Calf - A Constant Loss Departs from the Sentiment of the Abandoned (2011)

As promised, I am now back with writing release reviews, this one being the first one since May. Wow, that is a very long time indeed. Since then I got numerous physical review submissions, so at the moment I am trying to retrace the order I received them in and to post them in the respected manner.  Additionally, I have an inbox full of unanswered mails which I will begin to reply to as of now. My sincere apologies go to all the bands and labels that had to wait for so long, as you can see it wasn't a matter of the blog being dead or me being lazy, but much rather life has been turbulent and I had to do a lot of writing regarding things other than band reviews. Thank you all for the continued interest and patience, hopefully future content will be even more appealing for everyone.

Opening the band season will be a project bearing a rather pretty and simple name, "Calf". This quartet is nested in Athens, Greece, a place where they started making music in 2009. After taking some time with experimenting with sound and visiting various musical approaches, the band managed to release its debut musical outlet in the form of an album called "A Constant Loss Departs from the Sentiment of the Abandoned". Recorded in late 2011, their firstborn arrives bearing a truly vast array of sounds being weaved around a post rock backbone. Composed out of four lengthy tracks, accumulating to a grand forty minutes of music, the album goes through various different audio landscapes and moods, making you crave for another ride as soon as the first one finishes.
The most appealing feature of "Calf" is absolutely the diversity of sounds which they manage to present to the listener. Spending two years in incubation and taking the proper time to write a complex release definitely aided the band and they came out of the cocoon as a success. As you listen to this release, you are greeted with a score of variant tunes which range from being aggressively epic and fast to completely droning, depressive and melancholic. All presented atmospheres flow in an excellent manner, yet along the way they manage to morph into something completely unexpected.
The opening track is a superb example of what the band has to offer. "Dorian Grey Killed the Last Vestiges of his Consciousness", the first and shortest track of the album, begins with something that sounds like a phone call sample, quickly breaking into an epic, heavy post rock melody. As it carves a cold and somewhat desolate feeling in your head, the tune falls off into a trance-like state, slowly building up in intensity towards the end. "Ich Bebe", the second track in row, puts more of an accent on a brooding, slow melody which bears a more, dare I say, happy feeling at times. The band masterfully throws a lot of different elements into their songs and they come together in a perfect fashion. Either shapeshifting moods or changing tempos and types of song construction, "Calf" has numerous things to offer. It would definitely take me an insane amount of space to cover all their aspects through words, so listening to them is the only thing that can give proper homage to what they created.
The band uses audio samples at various points on the record, giving an overall eerie feeling to the entire release, this being a huge merit in my book. I really liked the fact that the record ends with a continuation of the sample which actually opened the album, giving a sort of cycling feeling to the entire project. Also, the overall quality of the sound is superbly clean and professional, which definitely gives you a chance to fully enjoy every piece of the "Calf" machinery.
Going a bit deeper into technical details of the release. The album comes in CD format, packed in a neatly designed stretch-out gatefold cardboard cover, released by "Noteale Records" which you can check out here. It was produced by Aris Christou, a rather known name in the Greek alternative rock scene due to his involvement with numerous projects such as "Bocomolech" and "Closer". Additionally, a short preview of the then yet to come album has been created, coming in the form of a one minute video which you can see here. The album itself can be downloaded here, courtesy of the band and the label.
Overall, this is a might fine release and I'm really happy that I got introduced to this band. A grand amount of potential is displayed on this album and I hope that the band sticks together for more future endeavors. I'd like to thank Chris from the band for his interest in the blog and for sending me their wonderful CD, along with a short letter containing a part of the guitar tabs for one of their songs! Hope you all enjoyed the review and that it inspired you enough to show "Calf" a lot of support, they surely deserve it.

Battle of Britain Memorial - The Aftermath Of Your Bright Beings (2011)

http://battleofbritainmemorial.bandcamp.com/

Just a quick note before the actual review, since I forgot to mention it in one of the previous posts. All you boys and girls from bands which have, in the past months, sent me a request for being posted here will be written about, even without the previously mentioned physical consent. I don't want to bother you people now with that and will carry the responsibility if some troubles occur. But, bands which in the meantime have already sent me something via mail, like this band and "The Canyon Observer", will go up front a bit, just not to make them wait. Worry not, no one will be neglected and I am really thankful to everyone interested in being on this blog.

"Battle of Britain Memorial" is a four piece act hailing from Toulouse, France. Initially a trio which came together in April 2009, the band expanded its ranks with one more member in the following October and it became their final setup. The band first appeared to the crowd in May 2010 and their recordings saw the light of day one year later, when in May 2011 they released "The Aftermath Of Your Bright Beings". And yes, once again French music manages to highly impress.
This album is truly a beast which succeeded to trample over me upon the very first listen, lashing out a combination of post rock, post metal and screamo. Packed up with six songs and almost forty minutes of music, the tracks are truly massive and composed in such a way that they completely consume your attention. The thing that really intrigued me at first was the fact that every band member has equal amounts of time under the spotlight and everything seems balanced. When I say this I don't just mean the ability of the listener to hear and enjoy every tone when the entire band plays together, but rather instances when a particular instrument steps up and becomes dominant. The perfect example is the opening track, "Welcome to Rapture", which begins with some eerie and atmospheric guitar playing. Later, when the song progresses a bit, one gets the feeling that the drums become the leading instrument, while at the end you get to hear the bass being alone and carrying the song toward the end. This exhibition of certain aspects of the band is present throughout the album and is perfectly executed, since it doesn't sound forced upon, but rather ultimately flowing. Of course, the same goes for the vocal performance which sometimes literally drags the tunes with a forceful command. Swinging between singing so gentle that it seems more like humming at times and a raspy, violent scream, the pinnacles of the verbal sections are quite powerful. I must admit that I really enjoyed the vocals, since the voice is somehow filled with a lot of tension and emotion, the listener having the feeling like it is about to crack any second. Additionally an interesting thing is the use of audio samples which definitely play an important role in this release, because at times they are pushed so much up front that it seems like they are the fifth member of the band.
"The Aftermath Of Your Bright Beings" is a concept album in its core and the flow of the idea is quite good. There is a certain trait of metamorphosis while you listen, since the overall feel of the album changes from aggressive at the beginning and leaning to a more gentle side toward the end. It is not an actual change of style, but much rather a mood swing. Thanks to this, a specific experimental aspect can be sensed in the music and "Battle of Britain Memorial" makes good use of it. Constant tempo changes, the already mentioned tone domination, shifts in mood and the application of samples really paved the way for a high dose of variation when it comes to song composition. Furthermore, this is all enveloped with some excellent production and sound quality thanks to Jérémie Mazan, guitarist of "Nephalokia".
In the end, what to say other than "check this band out". If you are into some music similar to "Rosetta", "Envy", "Time To Burn" and "Arroyo", but crafted in a style contributed solely to "Battle of Britain Memorial", you will not be disappointed. I'd like to thank Jérémy from "Blue Wave Production", the label/booking/promotion from France, for contacting me and for sending the lovely cd, which sadly suffered some damage thanks to a careless postman. You can get in touch with "BWP" via the label's myspace page here and also visit the band's official website found here, where you can download this release. Enjoy!

The Canyon Observer - Chapter I: The Current Of Her Ocean Brings Me To My Knees (2011)

Bandcamp

I took a few days to rest from writing, since all those gig reports really took it out of me. It is always strange how even the slightest breaking of the writing schedule can make me extremely lazy, so a couple of days turns into a week. Time to roll up the sleeves and dive into the keyboard.

"The Canyon Observer" is a quintet coming from Slovenia, bearing sounds ranging from post metal to sludge and a slight touch of post rock. There isn't much information about this five piece online aside of the rich gig list they have behind them, playing with bands like "Russian Circles", "Rosetta" and "City of Ships". The thing that enraged me was the fact that they actually had a show in Belgrade some time ago, but of course I didn't know about that, retarded "promoters" from this city striking again. Anyway, the first blog post the band made hails from February this year, so I presume that the formation of the project occurred some time prior to that. This release, however, came out in October and it is the first recorded material of the band.
"The Current Of Her Ocean Brings Me To My Knees" brings us four songs with roughly half an hour of music, so get ready for some long and epic tracks. At times when bands have those six plus minute songs, tracks often bear repetitive tones to fill the void and max the length, but the first thing that I noticed while listening to "The Canyon Observer" was the amount of various sounds implemented per title. Something new is constantly happening in a given song, be it a sudden melody shift, a vibrating gentle guitar section or just outright aggressive mayhem, most of the times without any riff or part being repeated.  Only the final track, "My Will", drags along an incredibly massive and reckless repeating sound, but it serves its purpose so well, creating a really heavy sludge atmosphere which the listener dares not to question.
The thing that I really enjoyed with this band is the clash of those violent and soothing parts. There is even a third element floating around, a sort of atmospheric trait which acts as a bridge between the above mentioned sections. It is extremely enjoyable how you are being bounced between the three moody areas, especially since you witness that audio evolution and buildup. The first track, "The Lingering Scent Of Her Divinity", is a perfect example of the harmony and shifting nature of the band's music and just a perfect intro into the album. The slow and mellow buildup at the start of the song takes its time to grow, with tribal-like drumming, a superb background bass line and some elegant guitar playing. But past the second minute, the music suddenly changes and crashes down onto you, with the addition of the vocal leading the collapse in the form of something between a scream and a growl. Once the short explosion of aggression ends, the atmospherics reach their peak, with even the vocal being transformed into a singing one. Until the end of the song you are being thrown between those various mood changes and that trait is omnipresent and persistent even with the rest of the tracks. If I were to quote some of their possible music inspiration, I'd say that there is some quite heavy "Isis" influence being heard in their tunes, which I consider to be an enormous plus, being able to recognize that. Of course, the cool thing is that they managed to carve their way and create something that is solemnly contributed to them alone.
All in all, I really enjoyed this first chapter of the story which "The Canyon Observer" wants to tell. There is quite a lot of potential being heard in their music and I definitely look forward to hearing something more from them. Hopefully they will come to Serbia again for a show and maybe even do a big tour over the rest of Europe, so keep your eyes open. You can get in touch with the band through their tumblr page found here. Be sure to check their page out since it has both the gig dates and some pretty sweet live footage. Enjoy!

Gig review: Went, Cannot

I'm kinda late with this gig review, but I was extremely looking forward to writing some words for it. To be honest, I didn't plan to write about it actually, but after the show the urge to manifest my feelings on paper (monitor?) was just overabundant.

So, the gig took place a few days ago, namely on Thursday 19th May at KC "Grad" (Cultural center "City"). One other reviewed show was held at this venue, "Analena"/"36 Daggers" (found here by the way), though I just realized that I didn't quite talk about the very gig place in that writeup. Not much to say actually, it is quite a small venue, but with great sound and a high number of happenings. This is probably my favorite gig place at the moment, simply because it has enough space for the crowd and most importantly the acoustics of the club are good, so literally any type of music can be performed here and not get flawed by the venue, which tends to happen in Belgrade occasionally.
Anyways, the gig was about to start 10 PM sharp and I was panicking and bitching constantly due to the fact that both of my friends and myself were running late, being sabotaged by the stupid public transport which all but died that night. By some cosmic force or something the show was running late, so we got there just in time. "Went" was the first to kick off and I must say that they are the reason why I'm doing this review. I already wrote about two of their shows (their solo gig found here and the amazing gig with "Radio Burroughs" and "Petethepiratesquid" here) and most of you who read this blog already know my feelings about them. But every time I see them live I simply get blown away and it comes as such a wonderful surprise that this is "just" a local band. They have absolutely beautiful sets which really manage to invoke various emotions in the crowd. One minute they calm you down with gentle acoustic sounds, but after that they just pick you up with a frantic and pounding tune, ranging from something post rockish to garage/indie. "Went" just keeps bouncing you all over the room and personally I enjoy every second of it. I was extremely happy that I got to hear "Out", since it definitely is my favorite song (and thus the bitching about being late, since I knew this would be the second song played). Saying that it is just favorite is a serious understatement, that song is really a masterpiece and it is enough to say that the song alone got over 80 plays in my charts on "Last.fm" in the past seven days. Overall, I was melting in the front row during their part of the show and I really hope that "Went" manages to go out and see the world a bit, since it would be a real shame for a band of this caliber to stay on the "local" level.
After a short break, "Cannot" got on stage. I already heard this band in the same venue actually, in November last year when they had a promotion of their album called "3:33". I have to come clean regarding this four piece, this generally isn't my cup of tea as far as listening at home is concerned. This review won't be bashing this band however, since "Cannot" is a force to be reckoned with when witnessed live. For some reason, my thoughts are that the recordings didn't manage to fully grasp some traits which make this band good, so I will focus my critique on their live performance. They play a combination of grunge and alternative rock with a neat female vocal which gives the band a certain something. There is a lot of chaos going on in their music with quite a lot of shifts in melody, but a constant heavy and technical sound. In contrast to the bashing tones coming from the instruments, the vocal gives a soothing layer to everything. Of course, the vocal also has vast variations in singing/screaming style, so it really manages to create a full circle of sound, with equal parts of gentleness and aggression. In any case, they pulled off a very entertaining show both the first time when I saw them playing and now. They are quite talented musicians and I would really like to see them blossom even further.
Since this last part of the review is definitely written in a retarded manner I highly recommend that you check out "Cannot" on their website here. The site is still under construction, but you can head there and download "3:33", since it is completely free.

Things I missed and a report

While I wait for the interview answers from Vestiges (so excited about that!), I thought I upload some recent stuff that I missed reviewing due to interviews and what not. Probably all of you have these releases already, but just in case I wanted to have them on the blog.

I just want to inform you all that the buttons are long gone, packaged and sent, now it's up to the post-office to do the rest. There will probably be more buttons made in the future, but we will see about that. Currently, I'm planing many things that I need to set up that diy workshop at my place, I really hope that it will bare fruit in time. I managed to find an online writing job and it's slowly starting to consume my time, but if nothing else some of the money will definitely go on that project. Have a bunch of stuff I need to review and post, but the job kinda kills the blog writing mood, so please be patient with all of those.

Before we move onto the download links, I just want to draw your attention onto a band that was hosted here a while ago. Jakuzi's Attempt is the band and they recently recorded a sequence shot video. Check it out here.

Alpinist - Lichtlærm (2010)

Downfall of Gaia - Epos (2010)

Envy - Recitation (2010) *

Sed Non Satiata - Self Titled (2010)

The Saddest Landscape - You Will Not Survive (2010)

My oh my, 2010 is a good year.

*Big thanks to Behemoth Skin blog for the link, I have shitty net for uploading stuff bigger than 100mb.

Vestiges - The Descent of Man (2010)

Download

Ok, this post has been provided by my extremely urgent and abnormal wish to share this masterpiece. I was introduced to this band yesterday by my friend, moments after the previous post was done, saying that I should take a listen to Vestiges "who sound very much like Fall of Efrafa". Needless to say, I have been entranced since yesterday with this band. Combined elements of crust, screamo, black metal, hardcore and postrock, this project is a behemoth just waiting to be unleashed in the form of a 40 minute monster crashing down and choking you. Heart-stopping, atmospheric tunes, backed by inspiring and breathtaking lyrics...just perfect. This here is what FoE should have evolved into after their first release.

This is complete nonsense that I have piled up and wrote, just random words due to the fact that they absolutely stunned me beyond words. I have asked them are they willing to do an interview, since writing a plain writeup is just not good enough for such a release. Despite waiting for their answer I just couldn't sit in place and not share this. I urge everyone, even those who don't like crust or black metal or postrock, I urge you to check this band out. The band itself offers this download from their site found here. Please, just take a listen.

Hidden by the Grapes & Lambda - Split 7'' (2010)

Download

I'm a bad, bad man. I have been contacted by Martin from Sooder Records ages ago about this split and although I was listening to it intensively I completely forgot about the duty to post it up here. Basically, I avoid posting non-screamo stuff on the blog, not because I don't like anything else, but because of the fact that I tend to write lesser quality reviews for such bands. I don't have so much "musical education" as far as other genres go (which I listen to less) and I hate giving good bands sucky reviews. Guess that makes me a bad critic then, so I'll try and correct myself in the future. Anyways, sorry to Martin and these bands for the wait.

So, what we have here is a nice two-way split made by bands hailing from Graz, Austria. The record opens with the song "Blowout" by Hidden by the Grapes, carrying a little bit of postrock/punk a little bit of indie sound. Imagine Interpol being sad on a rainy day, but playing a bit faster, something like that. This three piece creates great balance with different tunes, composing a song with equal amount of slow, depressive, atmospheric melodies with faster flowing tunes. Hidden by the Grapes definitely has quite an interesting style, setting you in some specific mood from the first moment you take a listen. The vocal exceptionally goes well with the instruments, since it melds well with the rest of the band, so the whole song just flows by you. I would definitely like to here something more from this project, they definitely have talent.

After four minutes dedicated to Hidden by the Grapes, follows Lambda and their song "Weiter Geht". The quartet greets us with sounds of drumsticks and very interesting guitar playing. I have to admit that the guitar was the center of my attention during the nearly four minute song, constantly shifting between various effects, almost acoustic here, distorted here a la "Queens of the stone age", indieish there. (go go retarded description) Like their split partners, Lambda plays a combination of indie, postrock and postpunk, though they are purely instrumental and a bit more intense and turbulent. Quite excellent fast pace music, with vast differences in melodies throughout the song, incorporating buildups, tone drops, start-stop playing and flowing melodies.

All in all, this is a really great split. Only two songs, but with eight minutes of excellent tunes. Due to the fact that the bands carry various elements within themselves (as far as genres and song structure go), sometimes you have a feeling of actually listening to more bands or more various songs. There is one important thing must be told near the end. This review and above download link is for the said 7'' release which has two songs by both bands and is limited to 300 hand-numbered vinyls, 150 colored ones. There is also a digital release by Sooder Records, which has two bonus tracks and you can find it here. Also, check out Hidden by the Grapes on myspace here and Lambda here as well as Sooder Records here.

Endless howling XV and a short report

I have been meaning to post some new stuff (which I promised I will post soon actually), but the fact is that I am so damn tired. The last few days were quite brOOtal for me, Friday was consumed with me helping out a friend with her master degree work, but yesterday was even worse. At noon I had a job interview, which luckily went good, so I got a new job. It pays shitty, but it seems it is not so hard and time consuming so we'll see. But the day didn't stop there, I had another job interview later that night, applied for some writing job over the internet and I had to write three articles...fuck, that was so brain melting. Needless to say, I pulled it off, only for the employer not to show up...

But enough talk, I'll just post some old stuff tonight, since I really can't push myself to write, yesterday killed me. Just for the record, this post seals the old link threads, so this is the final "endless howling" compilation, if we are to call it like that. The good thing is that it ends pretty well, me getting this job will help out the diy workshop project I mentioned in the previous report. These "compilations" didn't really contain a lot of old tunes that I love, but I will definitely be posting those older screamo projects, some time in the future. Hope you enjoyed the howling...

Watership Down - 7'' (1997)

Went - How Are You (2009)

While You Wait - A Life For A Life (2008)

Endless howling XIII and button update

Insanely proud to announce that the blog buttons are officially done! Took a while to get set up and all, but they are finally done and I'm happy the way they turned out, hopefully you will too. I took some pics, so check them out.

As it was announced, it's just a small number of buttons, 30 in total, two designs, fifteen each. The idea is to send them for free to anyone interested, basically I did this because I think it's a nice thing to have for a blog, quite unusual. So, whoever is interested, send me your address and which buttons you want on my mail and you'll get them for free. Some of you who have already said that they will order also stated that they want to pay for them in some way. I definitely don't want to price tag this, it's done as a thank you to all those who follow my blog, but if you do want to send something back, then I will make sure that it's used to further expand this idea of mine about a blog/label/distro/something:) Thanks in advance for the attention and interest, I'm overtly happy to take all of this onto a next level.

And at the end of this post, a few old links for you to enjoy. Quite nice stuff if I may say so.

The Sons Of Saturn - Pure (2004)

This Scares Me - 7'' (2004)

Throats - Throats (2010)

Time To Burn - Is.land (2009)

Tunes For Bears To Dance To - Asking in Askance (2004)

Endless howling X and a rant

Just a regular stash of old links bearing some sweet tunes, but I also wanted to use this post as a report of sort. Plus I'm out of things to post so I'm buying some time, hehe.

Ok, so first thing, kinda bad. I'm seeing a lot of my links being just taken away and put onto other blogs without being asked about it in the first place. I don't know, but it kinda pisses me off. Every link I post is uploaded by me, despite bad net connection and other possible web difficulties, and I generally frown when I post a link which is uploaded by someone else. Even when I do that sort of thing it's either because I was asked to do that or because my internet sucked so bad that I couldn't upload shit, both times followed by me at least saying thanks to the uploader. I'm not trying to give myself credit here or some random thing like that, it's just that these blogs are connected to music which is diy and running these blogs is itself a sort of diy thing. If you can't use half an hour (or more or less) a day to upload something or at least write "hey I took this from blog/person xyz, thanks" then you are either extremely inbred or you are a blogrunner who is doing this shit just so you can say that "you are a dewd from a kewl skramz blogzor" and not because you love what you do. This is not about prestige or glory, it's about passion, diy, friendship. If you can't put an ounce of effort into it then fuck you. At least do yourself some good and learn some ethics, you don't go and steal shit from someone.

...So... now that that is out of the system, the point of me saying this is that from now on, all future uploads on this blog will be password protected or I'll be inserting a notepad file into an upload, haven't decided yet. I know it sucks and it's boring shit, but try to understand why I'm doing that.

Onto some good news. Interviews were well received from people who commented and shared thoughts about them, so they will be a regular part of the blog. I'm thinking of possible bands who I'd like to interview, so stay tuned for more on that.

And also, quite a nice thing, I'll be doing a small number of buttons dedicated to the blog with the moth logo. Two sets will be done, one with black background and one with a white one. I wanted to do a new design, but I had no time, hopefully in the future. I'm really excited about that and I'll keep those who are interested regularly updated. Don't know how long they will take to make, but I'm guessing not too long, probably at the end of this month I will have the buttons ready.

One other cool tidbit, there is an amazing gig coming up here, featuring the amazing "Alpinist" from Germany as well as local support "Reflections of Internal Rain" and "Conviction". So be prepared for an event review.

Enough of writing, check out these tunes!

Reflections of Internal Rain - Demo (2005)

Reflections of Internal Rain - Last Flood (2009)

rha. - ep (2009)

Radio Burroughs - The Principles of Hope or Hybris (2009)

Reaching Away - 3 song "demo"

Rosa Parks - EP (2010)

Endless howling I

From time to time I will be adding posts which will contain several bands. Those are all the things I uploaded before, either for friends or another blog or whatever. I wanted to add all those links to one huge post, but I guess this will be a lot easier and better to navigate in. So let's get to it then...

36 Daggers - Kalpa Minutes (2004)

Analena - Carbon Based

Analena - Inconstantinopolis (2009)

Anna O - Anna O (1997)

Archives - Decline (2009)

Arroyo - Inviduum & Massen (2009)

Arroyo Seco - Cassette Tape