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May The Sneaky Fourth be with you!

Posted on 25 December 2017

Bands which play with the musical format of the modern pop song are always the most interesting. We have been making music using the same instruments for the last 60 years and with the exception of developments in synths and sampling, little has changed in the basic tools we use to do so. But there have been options available going back much further in time, why shouldn’t instruments more associated with the classical and the orchestral be brought into the pop picture.

The Sneaky Fourth have already worked this out and they use the standard, finger-picked acoustic guitar as well as the less expected cello and double bass to build subtle and supple folk meets classical meets pop music. Without You is a brilliant textural blend of gently sweeping cello and pulsing organic bass lines under pinning guitar lines which move from dexterous picking to vibrant strumming. The result is a glorious new direction for pop, if indeed we can even limit it with such a label.

Justin and Alina – New Jersey Sibling’s Happy Out In The Cold

Posted on 6 December 2017

There is a certain power and symphonic majesty which a certain end of the heavy rock market revels in. The fact that those same soaring heights and sweeping grandeur can be captured by a duo working much more in a pop market is fascinating indeed. But where as those rock bands hit their crescendos through layers of power and ramped up guitars, Justin and Alina do so through a use of space and clever dynamic shifts.

There is something neo-classical in the chiming piano, something charming in the vocal restraint, something cinematic in the scope of the song but whereas those bombastic rock bands would deliver their goods in a blast of sonic overload, Alina reaches the same musical peak in a cleaner and more refreshing way. It is a song that you can imagine being the encore of the last night of a summer festival, the sun is starting to set and all eyes and ears are focused on this song. In music, just as life size isn’t everything but sometimes you stumble across music which is both big and clever, Out In The Cold is just such a song.

https://www.facebook.com/justinandalina

Another Strange Electro Score From The Indycas

Posted on 5 November 2017

Mollywhopp is a strange musical beast but then looking at the back catalogue of The Indycas, they are strange musical creators who seem to revel in and excel at making such mercurial music. Sitting somewhere between futuristic film score, ambient electro, otherworldly symphony and the sound of a computer learning to write music when know one is looking, it is indeed a beguiling experience.

There is a pent up energy running through the track, the feeling that any moment now something dramatic will happen to diffuse and resolve the whole thing as it relentlessly weaves strange alien sounds through classical sweeps and brooding cellos through boisterous beats. Non other than Alfred Hitchcock said that the difference between action and suspense is whether the bomb you saw under the table in act one goes off or not. Which one Mollywhoop turns out to be I will leave up to you the listener.

Colors In Mind Reach Music Peaks

Posted on 5 November 2017

If you draw a Venn diagram of exploratory music, where the intersection between technical metal, progressive and post-rock occurs you won’t find a whole lot of bands, but you will find Colors in Mind. With their latest release, Yugen Peaks they build their sound on a wonderfully fluid post-rock template, one that eschews the 4/4 signature and rigid verse-chorus ethic of traditional rock and instead wanders its own musical journey, often lingering in one lush musical landscape before flitting through more minimal territory, languishing in gentle, bucolic beauty and then climbing dramatic peaks.

It isn’t hard to see this approach as a modern day progressive classical music, the instruments may have been updated from the traditional format but the symphonic nature of the music is obvious to all. And l it tells its story as much through symphonic sound as it does the lyrics, it maybe be a less obvious, less direct method, but it is no less heart tugging, emotive and effective. It is music of the heart and soul, requiring total immersion. Whilst most music contains its own user manual amongst its beats and notes, one that tells the listener exactly how to interpret the message, this is more about osmosis, a vibe to be soaked up and ingested.

John Greska – Chiptune For The Chipper

Posted on 4 November 2017

Okay, so maybe Chiptune or 8-bit music isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but all of us videogame revellers would be lost without it, whilst we’re collecting rings or fighting the boss, we need the upbeat synthesised renditions to keep us on our A Game. But what if we were to cross genres and allow for chiptune to collide with indie. If you’re thinking that would sound insane; you’re totally right.

Illinois based music visionary John Greska is an indie composer for video games and film that was mad enough to allow this chaos to happen. The result? An inventive sound which can only be described as a collective of contagious chipper madness. John’s passion for classical and instrumental music shines through his tracks in a chaotically poignant way. 8-bit powered music is only growing in popularity, with an indie edge, it’s sure to go down a treat! There are now entire festivals dedicated to the genre of synthesised retro gaming music. It’s original intention to accompany you through your gaming experience has transcended into a surrealist musical experience to enjoy away from your console and enjoy it in a more social setting!

If you’re looking for music to take you on a mind warp of an experience, look no further than John Greska’s tracks!

 You can check out his tracks on his SoundCloud profile on the link below:

https://soundcloud.com/johngreska

Accidental Allies Create The Perfect Union With Adorable Fever


Posted on 30 October 2017

What you really think Accidental Allies are all about depends upon which thread you pick at first. Start one end and they are a synth-pop act doing a spot of avant gardening, start somewhere else and they are an acoustic act building electronic platforms underneath deft, classical guitar lines. Others might think of them more as a dance band heading off into more progressive territory, or a soul band having embraced a futuristic vision of what the genre might become.

The reality is that they are all of those things or none of them, they might be a wide-ranging eclectic mix or a very singular roadmap towards their own musical destination. Not that it really matters, it is only when you try to write things down, to turn music into words that you come up against the limitations of language. Until they invent the right words to properly describe what is going on here you will just have to access their world via your ears and imagination. It is a world of interesting musical choices, mercurial stylistic blends, genre hopping and genre splicing, why would you try to capture that in word form?

Brooksy’s New Track ‘Just Written’ Will Make You Wish You Were Smitten

Posted on 28 October 2017

Brooksy is a UK based acoustic singer song writer; orchestrating an innocent sound for all of the modern romantics out there. The artists flits between London and Manchester, he’s certainly got the classically dulcet Manchester twang to his voice. It’s a sound that’s been infectious since the 80’s, and acts like Brooksy prove that Manchester Music won’t be laid to rest quite yet with his angelic sound revival.

Following the same beat as Pulp’s iconic hit Year 2000, it’s instantly catchy as you embrace the infusion of the iconic Manchester sound. To say that Brooksy has a unique voice would be quite an understatement, his wonderfully raw voice has the ‘boy next door’ quality that is all too easy to become infatuated with. There’s no excessive polishing of the track, the finished product sounds like a humbly blissful love song that every girl craves to hear. His voice is wonderfully raw that most would find adorable, yet some may believe to be a little awkward. I’m glad that Brooksy didn’t churn out yet another hit for the masses to indulge, that’s what makes the experience of listening to his music that little bit more enjoyable.

As a Manchester girl myself, it’s hard not to be a little biased, however he harnesses everything that bands such as Oasis, Joy Division, and The Smiths have achieved. His acoustic sound, with a wonderfully light piano arrangement to uplifts the guitar in empyreal sound to create a colossally adorable track.

Ascending Dawn Release Stadium Rock Track “Cannonball”

Posted on 25 October 2017

With bands like Ascending Dawn it is easy to see the link between metal and classical music. Their music captures the same scope and grandeur, the same theatricality and dynamics that defined the biggest and most intricate end of symphonic composers such as Beethoven and Wagner. Sitting somewhere between progressive rock and technical metal, they paint widescreen musical pictures which wander between big rock sounds and more ambient interludes, between vibrant sonic oil paintings and more minimal water colour washes.

Metal often falls into very cliched camps, the growling, shouty bluster of the new breed and the classic and dated sound of the old-school, thankfully Ascending Dawn remind us that there is another way. It is one which matches power against deft musicality, structurally interesting meanderings with tight and exacting music skills, soaring vocals with soothing melodies. Maybe it is music born of contradictions, maybe it is just better thought out than most of its contemporaries, maybe they are just really good at their job. It doesn’t really matter which is true (I suspect all are true) as long as they keep doing it.

Matthew Kocienda Let Me Fall Is Packed Full Of More Than Emotive Imagery

Posted on 21 October 2017
Entropy's Parallel by Matthew Kocienda

Classical music can be truly underappreciated in modern times when we rehash the same pop hits endlessly. The mastery of orchestral tonal combinations played in various modes of musical keys dancing in and out of each other in playful mathematic formulas can be really dazzling when you consider all that goes into it. On the other hand, there’s another type of music that we regretfully lose track of in our daily radio hits; noise. Noise is just as important as perfect pitches. Long decaying cymbals and fuzzy guitar tracks are just as important as squeaky clean melodies and masterfully crafted rhythms. Where we forget about music’s creative right brain, Matthew Kocienda does more than remember. He brings it out to play.

To call this music lo-fi would be an oversimplification. The truth is, Let Me Fall is packed full of more than emotive, imagery laden vocal lines. It also layers noises in ways that pull you into the chaotic themes presented. The music, however, can just as abruptly spit you out into a completely different tone. You can go from losing your footing to riding the lightning in seconds flat. This noise rocks and the longer you let it take you, the more you’ll find those melodies and dissonant mathematics that classical composers could never embrace in a way that punched the audience in the face as hard. You’ll thank Kocienda for this bruise.

-Paul Weyer

White Night Release Slick Hazy Indie Track “Golden Heart”

Posted on 17 October 2017

When you have your roots in two of the coolest cities on the planet, namely Berlin and San Francisco, it follows that something musically interesting is on the cards, just by virtue of having soaked up a certain creative vibe which hangs in the air of such cities. Golden Heart is a wonderful mix of slick 80’s pop and a modern hazy indie sound which seems to channel those past musical glories.

It is built on a wave of beautiful understatement and elegant strings, funky beats and gorgeously ethereal vocals which seem often to be happy just to punctuate the music rather than dominate it. If music ever summed up the places it inhabits then White Night are the perfect example, the classical grandeur of the old world meeting the exploratory nature of the new, the tight, electro-pop of the German musical story meeting the looser spirit of the American west coast. But this isn’t music which in anyway sounds retro because of its influences, if anything it is more forward thinking than any of its contemporaries and that is the perfect evolution for pop music.