Video: Dead Register - Captive

Video: La Dispute - Rose Quartz / Fulton Street I

Streaming: Whale Fall - Sondersongs

Band: Whale Fall
Album: Sondersongs
Label: Self Released
Year: 2018








Tracklist
01. True Places
02. Decades
03. Asunder
04. Holarctica
05. Cast Against Type
06. Reservoirs
07. El Llanto En Llamas
08. The Sondersong
09. This Cat Has No Moral Compass
10. Blue Hour
Streaming / Buy

On the third album from Los Angeles-based Whale Fall, the band's sound continues to evolve, embracing tonalities familiar to listeners of their previous work, as well as nods to a wider array of genres and shades of decades past. The tracks on "Sondersongs" — the band's first single LP following two double albums — feature elements of post-rock, dream pop, new wave, psych, folk, indie, solo piano, and classic rock, colliding across 10 cinematic instrumental tracks. 

Recorded in El Sereno with engineer/producer Eric Palmquist (who manned the boards for their debut), "Sondersongs" considers the difference and similarities between each of us: strangers until we aren't; extras in one another's lives or perfect soulmates; the unknown depth of each of us barely sensed until it comes to light unexpectedly. 

As defined by The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, the word "sonder" means: "the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own — populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries, and inherited craziness — an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk"

The ethos of these Sondersongs encompasses stability and change, union and dissolution, each of us holding our own story within us as they collide with the stories of those around us — joining, supporting, breaking away, or tearing apart. The emotional arc of the album evokes the structure, bonds, and divisions between all of us, and ultimately the realization that we all share the same human story at the depth of ourselves. 

official site
facebook
twitter
bandcamp
soundcloud
buy 

Throwback Thrusday: I Hear Sirens - I Hear Sirens EP

Band: I Hear Sirens
Album: I Hear Sirens EP
Label: Self Released
Year: 2008








Tracklist
01. This Is The Last Time I'll Say Goodbye
02. Like A Leaf From A Tree In Its Dying Season
03. September Isn't Too Far And I'm Not Sure I'll Return
04. Everything Was Black And White Except The City Lights
05. Ashes Fall Like Snowflakes, Burying The Sea
Streaming / Buy

I Hear Sirens is an American post-rock band that formed in the fall of 2005. Drawing inspiration from indie rock, post-hardcore and ambient genres their sound seamlessly drifts between haunting melodies and climactic crescendos. Despite shifting lineups early in the project, their DIY attitude and strong appeal to fans have remained intact.

For its 10th year anniversary, this post-rock landmark release, is finally pressed on vinyl by Whiskey + Wax Records.

official site
facebook
instagram
bandcamp
buy 10th anniversary vinyl

Video: Modern Life Is War - Feels Like End Times

Streaming: This World Has Bees - Nearer EP

Band: This World Has Bees
Album: Nearer EP
Label: Soniphone Records
Year: 2018








Tracklist
01. The Thousand Yard Stare
02. July
03. Nearer
Streaming / Buy

This World Has Bees is a post-rock/metal band from Maine, USA.

facebook
instagram
bandcamp

Recommendation: Man Mountain - Inifinity Mirror

Band: Man Mountain
Album: Infinity Mirror
Label: Spartan Records
Year: 2018








Tracklist
01. Illumination Rings
02. Memory Trace
03. Elysian
04. To Be Made As New
05. No Man Needs Nothing
06. Peripheral Drift
Streaming / Buy

Man Mountain is a band of brothers and friends from the southeast corner of Michigan, playing epic and emotive instrumental rock music. What started in the beginning of 2012 as two people jamming songs by The Appleseed Cast in a basement, turned into four people playing a full set of original songs in someone else’s basement later that summer. That first set of music was later polished up, recorded, and released in the spring of the following year as an EP titled “To Call Each Thing By Its Right Name”. Since then we’ve played all over Michigan (and eight other states), and have written and recorded our first full length album "Infinity Mirror", which was released today on Spartan Records.

facebook
twitter
instagram
bandcamp
soundcloud
buy

Video: This Patch Of Sky - Bella Muerte

Recommendation: A Light Within - Epilogue EP

Band: A Light Within
Album: Epilogue EP
Label: Self Released
Year: 2018








Tracklist
01. Page #9 (Shells)
02. Page #54 (Chemical Drive)
03. Page #27 (Surrounded By Astronauts)
04. Page #35 (An Educated Gentleman)
Streaming / Buy

A Light Within is set to release “Epilogue”, the final conceptual installment in a three-part series containing transcribed diary entries written from the perspective of a reflective mind. Throughout the pages be prepared to hit an emotional remembrance of life experiences, love scenarios, and a metaphorical loss of it all.

facebook
bandcamp
buy

Album: Locktender - Friedrich

Band: Locktender
Album: Friedrich
Label: i.Corrupt.Records, Deadwood Records, Middle Man Records, Zegema Beach Records
Year: 2018






Tracklist
01. The Monk By The Sea
02. View Of A Harbour
03. Wreck In The Sea Of Ice
04. Seashore With Shipwreck By Moonlight
05. The Chasseur In The Forest
06. Morning Fog In The Mountains
07. Winter Landscape
08. The Abbey In The Oakwood
Download | Mirror | Mirror 2

After taking a two year hiatus to pursue family/travel/school/work, the members of ‘Men As Trees’ have relocated and reformed as Locktender in Cleveland, OH. Locktender is a concept focused hardcore band concentrating on artists and their works interpreted through music, lyrics & art. Every album is an artist, every song is a different work. 

Our first three songs took quick looks at individual works by William Blake, Earl Nightingale & Raphael Gleitsmann. Our first full length LP, Kafka, was released in 2013 and focused on five short works by Franz Kafka. This was followed by another split for which a Herman Melville short story was used. Our second LP, Rodin, based on four sculptures, was released in 2014 and was supported by a second European Tour. Our third LP is based on the works of Caspar David Friedrich, was released in 2018.

official site
facebook
twitter
bandcamp

buy: i.corrupt.records (EU) | Deadwood Records (EU) | Middle Man Records (USA) | Zegema Beach Records (Canada)

Streaming: Johnnytwentythree - The Bridge

Band: johnnytwentythree
Album: The Bridge
Label: Self Released
Year: 2017







Tracklist
01. Shipwreck
02. Night Of War
03. Dark Of The Sun
04. The Bridge
05. Keys To Freedom
06. To The Fortress
07. In The Master's Throne Room
08. After the End
09. A Good Childhood
10. Last Breath
11. Silent Lord Of Chaos
Streaming / Buy

It has been just over 5 years since Joe's death. Before that, we had been slowly chipping away at a new Johnnytwentythree album. That album is called The Bridge, and it is now done. 

I feel like Joe would be pretty happy with it. 

The beginnings of the album started out with a song that was written as a reaction to all of us watching a documentary called “The Bridge”. It was a song inspired by the idea of suicide, but also of finding reasons to hold on. 

The album instead has become a memorial to the reality of the life and suicide of our bassist/brother/husband/friend, and father of two little girls. 

It was released on December 23rd. 

You can order it on our bandcamp or iTunes/Amazon Music.

Stephen’s video for the first song of the album, Shipwreck, can be viewed here, with more to come.

Proceeds from the album will be going to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI - https://www.nami.org/). 

The Bridge is intended to be a candle lit for those who are gone, a light for those left. - Michael J23

official site
facebook
bandcamp
merch

Recommendation: Pillars - Of Salt And Sea

Band: Pillars
Album: Of Salt And Sea
Label: In Storre Recordings
Year: 2017







Tracklist
01. Signal
02. Harbinger
03. Finalita
04. Of Salt And Sea
05. Subtract/Submerge
06. Revelation
07. Residuum
08. SEQII
09. Equinox
Streaming / Buy

Pillars is an American four piece, primarily instrumental, post-rock band from Indianapolis, Indiana formed in 2015. The band consists of Marc Ertel (guitar), Justin Williams (guitar), Nason Frizzell (bass), and Zach Frizzell (drums). Each member comes from various musical pasts and this diversity has fostered a unique sound that blends indie-rock and post-rock.

Pillars independently released their first self-titled collection of three songs on June 9, 2015 [Pillars EP] both in digital and CD formats. The CD's were limited to 100 copies and quickly sold out. The album jackets were screenprinted by Bob Peele at Long Live Design Labs and the songs were recorded, mixed, and mastered by Carl Byers at Clandestine Arts Recording.

The band was signed to Indianapolis indie label, In Store Recordings in February 2017 and released "The Great Divide" on March 31, 2017; A two song opus inspired by the fear, anxiety, and uncertainty that plague many. "The Great Divide" is a journey that explores the current treacherous social landscape, using history as a light to guide us through the darkness. "The Great Divide" is available for digital download, in addition to a limited edition pressing on cassette and CD. "The Great Divide" was recorded at the Pop Machine and Clandestine Arts in Indianapolis. It was mixed and mastered by Carl Byers. The album cover and inserts were designed by Marc Ertel.

Pillars released their first full-length album through the In Store Recordings label, titled "Of Salt and Sea" on December 15th, 2017. “Of Salt and Sea" marks the band’s most complete release to date, while also marking their first entirely instrumental collection of songs. "Of Salt and Sea" exhibits a distinct mesh of musical colors on full display, as the band takes listeners on a aural voyage full of thoughtfully crafted peaks and plunges. From the towering movement, that shares the name of the album, “Of Salt and Sea” to the succinct yet stunning piece “Subtract/Submerge,” the album delivers a rejuvenated post-rock sound that pushes the boundaries of the genre to stratospheric new levels.
 

 "Of Salt and Sea" is available for digital download, in addition to a limited edition pressing on vinyl, which was mastered by Adam Gonsalves (has also mastered albums for Pelican, Elliott Smith, Neurot Recordings, Epitaph Records). "Of Salt and Sea" was recorded and mixed by Cortland Foxworth at Melt Audio Studio. Digital mastering was done by Gordan Wantuch. The album cover and inserts were designed by Marc Ertel.

Pillars has played alongside established instrumental bands such as Pelican, and indie juggernauts, The Appleseed Cast, The Get Up Kids, The World Is A Beautiful Place And I am No Longer Afraid to Die, We Are Scientists and more.

official site
facebook
twitter
instagram
bandcamp
spotify
soundcloud
merch band | label

Recommendation: In Lights - This is How We Exist

Band: In Lights
Album: This is How We Exist
Label: Self Released
Year: 2017








Tracklist
01. Forward 06:00
02. Search 05:34
03. Before 06:21
04. Memory 06:08
05. Dream 07:58
06. Spring 04:28
07. Om Namah Shivaya
Streaming / Buy

In Lights is a five-piece post-rock / instrumental band based out of San Jose, CA, started playing together during the summer of 2014.

 I cannot express how much I liked this album! Its structure with a strong opening and closing track and of course the melodies give the listeners a great musical experience and atmosphere. Also the use of violin , pipa and a choir gives a different touch that stands this album out!

facebook
bandcamp
soundcloud
merch 

Streaming: Slow Meadow - Costero

Band: Slow Meadow
Album: Costero
Label: Hammock Music
Year: 2017








Tracklist
01. Ships Along The Harbor
02. Boy In A Water Globe
03. Borderland Sorrows
04. Cielo Rojo
05. Brazos Fantasmas
06. Viejo Carrusel
07. Lamellophone And The Gulf Of Mexico
08. Quintana
09. Hurricane
10. Palo Volador
11. The Tragedy Of The Commons - Live Version (Bonus Track)
Streaming / Buy

The Houston multi-instrumentalist Matt Kidd, who writes pastoral, deeply felt compositions as Slow Meadow, will release the 43-minute LP Costero on November 17. The 10-song effort is Kidd’s second as Slow Meadow, arriving two years after the 33-year-old’s debut on the Hammock Music label, a relationship that bloomed when Hammock’s Marc Byrd and Kidd forged an online bond over tastes and ideas from their respective homes in Tennessee and Texas.

Despite initially having minor recognition outside Houston — where glacial, melancholic, piano-centered sound experiments aren’t the city’s chief concern — Kidd’s 2015 debut was still eagerly received by critics like Echoes’ John Diliberto, who elevated Slow Meadow on the same storied Public Radio International show that’s featured Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream, John Cage, and other lions of experimental music. The record also garnered him an entrenched and growing following on Spotify and Bandcamp, where Slow Meadow listeners were treated to several two-song “singles” between Kidd’s full-length ruminations — setting the stage for Costero to be greatly anticipated in ambient, modern composition, and experimental music circles.

Costero, Spanish for “coastal,” is a spare and wistful collection of sketches for piano and string quartet — yet it’s also immutably lush. This is largely due to the crater-deep wells of feeling Kidd draws from a small roster of players, but the composer’s skill with programming embellishments also augurs a sense of spaciousness and wonder. Satie and Debussy alight on the mind as, say, “Ships Along the Harbor,” “Borderland Sorrows,” and “Lamellophone and the Gulf of Mexico” issue their felt, poignant tidings. One also hears in Kidd’s soft focus motifs connections to contemporary minimalists such as Rachel’s, Balmorhea, Goldmund, or Berlin’s Nils Frahm.

Kidd’s 2015 debut utilized a similar palette, except its mellifluous, textured sheen more readily evoked traditional guitar- and piano-centered ambient music. Stars of the Lid and Benoît Pioulard came to mind, as were gorgeous, bare bones scores by Coen Brothers-favorite Carter Burwell. Squint your eyes when listening to Costero, however, and you’re just as likely to set aloft in a smoky, blue-souled, war-torn parlor of 19th-century vintage as you are anywhere in 21st century America. The record is far more “classic” in that sense, blurring our sense of era and location: The Romantics of Chopin’s Paris would’ve liked Costero’s tiny majesties as much as the heavy-minded aesthetes of today’s self-serious experimental music scenes.

Still, the record does have a loose geographic fixation. Kidd tracked a pristine string quartet at Sonic Ranch, a palatial Texas studio on the border of the Rio Grande and Mexico that’s surrounded by pecan orchards. Among others, the 2300-acre complex has also been utilized for records by Beach House, Swans, and Explosions in the Sky. And Costero’s song titles — many of which are in Spanish, nodding to the influence of Kidd’s bilingual Houston, his Puerto Rican grandfather, and the influence on Kidd of myriad Latin American musicians — evoke in both word and feeling images of the Southwest.

“Brazos Fantasmas,” for instance, refers to the mighty Brazos River, an iconic body of water that slithers through east and west Texas and which has served a mythic function since early Spanish settlers coined it Rio de los Brazos de Dios, or "The River of the Arms of God." The final track, “Palo Valodor,” refers to an ancient ritual that takes place at Mexico’s Teotihuacan pyramids and other historic locations in Latin America. By chance, Kidd witnessed the Danza de los Voladores at the pyramids in 2016, and the twinkling flute sounds we hear at the end of Costero were sourced from that moment: A separate culture recalling a long gone civilization, yet mirroring a universal searching and celebration of the unknown.

Then, In Kidd’s native tongue, there’s “Hurricane” and “Lamellophone and the Gulf of Mexico,” evoking a retinue of coastal images and metaphors, as well as specific memories and methods of remembering in Kidd. As philosophical concerns, Costero, Slow Meadow, and Kidd’s litany of singles often wrestle with disillusion, with breaking from distorted ways of perceiving that which one might have once held most dear.

These ideas, and Kidd’s sense of literal and figurative place, were gorgeously rendered in Costero’s layout by the French illustrator Jan Garet. Kidd was inspired by the work Garrett did for the album Summerhouse by the Paris band Concorde, and, on Costero, Garrett masterfully distilled Kidd’s philosophical concerns in miniature, all fine black ink fizzling atop sand-hued blankets. The effect — permeating 10 separate images — further instills a clear-eyed yet tangled vision of youth, love, power, and beauty.

“What does it mean to remember one’s favorite coastlines, when my memory wants me to forget the chemical plants, the fluorescent lights, the stench?” Kidd wondered in a recent conversation. “Many of the beaches I grew up visiting are at the center of a gross, capitalist trade-off, so a song like ‘Ships Along the Harbor’ is about reckoning with your memory of a place and the reality of it. Maybe it’s not as beautiful as you recall. I’m not interested in conveying a literal activist stance through my work, but that's where my head was at.”

This tension between what we know and what we think we know — as scientific, philosophical, spiritual, and humanistic concerns — pervades conversation with Kidd. He’s just as primed to digress on the writer Alan Watts and the physicist Leonard Susskind as he is on musical influences, and Kidd says he found scientific lectures and travel more clarifying than anything else while making Costero.

Kidd also shares that two trips to a friend’s home outside Birmingham, Alabama, also brought Costero into focus. The first was incidental: During the spring of 2016, while navigating northeast on a short tour to New York, he spent the evening toying with an upright piano that lay largely unplayed in a corner of the remote Southern home. Costero was an unnamed, distant fixture at that point, but the solitary experience — removed from the pressure of tracking on deadline at a studio with the pedigree of Sonic Ranch — stuck with Kidd. So much so that he returned there with two of his favorite Coles microphones later to capture the piano movements that would accompany the strings he’d captured in Texas.

“By nature, I'm a solitary person,” Kidd says. “Before Birmingham, I hadn't given myself enough of that writing space. The upright felt so intimate., and it has such gorgeous voice. Playing it put me in the right space to think about Costero.”

These 10 songs — wordless, sighing, hopeful — will inevitably create their own meaning for listeners, outside that which stuck with Kidd over the past two years. They’re meditations on the smear of inner feeling, the magnificent and tortured ways in which our bodies and minds interact in a dance that’s both heartbreakingly limited and wondrously limitless. They are earthy, noiseless, focused gestures for a world that’s suffocating from the lack of them.

Slow Meadow’s Costero was produced, arranged, and mixed by Matt Kidd, with additional production help from Hammock. Maxine Kuo and Joanna Becker played violin; Yvonne Smith played viola; and Aimee Norris played cello. (Cello on “Palo Volador” was performed by Katie Ferrell.) Jay Snider contributed drums to “Cielo Rojo.” Costero was mastered by James Plotkin. The record will be released on vinyl and digitally, with one additional song, on November 17.

official site
facebook
twitter
instagram
bandcamp
buy

The Inquisition: 092.To Destroy A City

1. How did you come up with the name of the band?

It came from a chapter title of a WWII book we were using as inspiration for the first record.

2. Do you have a standard procedure of creating a song? Do you just jam around or is there a main riff and the track is build up on it?

We’ll get together, crack some beers, throw on a weird movie, and play with different melodies and rhythms, jam them out a bit. We loop a lot of parts, record the sessions, and then comp down the good bits and give it a framework. Then we just refine the tracks over time to tell the story we wanna tell.

3. How did you decide to add vocals to your new album?

It’s actually something we has explored a little during the writing for SUNLESS but ultimately didn’t fit. Vocals worked better with the material this time around. There were some songs that were written with vocals in mind from the start, and others were we added them later in the process where we thought they might add some new dimension to the track. Vocals to us are just another element, another instrument, another layer.

4. What is "Go Mirage" about?

Michael: Andy came up with the idea as a song title. When I heard it, it really intrigued me, and I suggested it for the album title. “Go Mirage” is the idea that you’re telling something/someone, that you know isn’t there, to leave. We all have events in our lives that we wish didn’t happen. Or we look back to a time where our life was perhaps a bit more at peace, but know we can’t have that time back or undo what has been done. It’s only human to be taunted by those mirages… those memories. “Go Mirage” is taking a stand and telling them to leave.

Andrew: Memories are a Mirage. “Go Mirage” is getting stuck in that moment where memory and reality cross, and the inability to discern what is real and what is not. Thematically, it’s kind of a harsh, broken reality vs. dream concept with a dose of nostalgia.

5. What are your influences and what kind of music do you hear when you are at home?

Michael: My influences come from a lot of places—past experiences, the seasons, work, stress, really any emotion. The music I usually listen to at home is ambient and shoegaze. Lately it has been She Past Away, Kyle Bobby Dunn, and Stars Of The Lid.

Jeff: For me it’s books, films, art, winter, the universe, a lot of times it’s nothing in particular. We usually have a film playing as we write, which can influence the direction the writing takes. As far as listening at home, lately I’ve been into Ben Frost, Sinoia Caves, The Abbasi Brothers, and Esmerine.

Andrew: Memories and dreams. Film and art. Music I’ve been into recently would include The Radio Dept., LORN, Black Marble, Teargas and Plateglass. We also curated a Spotify playlist with some of what we were listening to during creation of Go Mirage. You can check that out here: https://open.spotify.com/user/_n5md_/playlist/5p2PvJyUfU8GT7AvdEQE5k

6. Which is the one album you can’t live without?

Michael: Slowdive - Just For A Day

Jeff: The Dead Texan - S/T

Andrew: Boards of Canada - The Campfire Headphase

7. What’s the first record you’ve ever bought?

Michael: Green Day - Dookie

Jeff: Green Day here, too.

Andrew: AC/DC - Blow Up Your Video. Gotta love that cover.

8. Name a band that you would like to share the stage or tour with?

Slowdive or Boards Of Canada. We’d also love to get a tour together with God Is An Astronaut.

9. Did the Internet and especially the blogs help to spread your music around the world? Name a place (country) that you were surprised to know your music has reached?

The Internet definitely helped us get there. After we finished up the first record we upped it to bandcamp and emailed a number of blogs concerning its release. From there, and through some word-of-mouth, we made contact with n5MD. I don’t know if we’re surprised by any country in particular that’s into us, but I guess we have a decent presence in Russia and in Taiwan, which is pretty cool.

10. Do you support the idea of bandcamp where fans can decide the price, or services like Spotify?

We definitely support Bandcamp. It’s a great platform for letting the artists decide on how to value their music. For the self-titled, we initially used the name-your-price model because we were just getting out there. Then, when n5MD came into the picture, we pressed CDs and vinyl. So there are costs there for those releases and we/n5 can set the price accordingly. It’s a very flexible platform and the money goes to the artist. Spotify is pretty much the opposite. We’re not fans of the ad-driven, freemium type model that makes up the majority of its users. You don’t want people listening to your track, getting in the zone, and then immediately getting blasted by a Home Depot commercial or some shit. It, and similar services like Pandora, are cool from a “radio” standpoint where we’re gaining exposure via similar artists, but there is no compensation. I guess that’s the trade-off? Exposure vs. compensation. At the end of the day we work hard to make a quality product that we believe in. The physical component is an important element to the experience.

11. Where to you see yourselves in 5 years?

Hopefully doing what we’re doing now just with a couple more albums under our belts. It’s exciting to see how the writing and the sound evolves over time. We’ll have a new studio up within the next few months and we’re interested in how the new environment will influence us. Hopefully, we’ll get to play some shows in the spring of 2018.

12. Is the artwork of an album important nowadays in the digital era?

Artwork has been and always will be important. It’s a visualization of what you’re hearing, and gives the artist an opportunity to color how you experience the album. The focus has shifted a lot as digital delivery has taken over though.

13. What is your favourite album cover?

Michael: Cocteau Twins - Treasure

Jeff: Tame Impala - “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” single, or really anything Leif Podhajsky has done.

Andrew: Ministry - Filth Pig

14. It seems that a lot of people are turning to vinyl again. Why do you think that is and which is your preferable media format?

With a physical release in general, you get more of a sensory experience. You don’t just hear the music. An album is an object you can see and hold in your hand. Some people get more out of that experience, especially when the album is something that has made a large impact on their life. Some people don’t. For those that do, I think a lot of them are finding that vinyl specifically is preferable to CD in some ways. You get a larger format, bigger artwork, and being analog brings a certain life and color to the record. There are way more options now as far as colors and vinyl design, which adds a new element too.

15. What’s the most vivid story or moment as a band?

Finalizing the mixing process of the first album was pretty powerful. Especially as we were finishing up Goodbye, Dear Friend, everything just sort of clicked. We all had a lot of going on in our lives at that point and we needed that. Opening for Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra in Chicago was awesome too. It was a great shot at one of our favorite venues, surrounded by a lot of our favorite people.

More info:
facebook
twitter
bandcamp
soundcloud
shop

Recommendation: To Destroy A City - Go Mirage

Band: To Destroy A City
Album: Go Mirage
Label: n5md
Year: 2017








Tracklist
01. Final Kiss
02. Never To Return
03. Beholder
04. Glance
05. Wavelength
06. She Knows
07. Go Mirage
08. Don't Be Afraid
09. Vanishing Point
Streaming / Buy

"Go Mirage" is the 3rd full-length album from Chicago cinematic-rock trio To Destroy A City. This follow-up to 2014's post-rock paragon "Sunless" has an added immediacy due to the soaring nature of guitarist Michael Marshall's step toward the mic. Yes... There are vocals! Post-rock for the most part, has mainly utilized vocals as a texture or afterthought. Yet, To Destroy A City have adeptly included vocals into their cinematic tapestries with ease, and in the process added another layer of melody, modesty, and a surprising sense of hope to their already affecting guitar-driven compositions. There is an air of instant gratification with "Go Mirage". It seems to push you forward to the next horizon, much as its title might suggest. Idealists might bark that To Destroy A City can't continue to fly the post-rock flag with such a vocalic album. The enlightened will find that the addition of vocals places the band as contemporaries to artists such as Caspian, Mogwai, and Album Leaf which have effectively used vocals as key components in their music.

facebook
twitter
bandcamp
soundcloud
buy

Album: Barren Plains - Adrift

Band: Barren Plains
Album: Adrift
Label: Self Released
Year: 2017








Tracklist
01. I
02. II
03. III
04. IV
Download

Barren Plains is an instrumental post-metal band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

facebook
bandcamp

Recommendation: This Patch Of Sky - These Small Spaces

Band: This Patch Of Sky
Album: These Small Spaces
Label: Equal Vision Records, Dunk Records, Science Of Silence Records
Year: 2017







Tracklist
01. Hiraeth
02. Coordinates (44°06'12"N 121°46'09"W)
03. Pale Lights
04. Paper Mountains
05. Her Beating Wings
06. Under Vermilion Cliffs
07. Bella Muerte
08. What Once Was Lost
09. Pale Lights (This Will Destroy You Remix)
Streaming / Buy 

This Patch Of Sky is an experimental post-rock band from Oregon, USA.

official site
facebook
twitter
bandcamp
buy Equal Vision Records | Dunk Records | Science Of Silence

Recommendation: Zaius - Of Adoration

Band: Zaius
Album: Of Adoration
Label: Prosthetic Records
Year: 2017








Tracklist
01. Phaneron
02. Echelon
03. Reformer
04. Sheepdog
05. Magnolia
06. Seirenes
07. Anicca
08. Colin
Streaming / Buy

On Of Adoration, Zaius offer a glimpse into a musical world turned upside down. Featuring an array of sweeping landscapes, rhythmic thought patterns, and complex concepts ringing out with stunning, crystal clear beauty - this isn’t your average instrumental record. Of Adoration is a 40-minute journey traversing genre while defying conventional time signatures. The instrumentation is thoughtful, challenging and without pause. 

Zaius’ Of Adoration is a record that will appeal to fans of Between The Buried and Me, Pelican, and If These Trees Could Talk.

facebook
bandcamp
buy EU | US

Recommendation: Mountaineer - Sirens & Slumber

Band: Mountaineer
Album: Sirens & Slumber
Label: Lifeforce Records
Year: 2017








Tracklist
01. Foam
02. Coma Fever
03. Measured Breaths
04. Womb
05. Pull The Blinds
06. Siren Song
07. Fog And Distant Light
08. Adrift
09. Goodnight
Streaming / Buy

Mountaineer was formed in late 2015 by guitarist Clayton Bartholomew (ex-Secrets Of The Sky, ex-Lycus), vocalist Miguel Meza (ex-Ashes Of American Flags) as well as guitarist Mike McClatchey, drummer Sean McCullough, and bassist David Small (all currently of Lament Cityscape) in Oakland. Mountaineer discovering and testing the wide space in between post-rock, shoegaze sludgegaze or post-metal.

facebook
bandcamp
buy