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Our Newsletter Freebie + Giveaway Winner!

Our Newsletter Freebie + Giveaway Winner!

Hello my sweet friends! Today I am announcing the winner of our super giveaway! We are so excited to announce that…

Hellen T

Is our winner! Helen please email me with your address and we will get this in the mail to you!

This past Saturday, I released this fun newsletter freebie! A super easy and fun image to color with Copics or Watercolors. If you haven’t signed up for our newsletter, please…

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[rcrdroulette]

Gas - Gas 0095

7/10 | Electronica | 1995 | Approx. 69 minutes

Ambient music doesn't offer much space for implying an atmosphere, yet it's a vital part of the genre. That's one of the biggest challenges; if you don't take advantage of every opportunity, you end up producing ambient that lacks a space. With no vision being evoked, there's not much left to really influence the listener.

Gas is space ambient. It doesn't feel like a foggy field or an airport. It's almost too active to call ambient; the electronic patterns come up quite high, especially compared to the drones below. Still, it's that atmosphere which dominates. Tones are aggressively synthesized, and fade out in a somehow unnatural way. Only the vocals on "Earthshake" feel terrestrial.

All that said, I wouldn't pick this album if you were going just for ambient. There are hints of dance throughout Gas 0095, and tracks like "Earthshake" can be dominated by them. If you just want something interesting in the background, this probably isn't great; it's too interested in being in the foreground.

Still, that means it avoids many ambient issues. It's not devoid of any sense of location or imagery, and it's not so thin as to be disinteresting. But it can also be a little too heavy. Best, then, to keep it quiet and on shuffle. Let the beats and synths surprise you from time to time.

FFO: Plastickman, Mike Oldfield

[rcrdroulette]

Manray - Manray

6/10 | Rock | 2014 | Approx. 29 minutes

Once a style of music has become popular, it's almost never going to go completely away. It'll go out of fashion, absolutely, but there are still people making swing music and other century-old styles. They usually evolve, but even then, those original elements need to stick around in some fashion.

Manray, then, keeps with the earliest of styles to be considered rock and roll. Many of the songs (like "Atomizer" and "You Don't Worry") have the same structure as early Beatles songs. These could be covers of lost Kingsmen tracks with no real layout changes necessary.

But I wouldn't consider Manray to be all that retro. They're the personification of that scene in Back to the Future. The 50s would not have been ready for the heavy solos and screaming vocals that Manray likes to throw in from time to time. They have retro roots, but there's definitely a modern character.

The only complaint is that they sound very retro, quality-wise. It's to the point where I've heard actual 50s recordings that sounded cleaner. If you need your fidelity, you'll be disappointed. But if you're able to look past that, this is an interesting, short, retro-tinged rock-and-roll album.

FFO: The Stooges, New York Dolls

[rcrdroulette]

Friends of Friends - Adventuring

5/10 | Math Rock | 2014 | Approx. 33 minutes

It's been a little while since I've featured my personal "pet genre", math rock, on this blog. That's partly because it's a more niche genre and I don't want to give it too much coverage. And, in all honesty, a lot of math rock is a little too out there to try and recommend to the average listener.

Adventuring, in a certain irony, isn't that far out there for math rock. It does hit the usual points of oddity, full of dissonant guitar riffs and complex drum beats. It's not an unending barrage of harsh and strange sounds, though, which results in a good bit of give-and-take balance. Contrast the relatively calm "Storyteller" with the crescendo style of "New Orleans".

Strangely, though, all of these individually-solid elements don't manage to come together often. It's a challenge of the genre, to be dissonant and arrhythmic without merely feeling like there are several songs being played at once. Although some tracks, like "Referential Thinking", avoid the issue, there are a few too many tracks that don't quite gel.

It's part of why I haven't tried to get a math rock group together. It's a very difficult genre to play, and even harder to play well. Adventuring makes it sound like Friends of Friends could play it well someday, but it's going to take a little more. Still, lots of indie cred on offer here.

FFO: American Football, Owls

[rcrdroulette]

Strange Mangers - A Rare Time

5/10 | Alternative | 2012 | Approx. 29 minutes

When "Treffpunkt" kicks in, it's a misleading start. The track could just as easily be labeled post-rock, given its a heavy focus on atmospheric and droning instrumentation. But that falls apart by "Handmaids", which takes a sound more like a deeply fuzzy emo band.

For its short length, A Rare Time does seem to fit in a bit more diversity than you might expect. Different songs take different approaches to its consistent wall-of-sound element; one moment it's shoegaze, the next it's post-rock, the next it's something you wouldn't really associate with fuzzy rock in the first place.

The issue is that the wall isn't the best construction. It works as a wall, but it's not quite balanced; interesting guitar lines get buried, or brought out too far, or tinted with cymbal hiss. They're little production things, but in a style that rewards texture, it's a fair bit of a drawback.

The production issues are a shame, really. If things were more balanced, and crisper where they actually ought to be, this could've been substantially better to listen to. Instead it's a bit muddy and disappointing. Still, it's worth a listen, if only to see if it bothers you enough.

FFO: My Bloody Valentine, Everyone Everywhere

[rcrdroulette]

Pile - Magic Isn't Real

6/10 | Rock | 2010 | Approx. 33 minutes

The album art is actually a tad deceiving on this one. Normally, a surrealist collage would imply something experimental or abstract, like Animal Collective or Giraffes? Giraffes!. Granted, it's not the most surreal of collages. It's not extreme. But, it's enough that the description seems appropriate.

Instead, Magic Isn't Real is a lot more straightforward. Primarily, it's an album of bass-and-riff-heavy, macho rock songs, with the occasional bleed into punk or metal on a few songs. "Came as a Glow" is a good demonstration of the style, presented largely unmodified. You've almost certainly heard it before, but probably not so much that you're sick of it.

But if you look at their Bandcamp, you might notice that "post-hardcore" label. It's one they do earn periodically, with sudden fits of shouting that break over the line into full-on harsh vocals. Some tracks like "Levee" vacation into the territory, while others like "Number One Hit Single" seem to reside there permanently. It certainly seems like all the tracks have at least visited.

I wouldn't pick out Magic Isn't Real if you're looking for that post-hardcore sound. It's there, but it's not really prominent. It's more of the band's particular character, the way they differentiate themselves from similar groups. It's not my favorite way to do so, but it's far from the worst option they could've taken. It does work.

FFO: Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss

[printablequirks]

Download these Printable kitchen labels freebie! These labels measure 2.5 X 2.5″ each. Simply print this file on a 8.5 X 11″ sticker paper or card stock, cut them out and stick them onto your kitchen jars!