The The – Ensoulment (2024)

Is there anybody listening to the lyrics anymore?
Many people I know never do. They consider the vocals just another instrument and the song lyrics neglectable.
For me, the message is important. I learned English by listening to songs and translating the lyrics from the inlay of the records word by word using a dictionary. Especially in a world where “everything you thought you knew is wrong”, words become treasures. Or weapons.
True words were hard to find before 1989, left behind the Iron Curtain. Words meant freedom and carried the flavour of hope.
To our bitterness and disappointment, in 2024, true words only seem like a lost memory from an imaginary world or parallel reality. Yet, the scariest thing is “We can deny reality – but not its consequences”. Read more The The – Ensoulment (2024)

Jambinai – A Heritage (2016)

Jambinai - A Heritage (2016)

Jambinai - A Heritage (2016) Released on June 17, 2016, “A Heritage” is the second album by the South Korean band Jambinai, the first on Bella Union. It’s a cliche already to state that Jambinai it’s not a band, but a force of nature.
Formed in Seoul in 2009, the core members are Kim Bo-mi playing haegeum, Lee Il-woo playing electric guitar, piri, vocals and Sim Eun-yong playing geomungo. On stage they are enforced by Choi Jae-hyuk – drums, Ok Ji-hoon – bass guitar and Yu Byeong-koo – bass guitar. Not really a traditional rock band, actually nothing is really traditional about their music, not even the reimagination of the traditional Korean music which they all studying at Korea’s National University of Arts. Read more Jambinai – A Heritage (2016)

Meredith – Meredith III, EP (2015)

Meredith - Meredith III, EP (2015)

Meredith - Meredith III, EP (2015) Guitarist/singer Fred Lefranc and drummer Ben Delacroix are back with their third installment, a four track EP.
The previus EP, released last year “The Shape Of Things To Come” was an intense, modern mixture of alternative rock and metal with roots back to grunge and garage/noise rock. Now they sound more consolidated, mature if you prefer. The raw fury is there, but it got a polished make-up now which don’t mean they get any softer. The two guys managed to create a complex and intense music and surprisingly they filled up the spaces smartly, everything it’s nicely balanced. Rebels with cause – if you know what I mean.
I always liked about Meredith that they sound passionate and personal, they open up honestly and sometimes bring up unpleasant subjects like abuses or domestic violence with fair simplicity. Can’t fix issues if we refuse to step up and speak up. Read more Meredith – Meredith III, EP (2015)

L’Effondras – L’Effondras (2014)

L'Effondras - L'Effondras (2014)

L'Effondras - L'Effondras (2014) Post-rock it’s a vast and vague space and definition, fancy sometimes, abstract and elitist/exclusivist, but unfortunately mostly shallow, quite selfish and meaningless. Instrumental bands and albums scar me as David Bowie is afraid of Americans.
L’Effondras – actually ☉ – it’s a French instrumental trio and when I first watch a recording of one of their live performances posted on YouTube my first thought was early (Barrett era) Pink Floyd. So, it’s not really that “thing” called “djent” – or whatever – and – fortunately – it’s not that bored to death thing called quite elegantly shoegaze (or shoegazing). Although, there’s a little bit of both worlds in their music, but they manage to combine all those elements smartly and efficiently. Read more L’Effondras – L’Effondras (2014)

Trophy Scars – Holy Vacants (2014)

Trophy Scars – Holy Vacants (2014)

Trophy Scars – Holy Vacants (2014) Four years ago Trophy Scars and their fabulous “Darkness, Oh Hell” rocked my world. Literally. That hypnotic mixture of punk fueled post-hardcore, indie-psychedelic rock, jazz, blues and funk was fresh and powerful, totally addictive.
Meanwhile they lost a little bit their punk edge, but not their intensity and “Holy Vacants” it’s an excicting and charming, throughout enjoyable album. Actually they know how to get slowly under your skin and once you get “infected”, you can’t get rid of them anymore. Must mention this, they released an album entitled “Never Born, Never Dead” in 2011, but somehow I missed that.
“Holy Vacants” is Trophy Scars’ fourth album and was two years in the making. It was also intended as their last, not because of any cataclysmic upset in the band, but because the four – Jerry Jones (vocals), John Ferrara (guitarist), Andy Farrel (bass player), Brian Ferrara (drummer) and Gray Reinhard (keys, vocals) – felt that after eight years, it had run its course. Read more Trophy Scars – Holy Vacants (2014)

Random Being – World Without Memory (2014)

Random Being World Without Memory 2014

Random Being World Without Memory 2014 In a world of predictability, of products and fakes, art became a sub-product and a merchandise. It’s more important to lock-up on a large target and sell your stuff, then do something special. Tits are more important then talent and well, ass-kissing it’s more productive then any original idea. I only and always can quote Jello Biafra and his bitter-prophetic “Chickenshit Conformist” (“Ideas don’t matter it’s who you know. If the music’s gotten boring it’s because of the people who want everyone to sound the same…)
Pop music – a term that originally derives from an abbreviation of “popular” – it’s a generic genre which originated in its modern form in the 1950s, deriving from rock and roll. Rock and roll lost its sense, meaning and consistence, became a cliche while popularity last less then 15 minutes and with proper media support anybody can be a star nowadays where few people are still playing rock and roll (generically speaking) because they feel the need to play, very few people are doing music for the love of music or because they feel the need to express themselves, to communicate, to have fun doing it or – eventually -to find another path, to reveal a previously unexplored universe.
Random Being it’s an on-line creative collective and their collaboration bring to the surface a magical-mystery world of sounds and emotions, grooves and emulations. Self label it “avant-pop”, their universe it’s a melting pot of different genres and flavors, it’s a place of psychedelia, space and progressive rock, fever-burned rhythmics, contorted samplers and sound manipulations, jazz grooves and tango fueled passions. It might be post-pop as well – while post became the new (fashionable) porn. Think of David Bowie, P.I.L., Peter Gabriel and Pink Floyd jamming in the same room. Read more Random Being – World Without Memory (2014)

Lansare Theory of Mind Joi, 27 Februarie, in Control Club, Bucuresti

ToM_IFTS

ToM_IFTS Odată cu Soarele și cu vântul de primăvară, vine la București și o formație din Cluj-Napoca să ne mai dezmorțească. Theory of Mind îi are la bază pe frații Bosînceanu, Vladimir – voce și chitară, respectiv Andrei bas, lor li s-au alăturat chitaristul Alex Cos și bateristul Tudor Bilt.
Trupa cântă un amestec revigorant de post-rock psihedelic cu inflexiuni indie și dream pop. Este o muzică cu sunet modern, dar cu rădăcini solide în rock-ul clasic.
La un an de la debutul lor pe scena alternativă autohtonă, Theory of Mind au pregatit un nou material discografic. Este vorba de EP-ul intitulat “I Felt The Sun” ce va conține două compoziții originale plus o serie de remixuri la piesa ce da titlul materialului. Piesele originale semnate Vladimir Bosînceanu sunt: “I Felt The Sun”, ce se regasește și pe albumul de debut, și melodia “Summer Waves” – cea mai noua creație a formației. Read more Lansare Theory of Mind Joi, 27 Februarie, in Control Club, Bucuresti