What do you see when someone says Blonde Afro? I keep visualizing that one ambiguously gay teacher with the blonde Afro and the mustache from Whatever Happened to Robot Jones? I'm pretty sure that's the cartoon but I'm not about to scour Google images to back up my imagination. Can you grow an Afro? I highly recommend it, there's just something cool about rocking a small mountain of hair. Troubleshoot The Moon is sort of like an Afro. There is so much going on that the songs eventually make up this weird blend of folk, funk and ragtime that sounds how an Afro looks.
I'm not even sure how to properly begin this review; obviously what you just read was me buying time. The time signatures are all over the place, which is weirdly compatible with Rick McAlister's (aka Blonde Afro) stunted vocals. Like, he doesn't miss any syllables or stutter, but each syllable is delivered with rough singularity, as if exactly one breath is allotted for exactly one sound, and that sound better be part of the word you intended to say, unless it's monosyllabic. The music, too, has this weird stop-and-go quality. Each instrument shyly makes itself known and when you've gotten comfortable with it than it hides beneath the primary sound in the song. Take the spastic drumming and jazzy brass parts of the opener "The Weekend," with what sounds like a quick finger-run over a Casio keyboard. Wild rhythms contrast tight harmonies, and by the song's end everything you thought was a bad idea makes sense. Lyrically, this is fun as hell, as McAlister walks the line between personal anecdote and playful observation. He can stay out all night until the sun comes up and the cows come home, discuss people farting and he's totally over both you and religion. I suppose jazz is the genre McAlister is most comfortable with. The compositions certainly aren't standard rock numbers. The brass, the miniature crescendos but mostly the lilting stops and pockets of silence best evidence this. People who are comfortable with musical comparisons, you're on your own: Blonde Afro has to be heard, not read about.
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Philip Atherton, based among the red cities of Arizona, wrote and recorded Velveteen Vaccine (The Promise Of An Open Road was released a couple months after) shortly before the birth of his son. New critics will disagree with any critic's revelation that life affects art, but it's hard not to surmise Atherton's new role as father did not affect the outcome of this album, which is very accessible, very heady ambient music.There are times when the music swaddles you in rich textures and times when the layers build under and raise you to the top of amorphous heights. Drawn-out loops cycle back into themselves and the songs arrive in the middle of their own creation so that each, for however long it runs, is a plateau. On Secret Passage grace and precision mark tracks like the chime-happy "Dragonfly" and then the sunrise eloquence of "Horizon" (the last track on the album and incidentally the first track Atherton played for his son after his birth). It is one of the highlights that creates a serene landscape that feels comforting. It kept picturing a crystal cathedral as the tones are warm and pure. There is also the magnetism of "Sky" and muted symphony of "Low Tide." The Promise Of An Open Road starts off with "Chem Trail" which has jazzy sounding Amon Tobin inspired drums and warm pads that have a tinge of white noise. There is just enough snap in the snare to drive the cloudiness of the music forward and not leave it stagnant for long. Atherton tips his hat to dub-step (as well as Burial) on the next track called "Wanderlust". The song becomes lost in a maze of synths that are driven by a consistent beat. "Dividing Black From Blue" is the centerpiece of the album and is a solid song that slightly overstays its welcome. I did throughly enjoy when he deviates from the drum programming and starts to sound like Aphex Twin. There isn't anything wild or eccentric going on with Secret Passage. The music is straightforward ambience that Atherton approaches with a confident ear and artisan's touch for musical control. No beat or sample seems out of place, no song too heavy, if it's going for heavy, and no song too light, if it's going for light. Some tracks shimmer, others simmer with emotion. All of them, it seems, are designed to make it a bit easier to breath, but it’s the solitude inherent in each track that makes me believe this album was written, above all, for Atherton's son rather than whoever is reading this. That said, it doesn't mean it wasn't meant for you. Promise Of The Open Road is a much more beat driven album then its predecessor. The tones darker and the record felt more ominous to me. All in all the two records compliment each other nicely. Jason Batchelor, aka Tender Grey, is a musician who makes me believe in a sunnier tomorrow. Negative Waves is a succinct quintet of bedroom pop songs that are little else besides Batchelor’s unabashed, untrained voice and a Pickles guitar, folded over together in lo-fidelity production. The music is so frank it hurts, like finding that journal you kept at a particularly disappointing time in your life. All the songs have a distinct beat-happening vibe. The album is exclusively acoustic, bleary-eyed strumming with the just the right amount of guitar twang for your midnight ruminations. Steady, simple chord changes placed apart just so you barely hang onto Batchelor's next words. Lo-fi the production is, his lyrics are strictly about faith in yourself and others. "Could you stay one more day," he hiccups in the opening lines of "Wolf Dream". "I want you to get from the place that makes you sad." You know, sometimes you just have to toss out the metaphors, the gloss, the poetics and just let people know how you feel. There isn't much dynamic to the lyrics or music but when you group both simple formulas together, you have a potent equation that Batchelor helpfully solves. There's a bit uptempo pep in the cynical "Negative Waves," frank admittance in "Lunar House," and the memories of a first kiss on "Wednesday." The songs here are all sparse and don't rely on amazing guitar playing or singing to carry the songs. Instead the way the chords are strummed and the tone in his voice all come together to create a sense of not only sadness but solace. There isn't much to say about Negative Waves and yet I want to keep talking about this album. It's the sad acoustic stuff you wish you wrote during the low points to help you deal with life. Time heals old wounds, yes, but I felt my sutures come apart when I heard Batchelor bluntly close the EP with the words, "I don't know what I'll without you, just don't know what I'll do without you." Contrasts is five baroque compositions slowly crumbling apart to reveal the bits of ideas constructed to make the whole. No doubt these songs will divide people into two camps: those that think The Symptoms have trouble figuring out their sound and those who think The Symptoms have their sound down pat.This EP is a statement against the standard ABABB song structure the band grew sick of replicating. Instead of verse-chorus-verse listeners are treated to lyrical repetition, variation on musical themes and subtle genre touches throughout. Thunderous percussion breaks free from piano-led peace in "Seeing in the Dark," and the idea that two approaches to music, controlled composition and sudden noise, can exist together and even simultaneously is repeated during Contrasts' run. The quietly weird "Hiding Out" shows he Symptoms' softer side, creating gentle humming and soft electronic layers that freely float through Jim O'Rourke-inspired ambiance. "April," the most imaginative cut, uses interesting, offbeat rhythm to counteract the downtempo beats. The song has a grey color to it, like it was recorded during a misty morning, but the weirdo sound effects, like choking robots, that become prominent toward the end of the song disrupt the mood. In fact, The Symptoms greatest strength lies in their ability to create mood and then surprise the listener with a well-placed ill-timed musical function. "Seeing in the Dark" plays a trick on the listener at the very end; the piano set-up that mirrors "Seeing in the Dark" suddenly gives way to depressurized drumming that brings the song to a close. Meditative but not without malice, Contrasts is a sharp intake of breath for experimental indie music. Sometimes the songs release slowly, sometimes they blow out but they don't let you forget you're listening to what cannot be considered a standard rock album.
Acoustic does not need to be synonymous with simplistic or unoriginal, and bands do not necessarily need to share a common musical preference in order to create a free-flowing, well-constructed album. Quite to the contrary, on their self-titled debut Aquadeer unites various influences in a pleasant layering of four-part harmonies and variety of instruments, and it sounds entirely, utterly natural, despite the fact that each of the four members come from distinctly different backgrounds. Deriving inspiration from indie acoustic singer-songwriters, world music---particularly that which is found in the Balkan mountain ranges and North India---and smooth jazz, the quartet was conceived in 2010 through the California Institute of the Arts, a conservatory that celebrates diversity in music and encourages musicians of all different backgrounds to collaborate. Aquadeer embraced the challenge. The band was determined to craft a record that would stand the test of time and successfully blend what is essentially an entire spectrum of genres from every corner of the world. Seemingly an impossible feat, they do a pretty decent job at narrowing down the best qualities of each genre and fusing them in a very solid and deeply melodic album. Aquadeer has a unique sound, to be certain, and the harmonies are whimsical and light-hearted; despite the sometimes introspective and tragic lyrics, the music itself is the equivalent of a drive down a long, rural stretch of road at dusk, when the final rays of sun are dying. Rough, melancholic, and hauntingly imperfect vocals telling darkly poetic stories are so eerily reminiscent of Elliott Smith that it's almost as if he is temporarily reincarnated in the form of the track "The Scale." The comparison is likely to always be drawn in critiques of the band's music, but simply because lead vocalist Dylan Rodrigue's voice is uncannily similar. It's unlikely that with the band's diverse array of influences, they set out intentionally to copy Smith's style. It just so happens that it works amazingly well. "In the Eye," lyrically as well as musically, sounds like a lost track on a Local Natives album yet to be realized, incorporating religious symbolism, repetition, and the sort of laid-back yet mildly jaded West Coast wistfulness present in so much of California's independent music scene. This track's swelling positivity provides a perfectly ironic segue into the next song, entitled "Fucking Freak," which---unsurprisingly---takes a slightly more pessimistic approach. Now on completely the other side of the coin, the guitar is rawer, Rodridgue's voice quavers more with a sudden strain and fervour, and the riffs remain lodged permanently in your brain long after the song ends. For those who value lyrics above music, this is the song to pay close attention to, and the song that personally sold me on this band: "I've been asleep so long that I've lost my memories" is only a small taste of the beautifully fragmented one-liners present here. What can you do in 72 hours? If you said compose an EP of highly diverse and engaging electronic music that fuses with jazz you may have a lot in common with Wanderlust. Matt Ripley is the brainchild behind Wanderlust and on his EP entitled Post-Mortem that he started on 6/6/13 and then uploaded to Bandcamp by 6/19/13. What's more impressive is that it’s a pretty good piece of work. Maybe this shouldn't be a surprise as Ripley has been running an underground music/event collective for the past three years named Thought Society and has done around 50 events and free gatherings.” He also plays live out in San Francisco bringing equipment out to various venues that support electronic music. Ripley isn't the first musician to combine jazz and electronic as it was almost perfected by Squarepusher in 1998 when he released Music is Rotted One Note. While you don’t get any of the insane Squarepusher bass playing, on this album you get a nice healthy dose of some standup bass. The juxtaposition alone of the bass sound versus the electronics is fun to listen to. The first thing you hear on the album is a number of ominous synth tones that sound like they are in an underground cathedral. As the song “pm-1” progresses it starts to have elements of free jazz in that almost random percussive elements start to manifest. The song eventually finds a rhythm to carry as the bassist choses his moments carefully as to when to play and when not to. Finally the sounds seep into each other and then the song becomes a mechanism of disparate parts and jazz influence. The second song “pm-2” sounds even more jazz-inspired and the bass is more prevalent in this track than the previous one. A lot of the same synth tones are used though out and feel like an extension on the first song. ”pm-3” is simply a quick noodle on the standup bass before the highlight of the album “pm-4” begins. This song has the fastest bpm yet and by the end seems to shed a lot of the jazz influence and is more like a straight up electronic track. “pm-5” is another solid track that contains a couple of vocal samples and heavy percussive elements which drive the track. It is obvious that Ripley is talented and has a knack for programming. If this is what he could do in 72 hours I want to hear the album he makes that takes a bit longer.
The Silver End is a four-piece band from Norway that sound like an American hard rock band not unlike that of Linkin Park or Breaking Benjamin or even a hint of Tool. Truth be told none of these bands are the first thing I would pop in to listen to but I have listened to some early Linkin Park that I thought was at least respectable. I have the same feelings for this group. The music isn’t my favorite genre but I can’t deny that a couple of songs on their debut album, Beyond Limits, caught my attention. First and foremost the production sounds radio-ready. There's a lot going on here (especially with the distorted guitars and slamming drums) but everything sounds like it’s just in the right place. The vocals are clear and powerful, the low-end is defined and the guitars sound exceptional. Fourteen songs deep this album has a lot to it and by the time you get to the 14th track you might be spent. I would have preferred a ten-track album since a lot of the songs have a similar feel. Despite the high track count none of the songs go past the five-minute mark which makes it easier to digest. After a brief intro we are presented with “Learning the Lesson” which contains some pretty intense guitar riffs and enough variation within the song itself to keep things interesting. They do have a lot of parts within the songs in which there are multiple breakdowns. It was obvious after listening to the first song that The Silver End wants to keep the listener engaged. “Make It Better” felt like straight up 80’s heavy metal for a while. The opening riff combines phased out guitars and palm muting before the song starts to feel a bit more modern (I think it’s the vocals as well as the heavy dose of reverb on the lead). One of the ballads on the album is “Breaking Free” which has lyrics you have heard before and progressively becomes more and more grandiose. As I listened to the rest of the songs they started to feel like the same song and contain the same formula. However what was nicely executed on these songs was that after my repeated listens the album starts to separate from their cluster. The individual songs start to stand out and you begin to have favorites. In the end what they made was a cohesive album that has number of well-written songs that slightly overstays its welcome. It’s a good start and I’m pretty sure as time goes on they will continue to refine their skill and develop a more original sound.
Formed in Melbourne, Australia, the electronica group Audrey Vixen consists of former producers Trent Saunders and Laura Hamilton. This band seeks to create elaborate soundscapes that focus on the deep end of electronic ambient and take the genre to greater depths than many have before them. Their latest EP, Butterfly Lullaby, is the fourth release from the duo from down under.This is a skillfully crafted EP with a wintry moodiness you can almost feel with all five senses. Amongst the light and bliss, there is a deceptively dark side as well, present in the form of a distinct, almost constant progressive bassline which has given the band their unique edge and helped them to gather a small but devout cult following, both in their home country and across the world.
In the opening track, "About to Burn," vocalist Jade May croons with repetitive ethereality and sets the tone for the remaining five tracks, all of which contain unparalleled vibrancy and emotional depth. With the help of social media's influence, Audrey Vixen's original music as well as many unofficial, fan-made remixes of mainstream pop songs, has caught the attention of various labels. Remixes of their delicate but dark melodies have been released by labels including Nuform Music, Addictive Vibe Records, and their own imprint, Charlotte Sinner. With a background in production, both members of the band used their own skills to mix and master the EP at home in Melbourne. On many tracks, the band relies on carefully selected female guest vocalists, who each helped to write their own lyrics, and whose lush, ghostly vocal styles wonderfully complement the atmosphere. "Then We Collide" is an especially creepy track featuring a haunting vocal addition by Tara Nielson which echoes as though in a cathedral, lifts, rises, and eventually fades sorrowfully and quietly to be replaced by a barely audible voice recording which ends the song.Jamie Slater contributes lyrics to "Back Against the Wall," which is definitely the track on the album most likely to reach a mainstream audience. Poignant, painful, and utterly heartfelt, Slater does not simply gently supplement the instrumentals in the background, as vocalists do on other tracks; her voice overpowers the entire song, breathing new life into Audrey Vixen's vision, and illuminating their brooding, introspective musical backdrop. The EP ends on a strange, uncertain note, with the subtle ballad "Home." All in all, there is an equal sense of decay and rebirth. If these six tracks are indicative of what is next for Audrey Vixen, their upcoming full-length album The Punished Heroes will contain melodies that are equally anthemic and emotionally provocative. As I was listening to Particularly Hello the new album by The World Palindrome I was thinking to myself how well the band played off of each other. Later that evening as I was reading their bio I was shocked to discover that the band isn't a band at all but in fact the work of one man named Les Easterby. Not since I discovered that Billy Corgan played all the parts on Siamese Dream (besides the drums) have I been so impressed of what one man can do who knows how to play a variety of instruments and make it sound like an entire band. Easterby’s creative genius flows all across this album. It combines experimental as well as traditional sounds and creates songs that follow a pop format that make them accessible to just about anyone with half a brain. Some songs have a little tinge of shoegaze, while other have a grungy 90’s rock feel, and then others seem to be inspired by the Beach Boys. Anyway you should get the idea that he isn't afraid to experiment. That being said, it doesn't feel borrowed. Instead the album feels uniform and original. The music reminds me somewhat of The Flaming Lips at times (he doesn't sound like Wayne Coyne at all but the music itself sounds like something Drozd would experiment with). Some have said that the music reminds them of The Soft Bulletin but I actually feel it’s a bit more comparable to Clouds Taste Metallic or Transmissions from the Satellite Heart. Another thing to take note of is the production. It is no wonder that it sounds good when it was recorded and mixed by Micajah Ryan whose credits include Guns N’ Roses and Bob Dylan. The first song entitled “Particularly Hello” is one of the best songs on the album. It contains some excellent guitar work that sounds gorgeous. Cascading guitars provide a bed of melodies for Easterby to sing over. The vocal melody is just as catchy as the guitars. The song barely lifts off the ground before it ends and “We’ve Got It (All Worked Out)” starts before you know it. This song is a rocker that has some great experimental guitar work in the background – might be a synth but either way it is awesome. “Cut the Cake” was a highlight for me as it had some really cool effects in the background. It reminded me a bit of Of Montreal. The hardest hitting song on the album is “Nazty Boyz/Bad Habits.” It contains an onslaught of drums, distorted guitars and aggressive vocals. As the song progresses it becomes a blur of white noise and vocal harmonies. “Maritial Bliss” is the longest track on the album, lasting a bit over the five-minute mark. It is also really catchy and for some reason I was sensing a bit of sarcasm when he was singing “girl, I want to spend my life with you.” Maybe a bit like Ariel Pink. The last song “Trombone Moan Pt 1&2” is an experimental sound collage of what sounds like a lawn mower, free jazz tube style and de-pitched vocal rambling. It didn't sound like anything else on the album but somehow it was perfectly appropriate. This album is awesome so just go listen to it.
Good ole gritty rock like The Rolling Stones, The White Stripes, and The Black Keys is hard not to like in my opinion. It has a good amount of attitude, you can drink a beer to it and you aren't embarrassed to turn it up at a good party. While not quite at the level yet of the bands I’ve listed ...And the Black Feathers contains these qualities. Their latest album entitled Love on the Lam revolves around distorted guitars that play rocking riffs (occasionally bluesy), crashing drums, awesome vocal harmonies and a surplus attitude that is fun at the same time. It just seems like these guys are having a blast when they are playing and it becomes infectious as you listen to the record. They don't seem to take themselves too seriously and the album is all the better for it. Production- wise the album is good, but not great. I felt like a couple of things here and there could have sounded better but this is rather marginal compared to the quality of the songs. To kicks things off we are presented with “Evol (Part 1).” The song starts off rather subdued with not much other than spacey sounding guitars, vocals and a huge sounding bass drum. “Evol (Part 2) is where things pick up. The song is a fun rocker that contains some great guitar and sing-along choruses that are highly infectious. The momentum continues as we roll into “Lover,” The singer sounds a bit like Billy Idol on this one and I also really enjoyed the background vocals as well. Around the two-minute mark the song starts exploding before it comes down once more only to explode again. The whole band sings on “Physikal” while the band tries to take a bit of breather on “Telephone To White” relying on vocals and guitar for a lot of the song. The album closes with “Prom King” which rocks out on a grand scale. You should have a good idea of what this album offers. A good rock album that sheds all pretenses in favor of having a good time. Grab a beer, turn it up and rock out.
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