I actually miss this one last year, but thanks to Erik Nilsson, I had the pleasure to listen this Swedish duo’s full-length debut album now. A Swarm of the Sun was formed in 2007 in Stockholm by Erik Nilsson and Jakob Berglund and they released the EP “The King of Everything†in the same year on Erik’s independent record-label Version Studio. “Zenith” was released on August 30, 2010 and their influences including a number of different genres from post rock and indie rock to assorted electronics and film score like music. It’s a gloomy, but colorful blending, their music shifting from slow glowing textures and spacy dimensions to powerful rock explosions, it’s flowing and floating, warm and cold moments, elements are melting down or sometimes frozen into a strange, touching soundscape. Read more A Swarm Of The Sun – Zenith (2010)
Reviews
Thursday – No Devolucion (2011)
If someone still recalls the “genre” named AOR, then Thursday probably may be labeled as adult oriented hardcore. From emo they come a long way, but up to date, Thursday are a mature band, their music is dense, but still mysteriously airy, discrete pianos and nervous guitar riffs are nicely overlapping and shifting from mood to mood. “No Devolución” it’s like Sigur Rós plays some Fugazi songs. It’s strange, but beautiful, almost hypnotic.
Thursday was formed in 1997 and in the summer of 1999, teamed up with MP3.com for their first official release, the 1999 “Summer Tour” EP. Their debut album, “Waiting” was released on December 6, 1999 on Eyeball Records without any singles or support from television or radio. Hesitant to join a larger label, but with full support from Eyeball Records, Thursday signed to Victory Records and released their second album, “Full Collapse” in 2001. Victory Records filmed a music video for “Understanding in a Car Crash” consisting of live footage of the band and marketed the song as the band’s first single, without the band’s authorization. The video for this song received heavy airplay on both MTV2 and Muchmusic. The song gained the band a large underground following. Read more Thursday – No Devolucion (2011)
The Residents – Lonely Teenager (2011)
The Residents are for a quit long time around and since the end of the 60s they explore the experimental/avant-garde area of the music releasing over 40 albums, but also they explored the multimedia area. Pioneers in exploring the potential of CD-ROM and similar technologies, The Residents have won several awards for their multimedia projects, and Ralph Records, a record label focusing on avant-garde music, was started by them. Actually they are more an art collective than a classic band. The Residents – as they declare – are “four people who dabble in the arts, they make music, videos, perform, and generally have a pretty good time.” Well, “Lonely Teenager” is pretty dark, but still colorful, surprising and exciting material. Mostly navigating on some strangely colored space rock/psychedelic fields, “Lonely Teenager” is a trip into a dark labyrinth of conscience. Read more The Residents – Lonely Teenager (2011)
Rafael Toral – Space Elements Vol. III (2011)
Toral plays experimental electronic instruments like electrode oscillator, modified MS-2 pocket amplifier feedback, glove-controlled computer bass sinewaves, filtered feedback circuit, modified MT-10 portable amplifier, modulated noise, modular synthesizer and tamtam. Sometimes it sounds like R2D2 are talking to you. Strongly interested in phrasing, he calls his style “post-free jazz electronic musicâ€, described as “a brand of electronic music far more visceral and emotive than that of his cerebral peersâ€. His music actually it’s kind of abstract, but interesting, you never really know what to expect in the next moment. And some of these experiments are quit exciting. The music is not congested, it’s airy, Toral know to use the silence and he’s colored it with interesting noises and all sort of elements to create atmosphere without being overwhelming. Read more Rafael Toral – Space Elements Vol. III (2011)
Asking Alexandria – Reckless And Relentless (2011)
Expected to be released tomorrow, on April 5, 2011 through Sumerian Records the second studio album by English metalcore band Asking Alexandria consisting of 12 brand new songs, rocks hard. The so-called euro trance twists are still there, but they turn them into much heavier, industrial like sound, the band seems very determinate to kick big this time. They have actually a pretty busy agenda taking over the clubs one by one promoting their new album in US and from the end of the month they will return to UK and Europe and they will play constantly the whole summer spending their time on tour and hitting all the major festivals. “Reckless And Relentless” is an intense, powerful release and Asking Alexandria took a winning step further. Generally speaking, the second album of any artist/band is the most decisive one, the one that proof – or not – if the band previous success was deserved or only an accident of conjunctures. Read more Asking Alexandria – Reckless And Relentless (2011)
Den Brysomme Mannen aka The Bothersome Man (2006)
“A delightfully droll… black comedy”. Well, actually I didn’t laugh, but well, there was a few funny scenes. But still, it’s kind of creepy and weirdo. Hey! What the heck, I’m a weirdo too, a freak with some twisted tastes, so kind of like creepy movies! And this film won 20 awards and had 4 other nominations, so… Written by Per Schreiner and directed by Jens Lien, the story presents forty-year-old Andreas as arrives as the only passenger in a bus in a strange city where he is aspected and even welcomed. He’s got an apartment, clothes, a job, and he got even a girl-friend. But Andreas realize that something is wrong, everything seems some kind of fake. Makes an attempt to escape the city, but he discovers there’s no way out. He tried to harm him self, but that attempts also failed. Finally he met another person who seems to share his worries and who has found a crack in a wall in his cellar, a possible connection to “another world”. Read more Den Brysomme Mannen aka The Bothersome Man (2006)
Vessels – Helioscope (2011)
Vessels are a post-rock band from Leeds, UK, born from the ashes of the band A Day Left in September 2005. The band members are: Tom Evans – guitar, Tim Mitchell – drums, Martin Teff – guitar, bass, synth, Lee J. Malcolm – guitar, synth and Peter Wright – guitar, keys, bass.
The debut album “White Fields and Open Devices” was released through Cuckundoo Records in 2008 and a compilation called “A Cheery Wave From Stranded Youngsters: An Instrumental​​/​​Post​​-​​rock Compilation” is available on their Bandcamp page for download.
In May 2010 Vessels recorded their second album in Dallas, Texas, with John Congleton, known as a Grammy Nominated producer/engineer/mixer and through his own band, The Paper Chase. Read more Vessels – Helioscope (2011)
t.A.T.u. – Waste Management Remixes (2011)
Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova made some waves in 2002 not only with the song “Not Gonna Get Us”, but also with all the controversial discussions about that they are lesbians – or not. Later, in 2004, Katina then stated: “He (producer Ivan Shapovalov) made us out to BE lesbians when we were just singing FOR lesbians. We wanted people to understand them and not judge them. That they are as free as anyone else.” And Volkova stated: “He spends his time thinking up scandals instead of planning our artistic work. I’m sure our fans would rather hear new songs and new albums than new scandals.” The band’s name – t.A.T.u. – “Тату”, refers to a shortened version of the Russian “Та любит Ту (Ta lyubit Tu)”, meaning “She loves her” and it was the idea of the producer Ivan Shapovalov. The first single was completed in Autumn 2000, entitled “Ya Soshla S Uma” released in English as “All The Things She Said”. Their first album, “200 Po Vstrechnoy” was released on May 21, 2001 and the English version of the album was released one year later, entitled “200 km/h in the Wrong Lane”. In May 2003, t.A.T.u. represented Russia at Eurovision Song Contest 2003, where they placed third. In 2003, the act released the first compilation CD of remixes, titled “Remixes”. In early 2004, t.A.T.u. legally broke their contract with Ivan Shapovalov and soon after announce their split. Read more t.A.T.u. – Waste Management Remixes (2011)
Foo Fighters – Wasting Light (2011)
I never was excited by Dave Grohl after Nirvana’s band, Foo Fighters. It was too fluffy, too pop for my taste, too mainfuckingstream, too radio friendly and actually I have no taste for Dave’s funny approach and kind of parodies. If I wanna have fun listening music, I prefer Dennis Leary, The Bloodhound Gang or Richard Cheese. “The Pretender” directly pissing me off because I actually think that Dave is exactly that kind of pop star millionaire he make fun of it. Well, maybe I’m a wrong judge of characters, but he’s star and a millionaire for sure. Irony? Probably. On the other hand I’m convinced that Dave is also very talented. It may be a paradox, but that’s a fact. And Dave proved us this not once. He’s a great drummer, a great musician, a great songwriter. “All My Life” – the opening track of the 2002 album “One by One” – is a huge rock anthem. So, I didn’t really expected from Dave nothing this time, but “Wasting Light” actually it’s a great rock album. Read more Foo Fighters – Wasting Light (2011)
Between The Buried And Me – The Parallax Hypersleep Dialogues (2011)
Expected to be released on April 12, 2011, through the band’s new label, Metal Blade Records, “The Parallax Hypersleep Dialogues” consist of three brand new songs and the material is over 30 minutes, so this extended play will mainly satisfy all the band’s fans for the two years of waiting. It’s true, meanwhile Tommy Giles Rogers Jr.- the lead singer and founder – of the band released his brilliant second solo album “Pulse” earlier this year, in February, also through Metal Blade.
Thomas and his band mates – Dan Briggs – bass guitar, Blake Richardson – drums, percussion, Paul Waggoner – lead guitars and Dustie Waring – rhythm guitars – made the conscious decision to preclude a studio album with an extended play in addition to being part of a concept album series, so probably we will hear other new materials from them pretty soon. Read more Between The Buried And Me – The Parallax Hypersleep Dialogues (2011)
