From Västerås, Sweden, I Used To Be A Sparrow are back with their second full-length album and they gonna take you in their clear-obscure dream world made up of indie rock shreddings, shoegazer flavoured epic and bitter-sweet escapades and dream-pop hooks. Scandinavian quality, hypnotic and melodious, simple and smart, soulful, but simultaneously efficient.
The duo of Dick Pettersson and Andrea Caccese find their own path drawing inspiration from quite different bands such as Explosions in The Sky, Minus The Bear, Mew, Pedro The Lion, Last Days of April, Kent, Coldplay, Radiohead, The Ataris, The Beatles, Angels and Airwaves, Thrice, Anberlin, Tom Waits, Fleetwood Mac, Foo Fifghters, The Chariot, Kent; Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, Built to Spill, This will destroy you; …And you will know us by the trail of death, Japandroids, Minor Threat, The Replacements, Slipknot, And you will know us by the trail of death, Lucero, Ramones, Bon Iver, Tallhart, The Gaslight Anthem, etc. Read more I Used To Be A Sparrow – You Are An Empty Artist (2013)
Shoegaze
Consciousness Removal Project – Tacit (2013)
Consciousness Removal Project it’s a one-man post-metal band from Tampere, Finland. Its only official member Antti Loponen is solely responsible not only for compositions, lyrics and arrangements but also for most instruments and the record production. Although, with the help of a live collective including Arttu Kimmel – guitar, Vesa Ahonen – bass and Artturi Mäkinen – drums, Consciousness Removal Project has also been able to perform live since 2008.
The music of Consciousness Removal Project has been published on the internet for free since 2004. The new album, released on 03 January 2013 and entitled “Tacit” it’s also available for free download (“name your price”) from their Bandcamp page (Click “Buy now” and enter $0 for free download), as well as a limited edition Digipack CD pressing hand numbered with binary digits. Support artists, we need them!!
And the music it’s gloomy, subtle and beautiful. Described perfectly by José at Terrorizer magazine: “It’s not the soundtrack for the eventual apocalypse itself, it’s the soundtrack for sitting on the porch on a quiet evening with a drink, thinking about it.” Read more Consciousness Removal Project – Tacit (2013)
Zero Absolu – Automn (2012)
Merging Aphex Twin with Sigur Ros, and opposite emotions as melancholy and fury, Zero Absolu it’s a modern, gloomy, atmospheric trip to the outer, unexplored territories of Post-Rock colored with smooth, waving electronic layers.
Created in French, in 2006, Zero absolu (Absolute zero) is a personal and solitary project by Nak.
“La fuite” (The escape), the debut EP was released in 2006, followed next year by the concept album “Du vide au néant…” (Emptiness to the void). “Dans les bras de Morphée” (In the arms of Morpheus) was released in January 2010, consist of 22 songs. Another EP, the 6 track “Eyjafjallajoküll” (Icelandic for “Island mountain glacier” – it’s the name of one of the smaller ice caps of Iceland) it’s released in February 2011.
Released on 12 January 2012, “Autømn” it’s the next journey into the turbulent, but vividly colorful, frozen, but still any moment ready to explode music of Nak, 13 steps further into this mysterious, but smoothly flavored universe of sounds, words, images and emotions. Read more Zero Absolu – Automn (2012)
Echancrure – Discours sur le colonialisme, EP (2012)
Aimé Fernand David Césaire (26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author and politician from Martinique, being “one of the founders of the négritude movement in Francophone literature”. In 1945, with the support of the French Communist Party, Césaire was elected mayor of Fort-de-France and deputy to the French National Assembly for Martinique. He was one of the principal drafters of the 1946 law on departmentalizing former colonies, a role for which independentist politicians have often criticized him.
Like many left intellectuals in France, Césaire looked in the 1930s and 1940s toward the Soviet Union as a source of human progress, virtue, and human rights, but Césaire later grew disillusioned with Communism. In 1956, after the Soviet Union’s suppression of the Hungarian revolution, Aimé Césaire announced his resignation from the PCF in a text entitled “Lettre à Maurice Thorez”. In 1958 he founded the Parti Progressiste Martiniquais.
His writings during this period reflect his passion for civic and social engagement. He wrote “Discours sur le colonialisme” (Discourse on Colonialism) in 1950, a denunciation of European colonial racism, decadence, and hypocrisy that was republished in the French review Présence Africaine in 1955.
This work inspired Antoine from Echancrure to build up this 20 minutes long musical incursion into modern capitalist decadence. Read more Echancrure – Discours sur le colonialisme, EP (2012)
Cosmonauts Day – Paths of The Restless (2011)
I closed my review about their debut live-demo EP saying that I’m looking forward to listen to their whole album and it seems this is one of the very few wishes that actually comes true.
Cosmonaut Day delivering a quite unique mixture of post-rock, stoner/sludge metal and space/progressive rock with some exotic aromas, original structures and harmonies and exciting rhythmic and grooves. “Name your price” means that you can download their album even for free from Bandcamp page, but I believe all these underground bands from all over the world who delivering quite exciting alternatives for the boring and predictable mainstream products deserves our full support and eventually every penny counts. Read more Cosmonauts Day – Paths of The Restless (2011)
Brazda Lui Novac – Dizzy (2011)
It took almost 13 years since Victor made up his mind and last year he released his first self-titled album, although, previously he released several EP-s and featured on several other compilations and releases. “Dizzy” follows surprisingly soon, and this time Victor further down deeper into the dark side of IDM, the new album explores a more cinematic and subtle area of electronic music, actually this is not even close some dancing music, but food for thoughts – and spirit.
“Dizzy” will be released on Raumklang Music, Thursday, on October 20th at The Silver Church Club in Bucharest, Romania starting at 21 PM, local time.
The big release party will featuring 3 live acts and DJ set including Luntaire, Dirk Geiger and Matze with a DJ set. At the location will be on sell not only the fresh album by BLN, but also the previous self-titled album – first physical release, previously available exclusively in digital format on various online music stores -, different merchandises, but Read more Brazda Lui Novac – Dizzy (2011)
The Horrors – Skying (2011)
When you’re bloody bored or just feels like you’ve got it all, you stair down to your shoes and spit off something “new”. So, what the heck is shoegaze?! Shoegazing (also known as shoegaze) is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. The name was coined in a review in Sounds of a concert by the newly-formed Moose in which singer Russell Yates read lyrics taped to the floor throughout the gig. The term was picked up by the NME and Melody Maker and they used it as a reference to the tendency of the bands’ guitarists to stare at their feet—or their effects pedals, seemingly deep in concentration, while playing. So, it’s not quite a subgenre, we’re just re-labeled something. Just like nobody’s emo anymore, everybody are metalcore, perhaps it sells better. I’m just scared to ask what the fuck is Nu gaze? 😆
Back in 2007 I kind of like “Strange House”, the debut album by The Horrors. It wasn’t about “shoegazing”, it was punk rock with horror and gothic rock shades and aromas, it was raw. I’m not gonna lie to you, I think I missed “Primary Colours” in 2009, or I just can not remember it in that mindless grinding of releases. I’m getting too old for this. Read more The Horrors – Skying (2011)
Aidan Baker – Lost In The Rat Maze (2011)
Aidan Baker is a Canadian musician and writer alternately based in Toronto & Berlin. He performs as a solo artist and with several groups: Nadja, Whisper Room and Arc. A classically trained multi-instrumentalist, his primary instrument is the electric guitar with which he creates music ranging from experimental/drone to ambient post-rock and contemporary classical. He has released numerous albums on labels from around the world & has authored several books of prose/poetry. Read more Aidan Baker – Lost In The Rat Maze (2011)
