Monthly Recommendations: June 2017

by Dæv Tremblay

Dougmore‘s debut album is a foray into folkloric music through the lens of art rock. Indeed, Outerboros is lush and complex, deep and progressive, and, on top of that, inspiringly beautiful. Don’t be fooled by the apparent simplicity of the folk singer-songwriter foundation of the project – with Douglas and his banjo -, for there is here a plethora of invited artists – playing a wide range of instruments, from wine glasses to trumpets, from bouzouki to double bass, from dulcimer to harp, and a lot of other things in-between. This not only bring in a variety of timbres and

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Soul Enema – Of Clans and Clones and Clowns

by Dæv Tremblay

Soul Enema is a progressive metal band from Israel that hit me by surprise with their new album, Of Clans and Clones and Clowns. Although I’m generally a fervent user of the Oxford comma, I’ll admit that it would be quite an encumbrance in this title to add two half stops. And – one last thing before discussing the actual music –, the cover art for the album is part of the reason I didn’t expect much from it: it’s really ugly (sorry, Vasya Lozhkin (Alexey Kudelin)). Okay, now that that’s out… Soul Enema’s progressive metal is a strange … Read more

Michael Avery – Michael Avery

by Dæv Tremblay

Michael Avery‘s back, baby! Following his 2015 album, The Scientist, which we liked a lot, the eponymous full-length is even more impressive! Although I’m admittedly not a fan of the, uhh… Abstract 90s-inspired, tribal tattoo artwork, the music is on par with the contemporaries of instrumental progressive metal, and by that I mean that it’s better than most of what’s being done in the genre nowadays. The jazz-infused prog of Mr. Avery is intelligent and executed selon les règles de l’art. Some songs are very moody, while others are energetic and have lots of drive to them. … Read more

Obsidian Mantra – Existential Gravity

by Dæv Tremblay

Polish band Obsidian Mantra just released its debut album, the intricate and massive Existential Gravity. Clocking in at fifty-four minutes, it demonstrates more than well enough their compositional and playing skills as musicians. The sort of progressive death metal they play is reminiscent of Florida’s RXYZYXR, but also of Montréal’s Gorguts. On the one hand, Obsidian Mantra have heavy grooves and plenty of odd-time signatures, as well as a very interesting set of uneven repetitions of motives. On the other hand, it lacks the melodic hooks found on LMNTS, in favour of exclusively harsh vocals and deeper dissonant … Read more

Sunn Trio – Sunn Trio

by Dæv Tremblay

The scorching heat of the Arizona day, and the complementary soothing coolness of its night, is whence Sunn Trio emerges. Playing a punk-spirited, Arabic-music-tinged free jazz, the ‘trio’ release cassette recordings of their live performances since at least 2015, with Radiowaves. Their new, self-titled endeavour takes the form of a vinyl record. What baffles me is that there seems to be a whole lot of people credited for a trio… Indeed, there are no less than eleven players mentioned on bandcamp, making it rather close to the scope of a big band, but I suppose they would be guest … Read more