Memory keeper. Mostly music and movies, plus some series and video games. Obscure darkness meets pop culture glow.
From the postive side of post-rock, mixing in psychedelic rock vibe, and layering it with radio recordings from the era of the space race. Quite a unique concept album. What I like most is the overall upbeat and dreamy atmosphere of it all. It feels pleasantly naive.
This is a quintessential trip hop record. Hip hop beats with blue moods and jazzy instruments. Lamentation on life withouth words.
Easy listening mid-tempo house and lazy chillout music, which doesn’t strive to be in the foreground. Good for work, a run while you want to think about stuff and not focus on the music, and Saturday afternoon garden parties with sunshine.
I still have a hard time to slap a label on Nicolas Jaar. But this record is pure gold, again. Overall I can call it modern classical, although that’s not because of its use of traditional instruments and orchestration, but because it sounds like my idea of a perfect, meticulously crafted classical music today. Genrewise it’s some kind of ambient with a very wide range of intruments and sounds (drums, chimes, keys, strings, experimental textures, and voice), using inspiration from all over the world, and melting it into a introvert mind trip. As advertised on the cover. And an amazing cover art it is, too.
Update: the totally ethereal sounds of Hello, Chain gives me the goose bumps. I’m in awe.
Absolutely classic EBM. Some tracks are more on the rhythmic noise side with raw and metallic synths, while some are more about vocals and melodic futurepop. But all in all it has most that I love about electornic body music. Fantastic cover photo, too.
Either punk electronics or electronics-infused indie rock. I usually read about them as the previous but for me it’s more like the latter. Anyhow, it’s with a live band sound but packed with electronic elements, part dreamy and part jump around, part blue and part joyful, still consistent, and always smart and elaborate.
Funny story, I haven’t known this is an Amon Tobin alias up until the point I got to writing this post and looked up info about this album. And already having listened to the full thing a couple of times. And I was already amazed. And now I’m double amazed. If I listen to the track Long Down now, I have this “what were you thinking” moment, like, of course it’s him.
It’s a super massive, amazing record. All the best of Tobin’s smart mid-tempo electronics spiced up with this rock and roll attitude, dragging heavy beats, all coming together for some heist movie chase scene atmosphere. And full-on surf rock in King of Kong – whaaat? I love this so much. It’s a silly ride and all over the place but sounds fresh for him and feels like a free spirit. Very well done.
Footnote: another artist who chose to be someone else for a bit to be able to work freely, like what I mentioned before.
First thing first: Dog Fashion Disco is one of my top 5 favorite bands ever across all genres. Thier avant-garde metal is quirky, bizarre, fun, strange, and overall absolutely astonishing. It’s like a dead jazz musician reanimated as a metal-head zombie and marching around in a dark circus in a clown outfit with all instruments hanging on it and played at the same time. And love songs. And satan. And life wisdom.
And finally their full catalogue is available on Spotify. As far as I know there was some legal shit going on why they couldn’t have done that so far and now all the albums are there. So I can listen to this masterpiece called Adultery every other day like every normal person should. (I’ll still keep my safety copy in Dropbox, just in case.)
Random note: now when looking for an album cover image and searching for the band and album title did I stumble upon that this concept record has been made into an actual novel. How cool is that! I’ve quickly put it on my reading list, I really hope it’s just as trash as I want it to be.
Ah man, I love this music so fucking much. It’s like air to breath and blood to drink.
Stunning heavy-riff metal compressed in a one minute track single. It’s ridiculous that under the name Lazarvs this one track will be the only find but I’ve still clocked at least an hour on the artist. That’s one play per day on average since its release.
So there was this band called Apey & the Pea, which I liked a lot. I got hooked with the very first EP mainly because their headbanging, sometimes melodic, sometimes grunge, stoner rock and roll that is a sound coming and going in the Hungarian scene and there’s always a band that’s best at it. And they became that best one for quite a while. And then they started changing, their music and live performances becoming more agressive each time. I started to become hesitant whether I still liked this band or not, or rather whether it was still something for me.
Finally they decidedly started a new era last year when they changed their name to Lazarvs and I like that they did this. This new form with its new name and visual aesthetic feels really different and gives a different context. And in this context I don’t mind their more agressive and harsher sound. Listening to this merely one minute long teaser to the upcoming new album gets me excited. I’m looking forward to cutting barbed wire with teeth to this music.
A lot of bands say that they feel obliged to deliver the same sound and same music over and over again because otherwise their fans would abandon them. So essentially the bands either piss their fans off or do something that they are not comfortable with. Maybe the real solution to this catch-22 is what Apey did when becoming Lazarvs. Get over yourself, peel away a skin, be born again, and feel free to set off on a different path.
I guess the only reason why most bands wouldn’t do this is because there’s this brand and marketing vehicle they built and they don’t want to loose it and start over. Even more so will I respect a band that still does the honest choice and takes that leap. And you don’t want to sell to the same people by all means anyway, you wan to sell to the people who want to listen to your current music. These may be new fans but those will be the real fans, and not those people who are just nagging you to repeat yourself over and over again.
I find peacful ambient and modern classical best for work nowadays. I have a lot going on these days, and it’s like my mind is completely full with information and decisions and there’s just no room for too many beats and spoken words. Albums like this keep my mind clear and leave room for thinking. Besides it’s pretty nice, too.
Melodic ambient with a wide array of acousitc instruments. The second track (All the Way Round) reminded me of a soundtrack hook from Penny Dreadful (the London series), which nailed my attention for the rest of the record. The rest is not at all like that, btw. But still, no regrets for staying.