Tag: instrumental

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Indie Rock, All-Star Side-Project’s Orchestral Interpretation of Their Noisy, Debut Material

While expanding upon the sound of their most famous primary projects, the band finds each member of the band sonically pushing themselves and crossing as many creative barriers as possible. Interestingly, the project’s soon-to-be released effort, Orchestral Variations is an album of orchestral and instrumental interpretations of the material off Minor Victories’ debut album. The concept, as the band’s Justin Lockey explained to the folks at VICE THUMP began with Lockey “fucking around” but as he progressed, it felt increasingly valid because it presented the songs and harmonies in a completely different light — revealing a stunning beauty underneath the vitriol. In press note Lockey explains that Orchestral Variations’ latest single “Give Up The Ghost” is an orchestral arrangement on the original song. On the full band album, the song begins with an enormous bit of fuzz and vitriol; however, the Orchestral Variation version has Lockey stripping the arrangement down to Rachel Goswell’s vocal melody, which was buried underneath layers of guitar tracks and arena rock-like drums. “In the end, I started with marimbas . . why? Because everyone loves a marimba (if not, they ought to). I guess from my part, it’s a huge nod to Steve Reich, with some melodramatic strings woven in for good measure.” And the result, is gorgeous and soaring and melodramatic composition that sounds as though it should be part of a movie soundtrack while capturing the mood of harried commuters rushing to and fro.

Interestingly, as Lockey explains in press notes, the video was shot by his brother James while they had a day off in Berlin and it features an incredibly simple concept — the band’s Rachel Goswell riding the Berlin metro with enormous headphones on, sitting next to her fellow commuters. And as the train travels you see the Goswell and her fellow commuters sitting next to her, lost in their thoughts and daydreaming; at points the motion of the train or the length of their day has someone close their eyes and nod off; at other points, people get off at their various stops; people and train stops rush by. If it wasn’t so relatively clean, it would look and feel as though you were riding the subway in New York.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tokyo, Japan’s LITE and Their Funky Take on Prog Rock

Comprised of Nobuyuki Takeda (guitar), Kozo Kusumoto (guitar / synthesizer), Jun Ozawa (bass) and Akinori Yamamoto (drums), the Tokyo, Japan-based instrumental rock band LITE have over their 14 years together and four full-length albums and six EPs developed both a national and international profile for mischievously playful and complex compositions featuring edgy riffs, complex rhythms and a prog rock and math rock-leaning sensibility, a well-regarded live show and a relentless touring schedule across the US, Europe and Asia. And with “-D,” the first single off the Japanese quartet’s fifth full-length and second proper Stateside release Cubic, the band has released a composition that playfully bridges funk, jazz, prog rock and hip-hop as angular guitar chords are paired with a regular yet ethereal horn line from trumpeter Tabu Zombie, a sinuous bass line and old school-like breakbeats which hold together a composition featuring three distinct yet incredibly funky sections together. Sonically, I’m reminded of the Josh Roseman Unit‘s Treats for the Nightwalker (in particular, their rendition of Burt Bacharach‘s “Long Day, Short Night,” which Dionne Warwick sung) and of a contemporary batch of Afrobeat and Afro-pop inspired acts that includes Superhuman Happiness (think of “Half-Step Grind” off their excellent Hands) and others.

Cubic is slated for a release through Topshelf Records on Friday and the Japanese quartet will be touring to support and build up buzz for the album with a handful of West Coast tour dates, which you can check out below. And interestingly, as the band was in the middle of seven date West Coast tour, they released an official music video comprised of the band performing the song in a studio in front of alternating colored lights — and in some way it gives a sense of what their live show would be like.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Nobuyuki Takeda (guitar), Kozo Kusumoto (guitar / synthesizer), Jun Ozawa (bass) and Akinori Yamamoto (drums), the Tokyo, Japan-based instrumental rock band LITE have over their 14 years together and four full-length albums and six EPs  developed both a national and international profile for mischievously playful and complex compositions featuring edgy riffs, complex rhythms and a prog rock and math rock-leaning sensibility, a well-regarded live show and a relentless touring schedule across the US, Europe and Asia. And with “-D,” the first single off the Japanese quartet’s fifth full-length and second proper Stateside release Cubic, the band has released a composition that playfully bridges funk, jazz, prog rock and hip-hop as angular guitar chords are paired with a regular yet ethereal horn line, a sinuous bass line and old school-like breakbeats which hold together a composition featuring three distinct yet incredibly funky sections together.  Sonically, I’m reminded of the Josh Roseman Unit‘s Treats for the Nightwalker (in particular, their rendition of Burt Bacharach‘s “Long Day, Short Night,” which Dionne Warwick sung) and of a contemporary batch of Afrobeat and Afro-pop inspired acts that includes Superhuman Happiness (think of “Half-Step Grind” off their excellent Hands) and others.

Cubic is slated for a November 18, 2016 release through Topshelf Records and the Japanese quartet will be touring to support and build up buzz for the album with a handful of West Coast tour dates, which you can check out below.

TOUR DATES
All dates with Mouse on the Keys

Nov 10 – San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
Nov 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Hi Hat
Nov 12 – San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s
Nov 13 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
Nov 14 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
Nov 15 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret
Nov 16 – Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Introducing the Cinematic Sounds and Trippy Visuals of Sudden Beach’s “The Beast”

Sudden Beach is Guren’s solo side project of sorts and as he explained to me by email, the music he has created with the project, evokes suddenly coming upon a beach while traveling on a desert road. The project’s first single “The Beast” reminds me quite a bit of John Carpenter’s retro-futuristic soundtracks and Pink Floyd’s “On The Run” as the single consists of layers of undulating synths, cascading shimmering synths and samples of children yelling and talking.

As Guren explains of the video, “To feed the feeling of the music I’ve created, I’ve manipulated the footage taken from the cult documentary Koyaanisqatsi, the pictures of empty buildings without any human. I’ve added some sounds from the amazing Stranger Things, like human breath or playing children to this unmanned atmosphere and tried to emphasize to the past and the memory; to the life before the buildings were demolished. ”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Deep, Psychedelic Grooves and Visuals for Dos Santos Anti-Beat Orquesta’s “Camino Infernal/Phantom Weight”

Led by founding member Alex Chavez and featuring Pete Vale, Daniel Villarreal-Carrillo, Jaime Garza and Nathan Karagianis, the members of Chicago, IL-based Latin music quintet Dos Santos Anti-Beat Orquesta have storied careers in a diversity […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Floating Points Performing on KEXP Radio

Interestingly, as Shepherd announced his tour and the forthcoming release of Kupier, Shepherd released live footage of him and his backing band performing “Silhouettes I, II and III,” “Argente” and “Kupier” in KEXP’s studios last month. Naturally, the live footage should give you a good sense of a live Floating Points set — including as the announced joked a visual display behind the band, which included floating points; but it also should cement Shepherd’s burgeoning reputation as an sonically challenging and inventive composer, whose material also manages to be trippy, expansive and mind-altering while being approachable.

The live session includes a rather revealing interview in which Shepherd discusses the origins of Floating Points, his influences, how he met the members of his backing band and his incredible 10,000 album record collection.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Check Out the Gorgeous and Thoughtful Tribute to the Human Soul in Oddisee’s Video for “Brea”

Washington, DC-born and Brooklyn-based emcee and producer Amir Mohamed el Khalifa, best known to hip-hop heads as Oddisee has developed a reputation for being a former member of The Low Budget Crew, as a current member of Diamond […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Jonas Ronnberg, the co-owner of Northern Electronics who’s known for recording caustic techno under the moniker of Varg, as well as his involvement in renowned experimental acts Ulwhednar and Dard A Ranj Fran Det Hebbersalska Samfudet; renowned Swedish composer Erik Enocksson, who has scored a number of independent productions including an orphaned soundtrack to Apan, which was re-mastered and re-issued by Posh Isolation Records last year; Frederikke Hoffmeir, the mastermind of highly-regarded industrial and experimental electronic act Puce Mary;Vit Fana’s Ossian Ohlsson, who has appeared on a number of Northern Electronics and Posh Isolation compilations; and Loke Rahbek, co-founder of Posh Isolation and member of Damien Dubrovnik, highly-regarded act Lust For Youth — and for recording with Croatian Armor, Body Sculptures is an All-Star side project of renowned Scandinavian experimental electronic and electro pop artists.

Last year marked the act’s live debut, a set at the Berlin Atonal Festival and the release of their debut effort together, The Base of All Beauty Is The Body. And June 3, 2016 will mark the release of the act’s highly-anticipated sophomore effort A Body Turns to Eden.The album’s first single — and album title track — “A Body Turns to Eden” will further cement the act’s reputation for crafting stark and uneasily tense music as background electronic buzzing is paired with slowly unfurling and churning synths, minimalist beats in a song that only partially unfolds and reveals itself to its listeners.
 

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The combinations of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, the soiled traces of genre, and the mixed modes of experimentation, are here pitched as an eternal requiem, letting the play between the project’s orthodox and unorthodox methods reflect a sharp fatalism. Each song presents familiarity and intimacy within an aura of claustrophobia. And as if out of a cruel awareness of this fact, unease blooms into a comforting form. A Body Turns To Eden is an essential piece for anyone with interest in Scandinavian electronic music today.

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Introducing the Retro-Futuristic Visuals and Sounds of Toronto’s Princess Century

Maya Postepski is a grizzled Toronto, ON music scene veteran, who is arguably best known as being a member of renowned electronic music act Austra, a prolific DJ and remixer, and for her work collaborating […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Samiyam at Stones Throw’s Dungeon Sessions

Detroit-born, Los Angeles-based producer Sam Baker, best known under the moniker Samiyam can trace the moment his musical career truly started in earnest to when he was at a Detroit strip club Platinum, where he encountered a self-described […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Silber Media, the label home of the Durham, NC-based Irata and best known for an emphasis on experimental acts that specialize one drone have enlisted a number of bands on their roster in an interesting […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

With the release of their debut effort, Everything Is Not Going To Be Okay, the Washington, DC-based trio of Black Clouds quickly developed a reputation for a quasi-nihilistic post rock sound and aesthetic. And interestingly enough, the […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Although they’ve had several different lineups over the course of their over 20 years of existence, the Tulsa, OK-based jazz act Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey have been remarkably consistent, developing and firmly cementing a reputation […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Madlib, one of hip-hop’s most inventive and prolific producers has released a series of instrumental beat records under the series name Beat Konducta, and each installment of the series has focused on a particular genre or […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Occasionally, as i’m listening to tracks through Soundcloud, I come across another track that captures my ears. And recently, I came across “Awake” from Tycho, the moniker of ambient producer and artist, Scott Hansen. “Awake” […]