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The Hurt Kingdom is the first EP by UK-based 3-piece To Bury A Ghost. This review has been long-time-coming and its about time those of you who aren’t familiar with TBAG to get a taste of them.
They might not appreciate this but there is a certain Muse quality about this EP. As well as being quite poppy and simplistic, the songs are lathered in beautiful string arrangements and huge distortions. Its like a more post-rocky Muse – or you might say similar to The Boxer Rebellion. In the second track “Coming up for air” the drum pattern has an enthralling sway to it, with added delay and distortion soaked guitar lines. Its unplaceably familiar.
To Bury A Ghost don’t hesitate to dabble with the orchestra, a curiosity many bands lack these days I feel. The opening track “Bithday” opens on quite an uneasy note with a discordant brass-section chord, followed up by the intervention of a stunning violin melody. Strings are quite present throughout the EP and actually, bring to mind Radiohead. I’ll stop name dropping, but there are certainly quite a few elements here that point elsewhere. This isn’t a criticism, but an observation, it doesn’t take away from the fact that The Hurt Kingdom has a beautifully evocative cinematic quality, and a noisy rocky side. I’d certainly put these down as ones to watch!
A cherry on top of the cake? Yep. A Lee Malcolm from VESSELS remix at the end. Now thats a mighty fine cherry!
Alright The Captain are an instrumental 3 piece on Field Records alongside acts such as Maybeshewill. ATC are releasing their debut full length album Snib on February 7th (next Monday).
This 10 track album shows real promise for the band, and I must say is one of the most interesting releases I’ve heard for a long time. The sheer volume, complexity and variety could only come from individuals with a taste for experimenting – without venturing into the realm of the undigestible and pretentious. A lot of it actually sounds quite tongue in cheek and ridiculous (in a good way) which makes it all the more fun.
I particularly love how each musician is discernible and adds their own dimension to the sound. On one hand you have a mathy, scrappy guitarist who tears out simple satisfyingly metal riffs, beautiful and sometimes folky melodies, then all out Fuck Buttons style noise. On another hand you have a bassist with a real sense of what a bass player should really do; IE complement the rhythm section as well as make you feel the rawness of abrasive low-frequency noises (listen to Mega Mega Drive). The way Todd on bass uses his effects reminds me of current electronic/dubstep artists who write tracks based around successions of distorted bass synths that they tear apart and put back together again, rather than actual notes. Its hard to describe because its quite a primal pleasure but if you listen to THIS 2.37s in, you’ll get what I mean.
And finally on the third hand you have Ash the drummer who holds everything together with an almost jazzy feel and who isn’t afraid to keep things simple when needed. In the track ‘Soundtrack your Death‘ for instance, the drop at 1.10s is particularly effective because everything is focused towards, well, the crushing drop (no shit).
I think its interesting how all these known ingredients put together creates a unique sound. You could call bits of this album, math-rock, post-rock, prog, metal, jazz-metal, space rock… and so many other things- and for this reason it cant be any of them but something entirely new as yet unnamed.
They’re on tour in the UK so get out and see them- you won’t disappointed. Tour Dates are HERE
myspace.com/alrightthecaptain
Well this is quite a charming Christmas release indeed! Thank you Olympians for sending me the only Christmas single I’ve received this festive season! People don’t often think to write festive songs anymore, but good on you! I do wish you’d sent it to me before the celebration of our almighty messiah’s birthday though.
Anyway, “Foreign Language” and its B-side “Leaving you at Christmas” go down exceptionally well as pleasant pop songs for these wintery months. Of course, Olympians’ mathy indie style of rock is maintained, producing a fresh alternative to a Christmas song that doesn’t involve extensive choirs, the Sex Pistols doing “Jingle Bells” (God save us!) or Dean bloody Martin singing the same old cheerful numbers, especially when we all know that behind the scenes he was a sex pest with a coc problem. The seniors seem to be more than capable of ignoring these shady misdeeds, but after the fifteenth ballad I start to get agitated and wonder whether giving these Mafiosos so much air-time is a bit wrong, nevermind annoying.
Getting back to the single at hand, you may download, and I urge you to, Olympians‘ new single FREE from their Bandcamp page: HERE and if you like it go and see them live as I know from experience that they rock!
This is the video for the title track Foreign Language and its really brilliant too!
MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR
I would like to introduce a band with true potential; Leicester based 4-piece Silent Devices. As far as I know Two Decades is their debut EP, and you can tell by the quality of the recordings, not that its off-putting, but its not yet as good as it should be. The style of production used by Justin Lockey in The British Expeditionary Force‘s first album (Erased Tapes) would sound incredible I reckon!
What makes these guys stand out is the simplicity of it all. You can really tell that this band have grasped the absolutely essential concept that making a record is not about complexity, its about crafting a warm sound and layering each individual part meticulously, as to make every note, hi-hat, chord change and so on count and affect the listener. There is certainly something about them that brings Sigur Ros to mind, as well as This Will Destroy You, but these artists are in such high standing that a) who isn’t trying to emulate them? and b) what they convey is pure, egoless, accessible emotion and any band who gets near that is on the right track.
The opening song “Playing Fields” is my favourite. The song is nicely paced, with a beautifully simple melody on the guitar, nice use of cymbals and xylophone, and above all a very seamless progression from start to finish. The build up at the end is brilliant as well, with a most satisfying resolution on the alternation of chords I and IV. I know I don’t need to explain these technical bits, but I want to show that under the simple exterior Silent Devices understand that simple tricks like ending a song on certain chords of a scale appeals to our ears and spyche on a scientific level (hence why blues is SO important), and these tricks are as old and engrained in western culture as Bach. Most people don’t realize that making simple digestible music is actually a whole lot more difficult than making complicated music.
Anyway, enough bullshit. They will undoubtably soon be playing a Sweet Beans show in London so keep an eye out, have a listen to Two Decades on their myspace and support them by buying it if you can.
This is Giuliano Gullotti AKA Amberhaze. His debut album Then We Saw The Stars Again is released on Singapore based label Kitty Wu Records.
Basically, its ok. If I were to mark it /10 I would give it 5. Its pleasant, it would work well as a film score, maybe in something like Into The Wild or Lost In Translation, but as an album I’m not sure it works. The mixture of electronics and live instruments is reminiscent of Port-Royal (from Italy as well, coincidentally) and well executed. Gullotti has also chosen a nice selection of instruments to complement the tasteful beats; with piano, glockenspiel, guitar, strings… a pretty standard instrumentation for instrumental shoegaze/post-rock.
However, it just doesn’t have enough hooks or discernable melodies to keep me interested for 50 minutes. The album seemed to pass at a monotonous pace, without climaxing or progressing very much. To be fair, the 12 tracks are referred to as soundscapes, so maybe the ambience, and dare I say, dullness of it is intended.
I’ve posted this, despite not being a massive fan, because Mr. Gullotti still deserves a mention and many of you may very well disagree with me. Have a listen and judge for yourselves: amberhaze.bandcamp.com/
I’m keen to hear what he does next; it certainly sounds like he could do something amazing some day.
Her Name Is Calla released their album The Quiet Lamb via Denovali Records on November 4th.
We at Cinematic Music would like to congratulate them and give The Quiet Lamb the much sought after award of:
CINEMATIC ALBUM OF THE YEAR!
After numerous EPs and splits, the first real full-length album by HNIC has raised the bar and set a new standard for what this band can do. The Quiet Lamb possesses all the tasteful minimalism of previous material whilst retaining an extremely rich tapestry of sonic textures, and what truly makes this album special is how seamlessly and consistently it weaves from track to track, taking you from one end of the spectrum of human emotions to another.
I’ve noticed that many other bloggers have said similar things, and I believe we may need to brace ourselves for the next Sigur Rós. HNIC seem to have fully developed their unique sound and channeled it through these 12 pieces which present themselves as a barrage of simplistic grandiosity. I reference Sigur Rós because what they created was outstanding unique music which was still accessible to a wide range of listeners- and HNIC have captured that essence and applied it to their sound.
As Cinematic Album of the Year, if you’re a regular visitor to this blog and haven’t yet heard The Quiet Lamb, you must get hold of a copy right away.
Anyone for some German instrumental post-prog? YES PLEASE
Aeronautix are an instrumental 3-piece band with guitar, bass and drums. Their debut EP “Eartheption” is available for free download HERE. I think this EP is a small testament to what the band can really do- the tracks are tight but Eartheption isn’t much more than a collection of mediocre live recordings. With the right producers Aeronautix could really blow your brain!
Their sound blends post-rock/ambient influences with clean, broken-up mathy riffs and heavy What The Blood Revealed-esque drops. I’m quite confident these guys will deliver some tasty releases in the near future! On a similar note, you should look up these Italian guys Up There The Clouds, they also have a brilliant EP out for free download! Thank you internet. If either band comes to London I’ll definitely be putting them on!
NOW THIS IS DELIGHTFUL!
This is probably the poppy-est record I’ve reviewed on Cinematic Music so far, but its one that everyone must give a chance. I’ve been listening to the latest Noah And The Whale album a lot these days, and I’ve found that Fraser has captured a similar feel (maybe not so depressing though). A Garden At The Top Of The Tree has now been released on Moody Noodle Records and I suspect Fraser may well be the next ‘indie-pop’ sensation.
The album presents a perfect range of feels which enables you to enjoy it from start to finish in a total daydream-like way. Tracks like the opener ‘Release Me’ and ‘Bouboulina Sunshine’ are outrageously catchy, fun-filled pop anthems, and ‘Old Tree’ (my personal favourite with ‘Release Me’) shows a more introverted side with beautiful string parts and more long-winded melodies. What I like about this album is that apart from the obvious comparisons one could make, there seems to be a lot of subtle, no doubt involuntary, hints to other artists like Radiohead and Nick Drake. Fraser certainly hasn’t ripped anything off of these artists, but small things like the way he sings, certain arrangements and the production, muster up the same warm fuzzy feeling you get when you know you like something.
I’m told Fraser has released ‘Lay it on the Line’, the first single from the album, and has got a lot of attention from the US and Europe and intends to embark on a tour shortly so keep a good look out! For you Londoners, Fraser already has some live dates so don’t miss out!
Codes In The CLouds are an instrumental 5-piece apparently from Dartford, but I’m just going to say London because they seem to spend more time here than there. They are signed to brilliant little label Erased Tapes, also home to the British Expeditionary Force, Olafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm. They haven’t been around for long but have definitely made their presence known on the London scene, and, maybe to a lesser extent, on the entire UK scene. Following the release of their first record they toured with now post-rock legends This Will Destroy You and recently went on a small headline tour through the UK with Barn Owl and Katerwaul (worth checking out!).
‘Paper Canyon’ is their debut full-length album and despite coming across as a little easy at first, this record soon becomes a brilliantly subtle delight, going from bright uplifting songs to dreamy ambient numbers, to others filled with a deep sense of lament. It is so easy and common for post-rock bands to makes 2-dimensional records, only expressing the teenage-like solitude and angst part of the spectrum of human emotions. However, after seeing them live on many occasions, Codes In The Clouds stand out from the crowd of post-rockers as a band who express that but also happiness, hope and above all sincerity. It is when you realise that Paper Canyon does in fact have these powerful highs and lows that the record begins to make sense and the subtle authenticity within it comes out and sucks you back in along for the ride.
The opening track ‘Fractures’ sets the scene for a pleasant, dreamy frame of mind, then ‘Don’t Go Awash In This Digital Landscape’ hits with a relentless force, which carries on through until the epic finale of ‘Distant Street Lights’. ‘We Anchor In Hope’ is a charming uplifting waltz perfectly suited to the aftermath of the previous songs and ‘The Distance Between Us’ closes the album on a very powerful, hesitant, yet positive note.
Although it may seem like an obvious thing, the statement on their myspace that says ‘we like playing pretty music’ is strangely exact, and completely sums them up once you’ve fully absorbed the record.
Their eagerly anticipated follow up LP should be out by the end of this year so keep a look out and make sure you catch them live if they play in a town near you.
Although my interest in and appreciation of ambient music rarely goes beyond the genius of Eno and Stars Of The Lid, Dunn’s work captures a similar essence and provides a magical sonic space ideal for reflection and immersion. His most recent release: A Young Person’s Guide To Kyle Bobby Dunn (AYPGKBD) is extremely minimal and may not suit people who aren’t fans of the genre already, but serves as a great platform for those of you looking to explore it.
As a piece of sonic landscape or sound design, AYPGKBD is wonderfully put together merging many different textures which glide steadily and infinitely in the realms of abstraction. If it catches you in the right frame of mind, it carries you straight off into a world of your own making 2 hours seem like 2 minutes. Before you know it you’ll be putting the album back to the beginning for further introspection.
Dunn leads to believe that people who say that you can’t be in more than one place at a time, are wrong.
Cinematic Music 