Comfort Decade aka Paul Atwood is an artist from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada who recently released Murmur. In 2016, Atwood started writing music at the age of eighteen. As someone who has been studying and teaching music for much longer than Atwood has been alive I’m comfortable saying two years of experience is just the embryonic stage of development no matter how talented you are. That being said I think this is a solid start and builds a foundation for his sound.
The songs are fairly straightforward in delivery and structure and lean towards an indie rock/post-punk vibe. Up first is “Overcast” which starts with kinetic drums and fuzzy guitars. The groove is solid. Once the vocals come in they are low in the mix and distorted. At its best I was reminded of the aesthetics of early Primal Scream. The chorus is fairly distinct but what I really liked were the added guitars that introduced themselves on the second verse. There is a brief interlude which was neither here nor there. It’s not a track that you would just go to but serves as a transitional fifty-one seconds of music. “Bridges Burn” is next and comparisons to a band like Joy Division are apparent. It’s a little dark 4/4 tune that’s fairly danceable and I thought the groove on the verse was notable. “It's Always the Same” was really too lo-fi for me to say much of anything. It felt like I was listening to something with a blanket over my head. “Satisfied” is arguably the catchiest track on the EP. I would recommend Atwood think about working with other musicians which would unequivocally make him a better musician faster. The songs on this EP seem more fitting for a live band than a bedroom. As far as production and recording quality there is too much to go over in terms of issues that present themselves in the recording. I would recommend either studying a little more about things like EQ, compression, M/S signal, balance and more. On top of that working with an engineer or producer with experience is always beneficial in my opinion. Overall there is some talent here but I think there is more potential to be untapped. I look forward to hearing more soon.
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Among the storied history of London, Ontario, you’ll find a band making a name for themselves called Lost Arts. The experience of the music is heavily focused on the live show. Following the release of their debut EP, 2018’s Let Me Go, fans are now able to experience the music in their own environment under their own circumstances. However varied they may be, fans of alternative rock will find much to explore and enjoy on the early September release.
“Waist Down” is the second track on Let Me Go. It opens with a fast attacking lead guitar that is punctuated by hits from the drums and rhythm guitar. As the verse gracefully falls into place behind the intro, the baritone stylings of the vocals carry the song steadily through and into the chorus. The instruments open up to create a wider sound on the chorus before seamlessly transitioning back to the verse. This continues before the other instruments clear out giving the guitar the maximum room to fully spread its wings. The solo runs steadily for thirty seconds, ripping out of the speakers in an explosion of notes before settling down to punch through one final chorus. Simply calling Lost Arts an alternative band is an understatement. Their influences range from many bands of the hard rock and metal variety - bits of Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, Slayer, Alice In Chains, Melvins, Queens of the Stone Age, Black Sabbath, Mastodon, Wolfmother, Rival Sons, Audioslave, Foo Fighters and others that have taken a heavier approach to the alternative sound. The attitude remains the same with modern alternative bands with lyrics that aren’t about monsters in a fantasy realm and focused more on the daily struggle of survival in the modern world that we all face between indecision and inability. The album is sure to pique the interest of anyone who is a fan of a great guitar player, a swift drummer, thunderous bass tones and explosive vocals.
Harmless Habit is a band comprised of Joey Vece (vocals), Jon Suh (guitar), Cooper Bourne (guitar), Rinn Rucker (drums) and Nick Fratianne (bass). They released Fronterror which is a pretty straightforward pop/rock EP. Just by looking at press photos the band plays the part. One guy has on heavy eye liner; another guy has on leather gloves. There’s nothing wrong with indulging in rock cliches as long as your sound can hold up.
The band is heavy hitting but their sound has a largely accessible FM radio type vibe it. They push their sound to the tenth degree and keep it intense at almost all times. Up first is “Fronterror” which is more or less an onslaught of distorted guitars, bass and drums from the get go. The band is tight in a way that you hear on radio ready type songs. It’s almost like a metronome how sharp the band plays. The hook is catchy enough to make the song “the single.” “Freakshow” continues to build their foundation as well as to display some other sides to their sound. The breakdown was well done and the band again is so sharp when it comes to playing in the pocket. “Damage Control” and “My Distraction” continue to build their sound with memorable hooks. “Tight!” was a highlight for no other reason than I enjoyed the groove. In the first few seconds of “Not Afraid To Die” they sounded like a completely different band. It’s atmospheric and pretty gorgeous. I would have liked a little more of that. Either way the song was one of my favorites on the EP. The recording quality on this EP is FM radio ready but they don’t dress up the songs with unnecessary effects. I liked the fact that they kept it simple. The band brings forward a solid set of pop/rock songs.
Nashville rock band Barker has only been together for four months. Yet within that short time span the band has already opened up for notable acts such as Fulton Lee, Nordista Freeze and Ill Spector. Separately the members have years of music experience. Together on their debut EP Barker, they blend the sounds of heavy rock and add a Tennessee twang of country.
The album opens up with the static of an amp as Storm Smith’s guitar eases you in the dire words of singer Jack Daly, “Got a foggy mind inside my head. It’s turning me blind sometimes I’m hanging by a thread. Got a shady girl lying in my bed. My face is numb my hands are red.” Barker sings in unison saying goodbye to a loved one that could no longer stay. Barker returns to their Tennessee roots on “Contributions.” Daly’s whistling harmonica solo along with the jam session at the end reinvigorates listeners to just having a good time. It has become an ongoing bad joke for people to say they like all forms of music except for country. Fact of the matter is they either haven’t given the genre a chance or have not found the right song. If there’s one song that could convert people to country music believers give “Contributions” a shot. Going from the countryside of Tennessee, “3 Hours” takes listeners to mosh pit city. Guitarist Storm Smith’s licks are sure to please any punk rock fans. The way he makes his guitar squeal makes you lose control and start moshing. Head banging ensues as drummer Austin Collier thrashes the song into madness. The urge to sing along with Daly’s gnarly voice yelling “3 hours there! 3 Hours back!” overtakes you. Logan’s thundering bass is present throughout the entire ordeal. Aside from the overall franticness tone, the most punk has to be again Daly’s harmonica solo. “Oh Television” and “Thunder Von” slows down the tempo a bit but they still have brilliant instrumental outros. Both are drawn out but lead to a big build up to an epic guitar solo at the end of each song. “Thunder Von” cuts short at the two-minute mark at which point the Barker puts a new tape to let the listener know, you’re about to hear something awesome. Barker ends the album with a colossal four-minute guitar solo. Before it ends a voice jokingly states “that’s a fucking long guitar solo.” Although the members of Barker have only been a band for a few months, they have a terrific sound. Barker’s five songs show the band’s depth from country to punk rock. The tracks are pretty lengthy ranging from four to six minutes. Almost all end in epic guitar or harmonica solo. Kudos to lead singer Jack Daly for making his harmonica sound so badass. Songs like “Contributions” and “3 Hours” give you this high energy that just makes you want to let loose. While “Oh Television” and “Thunder Von” slow the flow down a bit, the instrumental outros make you shut up and take notice at the brilliance Barker possess.
Dana Burtin aka LyricalGenes is an artist hailing from Cleveland, Ohio who released 2019 The Album. My first thoughts are why is the album named what it is. Burtin actually gives an answer to this. He explains “2019 is my graduation year. 2019 adds up to the #12, the age I started writing. It's 2018 not 2019! Think in the future. I present to you "2019" The Album.” Alright well I will go with that. At any rate the album is pretty straightforward rap.
Things get cracking with “Go Get It (Woo Haa).” The song starts with a slightly ominous vibe. Dark pads loom in the background as multiple vocal parts weave into the mix. Around the thirty- second mark the beat drops and continues to play into a dark vibe. I kept on picturing a dark alley in a rainy city. At any rate Burtin’s rapping is dynamic and finds a number of solid hooks. “Brainstorm” has its moments as well. The lyrics are well played and talk about keeping his ego in check, throwing negativity out the window and much more. “Sticks and Stones” contains what sounds like reversed elements juxtaposed against a straight beat. I liked the feel of the song which feels like vertigo. The lyrics are actually quite motivational. “Life that I Knew” definitely was a different direction. The song contains a female vocalist who appears to be uncredited. At any rate the song is one of the single worthy tracks. Burtin is really positive in this song and gets pretty personal when he brings up his dad and mom. The positivity continues with “Help Everybody.” “Funny How” displays more of his versatility as a rapper with a rhythm and cadence that felt a little more advanced. “D.J (Divine Judgement)” had a ’90s vibe not too far off from De La Soul. Last but not least is the hard and aggressive “Guerrilla Warfare.” This album is fairly scattered because of the different styles he attempts. He never quite carves out a signature sound but instead shows a potpourri of styles. That being said there were standout tracks to my ears and I look forward to hearing more from him.
Every week we mention a couple of artists that are worth your time to check out that were not featured in our weekly reviews.
Artist Album Rating The Saturn Return Of Me, Of You 3.8 Behind the Stone Door The Nomad 3.5 Control Room Retreat 3.6 Dove Cages EP 3.9 Is it people Living Inside EP 3.9
I was reading about Revel & Ritual by Greg Herriges. Apparently Revel & Ritual: Holiday Music for the World is a collection of traditional and original music for holidays of many faiths, places, and seasons, including Hanukkah, Holi, Ashura, Chinese and Ukrainian New Year, Sakura Matsuri, Basque and Catalan Christmas carols, and the Winter Solstice. I consider myself to be pretty educated in music theory and history but I would have had a hard time figuring some of this out if it wasn’t told to me. The songs are instrumental and therefore don’t give you too many clues as to what they are derived from.
Up first is “Birjina Gazetto Bat Zegoen” which is a Basque christian song about the annunciation. The song combines technically creative string work with what sounds like Eastern percussion. It’s simultaneously calming and meditative with a crisp organic energy. “Garuda/Khelat Rang Holi” was a great track that layers Indian vocals over a Gamelan-inspired glockenspiel melody. It feels vibrant and very alive with a number of notable transitions. “Sakura, Sakura” is a traditional Japanese song. This felt obvious to me especially the beginning of the song. It’s sparse, letting the space between notes play a vital role in the stillness of the track. “Sevivon, Sov Sov Sov” is a traditional Hebrew song and it's also obvious where the song had its roots in. Similar to a number of other Hebrew tracks the song speeds up and becomes festive. “Ashura” was a highlight. The instrumentation is overflowing here with no particular focal point that makes for a rush of sounds and swells. My ears could wander where they wanted. It was quite fun. “Foom, Foom, Foom” is a repeating phrase of a 16th or 17th century Catalan christmas carol. it could refer to chimney smoke, the rocking of a cradle, the banging of a drum, fiddling or the strumming of a guitar. “Bright Night” is an original and surprisingly had vocals. “Gong Xi Ni” is a traditional Chinese song with exceptional string work while “Shchedryk” is traditional Ukrainian song that I think most people will be familiar with. Revel & Ritual is an eclectic mix of songs but was way more cohesive than I thought it might be. This is a great collection of tunes for the holidays. Take a listen.
From the burgeoning music of Minneapolis a new indie rock sound has emerged. They're called Poolboy and their album is Double Goer. It's a grungy, crunchy trippy delight that tugged on my heartstrings immediately. It's grumpy and creepy but never sad or tedious. The big theme I picked up from listening to this album in its entirety is dichotomy. This concept is so deeply explored on both a lyrical and musical level. The album is a slow burning descent into elsewhere. You'll sink through your floor and wind up in the dreamy void of someone else's mind.
Every song on here has lyrics that stung me in the brain. This is poetic stuff. It's heavy and laced with double and triple meanings. The words give this album a hefty amount of replay value. Seth Conover is the vocalist and song writer. Obviously I have made it clear I am fond of his words but his voice is a whole other love affair. He is almost conversational in his singing style. He can be pointed, irritated, nostalgic and even curious. He delivers emotion perfectly without being over dramatic. The album opens with a psychedelic shoe gazer called "Personal Space." This song is gorgeous, covered in a dingy film of grunge and apathy. I love it. It’s a great opener. It is both creepy and somehow absolutely lovely. The second track is "Corrections" and I found it to be a powerful and epic piece. They added a string element which lets the song paint such a picture. You can hear the canvas unfurl. It's dreamy and deeply personal, again with the beautiful dichotomy. I was all in. Lyrically "Designated Mourner" is incredible. Again, we're getting very personal but it's not exactly worn on the sleeve, it's tucked neatly into the narrative that is kept loose and flowing throughout the song. "Doppelganger" holds tight to a more traditional indie sound. It's a symphony of incredible guitar performance and reverb. It's vast and loving and it cradles the listener. The final track is "Bad Apples" and here you get a little more bluesy while maintaining that psych rock mystique. This one was the only one that didn't completely blow me away, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the journey. Double Goer went through several hands in terms of production. It was recorded at a local private studio of Johnny Kermott, mixed by Brett Bullion and mastered by Huntley Miller. Three different sets of hands and the album stands firmly in a cohesive foundation of sound engineering. I tip my hat to everyone involved on the production end, it was well worth the trip for this album because it has a fascinating sound that required hands that understood it. This is one of those albums that can spark a dangerous bout of introspection if you're not careful. The album almost breathes for you in a slow sort of way and then sometimes it lets out these beautiful frustrated sighs. I guess what I'm trying to say is, this album has heart, and that's a big seller for me.
The Connecticut River Valley folk rock quartet Tiny Ocean began around 2016 when drummer Jon Morse brought on guitarist Jeremy Coster and bassist Kieth Bass to help back up some songs that the singer/songwriter Kierstin Sieser had wanted to arrange and record. After gigging around their home state for a bit the band hit the studio to record what would become Sometimes You’re Right, their debut record as the band Tiny Ocean, which includes Keith Newman on bass guitar and backing vocals and Freddie Tane on pedal steel.
Sometimes You’re Right opens with the slow rolling country esthetics of “Astronaut” a deeply personal and affecting introduction to the record. It’s a rather melancholy opener yet Sieser’s vocals are sweet as can be, only don’t let that fool you. They have the feeling of a woman who has nearly lost her voice from the sadness she is recollecting, and we are meeting her here, as she now has enough focus to lament on what has been lost. This sweetness takes a bit of an uptick, as does the music on the next track “Apple Pie” on which she gets a little help from some male vocal harmonies. Despite its dire nature I couldn’t help but be made to feel good by the addictive cheerfulness the song exudes. As I listened on I realized this period of cheerfulness despite the sadness of the materials undertones was kept me wanting more, perhaps I am myself a glutton for punishment or just that despite the pain in the lyrics there was so much beauty in the craftsmanship of the songs and Sieser’s vocal delivery which I at once liked because she is never begging for mercy nor is she begging for a listener’s sympathy. She is simply stating the brutal facts in a poetic mundanity that is at once elegiac and beautiful. It’s not something I hear very often, but when I do it is striking enough to make me stop and take notice. Take for instance a line from one of my favorite tracks “Americans” on which she sings, “morning sounds like this/morning feels like why I always love the night.” One can pour over that single phrase again and again, so simple, so beautiful and so powerful. Later on another standout track, “Slow Learner” the pedal steel wails and the keys lend a dainty touch and the song emerges slowly with the feeling of a watercolor painting coming to life before one’s eyes. Here Sieser sings, “and you say, say, say, that you taught me / buts its more, more, more like a haunting.” Later on the beautifully haunting country ballad “Poison” reminiscent of the great Neko Case, Sieser sings, “darkness so thick, wraps us in its sweetness / electricity is buzzing like the crickets.” Here again we this sense of a mysteriousness that pervades so much of Tiny Ocean’s slowly wrought work. The folk and alt country scene is an ever expanding universe unto itself, one which I often find to be bloated with so much wallowing and self-pity that it just makes for something like the conversations I overhear on the bus or train during the daily commute; heartbreak amplified and often very tedious and impersonal. However when heartbreak is done right, as it is so masterfully on Tiny Ocean’s Sometimes You're Right, it’s a conversation you just don’t want to end.
Metal music was always one of those genres that I admired from afar. Aside from my youth in the early days of MTV I was never much of a person who was able to fully understand metal music. To be honest it scared me a little. It scared me because of the mostly long haired guys playing it and also because the people I knew that were into metal were really into metal. It seemed to me like a genre that you had to be all into and not really have much need for any other kind of music. Perhaps I’ve always had a problem with commitment.
The Finnish band progressive indie rock band Virgo Fuss, comprised of singer, keyboardist and bassist Jukka Hakosaari, guitarist Lauri Tanhuanpää and drummer Matti Hakosaari were long time practitioners of metal music but all that changed in 2011 when they decided it was time for a change. And that change to soaring sonic and melodic pop and rock couldn’t be any further from metal. Their debut record as Virgo Fuss called Contours opens with the six-minute open space ballad “Temper” a song full of pop leanings that recall big time pop rock bands, perhaps most identifiably one hears influences of Coldplay. They keep that feeling of urgent tempos and melodic pop going on “Fairy Face” and it crests on “Flamingos” with its building to a big swell of rock ending where one hears traces of bands like U2 during their more arena rock heavy moments. One thing I noticed is how consistent Virgo Fuss is when crafting their blend of ambient rock. It’s nearly a branding of sorts, a consistency which I found to be a very welcome change from so many bands who seem to think that by being a rock band means they can genre hop around on their record and it won’t harm the overall end product, which is completely untrue. Even when at their most sonic and perhaps radio friendly, on a song like “Bad Jokes” when they take the guitar, bass and drum jam session and really beat out a tune, almost with a pop punk mode, they still keep everything within the limits of their control. However they seem to sound most comfortable when sticking to a more nuanced ‘80s brit rock sound as they do on “The Old Song” a sleek and dark rocker that drips with that era’s synth and guitar rock mixture. Contours really gave me cause to think about a lot of things. I see now that one can escape the grasp of metal and come out ahead later. Virgo Fuss has done a tremendous job here crafting a rock record that dives and soars as it moves along from song to song. Each song sounds distinct in its own way yet also part of larger whole. Their popular influences have served them well in giving them a path to follow but they never sound like mimics. All around Contours is a really great record by a few very talented lads. |
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