Tag: AntiFragile Music

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

BLAZAR · Tomorrow

 

Jerad Finck is and artist and producer and the creative mastermind behind the rising indie electro pop act BLAZAR. The project was formed last year, after he released the breakthrough single “Criminal” which sold 57,000 copies an independent and charting on the Billboard charts and caught the attention of AntiFragile Music‘s Tom Sarig, who signed him to a recording contract.

Finck’s idea behind BLAZAR was to create music in an old school fashion, bar by bar by bar, with some of the talented producers, artists and vocalists he had been working with throughout the last few years — but in something entirely new, where there was complete creative control.  Finck’s BLAZAR full-length debut will find Finck collaborating with producer/songwriter Steven Solomon, Denny White, Anthony Resta, Troy Welstad, Jay Condiotti, Hans DeKline, Jake Newton, and David Felice among others. The album’s latest single, the infectious, summertime anthem “Tomorrow” is a collaboration with DAXSEN that’s centered around shimmering analog synths, copious modulations and other effects and thumping beats.  Interestingly, underneath the slick production, is a deliberate attention to craft, as the song reveals an unerring ability to craft, as the song reveals an unerring ability to craft an infectious, crowd pleasing hook.

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Over the last half of 2016, a lifetime and a half ago, based on our current sociopolitical climate, I had written about the  months, Philadelphia, PA-based indie rock quartet Oldermost. And as you may recall, the band led by its creative mastermind and primary songwriter Bradford Bucknam received attention from this site and elsewhere for a 70s AM radio rock sound that immediately brought to mind  Nick Drake, and Wish You Were Here-era Pink Floyd with the release of singles like “Honey With Tea” and “Finally Unsure” and a gorgeous cover of  Graham Nash’s “I Used To Be A King,” that emphasized the song’s bittersweet nature.

Now, it’s been some time since I’ve personally written about the band; but as it turns out they’ve spent some time writing and recording their fourth full-length album How Could You Ever Be The Same?, which is slated for a July 13, 2018 release through AntiFragile Music, and interestingly enough the album reflects the band’s continuing move towards more complex sonic territory while thematically walking a tightrope between a blend of neuroticism and mysticism. Interestingly, the album’s latest single “The Danger of Belief” is a rollicking and anthemic track centered around a twangy guitar line, a propulsive bass line and shuffling drumming — and while seemingly drawing from Tom Petty, the song possesses the intimacy of old friends, who have the same arguments and know how to needle each other, and they couldn’t have it any other way. But underneath that is a bittersweet meditation on belief and in believing in anything too much; it’ll break your heart, just like everything else will.