Neapolitan by Hot Flash Heat Wave
I found out about Hot Flash Heat Wave when Spotify recommended it to me last week, I don't normally take their recommendations serious enough to listen to a whole album, but since the album art looked aesthetic enough (hell, is this vaporwave enough?) to grab my whole attention for that moment I decided to give it a shot. Neapolitan has nothing fantastic (in the meaning of special feature, it's just white people with guitars) from start to the end, you will not get anything revolutionary or bold over here, This is mostly new Indie-rock that could be played In FIFA soundtracks, but the way it is displayed through the album is superb. Hot Flash Heat Wave is a very strokes and beatles influenced band from this decade, this is their 2015 debut, you can hear their influences mentioned on the guitar crafting-work and on the harmonies that float in the opening song, "Hesitation", a post-punk ballad that kisses both the Indie wave and the retro vibe, a date with the cool class girl that ends way better than expected. One of the things that I like the most in modern indie pop music is the way that the vocal melodies are drawn, and here they do an amazing job, albums like alvvays and WORRY know how to let the voice let the song roll, and I hold a special for these albums between my favorites. Also, this album is criminally underrated, and not that overrated "WHY DOES NOBODY LIKES THE THINGS I FIND COOL" but indeed there are few reviews about this out there, it flied under the curiosity radar, which is a shame because it certainly displays more magic and vitality than bland bands like real estate (which are cocksucked day and night).
I don't often name or give to determined music the "Feel Good" stamp, because I feel it is a over-used and Inaccurate term to handle to a simple style of music, but this album surely deserves to get a special exception, The way the songs are placed through the record avoids it getting boring and lifeless while it progress, and that's nothing super difficult, neither hard, but it's not often done right. It follows the slow-energetic-energetic formula that avoids you entering into one song already thinking that you are in the same, which is also helped by the fact that few of the songs seem alike, also kinda surprising for this kind of record, they dance around many styles that they were influenced with, you will find garage rock siding along new wave and pop punk, in a symmetric shape, allowing the record to flow nicely and enjoyably. And the good thing about feeling good aside music is because it boosts the senses until they pop it out from your skin onto the outside world, and through the last weeks, things have been kinda hard. Though when I put my headphones and blast this over, it feels like a good lonely lightbulb that smiles and simbolizes that good things are to come. Bjork was right about headphones. I always say that It's impossible for me to describe how much the things I write about click with me, principally when the topic is happy and joyful music, because it's weird how we smile, how simple it is, and how they appear from nowhere, is it inexplicable? Maybe not, but it's just too much myestery for this little man to handle by itself, and I'm not worried at all about it ^_
The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place by E...In The Sky
I remember waking up from this weird dream on a cloudy saturday like it was yesterday, breathing heavily like I needed to know something, Adrenalin pumping through my muscles, something boggling my thoughts, I was feeling lost and found at the same time for a uncommon reason that was too blurred for me to describe. I spent the next minutes (maybe half an hour) in bed, hiding from the sunlight inside my bed sheet, trying to figure out what happened, it's interesting how things like this can let you floating in a unknown pleasure sea, and as much as you try, you will never solve what is behind this picture, It's like being trapped into a Magritte lucid nightmare, the curiosity kills you for not discovering what is indeed behind all this confusion. Like a sudden realization I could see flashes of what it was all about, but couldn't get what it was trying to portray or mean, an abstract wall blocked my path, and this was the closes I could get to finally understand what was happening inside my cuckoo head. So you might be wondering, well nice story Antonio, it happens to me in a daily basis, what does this have to do with Explosions in the sky? ah ha! indeed my dear reader, the story goes like this. After spending my whole afternoon hunting what was behind all that emotional tension relieved when I woke up I decided to put myself to listen to this record, it was still raining, but the birds outside challenged mother nature, flying from tree to tree. I found out about explosions in the sky last week, when they appeared in the newest Rock Band DLC, after playing "Your hand in mine" in guitar I realized that there was something beautiful that I had dig up in there, and I wanted more of that, I wanted more of those lullaby like melodies, that soft and sweet entered my room and covered my inside the fog.
Silent Poetry has never sounded so loud and said this much without a single word, it's an universal language, something we all can connect into, an album that bursts out from itself, like a weird glow hidden inside a magic bag. The song names really didn't sound too easy to digest (hell, it reminded me of "Hospice" for some reason, get your track names together EITS), but when the crescendo on the first song finally hit its peak I was delighted with a beautiful sensation inside myself, not really exploding (haha), but feeling tied into a certain wave or balance, feeling part of something good and bigger, hell is it God? I don't even know anymore. As expected from a post rock album, the instrumentals really do the work they are made to, the guitar work here is excellent, and completely brings home the sensation the songs are trying to convey, which in theory might seem pretty easy (but hey, as I told you they are a post rock band). It felt cold and somber, I can't put my finger in why besides all the light-hearted lullaby-like sounding of the songs didn't feel alive and colorful at all. It's so simple, the record follows common pop melodies, like the instruments were the voices, which allows them to explore a vast space inside just one track, and not get locked inside a simple rhythm, although when the songs move on, most of them begin with a happy melody that then turns out into a emotional bottomless and bittersweet pit in which most of the feelings are thrown into, the atmosphere in through the whole journey is not well defined, it feels pleasurable and undefined, and this is where that backstory enters.
I couldn't define well what I was thinking when the songs progressed through my mind, I couldn't take a single shot without getting flooded with memories, I reminded of my childhood, I remembered the things I used to do, a simple walk jumping on the water plash caused by the rain, moments that weren't connected consciously, or didn't have a meaning to the whole picture. And, besides talking about the topic of growing up a thousand times in this goddamn Diary, no album has hit me with quite the abstract meaning that Earth is not a cold place has. Many might say, it's subjective, and indeed it is, all these experiences that I have to enjoy a record are not something that I can explain to you in a objective manner, in a concrete manner, and I think that's why I love my records so much, it's not quite the music in itself, it's more of the ways I have to find myself in each album, I like to say it's little fairy magical dust that is left from me, and that I keep finding on these records. The earth is not a cold place, got me into a spiral of memories, and even being 45 minutes long, divided in only 5 songs, I couldn't define clearly what in space I just experienced, was it good, was it bad? Like waking up from a weird dream and not knowing what just danced on your subconscious, and you're lost with all the tools to find out what, in the end, happened and you just can't, it's a locked secret, and even trying to unscramble all the words, you will not understand the meaning, The earth is not a cold place gets me to deliver hot and lost thoughts onto my mind, whenever I close my eyes and lay down into the music. Remember when you saw all those clouds on the blue sky and tried to define what they were? they were nothing but clouds, that are created through many chemical reactions, nothing but clouds. But put yourself for 45 minutes to stare at to them, and see all your detached thoughts boil until your mind, you will feel realized, you will feel fine and light, even knowing they're just... clouds.
Jim O'Rourke + Japanese Jazz Pianist Miki sakata = Delicious and sweet candy melodies
Everyday my appreciation for jim Grows and grows more _________________ Top 100 Hits you must hear before the u... of beauty
I am trapped inside a 40s Surrealistic thriller movie
WHAT IS HAPPENING
This very unknown album by the British Experimental band White noise can be put on side with Suicide's s/t and the velvet underground white light/white heat in the madness quesite, and "The visitation" the masterpiece of this record should be along with pieces like "Frankie teardrop" and "Aumgn". They did their best to portray syngestetically feelings and places, emotions and moments through music, may sound a little bit pretentious, but 60s hidden gem will surely bring something new to your day, am on a big 60s run right now, that's why I'm not giving it a full review at the moment, but when I keep up with everything this will surely be highlighted. They manage to use their studio as a cinema in such a way it's really pleasing and uncomfortable at the same time, feels like they're invading our comfort space and close to the point of engaging us inside this nightmare, intergalactic screams and moans floating between your ears, an angelical voice that blurs a way to hell itself. Really recommended for all the fans of Experimental & Avanat-garde musique.
Shoutouts to Dividesbyzero for playing this on a plug session and getting my interest.
"This album collects the most important singles from new order, which is a guaranteed trip into eris and beyond the echoes in your mind, and if this don't rock your socks like snakes on the neon dancefloor then you should see a doctor as soon as possible - Antonio, 2017
"Yeah, this shit is fantastic, LMAO" - alelsupreme
Another Setting by The Durutti Column
When Tilly recommended this to me I felt kind of lost of what to do, I haven't written a decent review in a long time and I felt pushed to do one for this record, which I was listening for the first time, so it was harder to get my formed opinion about it, even listening to 3 times until the end of this write-up. I was in 80s phase last week, listening to lots of artists that were remarkable at the time, like smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen, and (as you saw in the last meme-writeup) New Order, So I was technically on the mood for this durutti column record. While is surely not what I was expecting from the album cover and from his description, this is a very well crafted record, the guitar work is magnificent and surely takes the cake when it comes to guide the record, leading into various musical shapes that this record explores. Now while the guitars were really centered in this record (and even the bass work was highlighted in some of the songs) The drums and the vocals are left by side, creating a hole in my focus, many of the tracks seemed alike, not only in the composition, the whole production helped it to sound generic as the album moves in, which surely was some disappointment for me. The songs that have both the drums and the vocals are the best, not because the inclusion of these instruments (even with they breathing a new breeze into the composition), but due to the arrangement and better songwriting on them, they have this sense of completion that hits closer than the instrumental songs for me, which sound like undone. Now I wonder if this was a part of the whole career, this whole mellow/excited design to their albums, which could work out beautifully, just seems bland and unfinished as I said earlier here, It surely has some highlights, but overall I felt kinda uninterested on the record as it moved with the mellowy guitar focused material. Now does this mean that I can no more appreciate a guitar-driven material like Baden Powell songs? This statement that I almost created inn my mind is kinda absurd, no wonder this record has great crafting as I said before, but what I think what put me out the most was the production, using the same wall of reverb for all the songs don't seem to catch me and detach me from the space that I am, which is a shame since this record could give me so much more. Sorry Tilly.
Another Setting by The Durutti Column
When Tilly recommended this to me I felt kind of lost of what to do, I haven't written a decent review in a long time and I felt pushed to do one for this record, which I was listening for the first time, so it was harder to get my formed opinion about it, even listening to 3 times until the end of this write-up. I was in 80s phase last week, listening to lots of artists that were remarkable at the time, like smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen, and (as you saw in the last meme-writeup) New Order, So I was technically on the mood for this durutti column record. While is surely not what I was expecting from the album cover and from his description, this is a very well crafted record, the guitar work is magnificent and surely takes the cake when it comes to guide the record, leading into various musical shapes that this record explores. Now while the guitars were really centered in this record (and even the bass work was highlighted in some of the songs) The drums and the vocals are left by side, creating a hole in my focus, many of the tracks seemed alike, not only in the composition, the whole production helped it to sound generic as the album moves in, which surely was some disappointment for me. The songs that have both the drums and the vocals are the best, not because the inclusion of these instruments (even with they breathing a new breeze into the composition), but due to the arrangement and better songwriting on them, they have this sense of completion that hits closer than the instrumental songs for me, which sound like undone. Now I wonder if this was a part of the whole career, this whole mellow/excited design to their albums, which could work out beautifully, just seems bland and unfinished as I said earlier here, It surely has some highlights, but overall I felt kinda uninterested on the record as it moved with the mellowy guitar focused material. Now does this mean that I can no more appreciate a guitar-driven material like Baden Powell songs? This statement that I almost created inn my mind is kinda absurd, no wonder this record has great crafting as I said before, but what I think what put me out the most was the production, using the same wall of reverb for all the songs don't seem to catch me and detach me from the space that I am, which is a shame since this record could give me so much more. Sorry Tilly.
But I still want more of your recommendations
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, AP!
Yeah, I can see this this record not being for everyone. I LOVE the production, vocals, and drum work. It's a very goth, muted, "drab" sound on purpose. The production is fantastic and similar to what you get on closer and Faith.
Yeah, Vini Reilly's guitar work certainly rules. He's one of the unheralded instrumental guitarists of the 80s. Most of his works have a lot of instrumental passages just highlighting his Italian -influenced ? playing style. I love it & don't feel like they sound incomplete in the slightest. In fact that opening instrumental tract "Prayer" is one of my favorites on the entire album.
At any rate, I'm really into that gothic sound. It's quite different than the brighter sounds of Echo, New Order, and The Smiths so perhaps u were not as ready as you thought. ()
At any rate, I definitely think fans of Joy Division's Closer and The Cure's Faith, should give it a spin. I've listened to it about 30 times over the last month & am quite enamored by it. There's a lot of beauty in it. Like someone's really trying to break free from the clutches of depression but than keeps getting engulfed by overpowering waves of mourning and grief. It's a great juxtaposition that really makes this album special. Trying so hard to be happy, to see the beauty in life only to engulfed by your grief and mourning like a wave, like a deep fog that permeates your clothes and weighs you down. IDK. I LOVE this record.
Lots, of love, AP. Thanks for trying extra hard to like it. Giving it 3 spins & all. What more can I ask.
And really a great review! Just a different perspective.
Yeah, I can see this this record not being for everyone. I LOVE the production, vocals, and drum work. It's a very goth, muted, "drab" sound on purpose. The production is fantastic and similar to what you get on closer and Faith.
Yeah, Vini Reilly's guitar work certainly rules. He's one of the unheralded instrumental guitarists of the 80s. Most of his works have a lot of instrumental passages just highlighting his Italian -influenced ? playing style. I love it & don't feel like they sound incomplete in the slightest. In fact that opening instrumental tract "Prayer" is one of my favorites on the entire album.
At any rate, I'm really into that gothic sound. It's quite different than the brighter sounds of Echo, New Order, and The Smiths so perhaps u were not as ready as you thought. ()
At any rate, I definitely think fans of Joy Division's Closer and The Cure's Faith, should give it a spin. I've listened to it about 30 times over the last month & am quite enamored by it. There's a lot of beauty in it. Like someone's really trying to break free from the clutches of depression but than keeps getting engulfed by overpowering waves of mourning and grief. It's a great juxtaposition that really makes this album special. Trying so hard to be happy, to see the beauty in life only to engulfed by your grief and mourning like a wave, like a deep fog that permeates your clothes and weighs you down. IDK. I LOVE this record.
Lots, of love, AP. Thanks for trying extra hard to like it. Giving it 3 spins & all. What more can I ask.
And really a great review! Just a different perspective.
Thanks for the in depth response tilly, really makes my heart warm that even with our different perspectives we can still have a sweet discussion, will be looking forward on handing you more mellow records
ps: I really, really don't like closer, I think It's a really weak effort, I know, crucify me
Hahaha, I love "I Try" Maybe I should give it a deserved write up one of these days, since I have not yet listened to a full macy gray record until now, nice opportunity to strike it on. _________________ Top 100 Hits you must hear before the u... of beauty
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
