Melancholic, but hopeful. Gorgeous vocals and is an all-around great mood builder. It's slowcore and 70 minutes long but it really goes by most of
the runtime. It's worth the journey to get some beautiful moments out of this.
🞿🞿🞿🞿 /5
A nice melancholic vibe that Jana Horn's voice really helps build up and deepen. It's songs like Driving and optimism that stand out on the album where her sad
voice peacefully gives some beautiful lyrics and lets you settle into them. Most songs on here can sound the same but they are very nice listens. Jordan is the
stand-out track on this album. The bass and the weird electronic backing with some harsh lyrics make for a song that really hits towards its finale.
🞿🞿🞿 /5
I enjoyed some of the sounds that Red Vox is creating on Visions. Pulling from the history of psychedelic rock, it feels much akin to records
of Pink Floyd or Love, but without much interesting going on. I don't think it's bad but it just all sounds so uninteresting to me. Only a few
tracks caught my attention which sounded nice but not enough to warrant going back to. Overall this was really forgettable for me.
🞿🞿 /5
On Fragments, Bonobo crafts some beautiful house melodies and creates an all around sense of calm. Playing into the downtempo genre
on this release, Bonobo does a great job of keeping a chill feeling throughout. Unfortunately I found most of the features on Fragments
to be quite weak except for O'Flynn and Joji. Anytime anyone else was hopping on the track it felt like a weak attempt at chill R&B
and I wasn't enjoying it. Leaving me wiht only a handful of songs that have power. It's to mismatched of a release for me to reccomend.
🞿🞿1/2 /5
Sick! is a fun album with some great songs. The beats for 2010 and Vision being some stand out moments. Earls flow
is as dynamic as always and his depressive mood leaks through and gives something relatable. It's not a big gripe
,but I really wanted a longer release. I feel like there was room for more great tracks. With what it is now
it goes by fast and ends up not being memorable. It's good overall just needed more time.
🞿🞿🞿 /5
The Weekend goes full on synthpop on Dawn FM. The mood is set in best by Oneohtrix Point Nevers incrediblely decadent production
value. Mixed in with this is some fun and bizzare concept album stuff. Sounding like an easy listenign pop station with intros
and DJs. There are some really fun tracks here, but nothing really wowing. I feel like it could be forgettable, but not bad
at all.
🞿🞿🞿 /5
Going to see the alt-country band Pinegrove so I wanted to run through their discography a little before I go. Really fun album with
some gorgeous voxals. Lot of pain and bottled up emotions coming out through the lyrics. 5 years later it still holds up and
feels just as fresh as it did then.
🞿🞿🞿 1/2 /5
A hard breakbeat album that feels like something out of the PS1/PS2 era of video game consoles. Punchy drums with heavy synths layer
the experience as well as some great sampling work including samples from Sonic R. A fitting game because this album brings back
specifically racing video game memories. It's as equally nostalgic as it's fun. I do think the album does end up feeling much alike
though. After a few tracks I understood the experience and it never did anything inventive or changed it up enough in its run time.
Still though it's a fun time and it'll be a blast for any electronic breakbeat fans.
🞿🞿🞿 /5
Record label Hyperdub describes the new Burial album as "just the vapours" which is the honest truth. When Burial first entered the UK
garage scene in 2006, it was their unique style that would later get them many awards and accolades. Burial takes ambient textures and
downtempo moods, throws in gorgeous vocal samples, and usually has punchy percussion. ANTIDAWN EP does have the ambient textures but lacks
the percussion punch. The beats that Burial crafts are usually noted by this and this feels likr a deconstruction of that sound. Sometimes
a drum or some kind of percussive sound will pop in but it will leave immediately. Its as if the artist wants you to understand that
this release is different and wants to defy your expectations.I absolutely love that and I think thats an interesting idea for an electronic
artist that is so prominent.
For me though just that element doesn't make me love this release. It's bare bones approach to ambient, filled with rain noises and crinkly
light synths I never felt like ithad the progression that I would want. With all track exceeding over 6 minutes not a single one had anything
that quite stood out to me. Theres some beauty to be gleaned such as the more prevelant lyrics and vocal samples. It also captures the feeling
of an empty open world video game which was Burials goal. Yet I can't see myself ever going back or having any feeling of experience after
finishing this EP. As someone who enjoys their ambient to have a little bit of progession or things of note this wasn't an incredible
experience. Yet I have had time hating it because I think Burial captured something unique and interesting and I think there will be some of
people that will get enraptured in this.
🞿🞿1/2 /5
Snow by iANO (2022)
Finished 1/5/2022
iANO is a part of a recent wave of electronic artists delving into the HexD subgenre. HexD is what you would consider traditional Art Pop
but dropped to such a low bit quality that it takes on an etheral sound. Everything blended and bitcrushed to the point where elements
can be hard to pick out and everything meshes together. Snow is the essence of HexD but doesn't bring anything quite new to the genre.
Every song here sounds close to shoegaze, pads and synths layer eachother but have a destructive sound to it. A sound that can be quite
lovely. The sound of bits pushed to their extreme is so atmospheric that its hard to not be sucked into. Unfortunately on Snow, iANO
I think chooses to end a lot of the songs too quickly letting the atmosphere die too fast. It never quite settles in until it's title track
which is the last track on the EP. This track embodies that dissonant feeling of HexD with male vocals fighting to go over the destructive
noises and only end up melding into it all. I do think Snow has it's issues, but it's still a highly enjoyable experience and can't wait for
iANO to only improve from here.
🞿🞿🞿 /5
This is my first album I've listened to that was released in 2022 and its already one of the most interesting listens of the year. On this album
Avalina takes psychadelic folk music in a improvasational direction. Full of horns that pop and, drone, and fade away seemingly out of nowhere and
I loved that about it. Instrumentally it has all of the beauty of folk guitar, but allows itself to experiment and take it to dark corners
feeling dark and dreamlike almost like a poetic nightmare. Just instrumentally alone I would reccomend you check this out especially if you enjoy
your folk music a little more experimental. Vocally I was not as big of a fan on this release Avalina feels a lot like Destroyer
with an attempt to have hypnotic crooning on most of the tracks, it's not really something I enjoy. I honestly would have preferred the poetic
spoken word that appears on the title track which I find to be the best track. Avalinas vocals never really hit with me, but I do
think their depressive lyrics would resonate with a good amount of people. As a whole I found that I mostly enjoyed it and honestly
if you are a folk fan you probably would care less about the crooning so I'd reccomend you at least check it out.
🞿🞿🞿 /5
I have never dipped into the Angel Trance Edits series and thought I would check out this one based of the dream trace tag that it has. Only consisting of
four tracks and being only around 20 minutes long I feel like this album does a lot of cool and fun things. Really latching onto the dream part of
the dream trance grenre. Feeling cloudy and etheral. Every track has this quality of haze, everything mixeed to the point where it feels as one.
Breakbeat drums slamming out behind lush synths and on "Edit 10" we get a beautiful mix of vocals in the track creating somethign really gorgeous.
Not every other track really lives to the highs of that song but all are gorgeous experience and honestly I was left wanting more.
🞿🞿🞿1/2 /5
This was my first time checking out Swedish Shoegaze band Five Pebbles and I was surprised how enjoyable it was.I feel like shoegaze has an issue nowadays
where the market has been flooded by many albums sounding similar oruninteresting, but here we get a mix of hard violent riffs, light vocals,
and breakbeat inspired drums. This mixture creates something wholey unique and quite lush. Right off the top of this EP "down softly" is a perfect
way to blast this album full force. Allowing for all of these elements to get their own time in the track to settle us into the experience.
Yet with track number 2, my favorite, "cat's tongue" mixes the breakbeat nature,harsh riffs, quiet yet glitchy vocals,
and a destructive breakbeat mood that feels somewhere between trainquil and chaotic. Not a lot of things can create this mood and Five Pebbles
have succeded. Fortunately the rest of the EP keeps this energy from start to finish. With "kiss" sounding the closest to typical shoegaze but still
being enjoyable. The final two tracks flow somewhere in the more trainquil section of this bands sound and serve as
a fitting finale. forgetmenot is an excellent EP from last year and serves as one of the best rock EPs of 2021 coming in right at the end of the year.
A highly enjoyable time that I recommend you give a listen.
🞿🞿🞿🞿/5