Posts Tagged ‘Hybrid’

ØrsØ – Terms and Conditions EP

Posted: 5 January 2024 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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Lake of Confidence – 15th December 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

Having worked for far too many years in financial services in order to pay the bills, ‘terms and conditions’ is a term that weighs heavily on my soul and my psyche. All that small print… the devil is in the details, and there’s a good reason customers often feel swindled by the inclusion of impenetrable clauses written in language which only someone with an advanced degree in legalese could even begin to decipher. The title, then, brings fitting connotations to a complex and detailed work, although, mercifully, it’s more rewarding than frustrating and doesn’t leave you feeling bamboozled and shafted over.

Label Lake of Confidence – which sounds like it’s on the moon – informs us that ØrsØ’s debut EP ‘is a reflection on our civilization, offering a gripping critique of consumable culture and post-social network alienation.’ They also describe his style as a fusion of ‘experimental music, indietronica, dark wave and English-speaking pop’, and ‘English-speaking’ is right: ‘Unreal Moment’ has the nagging industrial-strength electro pulse of DAF paired with the electro pop layering of early Pet Shop Boys, topped with a vocal delivery that alludes to the monotone nonchalance of The Flying Lizards.

ØrsØ’s brilliance lies in his ability to amalgamate such a range of elements while still keeping the compositions relatively simple, structurally and in terms of things happening at any given time. These songs – and they very much are songs, even if conventional hooks and choruses aren’t dominant features – are clever and carefully constructed. ‘Dancing Girl’ has something of a recent Sparks vibe about it, while he channels shades of Bowie in the vocals, and this is accentuated on ‘To Yourself’, which could be an outtake from Outside.

The EP’s five tracks showcase the work of an artist who possesses a high level of musical articulacy, matched by a high level of experimental curiosity. There isn’t a weak track here, and significantly, no two tracks are particularly alike: the last of the five, ‘Follow the Wind’ brings a more overtly dance feel, with a pumping bass beat and rippling, trancey synths, but at the same time, there are hints of The Human League and Visage in the mix.

In an ocean – not a lake – of retro-tinged, vaguely dark-hued synthy pop, ØrsØ’s ‘Terms and Conditions’ stands out as being more detailed, more nuanced, and more inventive in its assimilation of wide-ranging elements – and the results are accomplished.

T.N. – Siddung

Posted: 2 January 2024 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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15th December 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

This is an odd one which will likely baffle and bewilder many of those who encounter it – which will likely be far fewer than it deserves. It’s rare for a track that isn’t thrash or grindcore to run to less than a minute and a half, for a start. I know absolutely nothing about T.N. beyond that they’re from Spain, but T.N.’s ‘Siddung’ is a sliver of minimalist hip-hop that sends a shiver down the spine.

If commercial hip-hop has come to be synonymous with bragging and banging, flashing cash and blades, it’s worth remembering that its roots were a different kind of ‘street’, and with acts like Last Poets emerged from spoken word, the jazz and beat scene of the late 50s, giving a voice to black culture and the civil rights movement.

This track is something of a hybrid – it’s ‘street’ but it’s introspective and uncomfortable, and after an atmospheric introduction, halts just as it seems to be finding its groove. It’s difficult to unravel the track’s meaning or intent: ‘siddung’ is patois for ‘sit down’ – as the cover art relays in a literal sense – but beyond that…?

It feels more like a sketch than a complete song, but one could imagine an album containing maybe twenty or so of these vignettes would add up to paint a quite compelling picture.

Red Painted Red – That Was the Reason Why

Posted: 6 October 2023 in Albums
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ZOHARUM – 17th October 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

It wasn’t so long ago that I’d arrive home from work and struggle to open the door for the pile of jiffy bags which had cascaded through the letterbox while I was out, and that I’d regularly receive vinyl for review in the mail. The pandemic and the spiralling coast of everything really kicked that into touch. The sheer volume was quite overwhelming at times, but I do miss it, and the occasional delivery of a physical copy of a release reminds me why.

My copy of That Was the Reason Why was accompanied by a stack of wonderful postcards for a start: a strange array of scenes printed on thick card with a matte finish they’re fantastic. And so is the CD’s tri-fold packaging, which includes the full album lyrics, which I read through as I’m listening to the album. Yeah, yeah, I’m old – at least according so some people. But yes, I grew up with physical media and am comfortable with that as I read the contents of the truly beautiful sleeve. This is what people who don’t do, and have never done, physical media are missing out on. The fact is that music is, or at least is at its best, a multi-sensory, inter-dimensional experience. I took this for granted when I was younger. I’d go to record shops in town and but records and tapes, and later CDs, and spend hours looking at the artwork and pouring over the lyric sheets.

Starting with beeping keytones and with an ominous keyboard score, ‘Human Condition’ is dark and dense and builds a palpable tension as the glacial robotic vocals enunciate the stark declarations of ‘Self-mutilator. Mother. Arsonist. Materialist. Abuser. Assassin. Scientist. Charmer. Harmer. Narcissist. Artist. Redeemer. Explorer of the fauna’ on a loop that becomes more chilling with each cycle. Creepy is the word, and the bass and drums build as the track progresses, along with the extraneous noise that sits behind the nagging motif.

‘Astronauts’ cuts a sound collage which overlays a strolling, bass-led groove that’s almost proggy, and over that, Yew spins semi-narrative lyrics with cool detachment.

That Was the Reason Why is an unusual blend of experimentalism, cut-ups, collaging, and trippiness, which incorporates elements of a range of genres but belongs to none. The synthiness of the sultry ‘Come to Me’ is almost Vangellis-like, while ‘Knife’ is sparse, atmospheric electronica that’s oddly reminiscent of Kate Bush, at least in Yew’s delivery, and it’s magnificently melodic and dreamy in a melancholic sort of a way, and ‘Silence’ brings discord, abrasion and snarling zombie backing vocals tearing through a hybrid post-punk drone that sounds like a collision between The Doors and Toyah. ‘Dances’ is altogether weightier, and brings hints of Swans circa Children of God. But for all of its diversity and divergence, there is a strong homogeneity to the album as a whole, and it works well.

Samples of narrative and dialogue, and snippets of all sorts come together to conjure a disorientating reflection of the world and somewhere beyond – sometimes exterior, sometimes interior, bringing inner space and outer space into the same frame. Breathy, ethereal, yet tense and claustrophobic, That Was the Reason Why is a dialogue of inner turmoil, an exploration of liminal spaces, and an unstintingly intriguing and unusual work.

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Watch: ‘I Wanna Be Alive With You’ by SINthetik Messiah

Posted: 26 September 2023 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Louisiana’s ‘Industrial Bass’ pioneer, SINthetik Messiah has just unveiled their new single, ‘I Wanna Be Alive With You’.

‘I Wanna Be Alive With You’ tells the tale of a ghost watching and wanting to be alive with his lover  The track is a hybrid of Industrial Noise and Drum ‘N’ Bass.

Blending various elements of industrial, electro, dance, rock, ambient and pop. The international act, SINthetik Messiah(SM) is the work of the Cajun songwriter and sound designer, Bug Gigabyte. The name is a misspelling of the of the term ‘synthetic messiah’, which is the pronunciation used by the band. SM has received radio play, publicity and respect from peers alike from around the globe.

Watch the video here:

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Ex-Isles – Domestic Sacraments

Posted: 20 September 2023 in Albums
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Ex-Isles Records – 29th September 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

The other day, a band commented on a post linking to a review of their album saying that they usually share links to reviews, but felt unable to share mine because they weren’t sure if I liked the album or not. The fact of the matter is, I wasn’t sure either.

This is not what’s expected of a review, and I understand that. When I started out reviewing music back in the 90s, having been raised on some of the most scathing reviews in Melody Maker and NME, used to delight in demolishing an album or a gig that I thought was shit. In fact, my first published review, in The Lincolnshire Echo, was my submission piece which the editor loved and decided to run with, albeit brutally edited and ending mid-sentence after three-hundred of four-hundred-and-fifty words. It was a full-on smash-up, the likes of which had never appeared in the local press, which resulted in weeks of letters of complaint and debate.

Over time, I’ve come to take a more nuanced approach to criticism. Don’t get me wrong, I still derive great pleasure from the occasional wrecking-ball review, and will still froth at the mouth with excitement about stuff that really enthuses me. And I’m by no means alone in buying an album precisely because it’s had a slating when all of the criticisms are of things I actually like. But lately, unless I’ve a particularly good angle, I’d rather ignore something that’s annoying because it’s so banal than expend time and energy winding myself up over something underserving.

There’s also a specific reason I don’t use a star-rating system. I’ve found myself dolling out ‘safe’ sevens to releases I’m indifferent to in order to avoid upsetting anyone, because I’ve had whinges over crappy six stars, despite the fact that the role of the critic is to critique. We may be part of the promo process, but we don’t operate to proactively plug – or at least, I don’t believe we should.

We can’t always be objective, because aappreciation of music isn’t objective. Does anyone really listen to a song and think ‘yeah, I love this song because it’s technically excellent’?

So sometimes, I will find myself on the fence, particularly as I will often not have the time to digest an album for review as I would when listening for pleasure, because posting a review three months after the release isn’t really beneficial to anyone.

And so I find myself presented with Domestic Sacraments by Ex Isles. What to make of this? It’s rare I’m truly perplexed by an album, but this is one that takes some real reflection and contemplation. Conceptually, content-wise, it has considerable appeal. In terms of execution, I’m less certain.

As the accompanying notes explain, ‘Domestic Sacraments eloquently explores the mental cruelties imposed by 21st century life, the souls of humans under late Capitalism. Through exquisitely handled avant-pop compositions and a strident agenda, Domestic Sacraments emerges as a beautiful and poignant testament to resilience and introspection.’

There’s a lot going on here that I like and which feels familiar. There are equally challenging elements of which I’m less sure. But this isn’t really about me.

The rippling, listing piano and gentle, melodic vocals sit, unexpectedly, in the domain of soft rock and easy listening. It’s grandiose, even slightly pompous, not least of all on account of the crooning baritone of Pete Devlin, and with prepared piano and field recording in the mix, Domestic Sacraments has much happening.

But the sax that swerves in on ‘The Smallest Plot of Land’ has the kind of edge that’s reminiscent of the first couple of albums by The Psychedelic Furs, and it’s definitely more pop than jazz, although it’s not really pop either and we’re in uncertain, genre-straddling territory now.

I’ve oft said – or written – that there are two kinds of music; good and bad, although this does again risk returning to the short-cuts that many readers and bands alike expect from reviews, the kind of pub discussion where people will argue for hours over whether a band is awesome or shit, it’s black or white, with no room for grey space in between. Technically, this is good: there is no questioning the musicianship or compositional skills on display here. But this is the quandary: am I bound by matters of taste? Well, yes, of course I am. But… this is bigger than that.

‘A Mechanism of Release’ spans more than ten minutes, and ambles genteelly between The Divine Comedy and early Pulp, while bearing a considerable debt to Scott Walker’s later works. ‘The Gnashing Ends’ is similarly reminiscent of Tilt, with swooping, semi-operatic vocals swooping and soaring.

The ambition and scope of Domestic Sacraments is staggering. It’s like a musical in an album. And artistically, as well as musically, it’s an immense accomplishment. Lyrically, too, it’s sharp, astute, and wide-ranging. It all stacks up for an impressive release. Ask me again in a few months and I might have decided if I like it or not.

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Kill, The Icon! – Heavy Heart

Posted: 21 April 2023 in Singles and EPs
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21st April 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

You know you’re onto something when you get banned from a platform, and so it is that the promo for ‘Heavy Heart’ got canned from VIMEO, usually one of the more forgiving platforms, and you have you ask ‘why?’ It features clips of various failed British Prime Ministers – notably Theresa May’s infamous grooves and various right-wing twats like Farage and Fox and Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson my arse), pontificating and being pelted with milkshake: nothing untoward, just news footage. So what’s the issue? Perhaps the platform took issue with the featuring of the visage of that out-and-out fash Suella Braverman. But more likely it was starving families juxtaposed with Churchill, toting a machine gun while smoking a cigar, because fuck me, that exposé of the dark side of British politics is hard to swallow for some. No-one wants to contemplate the possibility that Churchill was a twat – an aristocratic political defector and an imperialist – which makes Johnson’s idolisation make deeper sense.

Nishant Joshi’s words which accompany this release are a grim indictment on ‘Great’ Britain in 2023 – the nation which chose to leave the EU (albeit by a slim margin, and that’s something that can’t be stressed enough) on the basis of an ‘advisory’ referendum in 2016. Because ‘the will of the people’? Half the country didn’t even bother to vote because it was a non-issue for them, and only a slender majority of those who did made it happen. But it’s that slender majority who were the most vocal.

He says ‘I was faced with racial slurs when I was younger, but nobody has uttered a racial epithet to my face for many years. But, I know the racists who existed in the 90s are still alive and well. They didn’t die out all of a sudden, and neither did their ideas. So, the point of this song is that everyone acknowledges that racists exist. But nobody will ever admit to being racist – so where did they all go? My answer is that they all wear disguises: as politicians, right-wing journalists, and talking heads for shady think-tanks. The brazen racism has retreated into the shadows, and subtle racism has taken over.’

Will Self said it best when he said ‘Not all Brexiters are racists, but almost all racists will be voting for Brexit’. And that sad fact is, we live in not only a divided society, but, post-Brexit, a more overtly racist society. The referendum outcome has emboldened people to espouse their racist views, with racially-motivated attacks not just affecting blacks and Asians, but also Eastern Europeanss, notably Poles, etc.

Fuck’s sake. We’re a mess. Who do we think has been picking out strawberries and delivering our coffee in Starbucks and Costa thee last decade? The people shunting stacked-up trolleys for click and collect and home deliveries from the supermarket? Large fries?

In Britain, capitalism itself is institutionally racist in a century-long hangover from the empire.

‘Heavy Heart’ kicks straight in with a buzzing, fuzzing, gritty bass and kicking drums that yell urgency. And yes, this is urgent, and it and locks into a throbbing groove that really grabs you hard, a magnificently poised dance / punk hybrid. Just as punk gave voice to a generation frustrated and marginalised, so, sadly, what goes around comes around, and once again, it’s music which is a powerful medium for channelling that frustration. We need change, and it’s voices like Joshi’s which give us hope. And in the meantime, Kill, The Icon! give us a unifying energy, and exhilarating tunes.

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Lo Egin – Volumancer

Posted: 8 April 2023 in Albums
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Panurus Productions – 5th May 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

What is this? Sludge-jazz? Avant-doom? It’s certainly not quite like anything else you’ve ever heard.

The Leeds act – who despite several years of hard-gigging to refine and hone their sound, I’ve not previously encountered – describe their debit long-player as ‘a modern doom tome in which thrashings of drums, bass and guitar find kindred spirits in larynx-shredding vocals and lamenting horn arrangements, delivered on trombone and saxophone.’

It’s the lamenting horn (I often find myself lamenting my horn, too) and grainy guitars that greet the listener at the opening of the album, the first crushing bars of ‘Accursed Land’ offering a strange sonic experience – strange because it’s neither one thing nor the other. And when it drops down to just bass, the rasping vocals are the sound of purgatorial torture. The bone-dry vocal chords sound like sandpaper in a desert, before the instruments return to conjure some sort of doom rendition of a Hovis advertisement. It’s circa 2004 post-rock with the most pungent metal overdrive, the track’s explosive finale a punishing experience, like a Satanic I Like Trains or Her Name is Calla as dragged through the flaming bowels of hell.

The riffery steps up several notches on the heavy grind of ‘Arise’, but it’s the manic brass that really messes with your ears and your head. Brass isn’t a new feature in metal: These Monsters, another Leeds act from back in the day who pitched noise and psychedelia with mental sax are obvious precursors and possible influences, but Lo Egin scribble all over the template and make everything louder, gnarlier, messier. And yes, Volumancer is seriously fucking messy, mangling everything together all at once ins a genre-crunching morass of disparate elements which coalesce to create something utterly mind-warping.

Half the time, you find you’re utterly revved and raving, marvelling at the ingenuity and the enormous weight of Volumancer; the other half you’re baffled and bewildered , wondering how much you’re actually enjoying this while feeling dazed after the relentless punches the album lands. The album’s centrepiece is the ten-minute ‘The Things His Highness Overlooked’ and it’s a magnificently mellow slow-drone jazz piece which borders on a chamber-orchestra arrangement, where layers of brass overlap one another, until about three minutes in when the guitars and drums crash in and it scales the heights of epic while bringing crushing weight.

This album may only contain five tracks (six if you get the cassette version with a bonus cut), but it has a running time of nearly forty minutes, and it’s a beast.

Brutal, ugly, yet beautiful and glorious, Volumancer is something else. What that something is, I have no idea.

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Watch: ‘Call Of The Deep’ by Trevor’s Head

Posted: 17 March 2023 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Quite possibly the most exciting thing to come out of Redhill in the last three centuries, Trevor’s Head markedly circle in three distinct orbits around stoner, punk and prog, creating a heavy, sonic vibe quite unlike anybody else out there.

Their new album “A View From Below, released on 5th May via APF Records (Mastiff, Desert Storm, The Brother’s Keg, Video Nasties) is a lean and cohesive expression of the power trio’s precision, which marks the next stage in the genre-bending and ever-evolving sound that is Trevor’s Head. For first single ‘Call of the Deep’, Roger Atkins (guitar/vocals) states,

"These last few years have been tough for us – for everyone – and I have constantly been struck by the strength I’ve seen in others. Whether battling personal loss, mental health difficulties, financial stresses, relationship troubles, whatever. This song is a nod to anyone who keeps fighting through the calm and through the storm. I have unending respect and pride in anyone who can do that, and this song is for them. Even if it didn’t go to plan for the protagonist this time.”

Listen to ‘Call of the Deep’ now:

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Listen: ‘Nostromo’ by Rabbit Junk

Posted: 1 January 2023 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Taken from their album ‘Apocalypse For Beginners’, Rabbit Junk have released ‘Nostromo’ as a taster of their bold technoindustrial/electropop/metal crossover sound.

Rabbit Junk draws subtle parallels between the challenges facing our species as a whole and the challenges facing our own personal lives. These challenges are characterized as foreseeable and yet tragically unavoidable. As such, the album communicates the fatalism and frustration of modernity alongside the lack of control we often feel over our own lives.

The album’s lead track “Stone Cold" (Feat. Amelia Arsenic) exemplifies Rabbit Junk’s willingness to take risks and defy genre norms. “Stone Cold” is a gender-fluid and genre-mashing anthem with an infectious sing-a-long chorus. The song featuries lyrics in both German and English delivered by masculine and feminine vocal textures floating over a mélange of punk, drum & bass, metal, and hip hop.

Other standout tracks include “Nostromo”, a sci-fi influenced art-metal meets synthwave track which is quickly becoming a fan favorite, and “Love Is Hell”, a decidedly danceable and gritty homage to everyone’s broken hearts.

Check it here:

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Solcura – Keep It Close

Posted: 14 December 2022 in Singles and EPs
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2nd December 2022

Christopher Nosnibor

Bournemouth-based four-piece alt-rock unit Solcura pack a lot into three and a half minutes on ‘Keep It Close’, which is their first new music since their debut album, Serotonin released in August 2021.

It begins with some soft, hazy, warm-toned, vaguely psychedelic backwards guitar stuff and some airy vocals before slamming in with a grungy riff and some hard minor key power chords.

They’re open in their drawing on 90s grunge as their primary influence, and I’ll be the last person to criticise for that. As much as these bleak times draw comparisons to the conditions of the late 70s and early 80s that spawned post-punk, we’re also living in conditions that are giving rise to another ‘lost’ generation, struggling to find their place and their identity. Grunge emerged as the voice of a generation for a very good reason about thirty years ago, and while bands have drawn clear influence from that spell in the early 90s when big crunching guitars were all the rage, it feels more than ever like the time is right for a proper grunge revival

If it initially comes on like a cross between Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and Bivouac in its melodic, accessible grunge stylings, there’s a sudden switch that takes a turn for the metal and things get heavier – but without going for the guttural vocal move that’s been persistently popular since the advent of nu-metal.

‘Keep It Close’ sounds and feels like three or four songs in one, and yet they meld the different segments together so seamlessly that it absolutely works – it’s a proper gut-pulling kick in the ribs that’s got a rare energy, intelligent songwriting and raw power, and it kicks some serious ass.

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Solcura artwork

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