Category: Reviews (Page 126 of 206)

FUTURE FIRE Shattered Light

23 December 2017 /

FUTURE FIRE is an LA based project by the artists behind LOST IN STARS; the British born Dylan Willoughby and local boy Darren Burgos.

LOST IN STARS also featured Alysa Lobo, Jon McCormick and Elena Charbila aka KID MOXIE, dipping in and out of the ensemble. Bred on synths of all sorts, Willoughby “was not one of the kids with an Emulator II in the bedroom; I had a humble Casiotone but a good imagination”.

Soon enough that imagination translated itself into full on music making, with Dylan taking his classical piano training and meeting Burgos, who led an Electronic Music Production class, which Willoughby attended.

“The synth appealed to me on many levels. It was a cool combination of piano and technology, and it wasn’t just about playing keyboard but about designing cool sounds.”

FUTURE FIRE sees the two producers continuing their collaboration with couple of guest additions on ‘Shattered Light’.

The Spirit features on Americana Noir meets ethereal synth on ‘Your Kiss Could Burn Fire’ and KID Moxie supports her buddies on ‘Beautiful Disguise’; a sparkly electronic gem à la SPECTRA PARIS. The ‘Dark Embodiment’ is “haunted by the ghosts of synthpop”, while a heavily melodyned voice glides over clever sounds in ‘Another Time’.

The tantric ‘Protect Us From Above’ conveys the opposite message to ‘Mother Space’, which lends itself perfectly as a film score, due to its cinematic soundscapes and storytelling textures.

For the uncertain feeling of non-belonging, ‘Three Scratches’ hovers above the perceived safety, while ‘Choking On Fumes’ (nothing to do with DM’s ‘Breathing In Fumes’) presents an easy listening, male vocal led piece.

A little bit of electronic sci-fi gathers its allegiance on ‘Ejected In A Capsule’, continuing the futuristic elements on ‘Electric Current’. The latter is an extravaganza of what machines are capable of and that very notion wins the listener on ‘Old Feelings II VHS’, a number that could be a signature piece for the super synth soundtrack to ‘Stranger Things’. While nothing is getting older on ‘Dorian Gray’s Portrait’, ‘In The Time It Takes’ presents another notion of a synthtastic film score.

Wrapped up with the enigmatic ‘Tears Of The Future’, ‘Shattered Light’ is a movie in itself. Featuring some excellent soundtrack worthy pieces, interwoven with more poppy tracks with vocals, it can however leave one a bit confused. An album of nineteen songs always takes a tad too long to process, no matter how gripping the pieces may be.

While splitting the material over two separate records would have been a simpler idea, it has to be said that Willoughby and Burgos certainly know how to write considerably superior electronic music.

‘Shattered Light’ is available as a download album from https://futurefireff.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/futurefireff/

Text by Monika Izabela Trigwell
23rd December 2017

JOHN CARPENTER Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998

18 December 2017 /

In terms of his importance in regards to the timeline of electronic music, John Carpenter often gets overlooked in favour of the usual suspects like KRAFTWERK, DEPECHE MODE, THE HUMAN LEAGUE et al.

Carpenter was unique in that as well as directing his movies, he usually scored them too. And in his canon are a huge range of influential works, ranging from the proto-slasher ‘Halloween’ to the pre-CGI horror-fest remake ‘The Thing’ and the unique and prescient political commentary ‘They Live’. ‘Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998’ sees Carpenter re-recording his most well-known film themes with the help of his son Cody and his godson Daniel Davies, both of whom collaborated on his 2015 ‘Lost Themes’ album.

Rather than running chronologically, ‘Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998’ chooses to open with the theme to the Lovecraftian psychological horror film ‘In The Mouth of Madness’; unashamedly owing a huge debt to METALLICA’s ‘Enter Sandman’, the track is not typical of Carpenter’s most well-known soundtrack material, but still showcases a huge musical diversity at work.

‘Assault on Precinct 13’ features one of THE great synth basslines, latterly re-worked by BOMB THE BASS on their 1998 hit ‘Megablast’ and also re-interpreted by UK synthesist Mark Shreeve, it still sounds an utterly brilliant and minimalist electro track. Lesser known themes such as the ones to ‘The Fog’ and ‘Prince of Darkness’ are both paired-down atmospheric pieces which evoke a sense of menace and whilst the films they accompanied were not Carpenter’s strongest works, they still hold up as standalone pieces of music.

It could be argued that the theme to ‘Escape From New York’ almost single-handedly invented the Synthwave genre; with its TANGERINE DREAM influenced synth brass motif and unique chord progression, Carpenter and collaborator Alan Howarth were some of the first musicians to use a Linn Drum Computer on the original soundtrack and it’s hard to imagine films like ‘Drive’ sounding the same without their influence.

There is very little left to say about the iconic ‘Halloween’ theme, except that the version here remains relatively faithful to the original with the exception of an added prominent 4/4 kick drum and a more Moog-like bass sound. Equipment and budgetary limitations had a huge influence on the Carpenter sound, often resulting in a paired down minimalist feel with sometimes only a skittering hi-hat providing the only percussion; ‘Halloween’ remains a classic example of this.

The theme to Carpenter’s version of ‘The Thing’ was intriguing because composer Ennio Morricone was drafted in to provide the score and the music he came up with sounded exactly the kind of motif that one would imagine the director conceiving. Unrelentingly dark, the music fitted the gloomy all hope is lost theme to the film, one of which took several years to gain appreciation. At the time ‘The Thing’ was a box office flop and resulted in Carpenter being dropped from directorial duties on ‘Firestarter’ film adaptation.

Although ‘They Live’ remains one of Carpenter’s most original movies, its blues-inflected soundtrack is not one of his strongest and this re-recorded version still sounds at odds with the illuminati-themed film. The closing track to the album sees a re-work of the theme to the Stephen King-penned ‘Christine’ with Carpenter returning to the director’s chair for a promo video which has nods to both ‘Drive’ and ‘The Thing’.

For a director that had admittedly lost his film-making mojo a long time ago, it was a logical, yet genius move to for him to revisit his musical back catalogue both here and with his live shows over the last few years.

When the orchestral score was the norm, both JOHN CARPENTER and TANGERINE DREAM showed that electronic music could work in a film soundtrack context and ‘Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998’ reinforces how influential the man is and helps to cement his place in electronic music history.

Purists would argue that it would have been essential to have copies of the original versions here as well, but this is a minor quibble when the interpretations here remain faithful and act as a wonderful reminder of what a superb back catalogue of music JOHN CARPENTER has produced.

‘Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998’ is released by Sacred Bones Records and available in vinyl, CD and download formats from https://johncarpentermusic.bandcamp.com/album/anthology-movie-themes-1974-1998

JOHN CARPENTER tours the UK in 2018, dates include: London Eventim Apollo (16th October), Newcastle Tyne Theatre (18th October), Glasgow Barrowlands (19th October), Manchester Albert Hall (21st October)

http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com

https://www.facebook.com/directorjohncarpenter/

https://twitter.com/TheHorrorMaster

Text by Paul Boddy
18th December 2017, 19th July 2018

THE RISE OF THE SYNTHS The Official Companion Album

16 December 2017 /


“The natural way of the cultural wave: we generally experience that musical and cultural trends shift from an outstanding position within public opinion to near utter rejection, refusal and ridicule, through an ever-shortening period of time. However, if that period of time is extended, to often several decades, we can witness a renovation, a new heightened recognition – the rebirth of the wave. Through today’s global reach, powered by the internet, cultural waves and fascinations can resurface and manifest themselves, with an even much bigger fan impact than the original source.”

And so The Synths rise, to combat the ordinary, to get ahead, to prove that this isn’t a mere revival; it’s a continuation of the trend started a long time ago, a trend which has been bubbling away in the hearts and minds of many, the army of the underground, which is now unleashing its machines to show the world their supremacy.

‘The Rise Of The Synths’ is the definitive documentary about the electronic music of its mainstream heyday, the nostalgia of those years and the memorable atmosphere created by the likes of Giorgio Moroder, Edgar Froese and John Carpenter.

The project, backed up by hundreds of modern synth music composers, alongside the daddies of electronica, is a journey in time from its origins, through to the most successful time for synth, into its grunge fuelled denial and the big comeback thanks to the newly discovered social media and its important role in propagating of new music.

Anyone can be an artist these days, the day job is one thing – but why not tinkle on your synths and computers in your spare time? And with the digital outlets sprouting up like mushrooms, anyone can have a chance to hear your music. nostalgia lives through, be it with the lovers of vintage games, computers, equipment, or clothing, to those who just can’t forget the musical excitement upon hearing what synthesisers could do.

John Carpenter loved the fact that “when synthesisers were first introduced into music, (he) could get a big sound with them, (…) like an orchestra.” And that’s why many got inspired into making fresh sounds which would be impossible to achieve otherwise.

The machines never sleep and 2011 saw ‘Drive’, with its magnificent synthy soundtrack, win the festival’s Best Director Award for Nicolas Winding Refn at the Cannes Film Festival. The movement continues with the superb Netflix series ‘Stranger Things’; not only showcasing the life in provincial America in the Reagan-era, but also a deliciously electronic score, full of analogue goodness straight from the onset intro, which is impossible to skip.

‘The Rise of the Synths’ continues that trend, with numerous lovers of analogue and digital from all around the globe, joining forces to stand against the ordinary and to prove that machines rule. They rule big…

Kicking off with the perfect arpeggios by CHROME CANYON on ‘Deckard Returns’, the compilation promises a perfect listening experience from the onset.

GUNSHIP with ‘The Vale Of Shadows’ takes the reigns next, presenting the London trio of Dan Haigh, Alex Westaway and Alex Gingell; the group have had a very successful release under their belt with the 2015 eponymous album.

POWER GLOVE are best known for writing the soundtrack to the retro-futuristic video game ‘Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon’; here, the two Australians plate up ‘Fatal Affair’; a futuristic flick with a twist. ‘Makita’ by GENO LENARDO imagines the machines picking up their weapons and marching against the enemy, all with industrial elements of fear inducing qualities.

Naming his project after the ‘Top Gun’ icon, COM TRUISE aka New Yorker Seth Haley has gathered a substantial following with his “mid-fi synth-wave, slow-motion funk” and here he presents his quirky ‘Idle Withdrawal’.

While Daniel Davis  is ‘Lost In Love’ with a melodious pop song, Robert Parker is chasing his ‘Silver Shadow’, and WAVESHAPER are on a ‘Mission To Remember’. If it ever rains for CODE ELEKTRO, it has to be ‘Black Rain’. The drops of arpeggiated downfall descend upon the simple melody, creating an atmosphere of suspense and dread.

But there’s nothing like GERMAN ENGINEERING on ‘The Osbourne Effect’, an experimental Kraftwerkian with the elements of the glorious instrumentals DEPECHE MODE used to provide in the day. The magnificent ‘Triage’ by Giorgio Moroder, who is joined by Raney Schockne passes almost too quickly, before the heavy ‘Night Stalker’ by CARPENTER BRUT appears; the Frenchman wrote music for video games ‘Hotline Miami 2 : Wrong Number’ and ‘The Crew’.

John Bergin introduces his guitar heavy ‘Crash & Burn’ and calming ‘Fleshman’, both as if taken from a video game. ‘Dead Of Night’ by LA based DANCE WITH THE DEAD could have easily been used in the likes of ‘Footloose’ and is very ‘Eye Of The Tiger’.

LAZERHAWK takes over on ‘A Hero’s Journey’ with filigree synths and cinematic landscapes; Garrett Hays is a founding member of ROSSO CORSA and a very successful electronic producer with a considerable success during the days of MySpace.

OGRE ushers in the era of ‘Rebar (Prologue)’, from Exeter, UK, Robin Ogden is a composer, producer and sound designer. MEGA DRIVE open the ‘Stargate’, a cleverly put together track of sci-fi design, while VOYAG3R closes the album with ‘Appearance Of The Mysterious Traveler’.

Many other artists were involved in the production; music makers from Sweden, Denmark, Spain and Canada joined numerous composers from the US and UK, all to aid the cause and strengthen the position of synth worldwide.

It seems like the trend is catching. The mighty synth has risen and it’s hitting with revenge and its revenge is sweet.

‘The Rise of the Synths’ is released by Lakeshore Records, available as a download or cassette from https://lakeshorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-rise-of-the-synths-official-companion-album-2

http://theriseofthesynths.com

https://www.facebook.com/theriseofthesynths/

https://twitter.com/RiseOfTheSynths

https://www.instagram.com/theriseofthesynths/

Text by Monika Izabela Trigwell
16th December 2017

VEiiLA Dive

4 December 2017 /


познакомиться с новой музыкой из Санкт-Петербурга

Used to the fact that the vast majority of prolific European electronic acts emerge from either Scandinavia or Germany, one wouldn’t necessarily look towards Russia to discover a shiny synth gem within that cold and inhospitable environment.

But the Russians love their electro and synth, just like the next person, often welcoming many established acts to play live gigs, regardless of the off-putting visa requirements from their government.

And so, there comes VEiiLA…. assembled in Saint Petersburg three years ago and consisting of Vif Nüte (vocals/synths) and Bes Eiredt (synths), the duo’s high energy performances, enticing with über quality visual concepts, have gathered them a following and led the twosome to open for such acts as THE NEIGHBORHOOD, Sian Evans of KOSHEEN, ALEX CLARE, ABOVE & BEYOND and ATB. Fellow Russian lovers of electro have awarded the band with accolades in local music contests and fully embraced the unusual sound of VEiiLA.

Self-described as “music for introverts”, the band members like to keep a veil of mystery when it comes to their private affairs and rarely give interviews, styling their output to reflect the feeling of “eavesdropping to somebody’s intimate conversation”.

Having released their first single in 2016, the Nüte / Eiredt partnership have worked hard on their live shows and the production of their debut EP. ‘Dive’ consists of a rework of previously released ‘RDMV STR’, and five brand new tracks, with the title number opening the sequence with Sarah Blackwood era CLIENT-sounding vocal from Nüte.

Soon enough, the voice raises to operatic levels, and the tempo changes, incorporating a nautical feel with Gothic overtures reminiscent of EVANESCENCE.

‘No Cry’ introduces superb electronic elements and is vocally performed in the style of FLORENCE & THE MACHINE. The break comes when the time signature changes to that of a club feel; there are even snippets of dubstep. And all that sounds good, extremely good…

The slow starting ‘Mantra’ erupts with the vitality of a Middle Eastern choir over upbeat techno direction, hypnotising with the promise of “fearless, adventurous” savagery. PET SHOP BOYS could have written this and they’d be proud of it too.

‘Never Come Back’ masks the sadness with a cheery rhythm à la SPECTRA PARIS, with its glittery, shiny exterior. Further dance beats are palpable on the Detroit techno meet Eurotrance of ‘Set Me On Fire’.

Yet the closing ‘RDMV STR’ closely resembles the work of ZOLA JESUS who, while claiming the Russian heritage, is capable of some stunning vocal and musical deliveries. Nüte lets the rebel in her rule here, combining the capable voices with exquisite musicality, leaving one wanting more, when there’s no more to be had.

VEiiLA certainly did their homework with ‘Dive’. The EP is edgy, grown-up and deep, displaying some magnificent elements of elegant electronica, as well as the witty vocal delivery by Nüte. Although the duo’s influences are clearly apparent, their own material doesn’t imitate; it’s innovative and fresh.

The claimed dark states of solitude and unhappiness are very well disguised within the high energy tracks, and the whole package is designed to please. After all, even behind the darkest of darks, there must be plenty of sunshine and clear blue skies…

Пусть всегда будет солнце, Пусть всегда будет небо, Пусть всегда будет мама, Пусть всегда буду я!

‘Dive’ is released as a digital EP on 7th December 2017, available from https://veiila.bandcamp.com/album/dive

http://veiila.com

https://www.facebook.com/veiilamusic

https://www.instagram.com/veiilamusic/

Text by Monika Izabela Trigwell
4th December 2017

GAZELLE TWIN Kingdom Come

2 December 2017 /

Keeping her privacy well under wraps always seemed rather important for Elizabeth Bernholz aka GAZELLE TWIN.

The concept of portraying herself via her music, instead of physical looks surely speaks for itself. “This is me” she says, through the animated noises, quirky sound manipulations and captivating imaginary, both audio and visual. Not a stranger to artistic enterprises, such as her ‘Out Of Body’ project and its predecessor, ‘Unflesh’, Bernholz isn’t the one to dissect her musical directions, “explain or justify my work to anyone, least of all try persuade someone to persevere with it if they don’t already have the desire to do so”.

For those after easy listening pieces of electronica, GAZELLE TWIN is not at all suitable; one won’t find gentle, beautifully orchestrated musical gems, catchy hooks and the challenges of “what can this synth do for me” type. What you will find is: reflection, politically charged landscapes, metaphysical elements and the most unusual sounds, painting utopian visions of the world of today.

While ‘Out Of Body’ dealt with the beauty and ugliness of our mortality, with the intricacies of how our bodies work, the crude physicality of the shell versus the mind, ‘Kingdom Come’ looks at the devastation of modern societies and the very social diseases that eat away at nations and individuals.

Based on the eponymous book by JG Ballard, the father of dystopian modernism, who in music has influenced everyone from Gary Numan to Madonna, ‘Kingdom Come’ is a thoughtful representation of how the corporate greed and misplaced alliances alienate individualism and crash what’s truly important, all the while eliciting the tribal and primal behaviours from, otherwise docile human beings. Homosapiens are violent predators, lead to believe we have an alternative. If Ballard’s notions felt unpleasant, GAZELLE TWIN likes to “get under the skin of those ideas, because they are bizarre, and uncomfortable.”

The audio visual experience was first commissioned for Manchester’s Future Everything festival; ‘Kingdom Come for Two Vocalists’ saw the production from Bernholz performed by Natalie Sharp, also known as LONE TAXIDERMIST, and Stuart Warwick. Dressed in a mixture of sharp business suits and gym outfits, the pair run the rut of life on treadmills, getting nowhere. The life of work, controlled leisure activities, contrived fun and artificial happiness ooze from the performance, which has now been presented in an audio mini-album of seven tracks.

Opened by ‘See How They Run’ with its haunting aura of dread, it is followed by galling ‘Metro’ ,quoting the utopian truths such as “choices are compulsory”, uttered in frightfully distorted mantric voices are deeply disturbing. Next, the machine gunned out ‘The Suburbs’ continues the feelings of danger and inability to escape the reality, while the cinematic ‘I Consume Only’ emulates the voice of a Catholic father preaching the mass of never-ending greed , “I can suck you dry”.

‘Hallowed’ deafens with a paralysing sound of horns, suppressed female vocals and the occasional sigh of struggle, or is it sexual? It matters not, it’s all monitored by the state, right? We are all on the ‘Death Drive’; a fast paced road to nowhere, where’s the end of it? Death is the end of it. To summarise, ‘Cling Film’ covers it all, in a further rise of unnerving sound elements and frightening voices.

GAZELLE TWIN feels dystopia as a theme is here to stay for a while; after all it’s an indefinite source of inspiration, and the world events observed unfolding daily certainly can’t provide the alternative. And what’s the alternative? Socialism? Religious freedom or anarchy?

Elizabeth Bernholz’s conceptual approach to music has reached higher levels.

It is weird watching two vocalists on treadmills, uttering sometimes indescribable sounds, crying out mutilated words and twisting in agony of something incomprehensible may feel peculiar; but what an interesting approach to portray the wrongs in this world.

Terrifying? Yes.

Food for thought? Definitely.

‘Kingdom Come’ is released by Anti-Ghost Moon Ray as a digital download, available from https://gazelletwin.bandcamp.com/album/kingdom-come

http://www.gazelletwin.com/

https://www.facebook.com/gazelletwin

https://twitter.com/gazelletwin

http://www.antighostmoonray.com

Text by Monika Izabela Trigwell
2nd December 2016

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