Category: Music

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Weval – Changed for the Better

Overall a nice electronic music record, and I couldn’t be more specific than that—it’s like those Booka Shades of the musical spectrum that could fall in many sub-genres depending on how you look at it or where you come from. That said let’s focus on the title track, which just knocks my socks off. It is some amazing achievement in being soothing and calm, but also high in energy and making me move right away with floaty-wavy arms. I can imagine listening to it on a dancefloor and rise to melodic mid-tempo electro heaven. It’s been a while that I listened to something and wanted to reach for remixes; I just wish there’s a slightly higher tempo version of this as well.

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Djrum – Portrait With Firewood

Nice to mention this record right after Tides as this is a great example for the same vibe but with originality that I felt lacking there. Nice atmospheres on the slow-to-mid tempo electronic axis with lots of live-sounding orchestration, even more Floex vibes, but the more complex drum patterns and the post-dubstep bassline aesthetics package it into something fresh and exciting. I really like that this is a moody record without the sadness aspect—it’s like watching rain through the window but with inspiration and wondering. Actually it’s also like a new take on nu jazz.

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Sunda Arc – Tides

From ambient to mid-tempo, from moody electronics to modern classical. A debut record that sounds like a debut record: full of references and inspiration but I have yet to hear the dintinct voice of Sunda Arc. I can hear the blue electronics of Moderat, the piano play of Nils Frahm, also the clarinet comes with a Floex reference to me. Nice sounds overall, just needs more originality next time.

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Hand of Kalliach – Samhainn

It’s been quite a while that my attention was pinned down by a death metal album. Although this one ranges from death to black and melodic metal territories.

It’s so rare that speed gets put into such a great context and it’s not just going fast for the reason of technique showcase or mindless agression. I distinctly remember when I first starting listening to Slipknot as a teenager and I couldn’t listen to anything else anymore because other bands were just too slow. And that was also a case when speed has meaning and flavor. In the case of Hand of Kalliach I feel the same. The fast paced drums, guitars, and sometimes vocals flow so naturally with the overall sound they create, it just sounds amazingly fit there.

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Freeways – True Bearings

Tastes of straight up rock music from heavy metal through psychedelic to hard rock. A band with two records that sounds like an old classic that could be around for decades. Logo and cover arts also support this feeling.

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Christoph de Babalon – 044 (Hilf Dir Selbst!)

Starts with a dark ambient note but most of it is actually jungle beats and breakcore over some atmospheric sounds. Most of the time I imagined a cyberpunk heist movie rolling with this soundtrack. This could also be a spiritual successor of the Splinter Cell soundrack by Amon Tobin, but with less sophistication and a darker tone. Oh btw, I loved this record a lot, I could easily listen to it five times in a row.