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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...

King Crimson - Larks' Tongues in Aspic

King Crimson is a classic 70s progressive rock band with a unique jazzy sound that makes their music very fun and interesting. If you have heard of King Crimson at all, you probably at least know of their first album, In the Court of the Crimson King , and its popular song, "21st Century Schizoid Man". Although that album is undeniably great, I actually prefer this album, Larks' Tongues in Aspic . The first song on the album, "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part I", begins with a peaceful soundscape made by the sound of wooden wind chimes. Eventually, this transitions into the sound of frantic fiddles. The tension slowly builds as the fiddles get louder and some guitar and improvisation on what sounds like a found object drum kit is added in. Suddenly, a loud, sludgy guitar riff blasts through, completely taking you off guard. Like a lot of king Crimson songs, this one is full of interesting exp...

My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

Have you ever listened to psychedelic rock an thought "man, this isn't trippy enough, I wish there was some kind of super psychedelic genre"? Well now you have it with the shoegaze album Loveless by My Bloody Valentine! Shoegaze (also called shoegazing) sounds like psychedelic, stoned and on acid. The genre features loud distorted guitars with a blurry dreamlike sound and softer, muffled vocals in the background. The hazy wall of sound created by shoegaze is purposely there to try to overwhelm the listener. Whenever I listen to shoegaze I feel like I am floating through space in a dream, which is a result of the calming effects of the music. Shoegaze is called as such because of British newspapers who criticized the new genre by saying all the musicians did was gaze at their shoes during live performances. These same newspapers also coined the term "shoegazing," which eventually stuck. The reason why they always looked at their feet, is shoegaze bands heavily u...

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