Astronomique - Sharp Divide (2018)

OFFICIAL: http://www.astronomiquemusic.com

FACEBOOK:  https://www.facebook.com/astronomiqueband/

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/Astronomiques

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/astronomiques/

BANDCAMP: https://astronomique.bandcamp.com

Written by Frank McClure, posted by blog admin

Led by lead singer and synthesizer player Logan Andra Fongemie and guitarist Sean Hogan, Minneapolis’ Astronomique are sure to impress many with the release of their ten song collection Sharp Divide. There’s an overarching coherence defining the release shared by few albums in any vein and the four piece lineup plays with enormous chemistry reflected in the relatively sterile nature of a studio recording. There are certain consistent points sustaining the release, but Astronomique is quite at home with surprising their listeners as well while never going so far overboard as to make such efforts unrecognizable. Sharp Divide is cut to just the right length as well and the band’s confidence never seems to slip during the entirety of the release. Rather than coming off as talented young musicians, Astronomique comes off as a talented assemblage of veteran musicians near or reaching the peak of their artistic powers.

We are treated to a shot of that confidence, up close, with the album’s first song. “Forefathers” has an internal drive that’s impossible to ignore, focused largely on the work of bassist Preston Saari and drummer Mitch Billings, but the contributions from both Fongemie and Hogan offer much as well to this stellar track. “We Disappear” is another powerful potential single and Saari’s sternum shaking pulse is the heart of the song. Fongemie’s synthesizer flourishes are also particularly effective for adding color to this piece. Song construction is one of Sharp Divide’s strongest merits and few of the songs on this collection are more solid than “We Disappear”.

The songs “Losing Our Control” and “Sharp Divide”, however, raise the standards by which we evaluate this album. Astronomique burrow their best songs in the album’s midway point and both, specifically the title song, sound fully fleshed our and ready for the stage. The small hop Billings gives the song with his percussion is a stylistic note he strikes again on Sharp Divide, but never with the same sort of positive effect Billings achieves bringing it into “Losing Our Control”. “Smoke” is more cluttered, in some respects, than the earlier and later songs, but attentive listeners will appreciate the band’s willingness to mix things up for their listeners rather than remaining content to churn out variations on a theme for the entirety of Sharp Divide’s ten songs.

“Bleed Me” is another of the album’s more ominous numbers, evidenced by its title, but catches your ear in large part thanks to the unique contrast between its lyrics and engaging, likable musical content. Fongemie’s vocal is especially emotive here. The drum patterns for “Heading Nowhere” establish a patient, slightly busy groove for this mid-tempo album finale and the throb of Preston Saari’s voice gives the song a resonant center than never goes away. It seems like Fongemie’s vocals are laden with more echo than ever before, but it shouldn’t dampen your enthusiasm for the track or this stunning studio release.

Cyborg Asylum - Never Finished, Only Abandoned (2017)

OFFICIAL: https://www.cyborgasylum.com/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/CyborgAsylum/

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Written by Frank McClure, posted by blog admin

With this duo’s core members split between New York and England, Cyborg Asylum’s debut Never Finished, Only Abandoned comes across as quite a coherent project despite a literal ocean of distance separating its members.  The heavily electronic-based textures and piston-pressed factory noises reckon to the film score work of the group’s members David Varga and John Tumminia with the song construction focusing heavily on industrial, dance and even tinges of pop/alternative that should appeal to fans of Nine Inch Nails, Front 242, early Stabbing Westward and Rammstein. 

Opener “Blitz” begins with an air raid siren that is soon washed over by tidal waves of droning synths, electronica soundtrack drones, bomb explosion and the kind of hard-edged club beats that Front 242 made a career out of.  High-pitched oscillations and frequency manipulations dip into thumping, surging subwoofer romps meant to ignite a dance floor after midnight.  Electric guitar riffs, infectious melodic vocals and slower tempos signify the industrial genre’s transformation into pop territory during the 90s on “Synergy.”  Here the aggressive electronica simmers into a vocal-driven number with memorable vocal harmonies and restrained yet ethereal digital bleeps/bloops that allow the singing to take front and center stage.  Filter sailed similar waters on their pop saturated machinations circa Short Bus, an album where organic instruments played just as significant of a role as the keyboards.  Faint electric guitar buzz swirls around soft synthetic loops, high-end noise frequencies and buoyant beats on the radio friendly “My Metallic Dream.”  Tumminia’s tender, plaintive lead vocals craft numerous hooks and showcase great melodic range throughout.  If we were still in the 90s this tune could easily have been as big of a hit as any number of songs penned by Stabbing Westward, Filter and Gravity Kills. 

A chest-rattling, low slung bass groove reckons of 80s EDM in the churning, guitar-riff chugging groove of “War Machine,” a track that aptly lives up to its name.  “Steampunk Highway” also flirts with a similar vibe of cagey, factory line malice.  The epic sprawl of “Weightless” sees Cyborg Asylum piping their affinity for digital beats, ugly bass distortion and white-washed noise through a rippling sea of dazzling vocal vibrato, serene mechanical drone and captivating melodicism.  It’s almost as if they filtered their acerbic weirdness through some gorgeous Pink Floyd-esque transcendentalism.  Again they prove that their songwriting knows no bounds thanks to the symphonic string sampling and orchestral arrangements of the dazzling instrumental “Angle of Incidence.” 

“Fragments as Illusion” interjects busy percussion that highlights the snare into a framework of shape-shifting industrial that’s heavy on sturdy melodic vocals and battle-hardened textures that hypnotize thanks to knife-edged, metal-leaned guitars, pounding percussion and roaring swells of abrasive techno.  An ebbing, brooding darkwave instrumental “Ion” sets the stage for “Asymmetry’s” 6+ minutes of stomping, grinding industrial undertones that bubble beneath a pop-vocal surface.  “Pale Green Dot” similarly enjoys moments of near silence that are trampled by quaking club bass and dirty, fuzzy guitar riffs that lead directly into closer “Paradigm Shift’s” intense polyrhythmic, bass-drum shakedowns. 

Fans of 80s/90s industrial, EDM, techno and electronica would do well to seek out Never Finished, Only Abandoned.  Cyborg Asylum admirably handles both the aggressive and catchy nuances of the genre and keeps their instrumentation tough and hard-edged while peddling some extremely uplifting vocal melodies.  If your favorite Killing Joke record is Night Time, then Cyborg Asylum will be the perfect addition to your collection.

Josh Birdsong - Where the Light Bends (2017)

OFFICIAL: http://joshbirdsong.com/

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Written by Scott Wigley, posted by blog admin

Josh Birdsong has a rich musical background in his very short but very illustrious career.  The Nashville, TN transplant (originally hailing from Detroit, Michigan) already has one popular, well-crafted EP, Simple Geometry under his belt; he was a winner of the 2015 International Songwriting Competition and he has also had his music played on over 100 different radio stations across the US.  His career is quickly on the rise and his second EP release, Where the Light Bends shows refinement in pretty much every way imaginable. 

Produced by Stephen Leiweke who had success producing Christian rock giants Jars of Clay, Where the Light Bends is immaculately mixed and conceived.  All of the solid mixing in the world couldn’t save a subpar record with subpar songs though and opener “Complex Context,” is clearly cut from a superior sonic cloth.  Clean guitars loaded up on pedal board FX combine and split apart multiple melodies, leaving Josh’s vibrant lead vocals and vivid lyrics up front and center.  Echoes of psychedelic rock, space rock, kraut groove and 80s new wave are further enforced by soulful keyboards and meaningful instrumental explorations.  The mixture of symphonic grandeur, well-chiseled sonic deviance and propulsive (though sparse) rhythms give this material plenty of legs.  “The Sound Beneath the Static” follows suit, borrowing some of its predecessors drifting, cloudy psychedelic vibes while infusing a slow 80s throb to the electronic beats. 

“Cloud 8” kicks off as a swirling, skyward bound guitar/synth jam that slowly picks up in tempo as it goes along.  Birdsong harmonizes with himself for the intoxicating effect of a chorale with super smooth guitars eventually letting loose with some hard-hitting drama in terms of crunching bass lines and ever-loudening guitar work.  Keep an eye out on this song because it certainly has a chance of becoming really big.  The low to the ground rocker “Too Much to Hold” dabbles in classic rock thanks to some gravelly yet melody driven country/blues guitar before pulling back and blowing the song wide open with Birdsong’s dedicated ear for harmonic counterpoints.  A mesmerizing trio of tunes is complete with the unique integration of Neil Young, Yes and The Smiths into a singular, awesome entity on “Arctic Desert”.  The title track rounds things off and ends Where the Light Bends on a very positive, uplifting note.     

This EP has the potential to break Josh Birdsong into the big time.  He’s already carved himself a superlative reputation thanks to Simple Geometry’s fantastic introduction to his world and numerous accolades.  Where the Light Bends only cements the fact that Birdsong is a visionary with a catalog of original songs that don’t sound quite like anybody else out there. 

EZLA - Outcasts (2017)

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Written by Larry Robertson, posted by blog admin

Dark pop queen EZLA sounds like she’s ready to take on the entire world around her thanks to the musical prowess she shows on debut EP, Outcasts.  Originally from the West Coast, EZLA packed up and moved to Nashville and took the eclectic Cali music scene with her as she began composing the songs that would become the 5 tracks found here.  There’s no mistaking that the multi-talented EZLA put heart, passion and soul into here music, while nodding to her influences without ever directly copying them.  In a massively overcrowded music world where everybody is fighting for acceptance, EZLA sounds comfortable in her own skin and in her own voice.  That confidence is all over every inch of Outcasts.    

The title track opens with a broken, stumbling groove and EZLA’s world-weary voice making a gradual rises to the melodic heights of the song’s lofty, synth-heavy chorus.  Until it reaches this point where the tension of the intro verse’s staggering, Helter Skelter beats and twitchy sprinkles of keyboard melody evaporates, it felt like I was listening to a song where the ending was composed first and the beginning was written last.  It has this weird shamble going on that’s only resolved by the cut’s ultra-melodic chorus hook.  In order to catch the vibe several listens are necessary and it turns out that each individual track on the EP plays out in this fashion.  

Slightly more direct when speaking of percussive continuity, “Skeletons” relies on ever-changing synths in the verses that are welded to a steady beat.  The chorus goes for a more repetitious vocal pattern than the prior track with the lines “Sipping on souls like rum and coke,” and the song continues to buck the structure status quo by actually starting on the chorus and then changing course back to the first verse.  All throughout, EZLA’s voice smoothly shines the melodies until they become fine fragments that are quickly inserted into the memory banks.  Multi-tracked and deeply engraved keyboards combine bits and pieces of several melodies at once for a very strange take on EZLA’s genre of choice.  Is it trip-hop?  Is it dub?  Is it trance?  You could go on and on trying to nail down the fine print but it’s a little bit of every single type of electronica all rolled into one. 

 

Sullen and serene, “Satellites” is the most melodic of the songs.  Trippy synths, piano and achingly entrancing vocals makes for one of the album’s finest tunes and while some of the other tracks feature some pretty coarse lyrical expletives and gruffer delivery from EZLA’s golden pipes, this particular number is sultry and mystical from the moment it starts.  This cements “Hangman” and “Psycho Killers” to revert to harder beats and near factory industrialisms to really hammer the point home and end the album with a bang.  Anyone that thinks the electronica style has been stale and mined barren in recent years would be wise to give Outsiders a chance.  EZLA has resuscitated the genre with one meager EP and leaves us to ponder the magnitude of what she can accomplish on a full-length outing.    

YYY - A Tribute to The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (2017)

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/therealyyy/

Written by Frank McClure, posted by blog admin

Austin Carson’s A Tribute to the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds – recorded under the name YYY – is sort of an “all star” Minneapolis album. The Twin Cities based musician recruited a host of top notch indie talent from his local burg and surrounding environs to help realize his dream of honoring one of pop music’s most decorated releases. This is far from a slavish attempt at recreating the glories of the mid-sixties Beach Boys sound. Instead, Carson brings a number of musical elements to bear, namely electronic instrumentation, and takes on a nearly post modern, deconstructionist take replete with guitar parts and unlikely instruments like xylophone. The powerful creativity he brings to this project is seamlessly meshed with the talents of his guest stars and it keeps enough of a connection to the original material that casual fans and hardcore alike will appreciate and respect his enormous efforts.

“Wouldn’t It Be Nice?” is a perfect illustration, and not the only one, of how YYY can bring together his own musical inclinations into ideal harmony with Brian Wilson’s writing. The vocals have a surprisingly live, intimate quality that’s recorded in such a way they exude warmth and have just enough of a jagged, human edge to pull you in. It’s one of the most iconic songs on A Tribute to the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and gives a clear opening signal that lovers of the album are in good hands with YYY. “That’s Not Me” starts off with a heavily digitized flurry of synth notes before launching properly into the song and YYY’s singing is spot on with a deft mix of intelligent phrasing and youthful appeal. “Don’t Talk” echoes the original while adopting a thoroughly modern sheen and Elle PF’s singing invokes a satisfying number of moods for one of the, perhaps, underappreciated tunes on Pet Sounds. There’s some interesting synthesizer textures exploring the possibilities on the song “I’m Waiting for the Day” and it goes further than most tracks on this tribute towards crafting something entirely new from Wilson’s original intention. Guests LOTT and Zinnia make their impact felt, as well, but YYY should garner the lion’s share of attention thanks to his unusual arrangement for the song.

Al Church’s vocal contributions to “Sloop John B” are simply lovely. Just breathtaking. He pops up in a few places on A Tribute to the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, but the guitar and singing he offers to this venerable classic will please those intimately familiar with this tune and even those with a casual acquaintance. Matthew Jon is another guest star who exerts a sizable influence on the final result and his guest vocal turn on “God Only Knows” makes for enjoyable listening. “Caroline No” has a dreamier, even vaguely hallucinatory, feel than the other performances on this release and benefits a great deal from Jenessa LaSota’s aching, sensitive vocal. There’s some post production effects added to her voice, but it only strengthens the atmospherics she conjures rather than submerging them in needless aural swill. The peak of the Beach Boys’ original and YYY’s tribute alike comes, naturally, with the finale “Good Vibrations” and Al Church makes his presence felt once again with ace guitar lines that add a lot to this curtain closer. This is a marvelous release that virtually assures Austin Carson will gain some much needed notice in the indie music world.