This episode is with Aviator, a post-hardcore band from the greater Boston area. We met them at their show here in Portland and had a wonderful chat about being underage in the scene, making music, and the best potties on the road!
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Poltergeists is a biweekly feature in which Michael and Wes share tracks that they have had on repeat over the past two weeks.
After a lengthy discussion with Jesse James Alexander of FOXXYNEWPORT about this song and the demise/rebirth of Crystal Castles and Alice Glass as two separate projects, I am pretty excited about this new track from Alice Glass and Jupiter Keyes. “STILLBIRTH” is a really awesome and noisy track. One expert, Alex Kennedy of I Die: You Die, said it was like an Imminent Starvation track with Alice Glass singing over the top of it - which I think is the best thing someone can say. Crystal Castles was already a pretty noisy arena for Alice, but I think that this new powernoise-influenced track is a perfect introduction to what Alice can do on her own. It has a nice balance between extremely loud and calmly atmospheric. Crystal Castles will definitely be okay without her, and I am sure glad that she is exploring something much darker. I will be anxiously awaiting the next track preview from Alice Glass - If she continues to work with Jupiter Keyes, I will pre-order it tomorrow.
Previously featured guest Apollyon’s Visage is no stranger to the podcast, or to me - so, in all fairness I am pretty familiar with this particular set of Canadians. Mortal Coil comes on the heels of a massive remix EP with some of my favorite artists and does not disappoint! I knew that this was in the works and was very excited for its release. “Black Haired Qveen” is a really solid mix of the dark ambiance I usually need from a witch-house-styled release, and the dark dance beats to feed my internal drum machine. DE▼OUR was a good release, but I feel that AV has stepped up everything for this release. The textures are much fuller and flushed out than anything previously released. If you like the darker ambient stuff, definitely check out the drone version of the intro track “Hypnus” on their bandcamp (labelled “Hypnus (Eternity)”).
Wes
Makeup and Vanity Set - “Adolescence”
Makeup and Vanity Set is one of my favorite synthwave/outrun acts. Their music is always expertly constructed, mixing danceable beats with new takes on old synth sounds. The song “Adolescence” - from their newest album Wilderness - is an interesting slowdown on their usual mode; rather than being dominated by little arpeggiated leads and big bright sounds, “Adolescence” pushes back the sounds that normally dominate and allow a vocalist to take the front. The vocals mix with the repeating bass lines and reverberating drums to create a sort of dreamy feeling, complemented by their signature arps plucking away softly in the background.
Perturbator - “Welcome to Nocturne City”
Contrasting with Makeup and Vanity Set’s more pulled back and dreamy take on synthwave, Perturbator always brings us a dark, aggressive vision of a cyberpunk hellscape. Heavy arps, huge drums, and growling saw pads create the dark and furious sounds of “Welcome to Nocturne City.” We’ve talked about James Kent’s music before on the site, so it should come as no surprise this new album is just as great at creating deep atmosphere; it is cinematic in scope.
We have a very special episode for you today! This episode was recorded in front of a live audience after our showing of Industrial Soundtrack For The Urban Decay, which if you've seen the film will provide some context for some of our discussion. We talk about industrial music's history, the upcoming Lead Into Gold, and how Barker ended up making the popular Malekko synths.
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Poltergeists is a biweekly feature in which Michael and Wes share tracks that they have had on repeat over the past two weeks.
Volt 9000 are one of the many bands that I am very excited to see at Terminus Festival here in JUST A FEW WEEKS! We spoke with Andrew Dobbles (episode will be coming up here soon) and Cory Gorski did Poltergeists a few weeks ago to help promote their new and awesome album Timeshift. “Grand Illusions” is a wonderfully constructed track that takes me to that warm Greater Wrong of the Right Skinny Puppy era that I thoroughly enjoyed! There is a building tension in this song that I really appreciate. The pulsing piano bass note and the reversed samples create a Jaws-like crescendo that ends with a very impactful “Holographic, automatic, static universe set to code through mathematics.” There is one moment in “Grand Illusions” that sticks out to me most - which was brilliantly placed - and that is right before the last big hurdle into the last chorus. A very calm, whispered voice, with a soft pad that leads into a gentle jazzy piano and just builds back into static. It makes the end of the song more emotionally charged.
I have recently become obsessed with field recordings and manipulating organic sounds, and I think that Hiraeth Eschar had something to do with it. “Hyalite Canyon” is a very calming and creepy motif that plants itself hard into the earth with a mixture of field recordings, acoustic guitars, and a very deep synth underling. It immediately takes me to the image of a forest in autumn. Hiraeth Eschar is a side project from Jason W. Walton of Agalloch, Self Spiller, and Nothing, and I think it really captures his talents. Jason also has a noise album called Mara coming out soon on Red Orchard Records under his name.
Any time a new Sofia Reta drops, I have to check it out. This new Sofia Reta reminds me a lot of the older music this artist put out as ^ (aarrcc), and it excels in the ways that Sofia Reta tends to excel. While much of the music tends to be minimalist in its layering, this song is a bit denser; strange pads meld with LFO basses, reminiscent of that brief moment of dubstep influence in industrial, without being aggressive and obnoxious. A heavy kick keeps beat throughout most of the song; this is a contrast to much of Sofia Reta’s back catalog which tends to be more atmospheric and slow paced.
I just recently came across Chynna and I haven’t been able to stop listening to her. The beat, produced by Cloud Atrium, is incredibly minimal, but though that minimalism manages to be incredibly impactful. Little, light arps mix with long kicks, a soft pad, and occasional hits of hats and snare to create a dark atmosphere. In terms of the flow, I love the fast paced flow Chynna puts out. Often with these slower, Southern-inspired beats you get a slow, almost drawling delivery; Chynna flips this on its head by spitting every single verse in double time. She’s definitely an artist to keep an eye on.
This week we have a great conversation with Lucy Bellwood! We talked about the differences between different conventions, living life to write about it, crowdfunding a thesis, and being upfront and honest. Also tall ships!
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Poltergeists is a biweekly feature in which Michael and Wes share tracks that they have had on repeat over the past two weeks.
Directly from the Ant-Zen Bandcamp page: “'La Pierre Soudée,' Riotmiloo’s first personal album, is a careful selection of past and present real-life stories compiled in eleven tracks documenting women’s suffering in the world. The title is borrowed from French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s book 'Masculine Domination,' in which he describes how language defines and perpetrates symbolic violence against women; the album expands on this idea through storytelling.”
“Child Bride” is an appropriately haunting track for this album. It makes me uncomfortable and unsettled in a way that sticks with me even after the track has stopped. All of the tracks on this album are really well put together and feature some of my favorite artists in the genre, but this one stands out as the most powerful to me. I think, now more than ever, it is important to make impactful statements with music; and this song, and album on the greater scale, is terrifying to me. As a podcaster and fan of storytelling, I feel like this album is geared to all of my favors. It is an important collection of tracks in an important time for women's suffering and violence against women.
On Saturday of last week, my partner and I went to see Agalloch play their tour-ending hometown show at the Star Theater here in Portland. The show was amazing and overall a really great time. John Haughm, the founding member of Agalloch, is a wonderful musician and I generally follow whatever he is promoting or puts out himself. “Auræ” is a collaboration with Mathias Grassow and takes on a brilliant ambient atmosphere. The layers that evolve over the course of the album’s introductory track, “Eindringliche Praesenz,” are haunting and cinematic. Something that draws me to Agalloch is the emotional charge behind every song - I feel like a lot of the work that John does is very personal and that he is able, and unafraid, to take the time to delve into the sound elements and shape them into images and textured emotions.
Oh, what’s that? A new Saturate release? Well, I guess that means it’s time for me to write about future bass again. Sayer just put out Process Animation and I’ve got to say it has been one of my favorite Saturate releases for the past while. Sayer mixes some really interesting sounds: you have some trappy kicks, some acid arps, and to round it off you have these big clanging snares that sound straight from the junkyard. There’s definitely some parts where I can hearing the synth lines working with a mid-aughts aggrotech project. Definitely make sure to check out the full album.
Full Disclosure: Both Michael and I have remixes on this release. This is not why I am writing about this release though: this Trip Cult edit is so god damn dope. It is unlike any remix I have heard; the closest thing I think I’ve heard to this sort of departure from the source was the Seeming remix of iVardensphere’s "Stygian". Trip Cult’s addition of a harmonic choir rendition of V▲LH▲LL’s lyrics adds this wonderful layer to an already great song. And those strings! The dialed back, sort of acoustic take really was a wonderful idea. Though at first I wasn't sold, every time I listen to this track I love it more and more. If you haven't check out this release, do so now and make sure to track down Trip Cult's bandcamp and check out their other work.
This week we had the chance to talk with Sam Rosenthal of Projekt Records fame! We talked about how Portland has been changing, stolen guitars on tour, finding music at your local coffee shop, and crowd funding music through subscription models like Patreon!
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Poltergeists is a biweekly feature in which Michael and Wes share tracks that they have had on repeat over the past two weeks. This week, they’re joined by Cory from Volt 9000.
Once in a while, a track will take you by surprise. Not just in its rhythm and melody but in its overall beauty. It shakes you. It stirs your emotion when you don't want it to. It inspires and scares you. This is one of those songs. The melody is there, as are the complex-yet-simple formula and construction. However, lyrically it shines: It paints an environment both beautiful and tragic. Painful, but not without hope. It's rare that a song will bring tears to my eyes, not because of the emotion put into the performance (although that certainly is present and well executed) but from the poetic use of words and structure. That is a rare thing, which I both celebrate and bow to.
I adore brooding and atmospheric yet catchy and structured music. Dark pop, if you will. However, it's rare to find a well-blended mixture of both fun and gloom. All too often it falls onto only one side of the spectrum. Chino Moreno's side project, "Crosses," nails the perfect in-between with the track "Bitches Brew." Trippy yet poppy. Mellow yet emotional. Structured hooks with gorgeous sound design and production. Simple harmonies accomplished with unique instrumentation. Slow and dark melody. Hopefully, the masses can look past the multi-genre merging and accept the music for what it is - pop music with a unique edge not often found within the mainstream. It might seem a little pedestrian to some, but after a year I am still constantly playing this song. That alone says it all.
I first heard Candle Nine on a trip to Chicago. We were in the promoter’s car killing some time, waiting for traffic to die down on the way to his place from the airport. The promoter asked if we wanted to stop somewhere for coffee and I said that I would love some good coffee after a long and boring flight from Portland. He took us to Dunkin’ Donuts…which pretty much sums up the trip in general. But! He was playing Candle Nine’s first full-length album, “The Muse In The Machine,” which I immediately found deeply emotional and complex. I’ve been a fan ever since! Candle Nine’s newest EP, “Transport in B♭ Minor,” follows the same roots into a new ambient direction. “ii. (Experiencing a Delay)” has a great internal rhythm through the ambient soundscapes and washing drone tones. The bandcamp tags are: Alternative, IDM, Indie, Industrial, Noise, Rock, Chicago - but I think that fans of Ambient Black Metal and Neofolk would definitely groove on this EP.
It was only a matter of time before I had to write about hip-hop. I have listened to the new Rocky so much over the past two weeks that writing about anything else would be dishonest.
While I enjoy this song, it isn’t my favorite song from the album; I think it demonstrates an interesting thing that is happening in hip-hop right now. There are a lot of younger artists that are moving away from traditional rap in favor of a fusion of traditional rap with a sort of singer-songwriter influence. You can see this influence in the recent music of folks like Tyler, The Creator or Childish Gambino. I think it’d be easy to dismiss it as R&B and leave it at that, but I think that this would be missing the point. For example, in “L$D,” Rocky isn’t just singing; he’s using rap cadences and rhyming patterns with a melodic delivery to do something that is different from the sources you might expect as being inspiration. This trend of mixing influences is an exciting change in a genre that has allowed the commercial side to turn it into an ouroboros.
We had a chance to sit down with multi-genre musician and activist Mike XVX. We had a really fascinating discussion about tour cravings, being an international presence, being in Japan during the tsunami, nightmare Thailand, and so much more!
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A day late, but we promise, we have all of our dollars! Poltergeists is a biweekly feature in which Michael and Wes share tracks that they have had on repeat over the past two weeks.
I can’t get enough of the new FLESH (Audiotrauma) song, “SKIN,” from the forthcoming album of the same name. It is a nice mix of dance electronics and noise. There are a lot of interesting sounds in there and it gets me moving in my seat - which, these days, is a must for this style of music. If you are an avid reader, you already know that I buy pretty much anything that Audiotrauma puts out, but it is for a good reason! The pre-order for this album is up now on their bandcamp, and if the tracks from the “Black Walk EP” are any indicator, it is going to be a great album. If you have a minute definitely jump over to their facebook page for some videos from the recent live performances. You will not be sorry! Not many bands of this ilk go out of their way to put on a full live performance, with interactive elements and stage performers, and it pays off in the creepiest way.
While I have my dancing shoes on already, I may as well throw on some MOSH and get fucking going on that floor. With the rise of outrun and the evolution of electronic music in recent years, it is nice to hear someone who keeps to that nice and dirty dance sound. I like this song because it keeps a nice pumping bass line that is pretty funky, and subtle, but has a lot of brief glimpses into noisy moments. This is another song that I found recently and have been grooving to all day. It is from 2012’s “Monarchy” full length.
It took me a minute to get fully into Barrow. Their sound is fairly raw, and at first, I thought that it felt a little underproduced rather than intentional. The more I listen to it though, the more the raw sounds of the bass grumbling under melancholic guitar riffs creeped into my skull.
I think this particular song highlights how, even with a fairly raw sound, Barrow manages to weld together post-hardcore influences with the largeness of sound brought by post-rock influences. They move expertly between emotional, hammering riffs, and slow, almost ambient guitar riffs that open up into this lulling swells. It gets into you, and it doesn’t let go.
I’ve written about L'Enfant De La Forêt before, and now that the full length is out I’ve been bumping it so often it would be entirely breaking the spirit to not write about it. This album is great. Really great. James Kent (also known for his outrun project Perturbator) has a serious talent for building these amazing atmospheres in his music. In “Flowers of Flesh and Bones” you get these wonderful sense of some impending darkness right away; the slowly plucking synth and ambient soundscapes starts to build a sense of curious dread. These sounds are joined by music boxes, then deep bass and wonderfully programmed drums. You go from this image of a shadow in the dark, to seeing full on what the darkness has in store for you. Go check out the full album; it’s well worth the listen.
We got to hang out with Die So Fluid before they played the Star Theater here in Portland! Please ignore the occasional sounds of traffic, this is another one of our infamous outdoor interviews. We talked about changing musical directions, long drives, and fan fiction! Also, we get insulted a couple times in a way that is bizarrely charming and we swear it's not just the accent.
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Poltergeists is a biweekly feature in which Michael and Wes share tracks that they have had on repeat over the past two weeks.
FLESH, from Germany, is a great witch house project that I came across a few weeks ago in my bandcamp search for the French band, also called FLESH. The album art for their newest EP, “Nachtangst” is what sucked me in initially, but the second I pressed play I knew that I was in for the long haul. There is a great sense of longing and darkness to the tracks on this EP. A lot of really subtle layers come in and out of a morose background and I just can’t get enough. It is definitely worth checking out if you are feeling nice and gloomy.
Don’t be fooled by the long, ambient intro, “Time Loop” is pure aggression. This is definitely not the 100blumen that I am familiar with, but a pleasant surprise! I enjoyed the ant-zen “Surveillance” era 100blumen, which had a lot of great noise textures and a wonderful message to every track. This new electro-punk version is a great change and I embrace it equally, if not more than that era! There are still full electronic elements beneath the acoustic drums and distorted guitars, which make each of the tracks on “Under Siege” unique. This is the kind of genre bending and changing that I look for in new music, and it should be no surprise that the brilliant minds behind 100blumen are at the wheel.
I’ve seen Lié twice in about a month, so I figured it was about time that we wrote about them. Lié is a cold punk/dark wave/whatever you want to call this particular mix of influences band from Vancouver, B.C. I think the cold punk label is particularly apt, as they mix the drive and energy of punk music with the dark vibes of your gothier jams. In this particular song, I feel like these energies are especially present. While some of their songs veer more punk than others, “Sorry” in particular balances the dark tones with the fast driving energy that you’d expect from punk. If you haven’t listened to Lié, and you have the chance to see them live, make sure you take advantage of the opportunity.
When I was in high school, I considered myself a purist when it came to punk music. I didn’t believe in emotional music unless that emotion was angry as fuck and let’s destroy everything. These days, however, I am finding myself engaging more and more in music like estates; music that high school me would have wanted to punch me in the face for listening to. Either way, it reminds me of the days I spend in tiny venues pogoing to whatever local punk band was playing, regardless of how street it was.
This week we had a chance to talk with Velvet Acid Christ! We talked public access music videos, hacking the planet, the cost of touring, and K/D ratios on Call of Duty!
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Poltergeists is a biweekly feature in which Michael and Wes share tracks that they have had on repeat over the past two weeks. This week, Vancouver's Animal Bodies took some time to lay out some tracks that they've been bumping.
Them Are Us Too (TAUT) present the premiere video for "Eudaemonia" off of their debut LP "Remain" on Dais Records, 2015. http://www.daisrecords.com http://www.facebook.com/themareustoo
We played with Them Are Us Too a few weeks ago and I have been listening to this ever since. Everything about this song is absolutely beautiful. Music that you can close your eyes too, feel yourself floating through and be reassured by is such a rare and special thing. During my adolescence, it was terribly easy to fall in love with so many songs and feel a personal and deep connection with them. Those songs put their arms around me, comforted me and pulled me into them in a way that made me feel like I made as much sense as they did. As I left my adolescence behind it became harder to share those same moments with music. Maybe my understanding of music changed; perhaps it became too analytical, too jaded… Or maybe life’s distractions and interruptions managed to get in the way too often. Maybe I just listen to too much shitty dance music now. Whatever the reason, it feels like that kind of song happens less despite my love of music not having faltered since I was a child. This is one of those rare and gorgeous songs that I feel entirely comfortable and understood in. And they’re wonderful people to be around.
We listened to Beta Evers often while driving from city to city on our last tour (along with a great deal of other more unmentionable, secret music) and it made for some wonderfully hypnotic night drives. This song in particular has stuck with me. There are a few synth basslines that I wish I had written: Jam On It (Newcleus), Lightning Man (Nitzer Ebb), Closer (NIN) and this one. The leveled tension that is characteristic of her songs is perfectly played out in Don’t Be Afraid and gets me totally tranced out everytime I hear it. And that soft, flute like repeating melody...
Hard Corps never received the success they deserved when they were active. For all the great bands that have based their sound entirely around the use of synthesizers, few understood how to use them like Hard Corps did. Their ability to program, layer and mix the electronics is something I rarely hear from synth based bands to the degree that they could. The sounds they coaxed out of their instruments swim elegantly between each other and blend into the perfect balance between sequenced rhythms and pure soundscapes. The science and art behind sound design on a synthesizer is often underestimated and overlooked. So too is the possibility to develop your own style of sound with an instrument that has the potential to be so unique but is often just made to sound like a few easily recognizable machines and genres. Hard Corps made their instruments sound like Hard Corps. As it should be.
Music video by Technotronic performing Pump Up The Jam. (C) 1990 ARS Entertainment Belgium (A Division Of Universal Music Belgium)
Lately whenever I start drinking (often) I go for this song first. What’s not to like? A full, pounding 909 kit and a fairly unique sounding synth bass. Technotronic was a studio based group that spawned from the Belgian New Beat scene in the late 1980’s. I don’t have much else to say about this song other than to state the obvious; there are clearly some hidden messages buried deep within the complexities of the lyrics. And the video is pretty sick.
This week we talked with Matt Fanale of Caustic (and Causticles and Beauty Queen Autopsy) fame! We talked Tex Tubb's Taco Palace, being a t-shirt magnate, social media marketing, being Wumpscut, and doing improv!
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Poltergeists is a biweekly feature in which Michael and Wes share tracks that they have had on repeat over the past two weeks.
Where did this band come from!? Portland is the answer. Damn. I have listened to this song so many times this week and it still hasn’t gotten old yet. I am coming to find that I have a very specific post-punk/new-goth taste and these guys scratch all of the right places for me. There is a great balance between minimal, 80s-styled synthesizers and bellowing vocals. I would also like to point out that this is a debut EP. I look forward to many great things from these new local friends.
Sofia Reta is something that Wes turned me on to about a year ago when I asked him for Witch House and Witch House-adjacent music that I could play when I DJ. There is so much emotion in these songs. I love how the few elements that come in and out of this song are so subtle, but very impactful, adding to the pitch-dropped vocals to create a robotic longing. Even when most of the elements drop out about three minutes in and there is only a simple drum beat, bassline, and vocal left, the song feels so full - which I think is really hard to do.
Let me just say upfront that if you consistently want to find good metal on Bandcamp, follow Majbritt Levinsen.
Wovoka lays down some heaviness on “Chosen,” the first track from their album Saros. The song starts with the feedback hum of the guitars, slowly building to the drums and bass. These hums seem more intentional than you might expect; rather than being used simply as a pre-track texture, it seems they are intentionally used to build tension, adding to the sluggish, brooding pace the rest of the track maintains. The whole album, in fact, maintains this pace; it is always slow but never drags. I found Saros this past week and I haven’t been able to stop listening.
One third of trap/witch-house trio BRUXA recently departed for LA, leaving JVNITOR in her wake. JVNITOR maintains the dark, witchy tones that BRUXA was so good at creating, and in "Albatross", the atmospheric elements of that tone really shine through. In between heavy kicks and claps, delayed vocal clips and quiet howls of distortion meld with muted bass tones to create an almost calming feeling; I say almost because the darkness of the track is consistently unsettling enough to prevent the sort of chill that you’d get from someone like The xx.
This week we got to sit down with Rodney Anonymous of Dead Milkman fame! Man, this guy has some stories. We talked unexpected husbands, squat house booby traps, kale junkies, and unofficial mayorships.
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Poltergeists is a biweekly feature in which Michael and Wes share tracks that they have had on repeat over the past two weeks.
Damn! I had been putting off listening to this album all week because I was super busy and wanted to sit down to spend some time with it to really get into the brainspace and I am so glad I did! The first track on the album Threads of Fate has a nice feel to it. It was familiar and I liked the ambience, but “Final Feast” really sold me on the entire album. This song caught me right away as it builds very quickly from a soft saw with some war samples under it to a big reveal: a catchy saw, some screaming, and a great dance beat. I wasn’t expecting the vocal element to this song but I think that it really makes the track flow emotionally from the verse into the chorus.
Black Metal Watch 2015!
Ghost Bath is a band that I found by blissfully searching through and listening to everything that came up under the “Atmospheric Black Metal” Bandcamp tag. To be really honest, it was the cover that sold me first: a creepy black and white picture of a woman with a giant crescent moon for a face with no writing at all (credited as: "La Luna, 1989" by Luiz Gonzalez Palma). It is the perfect picture for Ghost Bath’s second full-length album, Moonlover. “The Silver Flower pt. 2” begins slowly with a really nice, ambient chord progression on a fairly clean guitar. Nature sounds are cut into the background and a bell tolls every few beats. The song kicks in for the first time with a powerful breakdown and that characteristically black metal high-pitched scream that sends waves of Burzumic nostalgia down my spine. This song is really great and if you like it, go back and listen to the first part of the song, “The Silver Flower pt. 1,” which is the perfectly ambient buildup to its second half. This album is still in Pre-Order status, but if you look at the bottom after the tracks, you will see a shit ton of really great reviews and I think that it really deserves it. I recommend it for fans of Dimmu Borgir’s For All Tid.
I feel like I had maybe heard this album before, and had forgotten about it. It’s too bad, because it is such an excellent album and I can’t wait to spend some more time with it. This song has so much feeling to it; it oozes emotion, wearing its tears on its sleeve. Ironically, it’s exactly the type of music that I would have hated as a teenager. It seems all my teenage anger has been replaced by something that is at once more gentle and more brutal than any anger. This piece builds and builds, climaxing with pained screams before cutting away to spoken word, gentle guitar plucking an atmosphere away behind the melancholic words.
This is an interesting little piece. In “Soft Shadows” PROGRAMM mixes a lot of different influences. There’s the deep synth basses and repetition that might be taken from some noise or industrial influence, then there is the chorus-heavy vocal samples and guitars that sound like they pull from dark wave, and then layered over the top of all of this are ethereal vocals that sound straight out of some mid to late 2000’s indie electro. On paper, it sounds like these disparate influences wouldn’t mix, but the way PROGRAMM puts them together, it’s hard to not get swept up in the repetition and ghostly sounds.
This week we got to have a chat with internet entity Mike Textbeak! We hung out in the bulk section of a grocery store and discussed such topics as Russian pirates who pirate free things, NVR MND mixtape origins, and double teaming unfamiliar decks!
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Poltergeists is a biweekly feature in which Michael and Wes share tracks that they have had on repeat over the past two weeks.
I have been rocking poordream a lot this week. It was really hard for me to decide which track to choose for this post. I really love the title track “ninetynine” but “Proof” seemed to be a really solid choice for something to get your body moving on that dreary Monday morning. I love all of the elements that come in and out of this track. There is a real somber level of ambiance that flows so neatly underneath the breakbeat that keeps the track in check. The tribal elements are subtle and well distributed. I feel like this is one of those tracks that would play well over many different genres.
You know, I go to Ant-Zen because I know that I will love nearly everything that they put out and 2Kilos &More is no exception! I had not heard of this project before checking out their newest release, “lieux-dits,” on the Ant-Zen Bandcamp page. The introductory track is one of my favorite ambient tracks this year by far. The sense of urgency and the build up is wonderful. “après tout” (“after all” in english,) starts with a deep humming bass string and a slow beep and builds quite beautifully into this magnificent collection of noise and rhythm while still maintaining the somber glow of the track’s beginning. I liken it to 100Blumen (also on Ant-Zen).
Michael Treveloni, the self-described “unapologetically handsome one” in Alter Der Ruine, is releasing his solo debut on March 30, 2015. While it’s not available yet [ed. Now it is!], I was lucky enough to get a pre-release copy from Mike, and it has been blowing up my shit ever since. The music somehow manages to be polished, while also be intentionally rough around the edges. You can hear hints of I Will Remember It All Differently’s beauty, but it’s pared back and twisted to meet Mike’s depressive demands. The familiar leads meet crazy and wonderful sax riffs, distorted percussion, and wild tom fills. When this drops next week, I definitely recommend grabbing it.
EASTGHOST is another one of those bands that doesn’t quite fall into goth scene. Hell, I don’t think they would even identify as on the edges of it, as some bands that may straddle the witch house/trap line might. However, within EASTGHOST’s sounds you can easily find elements that definitely play well with goth sensibilities - found sound noisiness, dark piano riffs, and deep, bassy kicks create an undeniably dark tone that would mix well with a slower, witchier set. In “Wraith” these dark sounds are mixed with more traditional trap elements, such as slowly arping plucks and triplet high hats, creating a moody, evolving piece.