album. Despite some minor issues I had, I thought this was their strongest release yet. The delivery and songwriting was impressive. I hope they continue to crush it. Recommended.
Hailing from Montreal, multi-instrumentalists Tamara Sandor and Ian Jarvis are the experimental pop group KRABA. They’ve been collaborating since 2016; 2020’s eponymous EP KRABA is their debut release.
The four-song set is atmospheric and new-agey--almost mystical in nature. Their lyrics, delivered in a storytelling, almost folk style, invoke mythological figures and draw inspiration from, as they say, “pre-Christian Northern European myth.” I may not be fluent in this subgenre of mythology, but I can state that the music that KRABA has created is enchanting. The opening track “GRANI” offers a soothing atmospheric start that leads into Sandor’s beautiful opening melody. It’s flowing-water music, with a soothing, oceanic feel. Amazingly, there’s just one chord and tone center used for the whole track, but it never gets boring. KRABA keeps us interested by varying the texture with assorted percussion sounds and other tones. “KRABA” follows. Here the band uses a lo-fi drum loop and a minor chord progression to support more beautiful singing. Texture and interest again come from percussion tracks and varied synth tones. The singing is layered with certain parts reminiscent of Dido. The synths could have come from an Oingo Boingo mid-‘80s movie soundtrack. The lyrics sound great with the words just melting over the track. The third track “LORELEI” combined aspects of the first two tracks. There’s a low-fi drum loop over a one-chord song. With the interesting timbres and beautiful singing, who needs anything but C major anyway? “ASLAUG” finishes the set. The vocals shine here: the track starts with a chant, and the mix is spectacular with three distinct vocal parts left, right, and center. The percussion is appropriately thunderous and spooky, and KRABA leaves us with a fine experience after this EP spin. A full album is in the works for late 2020/early 2021, and I look forward to hearing more from KRABA then!
Memory Sphere is a project led by multi-instrumentalist Ben Stout. Hailing from Perth, Australia, the artist has released under his own name an album called 360 Degrees of Freedom. Stout’s current release Never Forget Part I is a departure from the sound on his previous endeavors therefore he wanted to acquire a different band name for his latest projects.
Never Forget Part 1 is an immersive listening experience that explores personal loss and tragedy as the artist grapples with his grief. As the themes of loss emerges, this album showcases instances of light and dark and as Stout makes sense of his experiences with grief. The record is bursting with cinematic soundscapes that melds folk and metal into a sonic experience. The results are dark yet emotionally powerful, strongly evocative and definitely poignant. It is a steady response to a fleeting world, one that we must grasp by the reins or else the momentary flash will forever evade us. Never Forget Part I opens up with “To Deepest Warmth,” where reverberating guitar riffs sound off to an anthemic appeal. The guitars are full-ranging and create a wall of sound. The vocals come in with emotional power and range. The lyrics are a taste of what the album has to offer as far as themes and concepts. For example, the lyrics ask the questions: “Will the whispers ever cease?” “Will my heart turn my head around?” “Will time change my perspective?” “Will my perspective change me?” “Will I find my way?” It is these types of themes that Never Forget Part 1 forges to document with attention to detail and passion. On “Never Forget,” loud and reverberating strumming from the acoustic guitar starts off the track. Stout’s vocals come in, in a closed off whisper. A hushed sense of expectancy could be heard from his soft vocals. The music is simmering, undulating with emotional power. On “Fever Dream 3 – Lost Here,” spiraling cadences pierce the air as the spacey sounds expand toward the start of this song. The cadence of strings adds in a lush layer. The sound of wind instruments also traces this track. Revving guitar riffs add to the reverberating range. The vocals come in, in a mild manner. The soft vocals contrast to the wild music that contain dark riffs. A vibrant Eastern vibe underscores this song. The screams are harsh and intermittent. The chiming of bells peals out from out of the storm of instrumentals. The cadence of strings adds in a stirring pulse to “Midnight.” The music is serious with a strong sense of urgency. The vocals come in with a soft sound and are permeated with vulnerability. The song melds soft with aggressive, taking the two polar opposites and offsetting each characteristic off each other. This is a dark album that takes flight with emotionally powered vocals, fervent lyrics and on-point instrumentals. Underlining these intense tracks is Stout’s passion for his music. Magical and relentless, Never Forget Part 1 takes you on a journey beyond the ordinary. Never Forget Part II was recorded at the same time as Part I, but has not yet been released. If the searing sounds on Part I is any indicator, Part II will be equally evocative. I look forward to seeing more from the artist in Part II.
The Lima Division formed in 2018 in Northeastern Pennsylvania by husband-wife duo Bill and Kimberly Lima. Does their band name imply they are separated and are making music to keep it together? That was a joke. The duo doesn’t make saccharine sounding love songs which I often hear from married couples who make music. They make driving music that is a mix between hard rock, industrial and synth pop on their release Pneuma.
The music generally felt like a couple different artists. I often thought of NIN when it came to music but the vocals certainly are not. Kimberly reminded me of some of the female rock vocalists I grew up on like Patti Smith and the Wilson sisters from Heart. She has that confident vibe to her voice that you just don't’ hear that much these days. I enjoyed the album as a whole but there were a number of songs which I felt they nailed. The opener “War Crimes” does a good job mixing industrial and hard rock. I liked the driving energy and hook. “Wicked” might be the highlight. The combination of pads, arpeggiated synths and distorted guitars work very well. I would say this song soars. After this song the album for the most part slows down although there are some hard hitting songs like”These Pills.” There are some ballads and by the end I felt like I was listening to two different bands. Songs like “Local” and “Lonely World” sounded a little out of place just because it seemed like a 180 in terms of color, tone and vibe. That being ballads were also very written and performed. As an engineer myself I would say this is a mixed album in terms of recording quality. Some songs have more clarity than others and there are some issues with RMS levels. For these type of technical issues a professional mastering engineer can do a lot to help. Overall, there are some great songs on this album. I thought the songwriting, instrumentation and delivery was top notch. Take a listen.
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Burning Strong is a hardcore band, comprised of Kevin Lewis (vocals), Robert Goodspeed (guitar), Tito Langlois (guitar), Taylor Drugan (bass) and Mac Carpenter (drums), from Pensacola, FL, that recently released The Fire Rages On. The album title and band name refer to the same idea which seems to be a constant theme for the band.
They started out by passing iPhone demos in 2018 and soon enough headed to a studio. The results are impressive. Hardcore bands are usually pretty technical because of the speed at which they play and that’s no exception here. Carpenter in particular slays in terms of keeping the band in the pocket. In terms of the music it felt like a pretty straightforward hybrid of ’90s style punk in the spirit of NOFX and plenty of hardcore bands. Lewis leans in the aggressive, tension filled and cathartic release type of vocals. There are a number of other things they get right. The song length is usually around two minutes and I always felt this style didn't do much more than that. It aligns with the spirit of punk bands like The Minuteman. The songs do sort of run into each other; it took multiple listens to pick up on the nuances. In general, I always preach about songs feeling seamless on albums. The famous quote by Aristotle seems appropriate here, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” This type of album was meant to be played from beginning to end. There are eleven songs and it comes in at just a little over twenty-one minutes. This release isn’t taking punk and hardcore places it hasn’t been before but they do a great job keeping the flame alive. Take a listen.
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