FREE MUSIC MONDAY: 23/03/2015

Free Music Monday does exactly what it says on the tin. Every Monday I will scour BandCamp for only the best free albums.

Free Music.

Every Monday!

Got that? Good.

Let's begin. 

Desolate Horizons - We'll Never Fade Away

I feel it’s vaguely lazy to compare the work of Russian Shoegaze/Ambient musician known only as “C. Horizon” to the work of Andrei Tarkovsky. I could easily be blamed for likening to two simply because they’re both from the same part of the world, but I’m going to do it anyway, but for good reason.

Listening to this latest album from Desolate Horizons, my first thought was of Tarkovsky’s Soviet era film STALKER (yes the one the game was based off of.) STALKER is a snapshot of an empty, pointless world that yields not but fear and uncertainty to those foolish enough to probe into its barren corners in search of an ill-defined “more”. We’ll Never Fade Away has that same feeling. It is an album brimming with both hope and emptiness, light and airy float through grandiose melodies that are brimming with sadness. It is the sun rising gloriously over a dead world. The song titles don’t help the sad mood, with tracks such as we loved each other long before we met... when we were just a lonely dreamers and as long as there's a light in the sky, i'll be waiting for you; it is an album packed to the brim with as much quality as feels.

I can imagine this acting as a perfect score to Tarkovsky’s STALKER possible an even better one than the unofficial soundtrack written by Lustmord and Robert Rich. If beautiful melodramatic depression in the form of ambient music sounds like your thing, then you’ll feel right at home here, for what it’s worth.

Lights & Motion - Chronicle

Bleak Russian Dark Ambient isn’t the only highly atmospheric free release we’ve come across this week. Chronical is a Cinematic Post-Rock release from Swedish One Man Project Lights and Motion. If We’ll Never Fade Away is the soundtrack to a movie released decades too late, Chronical is the optimistic soundtrack to what you hope your future will be and the sepia-toned score to the life you’ve already lived simultaneously.

Chronical is an organic merger of crescendo driven Post-Rock ala Explosions In The Sky and ethereal dream pop worshipping at the churches of M83 and Coldplay; even at times seeming to channel Neo-Classical composers such as Craig Armstrong. While you’re not going to find the complexities found in Post-Rock’s best works (such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor) you do find an immensely beautiful album that gives you as much as you give it. This is an album to sit in the dark drinking a glass of scotch with whilst reminiscing over the good ole’ days. The emotion and drama found in Lights and Motion’s output proved tenfold by the Swedish Solo artists recent breakthrough into film scores, with works gracing trailers for Homefront, Transcendence, Lone Survivor and even being used by Google for a commercial.

Guitars shimmer darkly, a Violin murmurs distantly and a Piano twinkles beneath a sky lit only by stars. Tomorrow is another day and you wish you could take everything you have forward with you. 

But you can't. 

Revel in it. 

treestepstotheocean - Migration Light

Why stop at two? Why not make this article a trifecta of mildly pretentious instrumental music? Migration Lights is the 2015 release from the Italian Post-Metal outfit threestepstotheocean (one word, lower case; that’s probably important.)

Migration Lights is a brash yet introspective affair channelling Post-Metal releases from bands like Isis and Neurosis and mixing it with the sludgy dragging qualities of Metallic Hardcore and the more ethereal qualities of Post-Rock. Sneeringly introspective Migration Lights isn’t trying to relax you, but that doesn’t prevent it from reaching for echoy guitars and breathy synths and drones to couple with the crushing distorted guitar tones. Instead threestepstotheocean focus on the negative aspects on life, hate, loss, aggression, depression, all conveyed without a word.

As with the other two albums featured here, Migration Lights is an incredibly powerful experience. Where as We’ll Never Fade Away is existential thought on the futility of being and Chronical is an emotional scrapbook, Migration Light is a punch to the gut and a swift knee to the face, coupled with the realisation that this is real life and that it’s a difficult place to be. As the album art implies, it’s an exploration of a world turned on its head. A grit filled, aggressive rollercoaster of brutality and contrasting fragility. If the artsy-ness of the previous two albums turned you away, you can get all your emotional pretence with your brutal credibility intact with threestepstotheocean and Migration Lights.  

Interested in having your band featured on this weekly article? E-mail us at pyramidnoise@gmail.com with the subject line "Free Music Monday" with links to your Bandcamp page. 

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GODSPEED YOU! NEW ALBUM

As the core source of the World's darkest and deepest Post-Rock, the announcement of a brand new Godspeed You! Black Emperor album, is an exciting thing. Especially considering the expanse of time between Yanqui U.X.O. and their last record, 2012's Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!

Even more exciting is the teaser the accompanies the announcement. It show cases that Dark Orchestral (literally) psychedelia that has always been Godspeeds hallmark. Call me Nostrodumbass if you want, but I seriously think that Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress has AOTY potential. My skinny wrists are raised excitedly towards the end of next month.

Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress will be released on the 31st of March through Constellation Records.

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FREE MUSIC MONDAY: 05/01/2015

Free Music Monday does exactly what it says on the tin. Every Monday I will scour BandCamp for only the best free albums.

Free Music.

Every Monday!

Got that? Good.

Let's begin. 

Sea Oleena - Sleeplessness

There are certain trends I notice when trawling BandCamp for free albums. The first is folk, a lot of people put out free folk albums. While I’m sure some of these are great I don’t listen to enough Folk to be able to tell if they’re worth listening to or not and so I tend to leave them be. The second is Post-Rock, a genre second only to Djent in the rock world's hierarchy of bedroom produced albums.

With such saturation of the market, it seems impossible to not include a Post-Rock or Folk album into these articles week-by-week. But what’s the point of posting something generic when you have Sea Oleena’s Sleeplessness? This Canadian release’s mixture of Folk elements and Post-Rock sprinkled over a stew of Ambient Lo-fi Shoegaze creates a rather appetising sonic signature. Unlike much Post-Rock and Shoegaze, the instrumental focal point is not on electric guitars, but the haunting and ethereal vocals of Charlotte Oleena. Indeed Electric Guitars are completely absent from this special brand of Shoegaze; Piano, Acoustic Guitar and big round Bass tones instead fill up this dreamscape (with a small hint of electronics for good measure,) I suppose that’s where the folk elements become apparent.

The song writing is gorgeous, and the production is lush and deep. This album, I believe, will bring up different metal images for everyone, but to me it is the backdrop to a rainy city street. Not because the album itself is sad and grey, but because it is the opposite. It’s soft and comforting, but in a way that makes you feel as if those Summer days are in the past; not the present. Sleeplessness manages to take stale genre tropes and make something fresh out of them; a release well worth your time. 

Vanishes - All Cities Flashing, Forever

I was initially drawn to this release by the album art. It is thoroughly bad-ass isn’t it? The suitably retro cover is the gate to an impressively detailed Chiptune release from Vanishes. While some of the synth sounds on All Cities Flashing, Always seem harsh and unpalatable on BandCamp’s over loud player (as their divine will seems happy to cover VAT calculations but not add a volume control) the production is actually rather impressive. Sounds that could easily become a loud mess are instead highly emotive, tracks like Beatrix Saves The Queen, for example, takes white noise and crafts it in to a surprisingly emotive melodic tool.

It is this use of emotion that I find most impressive on this release. Chiptune, which is basically electronica made with old video game sounds for those not in the know, is normally associate with a far happier, more melodious style. Vanishes however, seem to be going straight for a dark audio assault that is about as far from the genre stereotype as you can get. Yes the production is spot on; that doesn’t mean it is always pleasant, but it is always effective and enjoyable.

Even when melodies and synth sounds present themselves in a more upbeat fashion, the sampling philosophy found on this release has a habit of undermining it. The majority of the “vocals” on this album are samples from old 80s and 90s cassettes that the artist has. These tapes consist of children saying random kid stuff, presumably they’re old home movies or kids playing radio or something like that. Adding these recordings to the nostalgia fest that is Chiptune, the whole thing becomes an experiment in the halcyon days of the listener (assuming they’re in their 20s or early 30's.) Even when the kids aren’t saying sad things (which they do) the whole thing seems rather down, like someone realising that these are not the times they live in any more. All Cities Flashing, Forever is a soundtrack to lost youth presented in a wonderfully retro package.

Kowloon Walled City - Container Ships

I was honestly surprised to see that this album was free. I remember reading about it some time ago and it received pretty good reviews. Now that I have listened to Kowloon Walled City’s 2012 release, Container Ships, I can see why. Drinking heavily from the chalice of Unsane and Isis this is a dragging monolith of an album which is as light and it is expensive …which it is to say it’s damn heavy. San Franciscan Sludgy Noise Rockers' pulsating, bass heavy sound is that special kind of sinister that only Post-Metal and Sludge seem to be able to pull off. It doesn’t need speed to be aggressive. This album has all the aggression you could ever need, bubbling under the surface of the instrumentation and in the grim, desperate vocals.

Atmosphere is truly the focus of this release, it is minimalistic, spartan and absolutely oppressive; it is indeed much like the Container Ship of its name sake in its utilitarian bleakness. As far as album names Kowloon Walled City have really hit the nail on the head here. It is a cliché thing to say, but this is one of those albums where staring at the album cover while listening really does fit perfectly. The band care not for soloing, overly melodious leads, or anything that distracts from the percussive, groove based riffing. That is not to say there is no melody, tracks like Container Ships itself do have incredibly emotive (i.e. bleak) passages based on melodies created through the interactions between the low-end and guitar parts. Creating melody whilst remaining absolutely devastating. If you're looking for something as heavy and roughly hewn as a concrete wall, then look no further.

Interested in having your band featured on this weekly article? E-mail us at pyramidnoise@gmail.com with the subject line "Free Music Monday" with links to your Bandcamp page.

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FREE MUSIC MONDAY: 22/12/2014

Free Music Monday does exactly what it says on the tin. Every Monday I will scour BandCamp for only the best free albums.

Free Music.

Every Monday!

Got that? Good.

Let's begin. 

Anup Sastry – Titan

The world of one-man Djent projects tend to fall into certain patterns. In the minority you have the unfairly talented people who are able to play every instrument they need with more skill than most of us can dream to play one. Damn you Ben Sharp, Damn you. For mere mortals however, machine aid must be sought. Often you’ll find that an artist will track guitars and bass and shove Superior Drummer 2 in the mix for their percussive requirements. The drummer for Skyharbor, Intervals and Jeff Loomis, Anup Sastry, however, has done things in reverse. The only real instrument on this impressively meaty Djent album, are the drums, but it’s very hard to tell.

Call it a criticism of the oft over-produced nature of Djent if you will, but even without such loaded opinions to back it up, this is one hell of a release. Despite being a drummer at heart it seems that Anup has the art of melody writing pretty well covered. This album djents in all the right ways and in all the right places. In reality it is perhaps not that surprising that this album is as solid as it is. Good Djent, in my opinion, requires two things; a good sense of groove and rhythm and a strong ear for melody, both of which are present here. As the rhythmic power house behind many a progressive band as well as for two bands that both appeared on our best of 2014 list, I wouldn't be surprised if some of that Melody work has rubbed off on him. If nothing else, this is worth a listen just to see how that programmed guitars sound.

(Spoiler: Better than you’d expect.)

Nicholas Nicholas – Wrong

Brooklyn project Nicholas Nicholas’ brand of Shoegazey Dream Pop is somehow both nostalgic and comforting whilst still feeling new and interesting. Wrong feels like a distant memory, something from your childhood half forgotten. The production is unashamedly inspired by the 80’s. Old school synths, guitar and drum tones that wouldn’t feel out of place on a The Cure record and, perhaps unsurprisingly for a Shoegaze record, reverb and delay on basically everything. While it is influenced by this 30 year old sound however, it retains a sense of modernity that prevents Wrong from simply becoming another throw back release.

The ambience of this album may best be described by a faded photograph, perhaps a photo of yourself when you were very young. There’s nostalgia, sadness of things passed, but it’s warm; bittersweet perhaps being the best word to use, but the album, despite its title, refuses to become completely morose.

The guitars drone ethereally as you expect and the melodies both from the guitar and mouth are hauntingly delayed to the point of incomprehensibility. It is all very Shoegaze, very solid, but nothing unexpected. I don’t see the album causing any hardcore fan of Shoegaze proclaiming this to be the future of the genre and all that came before it are now irrelevant. But it certainly is a great example of the genre and well worth a listen.

Elizabeth Veldon – Music For The Solstice

As today marks celebrations for the Winter Solstice over on the Salisbury Plains, it seems apt to include an album released just for the occasion. Glaswegian Experimental Noise Aritst (as if there’s a non-Experimental Noise Artist) released Music For The Solstice on December 21^st, which the actual date of the Solstice according to Google.

Citing John Cage as a major influence, it is unsurprising that much of this album is quiet to the point of silence. This is not an album to have on in the background, as I made the mistake of doing on a first listen. This is an abstraction of ideas and is something that should be paid attention to. Music For The Solstice represents what the event means to Elizabeth Veldon, realised in processed sine waves. It may not make sense to anyone else, but that’s okay. Music is a very personal expression and that is what I believe this to be, pure personal expression. It is perhaps not something you would listen to over and over, but on this, the darkest night of the year, it might be worth sitting alone with your headphones for half an hour and reflecting.

this is music for the solstice, designed for headphones. 
listen in the dark, wrapped in sound.

Interested in having your band featured on this weekly article? E-mail us at pyramidnoise@gmail.com with the subject line "Free Metal Monday" with links to your Bandcamp page.

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