Microtonal rock band Ilevens, led by the mind of Brendan Byrnes, is one of the only examples I know of of a microtonal band ready for live performances. They use 22 notes per octave instruments and have released a bunch of demos that were sung in a made-up language that I’ll refer to as ilevian from now on, but they seem to have gone back to good ol’ English for this song.
The 2-track Live in Studio mini-album is available on their bandcamp page for “name your price”!
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Sea In The Sky is a new up and coming band from California, and they focus a lot on melodic vocals and play djenty prog-pop metal with a slightly ambient feel to it.
Being quite technically proficient (what struck me is the slap bass solo in Tamagotchi) doesn’t mean they can’t put the vocals at the forefront. This makes it so that the band is pretty accessible to, well, anyone while remaining enjoyable for the musicians listening because there’s always something interesting that’s being played in the background. Be it the aforementioned slap bass solo, some guitar tapping riff, drums … Read more
Lost between the realms of opera, jazz, and avant-garde music, Marena Whitcher’s Shady Midnight Orchestra‘s what seems to be debut album Ghostology is a real gem of experimentation in popular music, although what’s left of pop music is so altered in the process that it can barely be called that. However, the avant-pop label seems quite fitting, even more so when followed by the ghost jazz speciality. What is ghost jazz? I don’t know, but I’m looking forward to it.With an orchestra comprising of many instruments, from glass harp to bass clarinet, and from glockenspiel to “toys”, the … Read more
#VeilHasRisen marks a new phase in the life of the band Veil of Maya (VoM). This new phase is one marked by commercialism: Veil of Maya is a pop band now.
VoM was one of the earliest djent bands. Its 2008 album The Common Man’s Collapse was experimented with polymetric superposition (the hallmark attribute of djent) years before it became a staple for metal bands to pretend they are progressive.
With its release of “Mikasa,” VoM has shown that it has adopted not just clean vocals, but clean vocal melodies that sound as though they were lifted from Top 20 … Read more
A collaboration between the stellar Vishal Singh, Derick Gomes, and Venkatesh Iyer is giving us a really interesting piece of music to forebode their upcoming EP. The avant-pop trio uses to great efficiency glitch techniques into an experimental pop sound that, while retaining its pop qualities: inherently good-sounding, concise and easy to approach, it still provides us with an interesting listen, and a definite breeze of fresh air!
I’m excited for their EP to come out!… Read more