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February Recap: The Ark Work

1. Liturgy - The Ark Work

Technically not even released yet but I’m counting this one for February since that was the month when I first heard it (and also because I completely forgot that it wasn’t out yet and I just had to go with it).

There’s not really much more to say about this album that I didn’t cover in my review of it a couple of posts down. I believe that this album achieves what Hunter Hunt-Hendrix was going for when he set out to create American-sounding black metal. I don’t believe it will be a revolutionary album or even big enough to define a subgenre on its own, but I do believe that it stands on unique feet, achieving a sound that noone has previously been close to making in the metal-genre. 

ANTON ÖBERG SYSOJEV

[hejanton1]

February Recap: Black Moon Days

2. Joanne Robertson - Black Moon Days

I should probably continue my recap of February-releases before March comes around and runs by. My second favorite album of February was the latest Joanne Robertson release, titled Black Moon Days.

Most of Robertson’s latest notoriety has stemmed from collaborating with experimental artist Dean Blunt on a couple of releases since early 2013, most of which have been nothing but excellent. I first expected this album to be in a similar vein, or atleast somewhat more experimental, abstract and hard to fully grasp and decipher, but Black Moon Days is instead pretty straightforward folk music. 

Black Moon Days often sound very Grouper-esque, taking cues from Harris’ music through a big focus on ambience with free ranging pads, ethereal, filtered vocals as well as hypnotic, repetitive guitar strums, sounding like they’re resonating from behind a wall, below a bed, inside a head, and far into a dream landscape consisting of oil-chambers. 

Despite it’s similarity to an album like Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill it still sounds unique in a lot of different places, and mainly working as a transitional work. A track like Hi-Watt which is very obviously prodcuced by Dean Blunt sounds like something of Blunt’s The Redeemer and a track like closer Bricklin’ sounds like nothing you’d expect from this artist. 

It’s a surprising album that mixes a lot of interesting things in with elements that aren’t too far out there but the more I return to it, the more it shows me that Joanne Robertson is definitely on par with both Dean Blunt and his previous collaborator Inga Copeland. We love in interesting times where we’re able to witness the complete evolution and metamorphosis of these three’s career. In Joanne Robertson’s case it’s been nothing but delving deeper and deeper into experimental territory. 

Joanne Robertson

Black Moon Days

8

ANTON ÖBERG SYSOJEV

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February Recap: Levande Död I Norra Norrland

3. Råd Kjetil Sanza Testa - Levande Död I Norra Norrland

This is one of the biggest surprises for me this year so far. Found it through a positive review in the paper amongst all the pop and rock albums. Big black letters spelling out "Dark Ambient/Spoken Word" which already feels quite a step outside of what you usually find amongst DN's reviews.

Droney synthesizers make up the bulk of Levande Död I Norra Norrland, with a focus on booming textures and vibrating bass lines only to be sparsely colored by Mattias Alkberg's voice which always comes through as chilling whether he's reciting poetry on Dödligt Vapen or shouting out "namn!" under heavy layers of distortion on Skingrade. No matter what track you're on, the feeling of desolation and fear is always there, perfectly executed by the drone and noise that work as part times noises in your head, part time what I assume The Black Lodge would sound like, should I ever end up there.

It's a record that really nails the idea of an atmosphere. As I'm writing this I'm alone in my dark room, listening to snippets of the album as I dip back and forth into writing and I can't even begin to fathom the feeling of being lost in the deepest woods of Norrland, and hearing these kinds of sounds played in the darkness. Alkberg's voice gives it that extra edge that takes it from being an ordinary dark ambient album into a territory where it sounds like something out of a horror movie. 

Despite all the praise for the noise and drone parts of the record, the track that stands out the most to me is Dödligt Vapen which is Alkberg's finest performance on this record. Starting of reciting poetry alone suddenly takes a turn when the synthesizers come in and Alkberg goes from flowers to talking about water guns. "Can you really call them water guns these days? Well I guess you can't call them water machine guns". 

I would have liked for Alkberg to have more moments where he freely had a chance to recite his poetry becuase his abstract ramblings paired with the brewing darkness of Råd Kjetil Sanza Testa truly is a mesmerizing combination. Not to say that the more direct approach of using Mattias Alkberg as a vessel to even more bluntly portray the feeling the anonymous band was going for on this record is a bad approach, it's just that I think they're able to do it in more stylish ways.

All in all this is a surprisingly good record from a genre I usually pay little mind to. I'm a sucker for well executed spoken word and this is one of the best ways I've heard it done in years. 

Råd Kjetil Sanza Testa

Levande Död I Norra Norrland

7.5

ANTON ÖBERG SYSOJEV

[hejanton1]

February Recap: Por Vida

4. Kali Uchis - Por Vida

This is a debut EP from Colmbian-through-Virginia pop artist Kali Uchis, and it's a terrific blend of RnB, dub, and straight up summery pop bangers. Several producers have been working with Kali Uchis for this EP, the most well known, and in my opinion unexpected producer, being Tyler The Creator.

Por Vida is an easy going record that shows of Uchi's talent as a singer and bubble gum pop artist. She might not be revolutionizing but her music is fun and has a certain laidback charm to it. All 8 songs on Por Vida are jams that smell of sun, pools and a constant supply of fresh margaritas. Por Vida is the kind of record that doesn't sound too far from receiving air time on even the biggest radio stations while still sounding like something fresh outside of the rotating giants such as Rihanna, Taylor Swift or whoever it is that recently released a hot single. 

It might just be common pop music but Kali Uchis still sound fresh enough to have an appeal over everything else that see radio play these days.

Kali Uchis

Por Vida

7.5

ANTON ÖBERG SYSOJEV

[hejanton1]

February Recap: Den Morronen

5. Thåström - Den Morronen

So a second month has passed and I thought I'd repeat what I did last month with a short summary of my favorite releases from this month with a neat little review to follow it up. Starting of with the latest release from Joakim Thåström, Den Morronen. 

It's been quite a while since the days of Ebba Grön and it's very apparent that Thåström is far from the same man he was back in those days. He's constantly been moving in a darker direction than the cheery, political punk that the band made back in the 80's and today it's more about flirts with industrial, poetry, and a feel for melancholy that outshines a majority of artists.

Den Morronen isn't very far from his other solo releases. It often times feel like more of the same, which is something that I personally feel is getting a bit stale. Thåström's music hasn't evolved in over a decade and while his lyricism is still some of the greatest in any Swedish musician active today I can't shake the feeling that the instrumentals might aswell have been on Det Är Ni Som Är De Konstiga. The industrial influences are great and definitely a step in the right direction but they're still nothing more than a flirt and Thåström is far from heading into the territory of even the most accessible Coil album, let alone having the guts to create something as daring as 20 Jazz Funk Greats. 

I will say that I enjoyed Den Morronen and consider it one of the better 2015 releases of this month, even outshining Mount Eerie's Sauna which is quite a big effort. However if Thåström returns in two years with an album that still sounds like Kärlek Är För Dom, I'll have to say that the man has run dry of ideas. 

Thåström

Den Morronen

7

ANTON ÖBERG SYSOJEV

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The Ark Work

Releases like this (or in this case, leaks like this) are what got me to start this blog way back in the winter of 2013. Albums which intrigue you in a way that you just have to tell someone.

I've already told my mother, the only person around who won't think I'm a nut for going crazy about a 56-minute long piece of not-black-metal and the response was pretty much "That's sweet dear". So here I am, hammering away at approximately 40 select pieces of computer hoping that I'll feel a bit more relieved once I click the button that says post. 

Liturgy is one of the most controversial black metal bands active at the moment in the genre. This is saying a lot about their music when the genre they work in has been home to nazis, murderes and people like Varg Vikernes. Liturgy however, aren't controversial of their actions or their political opinions, Liturgy are controversial because their front man, and vocalist, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, has a few odd opinions of himself, his band, and American black metal music, which has come to piss off a ton of fans of the genre.

To give a quick recap: the Brooklyn artist wrote a manifesto about how he was supposed to create a new blend of black metal, a more Americanized version, just as there's a certain culture surrounding Norwegian and other kinds of black metal. Hendrix wants to call this "transcendental black metal", which, I agree, is a bit of a pretentious name to toss upon your own music. 

Their latest album was supposed to be the first in this new genre that only Liturgy play music in (so far...) and while it was positively received critcially, there's no doubt that there are people out there who think Liturgy, Aesthethica and mainly Hendrix are pretentious hipster cunts who are attempting to capitalize on pushing the genre of black metal onto other hipsters who normally would stray far from this kind of abrasive, harsh metal. 

People were already upset by Aesthethica despite the fact that it was a quite straightforward black metal album, albeit a bit more noisy, abrasive and homogenous than expected (it was also victim of quite awfully bad mastering and mixing, but that's just my opinion). The whole "transcendental black metal" was at that point just Hendrix sounding a bit full of himself and people didn't have too much to be angry about when it came to the music Liturgy was putting it. 

However... it's no longer 2011. Four years have passed and if people had even slight reason to be pissed about what Liturgy was doing for black metal, they sure have lots of reason to be fuming right now. 

I'll talk about this album from my personal point of view from now on because I'm not incredibly well versed in black metal (I haven't heard neither Darkthrone nor Filosofem actually) and this being a controversial release I might aswell write about it through my own subjective eyes and ears since I can't really be objective about this release.

I came home early on Friday after not having been home for 24-hours. Updated the usual blogs and pages and saw a lot of buzz about the new Liturgy album. People were going on about how this was the best album this year, how it would be remembered as the best metal album to come out in this decade and some anonymous dude on /mu/ even called it The Kid A of metal (which is a stupid comparison). 

The first thing that hit me when I finally got to hear it are these bold midi-horns that sound so out of place on a record by the band called Liturgy. Two minutes of this continues, like a choir paving the way for the band's entry until it culminates in Follow. More midi-sounds follow as the chaotic sound of Aesthethica comes into play. The computerized bass feels like some kind of warmth as Hendrix comes in with these chanting vocals all sidechained to the hit of the snare, giving his voice a vibrating feel to it. The drums come back in with full effect as the background is filled with the sound of a crowd chanting and I think to myself "Hendrix has actually done it". 

If you set out to make something called transcendental black metal that's supposed to be the American take on black metal there are a lot of things that you have to execute throughout your career for a genre that you yourself created should catch on and become more than a ridiculous name on music noone will remember in 15 years.

1. You have to make it sound American. Whether this is through badly done electronic additions, pompous, grandiose instrumentation or some kind of Hollywood-ization of your sound is the question.

2. It has to stand out, be unique. It can't be American black metal, it has to be transcendental, and that's what it has to sound like aswell. 

3. It has to be good. Noone will care about your opinions when you're music were forgotten more quickly than your career ever existed. 

I would say that all these three points were reached with The Ark Work and I'd claim that Hendrix finally found the sound that he was looking for. 

First of all it sounds American. It sounds absolutely large, something that black metal usually doesn't achieve if it's not a big aim for the band and the album. It sounds pompous and it sounds very true to it's time with the electronic and computerized additions to the ideas of Aesthethica. Tracks like Quetzacoalt, Follow, and Kel Valhaal are great examples of this.

Second, it truly stands out. And if this album receives good reviews from places such as Pitchfork, I don't doubt that it will remain a talking point for many more years to come, not only for the controversy surrounding Hendrix' opinions of black metal, but also for how dividing this album has been between fans of music all around the globe. Kanye West's Yeezus was controversial upon release but I'd argue that this one beats even that one out.

The third point is more tricky to objectively discuss for me. Is it good? Is this album a mockery of black metal, going so far as even having a witch-house/hiphop track on here where Hendrix disses the industry and the fans of the genre, talking about his superiority to his peers and other contemporary acts. I can't of course not speak on the public's opinion but I would definitely say that it's heavily divided. Some seem to hate it and Hendrix along with it even more than before, and some claim it's one of this decades biggest musical efforts. 

Oh. You want to know what I think of The Ark Work?

I love it of course.

Liturgy

The Ark Work

8.5

[hejanton1]

No Shade In The Shadow Of The  Cross

Maybe I'm just writing this to avoid studying, or maybe I was just this awestruck by the new Sufjan Stevens single. 

I've always been a pretty huge fan of Sufjan's music so it made me quite happy to see that he's due for a new record this year that's also more of a return to a folkier sound, which is great news for someone like me, who wasn't too big on his latest efforts. 

However, I wasn't expecting too much since this is a new release by an artist who's latest truly great album came out 10 years ago so I tried to not keep my hopes up. Then came the song title for the first single, No Shade In The Shadow Of The Cross and I assumed this was going to be another album with themes about Christianity, God and Jesus again, which I wasn't too excited for. 

However, the new single completely blew me away. Sufjan is yet again singing in that melancholy heart broken way, sounding like this would be the last goodbye he'll have the chance to give us all. The sonic landscape is filled to the brim with his voice which sounds like it's pouring over the edges, chiseled into sounding jarring, bleak and desperate, like if his voice was about to give up on him. This all is accompanied by the buzz of the room and a single, lonely guitar. 

It barely feels like the same artist that I've loved for all these years. It takes me back hearing him sing lines like "Get drunk to get laid / I take one more hit before I depart" or the incredibly uncharactheristic "Fuck me I'm falling apart". 

Sufjan has always been the image of hope, of empowerment in the weak. Hearing Chicago played in Little Miss Sunshine is such an accurate portrayal of what Sufjan has meant to me and probably many others throughout the years and now hearing him sound this desperate and beaten up is truly fascinating. But it's not a wrong turn for him. On the contrary, it feels like a much needed change of pace, a much needed shift for Sufjan and my excitement for this album just went through the roof.

Sufjan Stevens

No Shade In The Shadow Of The Cross

ANTON ÖBERG SYSOJEV

[hejanton1]

I Love You Honeybear

Father John Misty - I Love You Honeybear

Father John Misty is the former drummer of Fleet Foxes and I Love You Honeybear is his second solo release since the band went on a hiatus after releasing Helplessness Blues. It's the followup to the, in my opinion, fantastic piece of baroque pop that was Fear Fun. 

What I personally loved with Fear Fun was how it came from one of the members of Fleet Foxes, an already very dominant name in the genre of baroque pop, and doesn't even hesitate to go toe to toe with their releases, matching Robin Pecknold's lyricism and saying; "hey, I can do this shit too!".

What also proved of Joshua Tiillman's talent was how it didn't sound anything like a Fleet Foxes record and more of sounding like a big nod to greats like Scott Walker while instead offering one of the most grandiose and pompous sounding instrumentations. 

I Love You Honeybear does unfortunately not have the same impact as Fear Fun had on me. The instrumenation doesn't feel as big anymore, and neither does Tillman's vocals. It's a more downplayed record, a bigger focus on intimacy and especially on Tillman's lyrcisism, which I won't argue being anything but phenomenal all throughout the album. 

However, the lack of grandiose instrumentation removes a big element that made Tillman's solo debut such a standout record and I don't think the trade for intimacy is all that worth it in the grand scheme of it all, and especially not for me personally, who have a very hard time focusing on the lyrics if I'm not immediately grabbed by another element. 

I wish there were more tracks on this record that went in the vein of Holy Shit; an outstanding song that packs everything that makes Tillman's music worthwhile under a span of 4 minutes. It's a catharsis if I ever heard one and it takes the album out on a truly high note which makes the real closing track, I Went To The Store One Day feel unnecessary and dismissable when coming down from the high of Holy Shit. Maybe I didn't love this album, but it's hard not to be wooed by this track and it more than makes up for the whole of it all.

Father John Misty

I Love You Honeybear

6.5

ANTON ÖBERG SYSOJEV

[hejanton1]

Sauna

Mount Eerie - Sauna

One of my most highly anticipated releases of 2015 was the new album from Phil Elverum, Sauna. It's his first proper release (not counting Pre-Human Ideas) since 2012 and the followup to both Ocean's Roar and Clear Moon. 

Phil's discography is getting quite long, with over fifteen full length LP's over his career as both Mount Eerie aswell as The Microphones. He's been releasing music as a lo-fi artist, recording in the back of a store he just to work at. He's been releasing a mixture of folk and noise pop around the millenial shift and towards the end of the last decade we saw him experimenting with black metal fused with his trademark cold folk recordings. 

Sauna feels like a continutation of the ideas Elverum's been working on for the past few years on albums like the black metal-heavy Wind's Poem and Ocean's Roar while also taking a step back and having tracks on here that sound like a throwback to an Eleverum we haven't seen in a long while, on the folk-ier tracks like Dragon and Youth. Unfortunately the final result isn't all too impressive. Sauna is nothing but a continuation of the kind of music Elverum's been making for several years now, it doesn't feel new or refreshing, it just feels like another stepping stone in an already explored direction. 

It's still true to Elverum's style and Sauna succeeds in sounding cold, lonely, empty and harsh, with Elevrum always sounding like he's been broken far too many times by now. There's an honesty in Elverum's singing on tracks like Emptiness and Pumpkin, he sounds wounded, beaten, destroyed and it's hard to not sympathize with the feelings he conveys. 

Like most of what I've heard from Elverum, Sauna is an enjoyable, solid record. Nobody other than Elverum would have achieved the same amount of quality content no matter how similar they're music is. There's just so much to Elverum as a person that adds to his music as Mount Eerie and The Microphones which makes it that much better. Despite it's flaws it's still one of the better records I've heard so far this year.

Mount Eerie

Sauna

7

ANTON ÖBERG SYSOJEV

[hejanton1]

January Recap: Blackheart

1. Dawn Richard - Blackheart

2015 is the kind of year where contemporary RnB is a very broad term. It could mean anything from Janelle Monaé's funk-influenced music, FKA Twigs' wonky, sensual RnB, or something like Dawn Richard's blend of genres while keeping a certain sense of radio friendly-ness to it. 

At first glance, Blackheart sounds like accessible RnB that wouldn't feel wrong being played on your local hip-hop/RnB-station, but once you really start digging through this hour long album, you start to realize that there's more to it than just a nice voice drenched in autotune. 

Blackheart is the followup to 2013's Goldenheart and are both the first two parts in what's supposed to become a full trilogy in a few years. Goldenheart had a much more accessible focus to it, with the spotlight more on Richard this time around. Goldenheart had more generic instrumentals, an overall more clean sound, and even samples Satie's Gymnopedie 1 for the closing track. 

If I had heard Goldenheart previously, I most likely wouldn't have bothered giving this one a go, since it's the kind of music I'm usually not a fan of, but again, there's much more to this record than just pretty autotuned vocals with generic beats. 

What truly stands out on Blackheart is the instrumentation, the production, the beats. All tracks are quite varied, from the break-centered Calypso, to the tribal-sounding Blow, to the summery EDM-jam that's Warriors. Richard's voice works in tandem with the beats, giving eachother space and room and constantly trying to one-up eachother. Like on the opener, Noir, where Richard kicks of the album by shouting "I thought I lost it all" before giving room for the instrumentals to come in with the thomping kick drum and some serene strings. It's a huge step up from the uninspired instrumentals of Goldenheart.

Overall Blackheart is a very well executed RnB record that flirts with so many different themes and genres. The tracks are varied, Richard is on point vocally and synergize well with the beats. There just isn't a lot of flaws overall and I can't help but give her credit for that.

Dawn Richard

Blackheart

8

ANTON ÖBERG SYSOJEV

[hejanton1]

January Recap: Viet Cong

2. Viet Cong - S/T

Rising from the ashes of the finished band Women stands the few members who are left under a new name: Viet Cong. Now maybe it's unfair to compare the two bands just because they share a background and a few members. Viet Cong is after all supposed to be a fresh new start and not a continuation of the project that died then and there during a stage fight one October evening in 2010. Again, from the ashes Viet Cong rises, consisting of Matt Flegel and Mike Wallace from Women along with two new members. Flegel has stepped up to take vocals, a role that his brother had back in their old band and the finished product also sounds like the reborn Women. 

This is a band that feels just as raw and visceral as Women did. Guitars that sound naked and bare, like a pair of hands, hiding the nudity that the rest of the band brings to the table. It sounds mechanical; noise rock, lo-fi and post-punk influences all go together in a blender and the mucky goo that comes out is titled things like Newspaper Spoons and Bunker Buster. 

It sounds like a fresh new start for a band who'se already experienced in a certain sound. They've had the time to perfect their art and it's very noticable on this self-titled debut. It sounds like an evolved version of Public Strain, an album that already had the "unique sound" stamp all over them. Viet Cong is melodic guitars behind echo chambered drums that sound like something out of dark ambient song. It's song structure that doesn't care about repeating itself and instead goes exactly where it want's to, which is where you shouldn't expect it to go. 

Matt Flegel as the voice of the band works surprisingly well and while lots of it sounds like ambigious poetry, there are several points where Flegel opens up and says something personal behind all the filters and hard equalization that barely makes him recognizable. For instance on Pointless Experience, where Flegel sings about death and horror in war until he during the chorus blurts, like a drunken slip-up, "if we're lucky we'll get old and die" and I can't help but wonder if there's some greater meaning underneath, almost as a memoir to Christopher Reimer, former Women member who died a year after Women's breakup. 

I personally see this as a more thought out Public Strain but it's really not fair to compare the two bands and neither the two albums. All I can really say for sure is that this is a band that's been evolving over the years and that, hopefully, has lots left to give for their fans.

Viet Cong

Viet Cong

7.5

ANTON ÖBERG SYSOJEV

[hejanton1]

January Recap: You, Whom I've Always Hated

3. The Body & Thou - You, Whom I've Always Hated

This is the second collaborated release by metal bands The Body and Thou. It a followup EP to Released From Love which was their first collaboration and another EP which was released about a year ago. Now I'm not very well versed in metal but Thou is one of my personal favorites in the genre at the moment and another collaborative EP with The Body is something I'll always be up for hearing. 

The biggest downside to this EP is honestly the fact that it's an EP. These two bands are both some of the best contemporary metal acts out there and their collaborations work very well even if this one is a bit heavy in Thou's favor. It's always hard to balance a collaborative project and not make it focused around just one of the participants. 

Overall the EP is very good and holds high quality but what makes it lack is that it's way too short overall. The songs aren't as long as they could have taken benefit of being and there doesn't seem to be enough material from these bands either seeing as how they've stuck a Nine Inch Nails cover in there. Musically it isn't bad. On the contrary, most tracks are quite good but I get the sense that they haven't gotten the care they deserve. There's only one 7 minute track that feels like it gets to say everything it wants before ending of, the other tracks do what they're supposed to for their duration but quickly close up before it's possible to get a chance to really take them in.

I'd be really happy if these two bands came together with a full LP because I definitely think there are huge amounts of potential in them, and putting out EP's isn't a solution to their conjoined creativites. 

Give it a shot if you're a doom or black metal fan.

The Body & Thou

You, Whom I've Always Hated

7.5

ANTON ÖBERG SYSOJEV

[hejanton1]

January Recap, Everything Else Matters

4. Pinkshinyultrablast - Everything Else Matters

I find it a bit ridiculous for a shoegaze band to take their name from a quite well known shoegaze album (Astrobrite's Pinkshinyultrablast that is) and it made for a very confusing experience and a lot of googling when I first heard of this band. Pinkshinyultrablast is a shoegaze 5-piece from Saint Petersburg in Russia. It was interesting to see some russian acts getting recognition for being something else than a super niche acts like Siberian throat singing or similar. 

Everything Else Matters is the band's debut LP and if you hadn't gotten your eyes up for them when they released their debut EP in 09 then this should be your wake up call. It's ordinary shoegaze and everything comes with that term with a heavy focus on pop music. The songs are catchy, the vocals are gorgeus and the melodies are a very heavy focus. 

The opening track Wish We Were starts of by building up through some slow synths, electronic percussion and FL-Studio sounding bass synths. Your not really sure what kind of album you're listening to until it halfway through the song breaks of with the start shot of a snare hit. Guitars come in, fretting away at some blissful chords and vocalist Lyubov comes in over some distorted guitars with an angelic voice, sounding so confident, almost as if she was the conductor of the whole spectacle. 

The album continues in a similar vein. Normally I'd consider this to be a quite ordinary and uninspired shoegaze album which doesn't really move outside of the boundaries that similar contemporary shoegaze bands have already set up years prior, but what makes Everything Else Matters is just how well it is executed. There aren't much to complain about, the melodies are all terrific and the band fully succeeds in what they set out to do (atleast for me). This is a band that I'm very eager to see evolve, with two releases in their trunk and already being on par with bands like Whirr and Nothing in quality, all it would take is just some fame and this is a band that would become Pitchfork-indie darlings in a year or two,.

Pinkshinyultrablast

Everything Else Matters

7

ANTON ÖBERG SYSOJEV

[hejanton1]

January Recap, Further Out

Since I'm awful at actually updating my blog, despite listening to more music than ever and even writing about them to a big enough extent that I could almost post a short review just by copy pasting. I've been lazy but I'm trying to balance this blog with university and my work with the faculty. 

However I'm going to close of January by recaping the month and throwing out a short review on my favorite releases from this month.

5. Cloakroom - Further Out

Further Out is an album by post-hardcore & shoegaze band Cloakroom. Post-hardcore isn't a genre that I personally associate with shoegaze but it's a mix that comes together naturally and is executing in a terrific manor on Further Out. The whole album gets a slower, almost sludgy feel to it that shifts between buzzing wall's of sound and a calmer, more focused sound that comes forward when the somber vocals enter the mix. 

As a post-hardcore record this is quite boring. They lack energy or emotion and the whole genre affiliation is mainly due to the quite generic instrumentation which sounds like something taken straight out of one of Unwound's later albums after having vacuumed out the energy of it. What remains is an album that feels almost slow-core influenced at many parts, most notable the calmer parts of Paperweight, Lossed Over and Clean Moon. 

What makes this album mentionable though is the shoegaze part of it. The wall of sound hits perfectly and is almost calming in the same sense as Sometimes from Loveless. The band shifts up between these rawer parts and the slowed down, bare parts which often don't need more than an acoustic guitar and some percussion to stay interesting. 

This is a band that's at their best when they fully go in on the idea of post-hardcore drowned in distortion. The best example of this is the amazing closer (the track linked above), Deep Sea Station which comes in as the final punch instantly kicking of with a stinging buzz over a band that almost sounds as much doom metal as they sound post hardcore. The thundering bass drums remind me of The Angelic Process' Weighing Souls With Sand as much as it reminds me of Have A Nice Life. A tremendous closer to an album that deserves more praise and more recognition than it has gotten this month. 

Cloakroom

Further Out

7

ANTON ÖBERG SYSOJEV

[hejanton1]

Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance

What constitutes bad music? Are there certain pointers that I can follow when I want to find out if my favorite band is awful crap, or sent by the Gods to play rock 'n' roll? 

Of course there isn't, but calling music bad is always something I find very difficult. Music is art and if I hear something I'm not quite enjoying, I mostly want to chalk it up to me being at fault, and not the creator of the music. Maybe I just didn't get it? 

Despite that there's always a certain rule I follow when it comes to my own personal ratings of music. If I don't care for an album, I will call it average, and if the album angers me without actively seeking that emotion, then so help me God because I will pan that shit right away. This is also the case of the new Belle & Sebastian record, Girls In Peactime Want To Dance.

You hear the booming bass along with the kick drum thomping away. Slowly the filter is lifting, revealing more and more of what's going on with the track. The synth becomes more and more prevalent until the whole mid range section is alive and breathing, with a few quick hits on a snare we get tossed into The Party Line, lead single from Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance. 

I'm asking myself if I've been fooled yet again. Did I actually listen to the new Belle & Sebastion record, or has someone once again swapped the files making me listen to something I had absolutely no desire to hear. But then Stuart Murdoch's voice comes in and I realize what's going on.

It's been 19 years since the release of the band's most acclaimed album, If You're Feeling Sinister and some of the tracks on here actually sound reminiscent of that time. Opener Nobody's Empire sounds like something from that late 90's era of indie pop. While still unfortunately being the same sound that's been played for almost 20 years, still leads me to believe that if Belle & Sebastian wanted to, they could make an album that's at the very least charming and enjoyable indie pop for 40 minutes. Now I haven't been keeping up with anything that's not from the If You're Feeling Sinister-era so this might have happened a while ago, but Girls In Peactime feels like a band that's long overdue trying their best to sell some records, get a chance to tour again, and be down with the kids. 

This is a record that just makes me angry. I don't have problems with synth-pop, I do however have a problem with a band that even on the same record, shows that they are capable of creating music that would appeal to their fanbase but instead decides to go some gimmicky way, making tracks like Enter Sylvia Plath, and The Party Line. The second, which sounds like the most generic radio friendly music that might as well just have been manufactured by some corporation to appeal to as big of a crowd as possible. There isn't much different between The Party Line and a hit song like One Direction's That's What Makes You Beautiful. Atleast One Direction are aware of what kind of easy accessible music they're making, Belle & Sebastian however just feels dumbed down and simplified. It feels like a big fuck you to their previous fans, as if they've given up their older fans and started catering to a new crowd, the kind of people who "jump to the beat of the party line".

It isn't fun, it isn't charming. It's a band long past their prime, still living in the glory of what they put out 20 years ago. Even if they had stayed to their old sound, making the same indie pop that they made all those years ago, a sound that's been so worn out by Belle & Sebastian's followers these past decades, it had still been an average, not so interesting, record. But what Girls In Peacetime actually is is just an even bigger step down than I could even have guessed this band was capable of. I don't blame you if you enjoy this album, just realize that you're listening to a band that made a classic record to follow it up with albums that haven't even come close to the acclaim of that one classic, and now they're back, 19 years later and you might aswell guess what that sounds like just from the facts. 

Belle & Sebastian

Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance

My score: 3.5

ANTON ÖBERG SYSOJEV

[hejanton1]

Favorite Albums 2014, #1: Benji

You kind of had to be expecting this one if you've followed my reviews or my opinions on the year from wherever. My personal favorite album this year is Benji by Sun Kil Moon. It's a heartfelt record that's truly moved me at so many different occasions. Every song has been a favorite of mine throughout the year, starting of with the obvious ones, Carissa, Jim Wise, to tracks like I Watched The Film The Song Remains The Same, and Micheline. 

I rarely get touched by music in this way, the only other time I really can remember that I was truly moved was when I first heard Nick Drake's Pink Moon, with his sad story in the back of my head, along with the knowledge that it was his final words to the world. 

Benji is quite different from Pink Moon, despite both being made by lonely men, with a taste for melancholy and for creating something beautiful to give to the world. When Drake sings about himself, and his own miseries, Mark Kozelek sings about the miseries and the pain of the people surrounding him. About Jim Wise, who just wanted to save his wife from pain, about Carissa, the poor mother of two who had her life taken by accident in an instant. It's something that wouldn't have as much of an effect if it wasn't for Kozelek's fantastic way of writing, where he starts of the story in a mundane way, just to slowly get to the point where he hits you right in the face with the horrors of reality. 

What I want to pick out from that, is that isn't that how life goes? The unpredictable nature of life, the absurd, and quick end it can have, how life is as suddenly lost, as it is given. Who knows how life will go, one day you're taking out the trash and an aerosol can explodes and suddenly there was no more Anton. 

I don't see this record as Kozelek mourning his relatives, and I don't see it as him singing tribute to them either. So many critics have called Benji a record about death, when that's not what's it about. It's a record about the melancholy, about how fragile life is, about how one day someone might be gone out of your life and you'll be left with the things you never said and the things you never did.

Benji's an album that doesn't want to engage you with exciting, grand instrumentals. It's naked and bare, it's Kozelek trying to tell you something, and I feel bad for those who dislike this album, because they obviously haven't been listening.

ANTON ÖBERG SYSOJEV

[hejanton1]

Favorite Tracks 2014, #1: The B.A.D. Is So Good

The side project of Shabazz Palaces' members Ishmael Butler and Maraire Tendai, Chimurenga Renaissance released a record this year called Rize Vadzimu Rize. Bright colors on the album cover, two reindeer-like creatures standing on two logs with what looks like the weapon of some country or state in the middle. I don't know if its some kind of bias but I think the music on that record goes hand in hand with the cover really well. Bright, happy, and looking like a logo for something to stand for. Atleast this is what The B.A.D. Is So Good sounds like. It sucks that the rest of the album wasn't on par with this track, but maybe that wasn't too unexpected seeing to how truly fantastic this track is. The beat is what truly makes the track, sounding pretty much like nothing else, combinging a gangsta feel with an exotic and foreign sounds. It makes me think of vacation somewhere far away, I can't see this track being made by someone in a place like cold, wet Sweden. It's a 4 minute long trip away, fleeing into sandy beaches, palm trees giving shade against the hot sun. It's care free, happy and it's one of the best stand alone songs released this year. 

ANTON ÖBERG SYSOJEV