piątek, 23 grudnia 2022

øjeRum - Reversed Cathedral (2022)


The Denmark-based artist with mysteriously Polish-sounding name Paw Grabowski, makes his absolutely fantastic visual art as  øjeRum. Additionally, he creates ambient music and his newest LP is called Reversed Cathedral.

The droney soundscapes, the artist creates, feel very complex and artsy at the same time. There's a lot going on, but it's all drowned in the slow-paced, static drone that makes your mind going to various places. It's like a fossil inside an amber: life enchanted in the beautiful stillness. And of course, as it should be expected from a graphic artist, Grabowski's cover art is exceptional. I love his style and I have to say that his cover arts are ALWAYS exceptional.

Reversed Cathedral costs 8 EUR.

Check: The Smile
Country: Denmark
Genre: lively ambient
Label: Cyclic Law



środa, 21 grudnia 2022

Dérives - Ferae seves (2022)


It's been almost three months since this album was released, but I couldn't not mention it on this blog. For the French band of Dérives, Ferae seves is the debut release, but I adore it and it's going to be one of my favourite post-rock releases of the year.

In the post-rock genre I especially like piano-led music and the darker version of the genre. And the French artists do both at the same time. Their compositions not only "include" piano sounds, they are built upon them. Yet, it's not only about piano's beauty, it's about the melancholia, sadness and anxiety that it brings to the music. And when the audience is occupied by dark thoughts, the heavy and crushingly overwhelming guitars come to play. What is important is that the band take their time to properly develop the track, as in Mormal, the album's longest track, the instrumental intro gets more and more quiet only to shock the listener with extremely loud and satisfying, piano-infused finish. 

Ferae seves costs 8 EUR.

Check: Mormal
Country: France
Genre: piano-led dark post-rock



wtorek, 20 grudnia 2022

Waterville - Isle of Blue (2022)


The Polish band of Waterville is not the main thing that comes to mind when you think of noisy artists in Poland. But it's a mistake as the Białystok-based outfit's second ever EP shows, once again, top quality dream pop music.

Isle of Blue, brought to you by Shore Dive Records, has already been recognized by some important worldwide players, including DKFM. And it's not a surprise as it's filled with dreamy and noisy songs or, like they advertise themselves, "new apocalyptic dreampop/shoegaze" content.  Their music is more about the moody, atmospheric than it is about the catchy and the melodic. It's not particularly fast-paced but it's very well at keeping the suspense up (so well audible in the album's longest track, War and the closure in Under the Water). In fact, the band is really good at creating the vast, spacious atmosphere, which is especially well-tangible during their live gigs.

Isle of Blue costs 3 USD.

Check: Breathing
Country: Poland
Genre: spacious dream pop
Label: Shore Dive Records



poniedziałek, 19 grudnia 2022

Tajak - La sombra del agua (2022)


Tajak are from the capital city of Mexico and they have been doing their extremely entertaining psychedelic rock since 2015. Their new album, La sombra del agua (or "The shadow of the water") is already their fifth, although it is my first meeting with their music. Hopefully not the last.

The artists admit that the way they recorded this album was different from the previous, more improvisation-oriented ones. This one was created through a "much more patient, meticulous and intimate process" and I have to say that I dig this creativity-filled, complex playlist. The other thing is the range of various instruments used during recording, including ocarina, sitar, flute and more with a heavy dose of field recordings from the lush, Mexican landscapes. 

One thing that is very special about this album is the huge amount of instrumental ambient passages that create a unique, exotic but also extremely moody atmosphere which can soon enough transform into noisy sections (like in Soñar es despertar). The whole thing feels closer to the subtle, mysterious soundscapes than any kind of rock and the delicate, barely audible vocals add to this feeling too. But the whole album is structured like a post-rock song: it gets louder and louder throughout the whole hour. Still, even if, in my favourite parts, guitars take over, the overall feeling is still slowly mesmerizing and this is something I appreciate a lot at this release. 

La sombra del agua costs 7 EUR (140 MXN).

Check: La puerta
Country: Mexico 
Genre: psychedelic rock soundscape
Label: Látigo



piątek, 16 grudnia 2022

From Overseas & City of Dawn - Misty Memories (2022)


Kévin Séry (From Overseas) and Damien Duque (City of Dawn) are ambient artists who decided to make some music together and the first instance of their cooperation brought fantastic results. Misty Memories is an album that presents fairy-tale-like, calm soundscapes to smooth the every-day existence of each of us.

The ambient here is smooth and warm like a thick carpet. But there's also a lot of going on within this dense structure, a lot of lively micro sounds living there. It is all structured with acoustic sounds of guitar and tons of noisy backgrounds. The release breathes with calm and peace, it's a well a listener can draw those from in the form of beautiful music that is complex and simple at the same time.

Misty Memories costs 6 USD.

Check: Weathering
Country: Reunion/Texas, US
Genre: mysterious soundscapes
Label: Past Inside the Present



czwartek, 15 grudnia 2022

Królówczana Smuga - Sport Patriotyzm Militaria (2022)


Adam Piętak systematically builds on his stage persona of Królówczana Smuga, developing the art and music behind it. The proud citizen of the eastern Poland, Piętak creates his freak folk music basing it on rough, industrial sounds - nothing changed here. However, Sport Patriotyzm Militaria is still special in some ways.

The most important one being that the new songs are more... songs than noisy tracks. There's more lyrics, more catchy melodies. The songs are now ready to be performed by the audience during the live gigs, something that wasn't so obvious before. Especially that the artist skillfully plays with the industrial melodies the whole thing is built upon, adding quirky references to traditional music (as in HUHUHA with a Polish children song played in the middle despite the track's gloomy atmosphere). Additionally, Piętak is really good at modulating his sound so there's a multitude of vocals present, often encapsulated in a single song. The music is also more saturated with little decorations like additional samples. 

Besides the curious mashup of the folk and the modern, Piętak is really good at writing lyrics. They are structured like simple folk songs, perhaps sometimes even like nursery rhymes, but the content is much less carefree. The songs handle the current situation in Poland from the social perspective (Sport Patriotyzm Militaria ("Sport Patriotism Military Equipment")) or the approach to environment as presented by the Polish government (To nie jest las dla starych drzew ("No Forest for Old Trees")) for instance. All this is filled with pop culture references - sometimes more obscure, sometimes very straightforward as covering a Polish punk band Siekiera's song that closes the album. 

Sport Patriotyzm Militaria costs 5.5 EUR (25 PLN).

Check: To nie jest las dla starych drzew
Country: Poland
Genre: industrial freak folk
Label: Requiem Records



środa, 14 grudnia 2022

Drowse - Wane Into It (2022)


Floating Room's Kyle Bates is better known as Drowse as his ambient shoegaze project is well-established on the off music stage already. It's time for his sixth album already and Wane Into It may well be the best release under this moniker.

This is the subtlest of noise music kinds. Bates is really good at toning everything down to the necessary minimum without losing anything from the dense, murky atmosphere. His warm vocals lead the way here, channeling melodies and enchant the audience. But it is stil all about the music in the backgrounds: the softest of noise, the darkest of ambient, very skillfully put together to create an ambient-pop dreamy set of moody tracks that can feel as cozy as apocalyptic; hopeful and hopeless at the same time. The artist emphasizes how important it is to listen to his music through headphones and given all that happens in the barely audible sequences, it really is a must-do. 

Wane Into It costs 8 USD.

Check: Untrue in Headphones
Country: Oregon, US
Genre: ambient noise pop
Label: The Flenser



poniedziałek, 12 grudnia 2022

The Haunted Youth - Dawn of the Freak (2022)


Led by Joachim Liebens, the Belgian outfit The Haunted Youth delivers fun and airy indie pop rock that checks all the marks for catchy and easy-to-fell-in-love-with music. Dawn of the Freak is their debut and it feels very fresh and exciting.

The band is already well recognized with both MNE and KXP praising their music. No wonder, the melodies here are mesmerizing, the carefree guitars extremely soothing and the airy vocals very moody. But if this is not enough, the omnipresent synths transform the dreamy music into danceable, psychedelic disco that can be enjoyed by everybody. This is all combined with gloomy, melancholic (and emo) lyrics which makes the whole thing both enjoyable and touching. This all culminates in my favourite track here: Coming Home that is both painfully real and filled with the heaviest melancholia, as well as ridiculously catchy and ready to be hummed from the first listening session.

Dawn of the Freak costs 8 EUR.

Check: Coming Home
Country: Belgium
Genre: psychedelic dream pop
Label: Mayway Records



piątek, 9 grudnia 2022

the abyss inside us & non somnia - our fears is what we become (2022)


Carlos Herrera, aka Non Somnia, already appeared on this blog last year. But this time he is joining another post-rock solo artist, Greek Nikos Togkaridis on this beautiful instrumental journey recorded on the our fears is what we become album.

This is this kind of post-rock that is infused with neoclassical elements right to the lid. It is opened with piano sounds, later joined by violin strings and it all makes it utterly melancholic. But it is soon empowered by louder, crushingly poignant guitars. If you think post-rock melancholia, it is the sound you think of. The compositions make it even more so: they swell around you, making the whole space filled with the autumn-like, tear-jerking feeling. Especially that it's not always about the loud; more often than not, the artists venture into the neoclassical instrumental ambient regions which only makes the post-rock explosions more impressive.

our fears is what we become costs 8 EUR.


Check: our fears is what we become
Country: Greece, Spain
Genre: melancholic post-rock



czwartek, 8 grudnia 2022

Shaki Tavi - Shaki Tavi (2022)


Leon Mosburg leads the Californian group Shaki Tavi. The Americans have recently released their first LP ever and with this self-titled album, a new and exciting nugaze entity appeared on my personal map of the world.

The band delivers "blistering tones confined to pop song forms to rail against the ennui of daily life". This and the overall vibes coming from their image, made me expect some kind of wild psychedelic rock, but, while still fairly psychedelic, the outfit is very much into fuzzy, modern shoegaze. Their sound is quite close to Nothing: similar clean but delicate and withdrawn vocals, similar heavy pace and entertaining melodies. It all is hidden behind the wall of very loud noise. It's certainly an exciting, almost euphoric blend. The album is not particularly short, but the otherworldly flow it represents make this 30 minutes disappear suddenly in a colourful and deafening bliss.

Shaki Tavi costs 10 USD.

Check: Voices
Country: California, US
Genre: nugaze
Label: Mutation Records



środa, 7 grudnia 2022

Florist - Kosket (2022)


I must say, although they have already four albums in their discography, I had never heard of Florist, the band from Finland, before. But it is time to make up for this as their new album called Kosket certainly delivers some brilliant post-rock pieces for the broader audience.

I have a feeling that the Finns draw tons of fun from being in the band. You can hear this kind of artsy enthusiasm in their music with many elements fitting each other somehow chaotically, but creating a coherent, lively whole. There's something from jazzy improvisation here, something from noise rock madness, something from the skillful art rock. I like how it all comes together in 4040, a track that can be especially loud in places, but also very subtle somewhere else. However, the album's longest track Miksi kosket humisevat, kun lähestymme says that the band is fluent in creating more traditional, highly atmospheric kind of post-rock and they are really good at it as well.

Kosket costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: 4040
Country: Finland
Genre: art post-rock



wtorek, 6 grudnia 2022

Vlack Salzo - Saeculum (2022)


The Catalan band (or a solo musician, I'm not entirely sure) make certainly, together with Syberia, the most interesting post-rock outfit in Barcelona. They recently came back with their sophomore album called Saeculum to prove it once again.

The post-rock offered by the Catalan project certainly feels like a heavy (or even heavy-metal-like) kind of the genre: with much of the time devoted to guitar riffs but without forgetting about the massive atmosphere to generate. I feel like the music on the album brings together best of the two worlds: it is crunchy and catchy on one hand and moody and atmospheric on the other. The compositions are prepared in such a way that there's no room for static passages, but rather the music is filled with pace-changing, complex guitar structures - like it is in The Crowd, a track opened with a field recording and finished with a raw guitar solo. Not to mention This Is All We Are which finishes the whole album with an impressive, chaotically loud crescendo.

Also, I have to say that the album cover must be one of my favourite ones this year.

Saeculum costs 7 EUR.


Check: This Is All We Are
Country: Catalonia/Spain
Genre: heavy post-rock



poniedziałek, 5 grudnia 2022

Random Forest - Ascension (2022)


Aaron Gilbert and David Walters (the latter known, also to the readers of this blog, as The Echelon Effect) create a post-rock music duo called Random Forest. And while their discography is certainly not short, my interest in their music came with the latest EP called Ascension.

It's a short but very moody release filled with soothing, relaxing instrumental compositions that are based on the sound of acoustic guitar and certainly inspired by the calm of the nature surroundings. Together with hazy synth backgrounds, they create a beautiful, foggy soundscape that makes you feel like tucking in under blankets. This kind of atmosphere changes half the way of the second track, making way to heavier guitar sounds, but the overall feeling is the same: it is cozy, warm music that should make you feel better in no time.

Ascension costs whatever you want to pay.


Check: That Bird of Prey Casts a Long Shadow
Country: UK
Genre: easy-listening post-rock
Label: Glidescope Recordings



piątek, 2 grudnia 2022

Simon McCorry & Andrew Heath - A Is for Autumn (2022)


These gentlemen already appeared together on this blog: Simon McCorry and Andrew Heath are 2/3 of Konstruct, and they are back with some more extremely atmospheric music on their fittingly called new album, A Is for Autumn.

And yes, this is the perfect music for this season. Moody and soft, slow and gloomy. The heavy basses contrast here with delicate and super sad feedback-like noises; the static soundscapes are limitless and the pure melancholia drips out of every note. It gets even better with the sea od synths that appears from time to time, mesmerizing the audience in an instant as it is in my favourite track here, V​ä​ldighet. I can't stress enough how well this album goes with the world out there at this time of the year. If you need to enhance the nostalgic experience autumn offers, you should make this album its soundtrack.

A Is for Autumn costs 8 EUR (7 GBP).


Check: Rain
Country: UK
Genre: melancholic soundscape



czwartek, 1 grudnia 2022

Gonemage - Handheld Demise (2022)


I already know what to expect from Garry Brents, but it doesn't mean I'm always ready for the chaotic attack he serves on each of his albums. Handheld Demise is only a proof for this as from the very first notes, Gonemage's chiptune black metal overwhelms the listener's ears.

Just like his artworks suggest every time, the music here sounds like taken from a particularly unnerving but also entertaining computer game. The pace is always as fast as Sonic's speed runs, the energy must be the result of some sort of life boost while the black metal's aggressive sounds simply overflow the computer-generated tunes. As the artist summarizes it, "Black Metal/Chiptune convergence set in pixelated dream realms". The results are absurdly chaotic, but this is the very best feature of Brents' music. The game references are sometimes even less subtle when the artist reaches for sounds that everybody knows from their favourite oldschool games (as it is in The Suffering and Endurance). 

On the other hand, thematically and lyrics-wise, it is very much the metal gloom that rules on the album. This clash is what makes the project so special, perhaps the most unique one within the black metal community. 

Handheld Demise costs 3 USD.


Check: Father Time's Grandfather Clock
Country: Texas, US
Genre: chiptune black metal
Label: WereGnome Records/Xenoglossy Productions/Fiadh Productions