Archive for April, 2017

Telepathy – Tempest

Posted: 2 April 2017 in Albums
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31st March 2017 – Golden Antenna Records

Christopher Nosnibor

That we live in a post-world probably requires little to no qualification. Post-rock and post-metal and post-hardcore seem almost passé in the era of post-truth. But while these genres have now been in existence for some time now, they’ve continued to evolve and to remain relevant – at least for those exponents who’ve moved with the times, and who’ve adapted and contributed to the progression and expansion of the sound of their respective genres. Ok, so post-hardcore seems to have remained firmly rooted in the early years of the new millennium, and Kerrang! Radio in 2017 sounds very like Kerrang! Radio in 2007 or even 2002, and I’ve noticed little discernible change in the EPs which continue to arrive for my reviewing attention.

Meanwhile, post-rock, post-metal, and neo-prog releases seem to have reduced in volume of late, and those which do arrive seem to indicate a subtle shift, and expansion on the parameters of the respective genres. This is one of those releases where the shift isn’t so much subtle as seismic.

Telepathy’s latest offering is appropriately titled: Tempest effortlessly transitions between moments of tranquil melody and raging, thunderous sonic storms, positioning it between the realms of post-rock and post-metal, while incorporating a host of elements from other genres to forge a sound that is, above all, textured, detailed, and dynamic. Drawing on neo-prog and sliding in doomy, sludgy riffage between the expansive atmospheric passages, the album’s eight tracks – the majority of which extend well beyond the six-minute mark – feel as if they’ve allowed themselves the space to fully explore the range and potential of each composition. The ideas are developed, the individual movements co-ordinated for maximum impact.

Penultimate track ‘Water Divides the Tide’ is one of those pieces which effectively defines ‘epic’: a gentle, chiming guitar is crushed by powerchords. Rapidfire drumming dominated thunderous kick-drum pedal work leads a thrash-inspired section before things space out again, but the soaring lead guitars are underpinned by a growling low-end, and rhythm guitars with a blistering afterburn. Lightweight, it’s not, and the closer the eight-minute ‘Metanoia’ is nothing short of crushing in its weight, a megalithic, lumbering behemoth of doomy guitar battery.

But what sets Tempest apart from almost two decades of post-rock and post-metal is its sheer quality. This is an exciting album which, if anything, reminds us why post-rock and post-metal were exciting in the first place.

 

Telepathy – Tempest

Watch: ‘Oxyacetylene’ by Cubanate: album and live dates announced

Posted: 2 April 2017 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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‘Brutalism’ is a brand new compilation album by the British band Cubanate. It covers the years 1992 to 1996 and features 14 songs from their first three albums, including remastered versions of singles such as ‘Oxyacetylene’, ‘Body Burn’ and ‘Joy’.At their peak, Cubanate’s techno-rock crossover was controversial and influential, with their importance still resonating today. They were one of the few UK bands tagged as ‘Industrial’ to cross over to a mainstream audience and were regular fixtures in publications as diverse as Kerrang! and Melody Maker (receiving several Single of the Week accolades in both), as well as on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball. They also toured with stalwarts such as Front 242, Gary Numan, The Sisters of Mercy and Front Line Assembly. The band later signed to the seminal Wax Trax! Imprint in the USA and their songs have appeared in film, TV and game soundtracks. But, with the demise of their European label Dynamica in 2000, Cubanate’s early work has long been out of print. It’s time for a reassessment.

Brutalism showcases a band that was certainly ahead of its time. These days, when fusion is all the rage, it is hard to understand the fury of rock purists at Cubanate’s pilfering of genres. However, not only were they influential, but they also brought back a genuinely confrontational live approach after the bland, big-hair stylings of the ’80’s.

Britalism is released by Armalyte Industries on 5th May, and Cubanate will play their first shows of the new millennium on the following dates:

28.04.17  GLASGOW  Saint Luke’s

30.04.17  LONDON  O2 Academy Islington

Ahead of the album and th live shows, they’ve unveiled a new promo video for ‘Oxyacetylene’, which you can watch here:

 

Swamp Sounds / Uncle Pops & The Dumbloods – Swamp Sounds / Uncle Pops & The Dumbloods

Posted: 1 April 2017 in Albums
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Bearsuit Records – 24th March 2017

Christopher Nosnibor

Talk about a car crash. This split release between Swamp Sounds / Uncle Pops & The Dumbloods isn’t so much a hybridised sound clash as a head-on train wreck. Bearsuit Records can be relied upon for giving a platform for the most eccentric crossover works going, and this meeting of Japanese electronic/experimental musician, Yuuya Kuno, aka Swamp Sounds, and Scottish musician/artist, Douglas Wallace, aka Uncle Pops & The Dumbloods certainly fits the criteria.

You might broadly call it an experimental avant-disco / elecro album, but then you might equally call it pretty much anything you like, because it’s a brain-bending whirlpool of stylistic elements, thrown together with a wild and reckless abandon, with no regard for the effect it may have on the listener’s psyche.

And so it is that shrill analogue tweeking and frenetic, messy electro beats crash into a wall of screeding, mangled noise that pulses and throbs. The first half of the album belongs to Swamp Sounds, and the opener, ‘Marionette’, piles more ideas and juxtaposing elements into a dizzying three and a half minutes than seems even halfway sane.

When Uncle Pops takes over for the second half and things down to a more sedate groove, the overloading static abates, but as on ‘Harry Smith’s Paper Planes’, there’s still weird, woozy note bending in abundance, along with interruptions of extraneous noise and unexpected incidentals, tempo changes and myriad pan-cultural influences in the mix.

The split works well, as it means it’s not all crazy, deranged noise and mental overload: while switching between shuffling, low-key passages and cinematic sonic bursts, ‘Portrait in an Egg Cup’ brings both atmosphere and impressively expansive aural vistas, and by placing Swamp Soinds’ more manic stuff on what would effectively stands as side one , the album gradually tapers into more ambient territory over the course of the later tracks.

Exploring deep into the seam of the strange and excavating new layers of the uncanny, it’s all spectacularly oddball and wilfully weird, but without being smug or irritatingly zany in execution.

 

 

Swamp_Sounds-Uncle_Pops_Front_Cover

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