Ten Thousand Leagues - Demo (2010)

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Yeah, despite Oscar asking me whether or not I have this band, I was actually completely unaware that I do. I have been contacted by Mark (guitar in "Ten Thousand Leagues" and a member of the "Kyeo Speaks" zine/distro) about posting this, but I kinda failed to reply since the e-mail came in the period of my sickness. Either way, here it is and I'm proud to have this release on my blog.

"Ten Thousand Leagues" is a quintet hailing from Southern California, more specifically Los Angeles. The band was born "prematurely" during spring 2010 and getting things in line by coming summer. So, we are dealing with an extremely young band, which makes this demo an even bigger wonder. To put it shortly, I was very impressed, basically I decided to put this up for reviewing after I heard the first track. My thoughts were that this will be some brutally raw demo, since the band doesn't even have a year under their belt, but this just blew my mind away.

The demo brings us five songs with nearly twelve minutes of tunes, making this quite a fast and speeding release. Describing what you hear on the demo is a bit of a hard task, since there is a vast number of elements flowing around. The base of it all, at least in my mind, is one very, very old screamo band which I love so damn much. "Fiction Like Non-Fiction". I don't know if this band was an influence to "Ten Thousand Leagues", but oh my, they sound like FLN-F on speed! Seriously now, if you know of the band then just imagine them being more aggressive and chaotic. Let me just be clear right now, this is by no means a bad thing, this demo struck me so furiously and instantly, it threw me back into my earlier screamo days and it really left me with a nostalgic sense in my mind.

Despite the fact that an influence source can be sensed heavily, this band took it and managed to twist it all into quite unique music. As I said, a lot is happening on this demo. Generally, the songs are fast-paced, but with various splashes of slower parts. The slower song sections are amazing in that the bass comes into the spotlight, unlike many bands which have a constant focus on the guitar or drums. Of course, sometimes the guitar takes the front row seat as well. Similarly, the already mentioned fast tempo parts also vary by song, sometimes being chaotically rending and other times having a slightly breakdownish tone. In contrast to the ever shifting melodies, the vocal performance is pretty much without variation, though I think of it as not a flaw, but a merit. It is a constant screaming vocal and it goes pretty well with both chaotic parts where it melds perfectly with the instruments, as well as with slower sections where it has a sort of distant feel and bearing the "gentle aggression" trait.

The only thing left to say in the end is just wow. I really didn't expect to come across a band of this caliber, since they blew me away and left me speechless.Trust me on this when I say that this is perfect. My sincere hope is that they will stick around for a while and grant us some more musical enjoyment. Visit and write to them at their site found here. Enjoy!

Gonzo discography

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I always find it rather sad when you get to hear a new band punching you with some great tunes, you get all excited about what the future brings for them and then after some time you hear that they pretty much broke up a while ago. Which is very much the case here. If you browse the blog a bit, you will find the Gonzo and Laatste Halte split posted somewhere in August. I was extremely excited about that split, since I didn't know the bands on it and both sounded excellent. Laatste Halte is pretty much still alive and kicking, but sadly fate was not so pleasant toward Gonzo.

If you didn't read the split writeup, then let's talk about details here. Gonzo was a four piece from Hoogeveen, Netherlands, playing some pretty rad hardcore during a three year period between 2007 and 2010. It has been a very blooming lifespan for the band, which you will witness once you download this discography. A total of fifteen songs with nearly thirty minutes of tunes are present here, divided into three "albums". I say "albums" since these songs are clearly not meant to be put together like this, rather they just made a chronological order with a I, II, III folder names (I presume so, at least).

As far as the very sound of Gonzo goes, check out the split writeup here for a detailed description. A rough comparison toward some other projects, one could say that Gonzo plays something between Zann and Shikari with a lot of June Paik influence on III. There is a lot of chaos going on in their songs and quite a bit of genre mixing, so it is best for you to just take a listen, rather then just read my words here first.

As I said at the beginning, I was very bummed up to hear that Gonzo broke up. It was a very unique and powerful project, I thought that they will definitely keep going and have a bright future ahead of them. It's a big loss, but luckily we are left with some amazing material behind them, so let's do it some good and enjoy it. I'd like to thank Kurtrip (or 412Wolfpack on cmhwak forums) for the download link, thanks a lot man!

Innards - Innards (2010)

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The gruesome fevers have finally come and gone, so it is time to celebrate with an awfully amazing skramz band. I have had this release for some time now, but never got around to listen to it. Yet once I did, I completely felt blown away and this definitely deserves posting.

Innards is a four-piece project hailing from Fort Worth, Texas sharing members with other bands, namely Zwounds and Jubilee/Nouveaux Riches. Just to inform you from the start, this is a one-breather, so sit tight, max the volume and kick it off, you are in for a damn interesting ride.

I really don't know from where to start describing this band, since I'm under so much impressions. Despite this being a thirteen minute release there is a lot going on here. Imagine that you gather something like fifty people with fairly similar music tastes and tell them to write some tunes. This is the closest you can get with the description, but top it off with an excellent realization. Ok, retarded writeup needs to be saved. What I meant was that while you listen to this you can hear a vast array of influences, but all with a unique twist. I think I heard pretty much everything here, from vocals which sometimes reminded me of Jeromes Dream (and pack singing which is very familiar, but it pisses me off because I can't remember from where), melodies that reminded me of 2049, chaos of Colors and rushing tunes with a Merchant Ships feel and everything in between. See what I mean?

But in defense of the band, these are just what I said they are, influences and Innards managed to sculpt all of this into a uniquely knit masterpiece. With so many ideas floating around, don't expect to find similar song structures between the songs on this album and I'm safe to say that this is definitely a virtue of the band. Slow and gentle sections are splashed with math-like chaos and followed by high-pitched melodies which sound like the ravings of a madman...with so much to work with, Innards managed to spread all the melodies into different places, so you absolutely can't expect what you are about to hear next. Due to this trait, it is really hard to find a favorite song among the six which are offered, since every song has that special something that attracts the listener. And since this is quite chaotic and head-spinning music, the most important thing is that the recordings are extremely clean and well done. So even in the most aggressive song parts you get to hear everything right and can recognize every instrument.

For a quartet, these guys definitely make a lot of noise. Hopefully this isn't just a one time thing and that they don't neglect Innards due to commitments to their other bands, since this is a very interesting project and it has a lot of potential. You can get in touch with them over myspace here. In the end I'd like to thank Andrew from Lizards Have Personalities for introducing me to this band, much appreciated man!

Enjoy!

Promotion day!

Due to the fact that I'm still kinda laying low because of bad health and fevers, the best thing I can throw at you are some promotions of my friends projects. I am kinda late with promoting one of these, but it is a young project, so hopefully this post can provide it some good in the future. Better late than never.

The Pine - The Pine by "That's Punk" blog

Both the band and the blog don't need any special introduction really. "The Pine" acquired a sort of legendary status over the years of their existence, as well as after their breakup. I haven't met or talked to a single person who had something bad to say about this band, guess that is a fact that speaks for itself. And they are definitely one of the favorite bands of your's truly.

As far as "That's Punk" goes, it has been around since February 2009 (as much as I know actually, maybe the blog was on a different hosting before), with regular and high quality posts and lots of interesting bands. So if you are a follower of thatspunk.net blog, you probably know that the whole October was "The Pine" month. At the moment it is safe to consider the said blog as a gold mine for this band, since the band is stretched thin over the internet and there aren't a lot of places where you can find their splits and compilations for instance.

So, the true reason that I am writing this is because of the last post on "That's Punk" on October 31st. Namely, Alexander (the dude running the blog and the whole site) went on and made fifty cd-rs of "The Pine - The Pine", white surfaced in hand-folded origami covers with four different color designs. The cds include five tracks which date from 1999 and three unreleased songs. And it is available for a tiny price of £4. This is really excellent for anyone who is new in this genre of music, but also if you are a collector (like myself). I got mine a few days ago and it looks great! Wanted to post pictures, but I don't have a camera with me at the moment, but you can go to youtube here and watch a clip on the making of the cd-rs. Also, if you are out of cash, there is a download included in the post as well, found here. Check out the blog and definitely cast your eye on October. http://thatspunk.net

Tigersuit Zine #1

Somewhere in mid September, my Lastfm friend sickheadache informed me that he was involved in a zine project with his friend and that it finally bore fruit. So here it is, the product of their work, a 56 page zine covering a lot of interesting material.Featured are a bunch of interviews with Lost In Bazaar, Analena, Anchor, Bright Sight as well as Patty Carlos with whom they discuss about the hardcore scene in New Zealand and last, but not least, an interview with Raul Vaneigem one of the revolutionaries of May '68. The zine is really charged with ideas of revolution, straight edge and vegan movements, it's not just about the music, but the passion and energy that drives it. Next to the interviews you can find a lot in those 56 pages, from a travel guide of the 2010 Fluff Fest to the presentation of the hardcore punk scene in Gothenburg.

One of the major drawbacks of the zine is that it is in the creator's native language, Bulgarian. This is quite understandable, since the two friends making this probably wanted just to cover their local scene. Needless to say this is an excellent project with amazing potential and if it gets a lot of positive feedback and criticism maybe they will start writting further releases in English. Sickheadache already asked me before to do some writing for the second issue, so hopefully that may be one of the tiny sparks for them to shift the language. Either way, if you know Bulgarian or don't mind translating it via the internet or whatever, grab this. You can get in touch and get more info through these e-mail addresses: sfti.diy @ gmail.com and tigersuitzine @ gmail.com

Ogni Giorno - Ogni Giorno EP (2010)

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A short writeup is going to be posted today, since I'm put down by some bad health. That and the fact that this band has been flowing through blogs these days, so some of you probably know about it already. I was asked by Amedeo from Ogni Giorno to post this here and I'm really proud to do so, since this is some pretty rad stuff. The funny thing is that me and Amedeo are "friends" on Last.fm for quite a lot of time and I had no idea that he was involved in such an amazing band.

Ogni Giorno are a quintet from Italy and that is pretty much all of the information I know about them. "Everyday" or "Daily" (as this band's name suggests when translated from Italian) brings us some very interesting screamo tunes inspired by their native, but legendary, bands such as La Quiete and Raein. The chaotic song parts really flung me back in the days when I first discovered these two bands with everything from rending guitars to pack screaming. Luckily, this band isn't all about being under influence from other projects, they add an extra something making this quite unique. The perfect example for this is the second song called "Martedi", a six minute wonder. After a long, gentle and distortion filled intro, ensue the said chaotic periods which are splashed with numerous cuts of slow tunes. These cut portions are either extremely gentle and almost like background music, but at times the slowing of the pace is present to further expand the melody and show the listener what is lying below all the chaos. I really liked the oasis feeling in the chaos, they show you quite well a sort of multi-layered song structure. "Monday", "Tuesday" and "Wednesday" (the translated song names) are really rich in such content and I was really impressed by the way they write songs, as well as with the translated meaning of the tracks. At the moment I am lazy to translate the whole songs, but I am definitely interested in what they are singing about. Lucky for me I have some family in Italy so they can translate without the use of Google translator, yar yar ;)

Aside of the song structure and way of writing, the realization is at a really top level. Production is great, but could be a bit better since at times I can't get a good reach on the bass for instance, so we will contribute that to equipment or something. With that little tidbit aside, everything is superb. The melodies are really driving and I was very attracted by the vocal performance. Whoever knows my taste in tunes, knows how much I have a soft spot for multiple vocals and this is really heaven for me. Pack screaming is almost constant and it very well contributes to the overall chaos.

Overall, the twelve minutes of music which are featured on this EP are insanely good and give you a hell of a ride. The songs are fast and charged with passion and emotion, they spin you so fast that it is time for a replay already. Ogni Giorno recently finished a tour over Europe and they were actually pretty close to me (in Croatia), so it really bums me out that I haven't had a chance to listen to them live. Hopefully they come here as well, a friend told me they were amazing live, it would be a pity not to see that! You can contact them on myspace here, so get in touch and give praise, this is a band for which I predict a bright future!

The Bridgeheads - Foreigners (2010)

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It seems the world has been hit by a screamo drought, or maybe it's just me, who knows. Needless to say, I once again cast my eye onto some different genres and remembered this fine release. I actually said that I will post this some time ago, so finally here it is.

"The Bridgeheads" were a trio based in London, originally hailing from Slovakia, playing tunes ranging somewhere between indie and post punk, though the band itself claimed that they would be best described as expressionism. It suits them right, since when you delve deep into this band as a whole, with both their music and lyrics, drawings and paintings, you can see that it is something very artistic and filled with a lot of emotion, being created in a way to hit every possible angle of your senses. There is no need for me to describe to you here what I mean by that, since all of the details you can find on their Last.Fm and Myspace page (ms found here), with quite an in-depth analysis of everything found in this release. The lack of the said description is definitely making this writeup shorter, but it would just come down to me rewriting the already written words on the above mentioned pages.

I really find the general tone of this band to be quite sorrow-filled, probably due to the way I got introduced to them. The user "alexander" from cmhwak forums suggested that people check out this band and that is how I got into it as well. Sad to say that his post about "The Bridgeheads" was bearing bad news concerning the singer/guitarist of the band, which I must say left quite a mark on my impression of the whole project. It is probably my weak spot, but whenever I listen to this band there always happens to be even the slightest second when I think about how sad it is when a young life just fades away and ends. But, as my wise girlfriend said, music is music and it was made before such a terrible thing happened, and it should really be in Tomas's glory that people listen to this music the way it was meant to reach your ears.

I won't talk about what you can hear on this release. I really want for all of you to download this and check out for yourself. The lack of descriptions doesn't mean I find the music bad or not worth the words and space on this blog. The music and everything associated with this project is perfect. Discover it on your own, I am just here to point the way toward "The Bridgeheads".

(aura) - Invisible Landscape (2010)

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Time for something fresh, new and overall unique (for both the blog and the world). I will try to keep this quite a short review, since this project is quite vast in both musical and conceptual terms and there would be now way for me to analyze it in just one post, so criticism and philosophy down to a minimum. As several times before, lack of words won't mean lack of quality, but quite the contrary.

Let's stay technical and begin with the standard approach. (aura) hails from Portugal, a solo music project of composer Andre Fernandes fusing a vast number of genres from ambient to classical, post rock and electronica, so it is free to say and classify this music as experimental. It would be very hard to describe the tunes present of "Invisible Landscape" since you can find anything dwelling inside. Overall the melodies are calm and gentle, though with a touch of several beats which remind me of industrial. The very tunes are almost picturesque and it is with a reason. The whole concept behind this project is focused on being an imaginary soundtrack for ten photographs done by Jose Ramos, a photographer from Portugal. The pictures are available at Last.Fm and listening to the music while looking at them everything is really circled into a whole.

To be honest, this 40 minute release wouldn't caught my attention generally, but it struck me in good timing. These last few weeks have been tiring for me because of my job (now jobS) and playing this really relaxes you and sets you into a specific mood. This definitely isn't everyday music (at least not for me), but when the time is right it really hits the spot. Excellent and interesting project, electronic music with a touch of nature which gives you an unexpected dose of emotion along the way. Very ambitious and completely worth your time.

Thanks to Shark Skirl for sending me the link. My Mediafire account is bugged today, I couldn't upload the album correctly.