Monthly Recommendations: November 2017 - CTEBCM: Can This Even Be Called Music?

Çub – Musique actuelle

The collaboration actually turned out pretty amazingly well! You still find the core of Ça – whacky off-kilter and odd-time riffs supplemented with onomatopoeic vocal absurdities –, but you now find a side of electronic music that’s an uncanny match, but the two marry perfectly.

Mini-review.

Ilevens – Transmitter

After many demos, under both the 11ins and Ilevens monikers, Transmitter is ready, with two brand new compositions – “Solavai” and “Transmitter” – and re-worked versions of their earlier songs. While the uncommon pitches will surprise more than one person, the psychedelic, progressive, pop-rock style in which Ilevens play is a perfect catalyst to bring microtonal music to the masses.

Mini-review.

Mammal Hands – Shadow Work

Melodic and carefully crafted, their third release is a joy to behear. The piano and drums and saxophone trio is master at crafting memorable melodies on poignant progressions, with a firm grasp on the elusive art of tension and release, and a broad curiosity that leads to them incorporating sounds and influences from many other genres and musical spheres.

Mini-review.

Silent Whale Becomes a Dream – Requiem

Symphonic, methodical, mournful, deep, poignant, and heartfelt, this new full-length hosts four new tracks showing restraint and abandon. The newly-become quintet summons lush, echoing atmospheres, which they mollycoddle and raise gently, slowly, with care and patience, until they become their own, full-fledged being: not a human, not a song… but a living thing nonetheless.

Mini-review.