Browsing Tag

Avant Garde

Claudia’s Graces drop haunting, brittle ‘Crystals’

Posted on 16 June 2021
Claudia's Graces

Claudia’s Graces is the solo experimental pop music project of Claudia Hinsdale, a 22 year-old singer, songwriter, and producer from Ohio. With a degree in Technology in Music and Related Arts from Ohio’s prestigious Oberlin Conservatory (ranked fifth in the world in Holloywood Reporter’s Top 25 Music Schools). That should give you an idea of the sort of quality we’re looking at here; our collective expectations were high, then, and we’re very pleased to report that ‘Crystals’ certainly doesn’t disappoint.

Light, shimmery, ephemeral, lying somewhere between folk and outright avant-garde, ‘Crystals’ is that rare beast; a track that’s hard to pigeon-hole or to draw easy comparisons for. Hinsdale’s free-form, stream of consciousness lyrics sit over layered, effected strings, keys, and unusual percussion, her vocal delivery sing-song and high register, almost choral at times, early music-like at others, folky and gentle yet with a definite commercial quality too. There’s vague allusions to Amanda Palmer, Tori Amos, or Emilie Autumn, but it’s much more than that – almost spoken word performance art set to a haunting, brittle backdrop, sparkling, glasslike, and…well, yes. Like crystals.

You can check out Claudia’s Graces here and on Instagram.

Review by Alex Holmes

Des Wallace taps into the melancholy of 2020 with ‘Weeping Roses’

Posted on 9 June 2021

Lyrically, artists have pretty much said all there is to say when it comes to lockdown musings, but instrumental singles such as Des Wallace’s track, Weeping Rose, from his 2021 EP, ‘A.D.’, poignantly captures emotions evoked during 2020 in his intimate composition.

With the sense of spirituality that flows along with his Avant-Garde progressions, Weeping Roses is as consoling as it is experimental. The minimalism within the production echoes the isolation that we collectively endured as the sharp and clean guitar notes reflect the apathy in the aimless steps that we took each day as we navigated our lives with almost clockwork autonomy. The sporadic blasts of glitchy electronica bring an all too relatable sense of chaos into the mix while never compromising the tender mellifluous feel of Weeping Roses. It is both a shot of catharsis and an extension of connection.

Weeping Roses is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Danny Ritz – Window: The Most Relatable Love Song You Will Ever Hear.

Posted on 2 June 2021

Alt indie artist Danny Ritz has followed on from his debut EP with his latest artfully lo-fi single, Window. If you’re irresistible to the charms of bedroom pop, you’ll quickly succumb to the enamouring tones of psych-pop, synthpop and art-rock.

While most lyricists do their best to maintain a pretence of sanity in their songs, Danny Ritz threw his sanity by the wayside to channel organically manic, relatable emotions into Window. Any fans of John Grant, Spector and the Lathums will want to experience it for themselves.

With the macabrely inventive lyrical lines such as ‘you left my heart circumcised’, you can’t help but engage with the single. The intrigue is all too intense as you listen to Window unfold through the playfully polyphonic, unapologetically authentic progressions.

Window is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Nightbird Casino has released their hotly-anticipated sweetly psychotropic earworm, ‘The Town’.

Posted on 23 April 2021

If you’ve found yourself wondering if you will ever hear an alternative track that holds any authenticity ever again, find yourselves pleasantly surprised with the sweetly psychotropic earworm, ‘The Town’, by art-rock Oakland-residing duo, Nightbird Casino.

With elements of artfully composed jazz, grunge, space rock, psych-pop and classical all melting in the alchemically intoxicating pot, you will practically feel the rabbit hole opening beneath you as you listen to the descending cadence of the jazzy improv instrumentals.

The existentialist air to The Town paired with the playfully avant-garde approach to production allows the track to become the ‘everything is burning down around me, and I’m totally fine’ meme, personified. And something tells me that if Bukowski was still around, he would have Nightbird Casino on his playlists; they share the same downtrodden but subversively charismatic appeal.

On this track, you’ll hear dual harmonic vocals from the founding members, James Moore and Don Shepherd. Instrumentally, you’ll hear session musician Nicolas Ocampo (clarinets, flute, saxophone, oboe, bassoon), James on bass and ondes martenot and Don on guitars, piano, organ, and drums.

With their sophomore album, ‘Rusian Carpet‘, due for release this summer, any fans of Radiohead, Sonic Youth or Mr Bungle will want Nightbird Casino on their radar.

The Town officially released on April 23rd; you can check it out for yourselves by heading over to Soundcloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lucas Kurmis – I Thought I Died: Alluringly Dark Avant-Garde

Posted on 29 December 2020
Lucas Kurmis

‘I Thought I Died’ is the forthcoming Avant-Garde Noise Folk Punk single from Plymouth-based artist Lucas Kurmis. It makes Sonic Youth sound tame.

It feels like somewhere along the way everyone forgot that art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable, everyone apart from Lucas Kurmis. I Thought I Died is confrontational, abrasive, and utterly transfixing. The snarled spoken word vocals float over sporadic drum pounding and cymbal smashing, pulling the mix together is a sparse smattering of reverby electronic effect which nicely completes the minimalistic yet monumentally resounding single.

You’ll have to wait a little longer before you can check out I Thought I Died for yourselves. In the meantime, head over to SoundCloud to delve into their earlier releases.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Britta Pejic has broken the monocultural mould with their rhythmically beguiling Alt Pop hit ‘Spring Roll Skin’

Posted on 23 November 2020

Britta Pejic has served up a smorgasbord of culture in her latest electronic Avant-Garde Latin Pop single ‘Spring Roll Skin’. With windingly psychedelic guitar notes adding beguile to the rhythmically arrestive instrumentals which create the perfect platform for Britta Pejic’s almost phantasmal vocals, the only thing which parallels the ingenuity is how deeply you will fall into the magnetically mellifluous release.

If you could imagine what it would sound like if Kate Bush strove for a more colourful and tribal sound, you’ll get a good idea of what you can expect when you hit play on Spring Roll Skin which was released on October 31st.

You can check out Spring Roll Skin for yourselves by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

8udDha bl0od immerses us in ‘Khaos’ with their latest release

Posted on 16 November 2020

8uddDha bl0od is an artist whose work always transcends genre or type, working instead to portray a sense of time, space, and location, through his music. This is music as out-and-out art, striving to directly convey emotion to the listener.

‘Khaos’ is 2’28” of repeating vaguely middle-eastern tinged motifs, pipes and chimes over a curiously at once both disturbing and yet soothing atonal background of droning strings. It is chaotic, certainly, yet at the same time, there’s an order and structure within the echoing pattern of reiterative notes, juxtaposed against the counterpoint of the disturbing, unsettled background soundscape. It’s, without doubt, a transportive piece, carrying the listener to an experience of a different place; in that, 8udDah bl0od has certainly succeeded.

Listen to ‘Khaos’ on Soundcloud.

Review by Alex Holmes

8udDha bl0od – Ophiuchus: Serafin: Transfixingly Avant-Garde Progressive Alt Rock

Posted on 28 July 2020
https://soundcloud.com/william-orpen/ophiuchus-serafin/s-oatUmsMFUld

Ophiuchus: Serafin is the latest single to be released from the immeasurably ingenious aural alchemist 8udDha bl0od. If any artist could be described as the modern-day equivalent to The Residents, it’s 8udDha bl0od

The Brighton-based artist may constantly switch up their sound with their new releases, but you can usually rely on a transfixing level of avant-garde accessible chaos. The accordantly rhythmic disarray in Ophiuchus: Serafin certainly didn’t disappoint.

Within Ophiuchus: Serafin, you’ll find nuances of Psych Rock, Surf Rock, No Wave and plenty more. The ten-minute extended track may make some dramatic tonal shifts and throw some discord your way, but each progression is as indulgent as the last.

If there’s an artist we’re grateful to have discovered this year, it’s 8udDha bl0od with their infinitely wild imagination when it comes to orchestrating soundscapes.

You can check out Ophiuchus: Serafin which was released on July 20th for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Myricim official video is the perfect introduction to the obscurely sleazy ingenuity of Multimedia artist Adam Plant

Posted on 22 July 2020

Any fans of the American Avant-Garde collective The Residents will undoubtedly appreciate Australian multimedia artist Adam Plant’s film for Hardy Slerg Wamon’s obscurely mesmeric single Myricim.

For the first time in what seems to be forever, I got to experience the consciousness consuming sensation of being transfixed by a music video. The lines between aural and visual ingenuity blurred as reality faded and artful escapism took hold.

It may have been a short and sweet experience, but it left me with the compulsion to delve into the rest of Adam Plant’s artful work. Thankfully, there’s a smorgasbord of sleazy art to be found on their official website.

You can check out the film Myricism for yourselves by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Cucurbitophobia has made a phantasmal return with their chillingly dark Avant-Garde release “Exordium”

Posted on 6 July 2020
https://cucurbitophobia.bandcamp.com/track/exordium

There was no forgetting Cucurbitophobia after being introduced to their 2019 single “Requiem”. How could we ever forget an Ambient Avant-Garde artist whose chosen title is also the name of pumpkin phobia?

After the release of their latest soundscape “Exordium”, we couldn’t resist delving into the Neo-Classically artful tones once more. The instrumental score sets up the most phantasmal Waltz-style piano score which has ever crept into your ears. With a significant lacing of ethereal effects, you’ll feel like you’ve just been dragged around a ballroom by a poltergeist. Given that that’s (probably) never happened to you in real life, you’ll have to hit play to know what I mean.

Exordium is the opening title from Cucurbitophobia’s release “Dies Ferialis (Awakening the Lemurs)”. It serves to set the tone for a dark tale of ancient evil spirits wreaking havoc in a modern world to be told. Rather efficaciously may I add. Bring on the apocalyptic festivals and the walking dead.

You can check out Cucurbitophobia’s single Exordium which was released on June 5th for yourselves by heading over to Bandcamp.

Keep up to date with the latest releases via Facebook.

Review by Amelia Vandergast