Now this is an interesting one. This split between Frokedal and Saver sees the Norwegian artists covering a track from the other artists back catalog. (As a side note, it's a 10" split - I didn't realize those were still a thing!). This becomes all the more intriguing when you realize that Frokedal is a singer songwriter and Saver is a sludge metal band.
Saver kick off the split with a cover of "Shot-Put" and it's gorgeous. It sees the band executing at a wonderfully high level, crafting immense, but not heavy sounds and drawing listeners into an immaculate sound world. There is something truly beautiful about what they've achieved here. It's fairly different from their usual offerings, but definitely an interesting diversion in their discography, and isn't that what splits are supposed to be for anyway? Frokedal for their part, despite not getting sonically heavy manage to put together a suitably eerie cover of Saver's "I Vanish". It's a monumental composition that leaves you in awe.
Suffice it to say - this is a very nifty split and one that I think fans of the underground will eagerly immerse themselves in. You need its haunting darkness in your life, even if it is barely over 10 minutes long.
This is one of the most interesting albums I have heard all year. That seems like sort of an appropriate opening point for a review of a record that seems to so perfectly understand the burning heart of the avant rock underground but also eagerly pushes beyond in exciting new ways.The driving salvos, the potent rises and falls of energy and the overall punishing sense of sonic oblivion is delicious. This is a band who fascinate the listener and seem excited to keep pushing and exploring exciting new ideas no matter what the consequences.
It's been a long time since I've heard a record that was so elegantly composed. It has the sort of powerful sense of sonic poetry that has defined a lot of my favorite art rock but also brings in its own elements. The band leader Kjetil Nernes is a fascinating individual to say the least, living in an old church with his wife singer Karin Park and their children. It's a weird and crazy thing that speaks to so perfectly to what this band is. They have that breadth to their sound, that otherworldly majesty and a sense that there are blossoming and beautiful places for this music to continue to grow and propagate.
The offkilter stomp of Who Do You Love is accentuated by the presence of the talented duo Insect Ark. The band seem to tap into these distinctly human aspects of our being and that makes them a delight to take off on musical journeys with. The wondrous intensity of a track like The Dome is a testament to a band who are at the height of their abilities and seemingly fully capable of getting better with every record. Chunky, punchy and over the fucking top this is a weird listen to be sure but one that fans of art rock will be enamored with. Find them on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/ARABROT/ Pre-order the record! https://pelagicrecords.indiemerch.com/grouping/1438
The Dark Red Seed is one of the weirder bands on Prophecy Productions, but largely because they don't seem to really fit in with the labels usual fair of weird ambient music, twisted black metal and underground monstrosities. Rather The Dark Red Seed feels more like a rock band who delved too deep into the magic of the art rock scene. This duo has unleashed an incredibly powerful EP, full of surprisingly rich soundscapes, stripped down arrangements and minor key vocal melodies that enchant the listener.
The almost dirge like chants that define some of this albums choruses and the dark and ethereal brooding passages that serve to expand this bands capabilities beyond the realm of most in their genre. The willingness to slip back into almost improvised feeling atmospheric passages helps to prove why so many have become so rapidly mesmerized with Stands With Death. This isn't a record that demands a lot of the listener, rather it sneaks upon you and drags you under with it. There is a far darker world hinted at within the gentle lull of this band that helps to make it all the more delightful when you dig into these powerful hooks.
Stands With Death comes from the sort of band that I fully expect to see performing at Roadburn next year. They have all the potential to be slugging it out with bands like Esben & The Witch or even Crippled Black Phoenix. They have the same transcendent potency, but without the epic arrangements. Rather in their minimalism they help to show a new way forward, tapping into the same emotions but in an entirely unique way, reminding us time and time again that there is no end to the beauty of this music.
One thing starting this blog has really turned me on to has been the ability of music to take you on a journey. The sonic wonderment that defines Agent Frescos new record Destrier is the perfect example of this, coming in on a monolithic and eerie drone and ebbing and flowing until the records eventual conclusion with the beautifully crafted Mono No Aware. Along the way you are treated to moments of technical ecstasy, shocking brutality and delicate prettiness. It's the kind of bizarre polymerization that makes a record worth multiple listens.
The thing is, Agent Fresco are extremely talented musicians, a fact made clear from even just the first song on the record. However, unlike many of their peers they don't take advantage of this to write inaccessible music. Instead they are able to refine far more unique, artsy and vivid soundscapes that have helped them to establish an extremely iconoclastic sound that will have you dissecting the aural paradise that these guys have created, a task that could keep you occupied for weeks on end. Despite the vast complexities of Destrier there is still something distinctly listenable to them that keeps the whole thing moving forward with a potent energy.
SPV Records has always done a great job of signing truly unique bands who inspire listeners and come from a diverse background of styles, Agent Fresco are merely another example of that. Beyond that though they take musical beauty to a new level putting avant garde ideals alongside pop ones and making something truly special. The way that these guys have been able to find a unique sound in a crowded scene is endlessly interesting to me and Destrier is the kind of record a band can base their career off of.
Year Of The Goat have rapidly captured my imagination and showed me the strange eternal power that rock and roll can have. Now on their third release (Man these guys just crank 'em out!) Year Of The Goat impress me because they are able to take standard rock tropes and invigorate them with a sense of power and honesty that few of their peers would ever have the audacity to imitate. What I'm saying is that Year Of The Goat may very well be the band who usher in a brave new era of rock and roll.
There is something wonderfully epic about this band, as is clearly evidenced on the slow burning intro, the almighty All He Has Read. It shows you the bands occult sensibilities and their ability to reach deep within themselves to help generate a reflection of the fucked up realities that we must all deal with on a day to day basis. Beyond that there is something vaguely orchestral about what Year Of The Goat do. It makes them all the more magical - they capture the imagination and show you that the genre still has a lot of unexplored corners. Sure - Year Of The Goat use a lot of old ideas, but their implementation is rather unique and gives added flavor to a fresh sound.
At the end of the day you have to acknowledge that Year Of The Goat are the kind of band who will blow your mind with soaring vocals and crunchy riffs that have just enough bite to keep you coming back again and again. At once melodic and groovy The Unspeakable sees Year Of The Goat really coming into their own as musicians and songwriters. Ready to take the world by storm I feel like this record represents a crucial stepping stone in what could very well be the next great rock and roll success story. Find them on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/yearofthegoat?fref=ts
After
having been given the opportunity to review their stellar upcoming full-length
album The Prison Pt.II, I recently
got to set up a skype session with Godbless
thee, Mooseheart mastermind Brent
Vallefuoco to discuss the album in more depth.
1.Could you explain the concept behind
this record and tell us where it where it came from?
It’s really
not as obtuse as it might seem. When I first started working on The Prison Pt.I, I was very influenced
by albums like The Wall, 2112 or also Deathconsciousness, which has a huge
book explaining its story. There’s a whole bunch of proggy concept albums like
that made me want to make my “own story”, my own “prog-masterpiece”, and in Pt.I there was kind of a story. It’s
really just about a kid growing up and dealing with shitty stuff in his family.
However, as I was going through Pt.II,
I came to realize that I was putting so much energy into trying to make this
story but what I was really trying to communicate was all this stuff I was
going through. So I figured it would be a lot less pretentious and a lot more
intimate and meaningful to me if instead of trying to turn the concept into
some grandiose story, I just wrote about what I was going through.
So there’s’ still somewhat of a narrative on the album but it’s more about the
journey I went through as I was coping with the things in the songs.
You can
kind of break down Mountain Song, Perdu and La Forêt Noire into one act, where I become aware of the rose
colored glasses I had been wearing when I was a kid through which I would see
everything in an idealized way. You grow up and you sort of realize that things
are kind of amiss, realizing that there’s this family conflict that has been
going on this whole time or that you never knew that there was one particular
family member that was a drug addict or something like that. A lot of it is
pretty self-evident if you read it in that way. I think La Forêt Noire is really just about grieving that loss of innocence
of seeing things in a sort of way where everything was so much bigger than me,
which would make me want to explore this world that didn’t make much sense to
me but that felt so cool because I was only 6.
The next 3 songs, Molasses, The Monster Overlooking Everything Else,
and Bodies of Water are about me
coping with some of the deeper issues going on there, not just the ones on the
surface. They’re about when I first started to come to terms with certain
dramatic memories that I had repressed. Most particularly I had a really
abusive relationship with a certain family member, and The Monster Overlooking Everything Else is about how that
relationship impacted my ability to be able to connect with people because I
had a fucked up model for intimacy. I would have this image that being close to
someone is something that will get you hurt. In that song I’m expressing a lot
of anger about it, whereas Bodies of
Water represents the inverse of that, once the anger settles down you
realize that it’s the lack of self-acceptance that is driving that anger.
The last few songs, Through the Eyes of
the Suburbs, The End, Neptune are really about realizing that
I was holding on to all of these things from my childhood that weren’t really a
part of my life anymore, which made them have such a big impact on me. Through the Eyes of the Suburbs is a
portrait of how envision myself as a kid, and the song title itself is a
reference to Through the eyes of Ruby
by the Smashing Pumpkins, which captures a lot of that nostalgia for me. I
think that the one very important song on the album for me is The End, because I wrote that song when
someone suggested to me that if I really wanted to get in touch with all of
that stuff and try to cope with it, I should try and ask the kid that went
through that, asking him to talk and to tell me what he was feeling. So I sat
down with a notepad and just said to myself “Alright little Brent, just tell me
what’s wrong, what you’re feeling. I want to let you know that you can talk to
me about anything you want right now.”So that song is about everything that that kid had to say to me. I
realized that I had been setting up so many defense mechanisms to keep myself
protected because I was so afraid of being hurt that I was actually hurting
myself. I was indirectly telling myself that I needed to be different in order
to be accepted, the exact opposite of who I was. As a result, that kid just
felt like he was worthless, that he wasn’t even worth being acknowledged. So I
realized that the only way I was ever going to accept all of those things
happening was to simply accept myself, and to accept that I can take care of
myself, that I can be my own person to validate myself, that I don’t need to do
all of that stuff to keep myself safe anymore. And then Neptune is really about how I envisioned myself after that. The
whole time I had envisioned myself going on this journey away from everything,
constantly fighting against everything to try and make things my way, try to
make myself safe and try to get back at everyone, and at the end of it I’m just
so far away from anything I ever liked, you know? I was just driving myself
into a whole. So this was just me saying that I didn’t want to do that anymore.
2.Speaking of which, Neptune feels to like it bears a connection with the
opening track, as if the album shifted back to a fresh new start with a more
positive outlook. Is this just me or do the songs bear no connections at all?
I think
they should *laughs*. I feel like MAYBE that was what was going through my
head, but I can’t really tell. That’s a very valid way of looking at it. Mountain Song is the only song that
still exists from that idea of my creating a narrative, since I originally
intended to create this whole fantasy world for the whole album. So that’s me
envisioning things how I would LIKE things to be… this lonely place where I
could be by myself and explore things. The thing about that song that is always
a little disturbing to me is that I’m alone there. I hadn’t realized it at that
point but I’m beginning to isolate myself, which is a bad thing. In Neptune, it’s like: “Well, I’ve finally
gotten to where I’ve wanted to go, but it’s so dissatisfying, and this is not
where I want to be after all”. So I guess there is some sort of connection.
They’re expressing the same thing but in completely different ways.So I guess you could see it as a new start.
3.The Prison Pt.II will be your first release with the
band in over 3 years. Was there a different writing approach to this album
compared to your previous albums?
Definitely.
There was just so much I have learned from the time that I was working on Pt.II. I actually write about this in
the liner notes of the album. I think Pt.II
evolved so much from where I was at Pt.I that
I almost don’t even consider it a sequel anymore. I almost consider it as an
antithesis. I mean it clearly comes from the same root, but on Pt.I I just don’t think I had figured
out how to maturely do what I was trying to do on Pt.II yet. There are also certain things about the first
installment that still bother me a little bit; the production isn’t as good as
I’d like it to be, and there a just certain things about the song structures
where you can clearly see the ambition but I hadn’t figured out how to make all
of my weird ideas work yet, how to make them cohesive. Certain songs are still
kind of jarring, and you can tell especially towards the latter part of that
album that certain songs aren’t really fleshed out all the way. I think that
it’s because I was just too eager to get it finished. Once I had put it out and
I was reading all of the reviews I got back, I kind of realized that I hadn’t
let it really “cook” all the way, you know?
So on Pt.II, I just told myself “I’m
not even going to think about releasing this thing until I know it’s DONE”.
Every song was constantly being worked on for the entirety of that period. Mountain Song, Perdu and La Forêt Noire
were all completely re-recorded because I just didn’t like the sounds I got the
first time around. I ended up recording all of the drums at a studio that I now
happen to work at.
As far as the composition goes, I was writing that album after a long tenure
with Xanthochroid, where I learned so
much more about theory. I spent so much more time learning theory, in college
composition class, so you can hear that there’s more maturity to how the songs
are arranged and there’s a lot more themes. For example the theme on the chorus
for Mountain Song is the chorus in La Forêt Noire, simply in a different
key and rearranged. The verse La Forêt
Noire is also the interlude in Through
the Eyes of the Suburbs simply redone. There’s a lot of ideas that pop up
throughout the album.
I could also go more detail about the ways I recorded the guitars, which was
completely different this time around. I put a lot of care into making sure it
was the right guitar, the right mic, the right amp… things like that.
So there’s definitely a huge difference in maturity and how much effort you put
into it.
4.I was actually going to ask you
about one particular line that appears on a couple of tracks “This place is right for me”. Could you
explain what that phrase means to you, its place within the story ark? Does the
meaning of the phrase change from one song to the next?
It does. In
Mountain Song it’s still coming from
that feeling of being frightened, knowing all that I can figure out is that
when I can just be by myself, isolated from everything, I feel safe. I think
that phrase came to me in the middle of high-school where I was going through a
lot of social anxiety and depression and things like that. In my own head I was
becoming increasingly more alienated and depressed than I would otherwise. So I
think that the second time those words come around, it takes on more of a
feeling of being in denial about it I guess, trying to tell myself that I’m
taking care of myself, that this is what’s best for me, but really knowing that
something is wrong, that I just don’t know how to put all of the pieces
together yet.
There’s also another line that comes up twice which first appears on The Monster Overlooking Everything Else:
“There’s a little boy inside of my and
he’s always afraid to play”. In that song, it’s about how I was afraid of
the person that song is about. At the end of the album when the phrase comes up
again, it’s me realizing that it’s not just about that, but also that I’ve
completely been afraid of expressing that inner-child, being in touch and
accepting that it’s an inner part of me. It probably feels that way because
I’ve dismissed it so many times.
5.So your first few releases with Godbless thee, Mooseheart were strictly
solo, but for this album you decided to turn the project into a band and
started to play live shows as well.Did
this change anything regarding the writing and recording process?
Well most
of the album is still a solo album because I still recorded almost everything.
In the liner notes I mention the songs that I didn’t do things on; like for
example I didn’t play the piano on The
Monster Overlooking Everything Else and I didn’t do the drums on The End. However I try to shy away from
this image of Godbless thee,Mooseheart as a solo band, because even
though this is a very personal record and it is basically a solo album, it’s an
important artistic evolution and also a kind of symbolic representation of the
journey I went through while making the album that, eventually I would like to
move out of that place of doing everything myself.
As far as the drums not being recorded by our drummer John Klawitter, that was
more due to logistics, since I was almost done with the album by the time I
found him. The only song we hadn’t done drums for was The End. I was going to do the drums but he proposed to learn the
song and record it himself, and I’m really glad he did. I had done a mock
version with me playing the drums, but when we did it with him, the song was
just so much better, since he is such a better drummer than I am. He brought so
much more life into that song, which is why I think the album needed that. It’s
also important for me to express that because there’s a kind of like a theme of
me being alienated and in my own head and trying to get out of it.
So for the future Godbless thee,
Mooseheart album, I’m not going to do everything myself, we’re going to
write it together as a band, with Sam on keyboards and John on drums. We also
have a really good guitarist, his name is Bijan. I want to do a more “Swans-y” kind of approach. It’s not
going to sound like Swans, but we’re
going to flesh out the songs together, and I think they’re going to become a
lot more jam and groove oriented. So that’s the direction I’d like to take the
band into.
6.To close off this interview, could
you name one of your favorite albums, films and books
Album: I always like to say Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd just because it was the first
album I ever heard that was beyond the basic radio rock format that introduced
me to the idea that there are more interesting albums out there. But
recentlyI’ve really, really, really
been into Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich, obsessed with it, all of the
different recordings of it. I think that’s been my favorite thing that I’ve
gotten into in the last year and a half, and I’ve just been obsessed with
everything Steve Reich has done. I’m pretty sure his entire anthology that I
bought recently, was the best music purchase I’ve made in years.
Book: My favorite book would have to be The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by
Douglas Adams or The Catcher in the Ryeby J. D. Salinger. Two very different books.
Movie: My favorite movie is definitely 2001, A Space Odyssey by Stanley
Kubrick.
Interview by
Robin
Godbless
thee Mooseheart – The Prison, Pt.II
To be released on July 21st (digital and physical pre-orders already
available through bandcamp)
Remember back in like, 2012 or so when instrumental heavy music was all the rage? Whatever happened to those bands? I hope at least some of them have started listening to My Sleeping Karma a band who fuse Eastern mysticism with progressive rock to create something utterly incredible. There is an otherworldly might in the sounds of My Sleeping Karma that have rapidly won them a place in my heart. Iconoclastic and unafraid to craft their own path Moksha sees stellar compositions coming into capture the listeners imagination and guide them into a magical soundworld.
The think that I think makes Moksha so interesting is the sense of forward momentum that these songs have. It's really hard to deny the impetus that these compositions have, their teleological approach is entrancing to say the least. Interestingly, the band choose to put interludes between every set of tracks. Upon first listen this seemed a little bit extraneous, yet as I got a deeper understanding of the record I realized that these interludes actually provide the listener a much needed break from the understated intensity of the main tracks. In some ways it actually reminds me of Swans, until the interludes kick in you don't realize the spiritual heaviness of what you're listening too and it makes the record that much more powerful.
It's easy to find yourself lost in Moksha, in fact I think that's kind of the point. A band who leave you scraping your jaw off the floor Moksha shows that My Sleeping Karma have truly found themselves. There is something meditative about this record, it opens up the third eye and forces you to consider strange new realities that I'm not sure I'm always ready to face. My Sleeping Karma are a truly exciting musical force who defy genre definitions in order to craft something that goes straight into the soul.
There is something wonderfully bombastic and frankly kind of charming about Darkhaus that I don't think I ever fully realized before listening to Providence it's as if Darkhaus have managed to turn themselves onto something greater, something that is actually kind of majestic. The songs on their new Providence EP are a marked step forward for the band. Songs that are dramatic and fun, they manage to capture the progressive vibes that make this band interesting as well as their sense of theater. In other words, Darkhaus are finally finding themselves
The thing is, the new material on this record is truly exciting, and to be completely honest, I had never though Darkhaus would really inspire me, yet with Providence they have. After their first record the band as been able to come together and create something that is not only more honest but also a lot more creative. You can tell this was an album written on tour because the guys in Darkhaus sound a lot tighter and more inspired. As you sink into the creative passion that defines Providence it's hard not to fall in love with the band. They are fusing things we all love, and they come across as incredibly tight, even in a live setting.
As I drift off to sleep I try to compose myself for a few final comments on this frankly stunning EP. Darkhaus are breaking the rules and crafting their own brave new world. There is something exciting about Providence, it hints at a proud future for an inspiring band, and it's good enough that I'll probably go back and check out the bands debut. Darkhaus have found a truly exciting sound that, while logical, and faintly familiar hasn't really been done before, a formula for success that will get fans hopping on the bandwagon for years to come! Find them on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/DarkhausOfficial
There are defining moments in your life where you discover - sometimes entirely on accident - the albums and artists that will shape you as a person. You are captivated - that record you bought on a whim from the band you caught just at the last song of their set turns out to be the foundation with which you will build your musical taste going forward. There are also defining moments in your life where you discover the albums and artists which will forever remain locked away in the dark recesses of your mind because of the severity of the horror they've unleashed upon your ears.
I am Dead, the 5-track EP from Dead Dark Slide, is one of those albums. There's a part of me that really wanted to like this release if only for the sheer purpose of liking one of the only industrial-electro-goth-art-death metal bands out there at the moment. Alas, I could not bring myself to have that kind of dedication to this album. The production on the guitar (while most definitely purposeful) detracts immensely from the possibility of enjoyment. With a tone like crinkling plastic, it overshadows the drum and key tracks and makes the Gollum-esque vocals of Ryan Michalski that much more grating. While there are some interesting haunting keys in Your Blood Runs Red, the album overall wanders in circles, repeating the same riffs over and over with very little variation in each track.
After awhile, I Am Dead begins to sound like white noise. I actually started to close my eyes in the middle of the album, and am still having a hard time wrenching them back open thirty minutes later. I've got to say, I first started playing the album and was concerned that my speakers had blown out. So I plugged it in to the auxiliary, just to be certain, and was deeply let down by the horrendous quality of work that Dead Dark Slide delivered. I have no idea how this could translate to an atmosphere conducive with enjoyment while being played live, and I certainly am praying I never have to subject myself to that. I sincerely hope that Dead Dark Slide are successful in what they do in this arena, because nobody deserves to have their passions thrown back in their face if they're doing what they love, but this is just not for me.
Find them on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dead-Dark-Slide/483372751758153
