Cybergrindr is a probably-solo project from British Columbia. It is one of the few bands whose name actually reflects the genre they play… and they do it very right! Cybergrindr’s cybergrind is far from mundane. They see the opportunities the genre brings them, and they take them. For example, they profit from the obviously-programmed drums to go beyond what would be realistic: on ‘The Overseer Has Come Online’, they use drum hits – seemingly kick drums – at superhuman speeds to create what we interpret as musical notes, with pitch and length. And even though it’s the only place where … Read more
Tag Archives: experimental
Sheen Marina – Travel Lightly
Sheen Marina describe themselves as a ‘surf-noise’ band. However, I think that’s doing their music a disfavour, as it cannot be completely covered by this umbrella term. In their upcoming album, Travel Lightly, there are also strong flavours of math rock and avant-prog, which can hardly be foreseen with the ‘surf noise’ label. This thirty-minute album consists of nine tracks with varying degrees of interbreeding with the other aforementioned genres, all over a pretty clear, reverb-drenched surf rock basis. ‘WYSC’, for example, is almost a straight-up math rock song, with complex rhythms and odd time signatures, while ‘Nose Ring … Read more
The Blight – Meditations on Insignificance
Out on July twenty-eighth, Meditations on Insignificance is the latest experiment by noise metal artists The Blight. This full-length release explores the Lovecraftian themes of cosmic insignificance and the nihilistic views that nothing we will ever do will matter the slightest bit in the end. Their approach to music consists of improvised noise layered with atmospheric pads and supported by an impressive display of drumming skills, not too far from an actual drum solo. Thematically, the album goes from small scale, with ‘Self’, to a gigantic one, with ‘Galaxy’. Themes that are exploited without uttering a single word – … Read more
Bubblemath – Edit Peptide
Edit Peptide is the latest achievement of American eclectic and hectic progressive act Bubblemath. Out on May twenty-sixth through Cuneiform Records, this set of intellectual compositions might burn a fuse or two in your brain. That’s prog done right, and giving back the literal epithet of the genre. Complicated multi-part harmonies and melodies go over compound and conflicting rhythmics with an ease only before seen with King Crimson, and some new bands from that truly-prog resurgence movement. However difficult they are to play and however deeply they have been written, the songs are incredibly accessible and don’t feel like … Read more
Grizzly – Reaper
Ontario’s Grizzly band just released their second publication, Reaper, and it rips. Don’t get fooled by the opener, ‘Grave’, this is not horror ambient, but rather some crushing and technical experimental grindcore. You can see this right on the second track, but they keep on providing extra crunchy riffs with weird timings and rapid successions of notes. Though it is barely more than ten minutes long, excluding the Pantera cover at the end, this EP shreds mountains. I guess mathgrind wouldn’t be too far-fetched a description, as it certainly has aspects of both mathcore and grindcore working together. Reaper … Read more