Free Salamander Exhibit‘s Undestroyed came out very recently, on December thirteenth, via Web of Mimicry. The strong vibes of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and flairs of Frank Zappa are unsurprising, given that the band consists of eighty percent of the former’s lineup. What’s interesting, here, is that the band uses homemade musical instruments in addition to the traditional rock trio. Flute, trumpet, glockenspiel and theremin are also common sounds in this fifty-minute record. I’ve never really been a fan of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum or Frank Zappa – you can throw me rocks -, so it’s a bit difficult for me to find the charm within this iteration of the style, but it’s definitely worth listening. Maybe it’s a bit too tame for what it claims to be, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
Leper Print is a plunderphonics-based dance music project taking its musical samples from metal and rock music. De minimis just came out, on the twelfth, and, according to this video, the recording process behind the album looks awesome. I don’t know which songs the samples come from, but there’s perhaps a hint in song titles, like ‘Ghost B.S.’. Anyways, it’s a truly outstanding, one-of-a-kind, harsh EDM album.
California’s Aurora Beam are releasing 3D on Ice on the twenty-first of December, to kick off their tour – go see them if you can! Their brand of math rock melds jazzy chords and progressions with a heavily distorted sound, quite uncommon for the math rock genre, like you can hear in ‘Cube Vision’. The guitar and drums duo keeps it simple, mainly due to their minimalistic lineup, but their short-and-sweet compositions keep it fresh and ear-friendly (to some degree). Be sure to catch them on tour if you can – if not, catch their EP when it’s released!
Phuture Doom is a black metal EDM project. Quite antithetical by nature, the amalgamation of tremolo picking over blast beats with dubstep and synth bass lines, along with a rather heavy-handed influence of Christian imagery and sounds, is rather dreamlike. It’s not something I had ever thought about, but hearing it out is just amazing. Phuture Doom came out in 2013. It’s pretty late for me to discover it, but the band’s recent promotion campaign for their upcoming album is under way, at the moment, and I thought I’d look back and listen to their previous stuff. While I was already curious to hear what the band has to offer with their next album, after hearing this one right here I can confidently say I’m way hyped! This is great!
Joel Lindfors is a Finnish guitarist who amazed us with Solitude, which came out in spring. Shift is his debut full-length, and it features a bunch of well-known names, such as Clément Belio and Sithu Aye. I guess his sound falls under the melodic prog label, with maybe a heavier leaning on djent than, say, Plini. However, that doesn’t mean the album isn’t delicate and wonderful, as is proved by songs like ‘Lift’ and ‘Day Two’. Joel Lindfors’ band, Oceill, is also worth mentioning, as it’s another great musical act. Anyways, you should get Shift as soon as possible, because it’s fantastic!
We’ve recently talked about Strawberry Girls, and now is already the time to mention them again. American Graffiti just was released on bandcamp, but apparently was released since November. It’s overall a great funky, mathy, and proggy instrumental rock album. At more than sixty minutes long, there’s plenty of material here to get your money’s worth. It’s both slightly reminiscent of Dance Gavin Dance and something entirely new at the same time, and the few guests on some tracks are just spot on. Very good fun listen!
French electronic ambient Japanese folk fusion artist Alpha Brazil just released their October EP, Neon Tokyo, on bandcamp – which means I just now found out it has been released. While it’s not really strumming my cords, as I’m hardly an enjoyer of ambient music, there’s something very appealing in this project. The addition of Japanese traditional instruments makes the whole thing worthy. Otherwise, it remains an enjoyable background soundtrack.
American post-black/blackened hardcore band Noctcaelador just released their sophomore album, Noctem. I think I got to know this band because Caelum was on the merch table of a metal show I went to, this year, so I grabbed it out of curiosity, but the music didn’t really appeal to me in the end. This one is no different, but I might be able to extrapolate a little. The drums are horrendous (in comparison to the aforementioned Joel Lindfors, who used synth drums too, but made them sound really good), and the compositions are rather lifeless, which is a crime for a subgenre founded on emotion and catharsis. Unfortunately, this isn’t something I’d recommend.