Ambient

Hemispheres – A Free Post-Rock Compilation From A Thousand Arms

Hemispheres A Thousand Arms Volume 1 Post Rock Compilation Album Cover
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Hemispheres

A Thousand Arms have released another great new free post-rock compilation Hemispheres, to follow on from the awesome Open Language compilation released last year.

Open Language was split into two parts, with Side A representing American acts, and Side B featuring international artists.

Hemispheres follows this theme, with Side A representing the Northern Hemisphere, and Side B representing the Southern Hemisphere.

I’m quite excited to see a few New Zealand acts represented on Side B (Kerretta, Sora Shima and Into Orbit). Not a bad selection to showcase our homegrown talent to the rest of the world!

Here’s the track listing:

Side A: Northern Hemisphere

Old Solar – Summer Solstice

RLYR – Slipstream Summer

Au Revoir – Reverie

Eupana – The Night the Stars Fell

The Great Cold – EOS

Malämmar – I

Of the Vine – I’m Morrissey, I’m Dead.

Spurv – Passacaglia (fugler med ord i nebbet)

Sleeping Bear – Emerged

Mountain – Mondo Kane

Glories – Bravo Sierra

Ranges – Kingdom

Caspian – Sad Heart of Mine

Appalaches – Milsai

Dayluta Means Kindness – Young Savagery and General Debauchery

Shy, Low – Anomic

Sad Turtle – Feats Of Strength

Atsuko Chiba – Damonsta Titillates

Side B: Southern Hemisphere

Build and Release – St Helen pt. 2

Meniscus – Overhang

Antorchas – Stalingrado Fosa Comun

Hélices – BrvdxTripp

Kjjjjjjjjj – Grrrrrrrrr

Kerretta – Ossein Trail

Under The Big Bright Yellow Sun – BERTAHAN *Angelic Version (Jeruji Cover)

Mesozoic – The Turtle

El lenguaje como obstáculo – Adonis Minos

Hashshashin – Levitation

Fourteen Nights At Sea – No Capital

Sora Shima – And Behold a Pale Horse

We Set Sail – Forgotten Shores

Kalouv – Da Bravura, Inocência

Into Orbit – Unearthing

Hello Porkins – Melon Felon

blienvesne – Definitivamente ellos no son los dueños del viento

Bear the Mammoth – Molly

CJ and David have once again outdone themselves with this collection. 36 great tracks from all over the world, lovingly chosen and presented in a great wee package.

So head along to https://athousandarms.bandcamp.com/ to download Hemispheres and discover your next favourite new band!

 

Joseph James

EP Review: 10 Waves Of You – Sail

10 waves of you sail
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Album Review: 10 Waves Of You – Sail

The soft sounds of the tide lapping against the shore greets us at the start of this album. Hardly surprising, with an album entitled Sail. While 10WOY’s 2015 album Fields Of Venus was a collection of space sounds, this album is unmistakably naval inspired.

Hailing from Vigevano, Italy, 10 Waves Of You is the solo project of Luca Crivellaro. It seems that I listen to as many one-man projects as I do full bands these days, and I can’t help but be impressed at the sheer skill and versatility that artists like Crivellaro exhibit.

Reminiscent of relaxing on a sailboat, this is music to have when you have nothing better to do than lie back and soak up some rays. “Sail” is the smooth neo-classical piano led introduction, and “South West Wind” contains more body. Soft piano playing upon gentle swells sets the relaxing mood. Some nice delayed guitar adds complexity whilst keeping it calm. The drumming is tight, with a short echoing tail.

10 Waves Of You Sail Will Not Fade

“Sunburst” ups the ante – ever so slightly – with more over driven crescendos and crashing cymbals – and “Round Window” follows suit by bringing in more rock components. The end of the last track almost sounds like whale song, with the slow whining sounds made by guitars.

Part of the attractiveness of this release is the deceptive simplicity of it all. It builds ever so slowly across all four tracks, but without resorting to crescendocore clichés. Delicate waves pile atop each other, slowly bringing in a tide of relaxing atmosphere. Contrary to the more aggressive and unnatural previous album Fields of Venus, Waves is calming and just floats along with tranquil excellence.

It is clear that Crivellaro has placed careful thought upon which tones to use to recreate the sounds in his head. Silky pads set the mood, high-pitched strings politely ask for your attention, and tight percussion binds the songs together. The sounds all layer and marry beautifully, inviting you to feel warm sunlight on your arms, taste salt spray on your lips and hear the distant cry of circling seabirds.

Clocking in at just less than 20 minutes, this album offers a small taste of lush textural brilliance. Serene and evocative, I can imagine it as the perfect soundtrack for a calm day on the sea. Crivellaro joins the ranks of incredible multi-instrumentalists who can single-handedly bring the music in their heads to life, and I thank him for it. Waves is one ambient work worth taking note of.

10 Waves Of You Links:

  1. Bandcamp
  2. Twitter
  3. Facebook
  4. SoundCloud
  5. Website
  6. Spotify

 

Joseph James

Album Review: Blueneck – The Outpost

Blueneck The Outpost Album Cover
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I fell in love with Blueneck as soon as I heard them. I heard their song “Man Of Lies” when I was listening through the mammoth Post Engineering compilation that came out last year. That was it – I was hooked. I looked up Blueneck’s Bandcamp page and purchased their catalogue.

The Outpost (Denovali Records) is Blueneck’s sixth studio album, and latest since 2014’s King Nine. It is also well worth a listen.

The Outpost was first planned as a side-project from singer-songwriter Duncan Attwood and guitarist
Rich Sadler, before it became truely realised as a full Blueneck release. How did the two of them come up with such an expansive sound? Herein lies some of the wonders of digital instruments. And although I usually prefer “real” instruments above their electronic counterparts, I must admit that Blueneck do a stellar job. Everything works together in cohesion to complement each part that makes up the ambient soundscape.

I’d appreciate slightly less autotuning, but Duncan Attwood’s vocals are standout and enhance the tender ballads dramatically.  He borders on whispering at times, just loud enough for you to hear the hurt. His melancholy is almost tangible in “Hypnos”.

Image: Stewart Black Photography

Image: Stewart Black Photography

Opening track “From Beyond” features a drum track that reminds me of Phil Collins’ signature hit “In The Air Tonight”. Like in Collins’ song, the drum track helps to build suspense as we escalate into a climax. The song slowly transforms into a synthetic, industrial feeling track, with autotuned vocals, heavy reverb and a tortured screaming crescendo. This well-crafted masterpiece sets the tone for the album beautifully.

Next up is lead single “Ghosts”. It takes me back to when I first heard “Man Of Lies” and reminds me of why I first fell in love with Blueneck. Like “From Beyond”, this track just gets better as it progresses. The catchy chanted bridge leads into a gorgeous high-pitched guitar riff, before dynamically reverting back to the sparse piano mantra that first tied the song together.

An underlying tension boils beneath many of these tracks, coated with an ethereal glossy veneer. I love how Blueneck walk the line so well – balancing the calm solemnity with the awesome distorted moments. One great example is the during the spacious bridge in “The White Ship” that leaves us hanging. It’s so empty, but full of promise, because you know that this ambient segment is going to end with something huge.

We hear everything you’d expect to hear from most major post-rock releases: swirling riffs, big swells, crashing crescendos. There’s great guitar playing and brilliant drumming, as well as the haunting vocals which are rare to find within this genre. But somehow this album seems to pack more than the sum of its parts. Something is immediately enticing and accessible, despite the depressing nature of the lyrics, and the longer playtimes of half the tracks.

The Outpost is an incredibly moody album. There is such stunning beauty in the music, topped with Attwood’s mournful vocals. If you like eerie post-rock drawing on electronica and saturated in feeling then I suggest you give Blueneck a listen.

The Outpost is out via Denovali Records on 25 November

Links:

Bandcamp

Facebook

Twitter

Denovali Records

 

Joseph James

Album Review: pg.lost – Verses

PG Lost
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pg. lost – Versus (2016)

Entry point: Ikaros
Personal highlight: Versus

Adding a vocalist is something that every instrumental band I’ve been in has had suggested at one point or another. I’m sure someone at a live gig has come up to pg.lost and said “great sound, where’s your singer?” This music easily lends itself to having a powerful vocalist soar melodically over the top of what’s there. People would buy it. With the right singer, I certainly would.

That being said, it doesn’t have a vocalist – the music must stand on it’s own legs (Hint: it does).

Synthesizers and electronic drums play a large part in rounding out the sound of Versus. Without knowing any background of why pg.lost called this album Versus, it could have easily been a battle between synthesized electronic music and the old school analogue of rock music. Thankfully the two realms don’t put up a fight – the balance between them is perfect in my opinion.

Melding rock music with electronic music can feel tacky at times – particularly with heavier music – yet here it has been handled with mastery. Every note feels deliberate, like a Hitchcock movie – the pauses are there to enrich the inevitable payoff.

The post-rock staples of drones and reverb drenched guitars are used more sparingly, supported by electronic drum samples and synthesizers Versus doesn’t suffer from being different.

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Yes, the songs are long with the shortest being over 6 minutes but they don’t dwell. There are slower tunes on the album but enough is happening for them to feel like a breather from the energy of the rest of the album, rather than an anchor to weigh it down. When the album does slow down it gets heavier and more guttural. When it speeds up, the synthesizers and electronic drums drive it along.

Versus features enough variance that you’re unlikely to get bored, it takes time to build yet doesn’t drag. This album has depth that suits itself to many listens in it.

I’d not heard of pg.lost until I’d heard Versus and now I think I’ll be doing some digging through their back catalogue.

Well pleased, do recommend. It fits in the category of “would be ecstatic if I wrote it”.

Peace
– Murray

Versus is released on September 16th 2016 internationally.
This review was originally posted on Murray’s site Relative Silence 

 

Album Review: Lost In Kiev – Nuit Noire

Lost in Kiev Nuit Noire Cover
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For their second album, Parisian post-metallers Lost In Kiev have gone all out and released an epic, sprawling opus named Nuit Noire.

Following on from their previous work, [Motions, 2012, and a 2013 split EP with Zero Absolu] the band has chosen to add spoken word samples to their music. They stray from common post-rock convention however, by writing and recording their own tracks, rather than borrowing select soundbites and quotes from movies, as many of their peers would. Two speakers – one male, one female – narrate the haunting songs. I  find it interesting that the French musicians have chosen to include English speaking in their music, rather than using their own native tongue.

The concept story alludes to dark and mysterious nights, as the album title would suggest. I’ve never been one to pay much attention to vocals (which is half the reason that I love post-rock), but the vocal tracks do add to the overall mood and not only enhance, but complete the listening experience, like in Ranges track “If I Were The Devil“. I had an honest go of trying to listen to the stories, but found it rather difficult to hear a lot of it within the mix – even after playing with the EQ to try and boost the vocal levels. After acquiring a copy of the lyrics I had a better idea of the story. My interpretation is that two lovers have somehow become separated, and the woman must try to find her partner who has become lost in a spiritual realm.

The albums feels cohesive as a whole, and is all very dark and looming. I guess that goes without saying when the word “noir” features in the album title. The title track “Nuit Noire” features cries of desperation and despair, giving the song an ominous undertone that can be felt throughout the whole album. One of my favourite tracks is “Catalepsy”, which is set in a hypnotist/psychic’s room, and adds an intriguing dimension to the song.

The music is depressing, yet compelling. It’s typical post-rock/metal/hardcore but by no means clichéd. Think Dumbsaint  with snippets of spoken word that add to the setting. Eerie scenes are set, and the music rises and lowers as it takes us on an aural journey. Many brilliant moments can be found, but I’ll highlight a section in “Mirrors” where a  grueling breakdown with insanely low bass under-riding crunchy chugged riffs transforms seamlessly into spiraling guitar licks.

Nuit Noire starts strong with “Narcosis”, with sinister humming, tribal drumming and the mysterious vocal tracks. The album finishes with “Emersion”, featuring reverberating tapping, and a long deliberate build up, that lets loose towards the ends with rousing chanting and head-nodding riffage to send us off on a high. And everything in between those two tracks is stellar. If you love post-metal then make sure not to miss this incredible release.

Nuit Noire will be released through dunk!records on September 2nd. Pre-order the album here.

Links:

 

Joseph James