Words In The Earth

At this point I'm pretty familiar with Swedish musician Dan Wande , having written about him and his music several times on this blog, but it's always interesting to see how an artist progresses with each release. On his new two track record, Kissed By An Angel & Endless Void , Dan Wande gives us his most well crafted tracks yet that show a subtle development in song writing, an increasingly polished production, and a solidified sound that establishes well and truly what Dan Wande is all about. Combining the hard hitting and progressive sounds of 80s metal, with the melodic and atmospheric sounds of 70s occult rock and an increased use of darker modern metal grooves, these tracks take you to a place where heavy metal remains sitting atop it's glorious and timeless throne. One of the most definitive changes has been a new band line-up. Whilst Dan Wande has always been the sole song-writer of his music, different performers will always bring something new to a compos...

Monsieur Job are a Columbian collective lead by Cali based producer and songwriter Toby Holguin . Their eclectic mix of chill-out, breakbeat, hip-hop, dub, reggaetón and latin jazz was displayed to a great extent on debut album Bass Pa$$i , as well as it's subsequent follow up releases. Now with more collaborators on board, Monsieur Job have constructed their next album, the sprawling opus that is W.T.F! . Stylistically it follows in a similar vein to Bass Pa$$i , so it would be easy to look at the seven and half hour runtime of  W.T.F!  and think that this is some kind of self indulgent project that's inevitably bloated with throwaways and filler. That really isn't the case however, primarily because, at 120 tracks long,  W.T.F!  isn't supposed to be listened to in the same way most commercial albums are. In 1970 J.G. Ballard published his surrealist dystopian masterpiece The Atrocity Exhibition, a book broken up into loosely connected short chapters, or "condens...

It's not always a guarantee that when you put together experienced names with a rich musical history that what you'll get is a great piece of music. In pop music particularly in recent years the quality of collaborations has gone down while the supply has gone drastically up. However, when those names are perhaps less well known than the music they have produced it's probably more likely, from my experience, that the music will be put first and as such the song will more likely be a success, not just commercially but artistically too. Such is the case with Le Sonic,  the production duo made up of   Mike Rogers  and  Gary Lefkowith , and their debut single Any Moment . You probably haven't heard of Mike Rogers , but you have definitely heard Groove Is In The Heart , Deee-Lite's massive 1990 hit which he co-produced. You may not have heard of Gary Lefkowith , but you of course know Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger and Fleetwood Mac, just a few of the artists he has been...

There's a self-deprecating joke amongst fans of New York noise rock pioneers Swans that goes something along the lines of: 'What's your favourite Swans song?' 'The one with a single guitar chord repeated for ten minutes while someone screams "suicide" over the top' 'But wait... isn't that all of them?!'. Cue a chorus of laughing music nerds. Joking aside, there's something to be said for the mind-melting experimentalism of repetitive music, and while that Swans joke is a bit of an exaggeration, there are times when a simple hypnotic loop can offer something quite fascinating to listen to. In this regard, I wonder if that was the intention of Hollywood Video Game Kill-Bot on their latest single Shaker, or whether the track's trance-like effect is simply an incidental effect of it's composition? Hollywood Video Game Kill-Bot is a rather enigmatic artist, with little information available about them other than the name and location...

Despite some people's assertion that everything in music has been done already and nothing is original, there are certain artists who manage to refresh familiar styles in a way that adds something new and special to it. The sound of 90s R'n'B was the dominant form of pop music during my youth, a time when TLC, Destiny's Child, All Saints and Aaliyah were some of the biggest voices on radio and MTV. That sound has been a strong influence on a number of artists in the last ten years, ranging from Ariana Grande to The XX, but rarely has it been such a pure inspiration as it is to Gaviana. On her latest single Let Go, the singer/songwriter from Long Island, NY appears like the great lost artist of 90s R'n'B; but rather than feeling like a vintage relic, Gaviana balances the classic and the modern together in harmony, producing a track that is catchy, fun and hugely entertaining but also has a sense of drama and empowerment. With a string of successful singles under ...

Although I am someone who has a real penchant for weird sound experimentation and boundary pushing artists who challenge the very nature of what we call music, I am also someone who loves a good pop song too. The best thing is when you find artists who do a bit of both, but that is a rare thing these days, and while the talent it takes to work on deep sounds and sonic textures is admirable, there is also a lot to be said for those who can write an immaculate pop song that manages to sound both familiar and original at the same time. It's here we find Soda Cracker Jesus, the solo project of singer/songwriter Regan Lane whose previous output has come from bands like Baby Knockors, Strypes and Strangely Alright. As a project Soda Cracker Jesus certainly has it's own cultural pinpoints, but what makes the music special is it's well-crafted song-writing and a sound which manages to sit squarely in the middle of 60s Psychedelia, 70s Powerpop, 80s New Wave, and 90s Indie. The late...

On reviewing Telamonia's track Salt In My Eyes , the lead single from the Here's To Death EP, I was taken aback by the abnormal soundscapes that were created, but revelled in the delightfully dark nature that was exposed from a simple trap beat structure. It made me eager to hear the EP from which it was taken, and how the track would mould itself into the context of the project. The one thing Salt In My Eyes perhaps didn't purvey so much was the personality and thematic sense that Telamonia has aimed for, but with Here's To Death this is resolved completely. The EP maintains much of Telamonia's experimental and warped sonic palette, for the most part sounding as if Aphex Twin had decided to dabble in trap. However, what it also does is bring to the fore the dark lyrical themes of emotional pain, mental health issues and substance abuse. It approaches these topics in an often stark and very raw fashion, and it gives Telamonia's musical creations a whole other de...

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of reviewing Take A Deep Breath , the debut album from UK chillout project A Better Life. It's a wonderful album full of transformative soundscapes designed to evoke relaxation, but the thing that stood out most for me was the emotion and individual touch that seemed to emanate from these songs. It stands to reason then that A Better Life's founder Phil Daniels has a very personal reason for creating music with such blissful tones. The collective is multi-faceted, involving a host of talented instrumentalists and two stunning vocalists that help bring the songs to life; but at its heart is Phil and his innately creative mind. In this interview I aimed to get a deeper understanding of his connection to the music, his influences and inspirations, and the process of putting together a collective that can still produce such beautiful and intimate music in the midst of a global pandemic  Tell us about your musical history before A Better Life, and ...

Musical artistry manifests itself in different ways in each creator, and the idea always that less is more isn't an adage that should hold universal truth. In fact, it takes a particularly special type of artist to really make minimalism flourish, and Autumn Dawn Leader is one of those artists. That isn't to say her music is simple, not by a long stretch, but her music does put it's focus on to one key element; namely her voice. Because, while I, Autumnus is an album full of beautiful folk-indebted tunes and emotional lyrics, it wouldn't be anywhere near as powerful without Autumn Dawn Leader's remarkable vocal talents. Originally from the USA, but having spent the last fifteen years or so based in the UK, Autumn Dawn Leader has a wealth of experience behind her as both a singer-songwriter of her own compositions, and as a lead vocalist fronting bands performing other people's songs. That experience shows throughout I, Autumnus as while all of these songs, bar o...

In the modern age, garage rock is one of those genre tags which manages to be somewhat intangible yet also quite specific at the same time; you know the kind of sounds to expect, yet it's also quite hard to pinpoint exactly what defines those sounds as garage rock. Sure there's fuzzy punk rock guitars, relentlessly loud drums and booming rock'n'roll vocals, but then you could say that about any number of genres. The nature of garage rock is more in it's historical outlook, and the utilisation of influences from a bygone era. That doesn't mean garage rock should be a genre reserved specifically for a niche subculture though, because while there is a rich fandom around the style, the best garage rock bands are those who can, musically at least, transcend some of the clichés inherent in those vintage tropes. This is where we find Philadelphia natives The Judex, a four piece whose intense form of garage rock blends in elements from blues, soul, rockabilly and punk. ...

Creating a track that harkens back to a previous era can be a difficult task to get right. If you're too earnest and overly sincere about your themes then it can come across as an artist taking themselves too seriously without a sense of fun, and particularly in hip-hop that is rarely a good thing. If you go too far the other way though the theme can come across as fickle, and the artist as disingenuous and, worst of all, inauthentic. The trick is to get the balance of entertainment and authenticity spot on and that involves a strong sense of self-awareness; it's something which Killa Vanilla has definitely got right with his latest single Nostalgia. Hailing from Naples, Florida, Killa Vanilla is an artist who espouses a positive, characterful and fun vibe in his music. Across a number of singles released so far he has started to gain prominence beyond just his local scene, and with his big personality and propensity for a catchy hook it's easy to see why. Nostalgia sees hi...

Despite the cultural significance it has for those of us in the UK, I've never actually dived too deeply into chillout music before. The style was pioneered at the great London nightclub Heaven, and dance music institution Ministry Of Sound have been upholding the chillout genre for the best part of two decades now. When house music was at it's peak of commercial popularity in the UK, chillout was there alongside as it's relaxing, spaced-out partner. Whilst I can't profess to being an expert in chillout, I am familiar enough with the style and it's roots in ambient house, as well as it's relationship to downtempo and trip-hop, to find Take A Deep Breath, the debut album from A Better Life, an incredibly intriguing and creative project. My experience with these sounds is often as a constituent part to some exploration of native music, jazz-fusion or spoken word, but A Better Life take quite a pure approach to chillout. The UK collective are led by songwriter and ...

I've always been of the opinion that character is the most important thing in music. Without a display of the creator's character and personality then we're simply left with the inhuman ideal of music as 'organised sound', something which we now have AIs making for us . What I mean by character is that intangible element which can separate artists from one another, even if on a musical basis they sound invariably close. These subtle nuances and incidental changes are what make music truly unique, and Placekeeper is an artist standing as a perfect example of this fact. Placekeeper are an indie rock band from Denver, Colorado fronted by singer, guitarist and songwriter Ganesh Chandran. Ghosts is their latest single, but the song itself actually dates back several years. Originally written in 2012, the song addresses themes of self-confidence and self-doubt, feelings that were brought to the fore again recently and inspired Ganesh to revisit the song and bring it to li...

There are times when a piece of music starts and you can almost instantly tell that the artist behind it is entirely comfortable in their own creative mind, and this is certainly the feeling I get from Elektragaaz and their latest single Cabin Fever. A global collective, with many members based in New York City, they are led by anonymous composer and producer Poppo Redband whose musical visions meld together numerous genres and styles with complete ease, creating a sound which feels simultaneously familiar and utterly original. Cabin Fever is taken from the EP The Synaesthetic Picture Show Now Playing Part 1, a record which you can tell just from it's title is going to be highly ambitious musically. The track is something of a headrush with so much to take in as it meshes together seemingly disparate elements from electro-pop, funk, prog rock, neo-classical, and salsa with a certain enigmatic quality. There's no vocals, which means the listener's focus can be drawn entirely...

Like most kids growing up with a keen interest in music, I went through my phase of adoring The Beatles, and although my phase didn't go on long enough for me to fully explore the depths of their music, it did implant me with a lifelong appreciation for them. For me personally though it wasn't their musical experimentation and forward-thinking production styles that gripped me as it did for so many, but simply the quality and veracity of their song-writing, and as such I always preferred The Beatles more overtly pop output. Most of this can be found in their early singles and albums, but there are also a good number of tracks from their later output that hit the mark. One of my favourite Beatles tracks, and one that is not often at the forefront of cover albums, is Penny Lane, a highly celebrated non-album single from the Sergeant Pepper era that is a perfect summation of the Lennon-McCartney song-writing dynamic. Hearing a tribute album that puts the track front and centre was...

Although there sometimes remains an outsider view that metal is still a pretty stagnant and unsophisticated genre, there are actually a wealth of artists in the underground who are pushing the genre forward both musically and culturally. Lindsay O is a brilliant example of the dynamism of modern metal. The LA based vocalist and instrumentalist has been at the front of a number of boundary pushing projects within the broad scope of death metal, and has lent her talents to several different styles and sounds. Whether it's the dissonant tech-death of Coma Cluster Void, the slam death of Eyes Of Perdition, or the industrial experiments of Catenation, her combination of roaring low growls, epic high screams, compelling cleans and charismatic spoken words make everything she puts her voice to exciting. With her new project NATALIA, Lindsay O has taken something of a different turn. Placing her focus into electronic sounds, NATALIA still has much of the intensity and energy of Lindsay O...

You think you've heard every background story a musician could possibly have, and then a new story appears to surprise and delight you. Chris St. John is a former judge who has spent twenty six years in the legal profession, but has now decided to follow his passion for music. Over the course of those years he has composed a number of excellent songs that tell some of the stories, joys and hardships of his personal life with exquisite beauty. He has brought these together on his gorgeous debut album I'm Dreaming, released earlier this year. I'd Send You My Heart is the stunning closing track to the album that combines all the melancholy of his song-writing style into a simple but perfectly formed ballad. Telling the story of a lost loved one, the track approaches a theme that is familiar and relatable with a deeply personal touch. While the references to texting and the nature based metaphors feel tangible, they also clearly portray a very specific meaning to Chris St. John...