Where did you hear about this blog?

Молчат Дома - Этажи

You may be wondering, 'Is the band Молчат Дома, who created the album, Этажи, a foreign band?' and 'Are they going to be singing some non-english language, perhaps Russian?' The answer to both of these questions is yes. I can't remember how I found this album originally, but one day it came up in my YouTube recommended, I instantly recognized the cover, and decided to give it a listen. It was really good. It reminded of me listening to Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures for the first time. Note: In this review, I italicize Russian words written in the Roman alphabet, put "quotation marks" around English translations, and do nothing to Russian words written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Молчат Дома or Molchat Doma (roughly translates to "The Houses are Silent") is a 'cold wave' band. This is a genre of music that I don't know too much about, but from what I understand the genre is close to goth, except more detached and minimalistic. Si...

Crumb - Jinx

Jinx is the first, and only, full length album by the band Crumb. It caught my eye, or rather ear, late last year while I was searching for music on YouTube. What makes this album appeal to me so much is its unique blend of trip-hop and neo-psychedelia. Trip-hop is a genre of music, popularized by the band Portishead, that is the gloomy goth child of hip-hop and electronica. It is basically what you get when you take a hip-hop beat, add spooky singing, and add filters and sound effects to make it sound uncanny and retro. Neo-psychedalia, as the name suggests, is a modernized version of psychedelic rock. Electronic and dance elements are often added added, along with falsetto vocals and a more dreamy sound. Some examples of neo-psychedellic bands are The Flaming Lips, MGMT, and Tame Impala. The result of combining these two genres is this laid back, spooky, spiritual sound. It's like you just died and are a ghost in a graveyard, but you are kinda okay with it, and are ...

The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute

Frances the Mute is the second studio album by American experimental progressive rock band, The Mars Volta. A fun fact about this band: the "Volta" in the band's name comes from a term in a book by Federico Fellini, which he defines to mean "a changing of scene, or a turnaround". The "Mars" part of the name just came from the band's fascination with science fiction. What does these two words mean together? Who knows. The Mars Volta stands out to me as a band due to the unusually loud, chaotic, and powerful nature of their music. Progressive music is often chaotic, but The Mars Volta takes it to a whole new level. You will be listening to one of their songs, and suddenly BAM! Cement truck of guitars and synths to the face! In addition, the amazing and unique vocals of Cedric Bixler-Zavala bring a lot to the band's music. His voice is extremely powerful and is able to quickly and flawlessly switch between standard rock vocals to s...

Search