Matt Stevens - Live in Blackpool
Label: Self
Release date: 2011
Total running time: 00:39:21
Matt Stevens is a musician and composer from North London. An instrumental artist, he uses an acoustic guitar and a sampler to create multi layered tracks live. This is often called Live Looping. His music is compared with artists as diverse as Radiohead and Robert Fripp. He plays live all over the UK.
He has released 2 albums Echo in 2008 and Ghost in 2010 . Echo was a "word of mouth" success thanks to the support of hundreds of bloggers and podcasters.
And now here is with the fresh "Live in Blackpool".
"It is just me, a guitar and a loop pedal in front of an audience at the Electric Garden Festival. There is a full review of the festival here" Matt Stevens
| TRACKLIST |
Charts and Maps – Dead Horse
Label: Lost Children
Release date: 2011
Total running time: 00:56:24
"Charts and Maps have always been a difficult band to figure out. I was at both their first and last shows - I saw them develop from a loud, jumbled mess of good ideas wrenched together at angles to one of the most aggressively forward-thinking end electrifying live bands on the Los Angeles underground circuit. Dead Horse, much more than any previous recording, captures the sheer bombast of their live performances. It was recorded at the band's pinnacle, on the eve of their final performance at the tail end of 2009. Clashing personalities and gargantuan creative workloads pulled them in different directions. This is where the Heard of Elephants family tree comes in -- It gets a bit complicated. Khawaja (bass), Melancon (drums), and Allison (sax/vocals) currently play in Woolen. Melancon, Allison and Watford (guitar) are part of Random Patterns, and John Taylor (guitar) is one half of Semiconscious Gloria.
Their music is the convergence of a number of diverse tendencies. They're one part ballsy big band jazz, another shimmery post-rock act with walls of melodic sound, a mathy-but-not-calculator-mathy garage-prog outfit, or an ill-tempered funk band with bad intentions -- all underpinned by an almost reckless sense of imagination, deep, grooving beats and eloquent, nimble lead melodies.
The album opens with the cheekily titled 'Take Me Back To Highland Park (Or I Will Die a Gruesome Death),' inspired after a night out in Hollywood. It is loud and stompy, sax heavy and skipping almost entirely through odd-time signatures while managing to be all up in your face without jamming on the distortion pedal. The epic, sweaty 11-minute opus 'In the Town of Machine,' follows, weaving an ominous melodic narrative inspired by the film Dead Man through a number of dystopian sonic landscapes, most culminating in absolutely searing lead lines by guitarist John Taylor. I'm loathe to use the word 'incendiary' to describe guitar playing, but, I mean it; I honestly believe that the man can start fires with his fingers alone.
The album closes with the band's final song, the title track 'Dead Horse.' I would argue that it is their finest work, one of the few to include prominent vocals (though you won't find a lyric sheet attached anywhere) and is vast in concept but concise in execution. Waves of sound lull you into a sense of comfort before dropping you off, leaving your floating in a futurist pool. Abruptly a mean funk commences. It's all syncopated and raw and signature Charts and Maps before the intensity drops to a pause. Then it builds slowly into what band members have described as 'a descent into hell.' And you can see why. It is as if they knew this was their final communication with the world and they wanted to get it all out. At the crashing end, every member is playing at 10 before the beast collapses, winded and spent.
Whether this is your cup of tea or not, Charts and Maps and this album in particular is an experiment going defiantly against the grain in Los Angeles with equal dashings of aggression and aplomb." - Jasper Crane, P.H.D.
Available in FLAC!
| TRACKLIST |
| 01 - Take Me Back to Highland Park 02 - In the Town of Machine 03 - Gold Roomer 04 - Now I Must Hit You 05 - Pearl Divers of the Arabian Peninsula 06 - Hypnotiq American Firework 07 - Dead Horse |
Matt Stevens - Ghost
Label: Self
Release date: 2010
Total running time: 00:42:40
Matt Stevens is a musician and composer from North London. An instrumental artist, he uses an acoustic guitar and a sampler to create multi layered tracks live. This is often called Live Looping. His music is compared with artists as diverse as Radiohead and Robert Fripp. He plays live all over the UK.
He has released 2 albums Echo in 2008 and Ghost in 2010 . Echo was a "word of mouth" success thanks to the support of hundreds of bloggers and podcasters.
He has composed for short films(including the award winning Daddys Little Helper) and his live work is often compared to watching a one man guitar orchestra or wall of sound. He also plays guitar in the band The Fierce And The Dead.
He set up the site Cafe Noodle that allows bands to perform from their homes to an online community and acts as a consultant in Social Media for various industries.
| TRACKLIST |
Velislav Ivanov - The Eye of the Beholder
GENRE: Rock, Art Rock, Progressive Rock
Label: Self
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 00:51:54
Velislav Ivanov, born in 1988, is an independent musician from Sofia, Bulgaria. He releases his music for free, which allows him the freedom to do whatever he likes both musically and lyrically. He is primarily a keyboardist and singer, and utilize samples for other instruments. Both of his albums are strictly solo affairs, with only Ivanov appearing. His debut record, "Under dark skies" was released in 2006 and was heavily influenced by Marillion. It is a conceptual album based on the life and poems of the renowned Bulgarian poet Dimcho Debelyanov. In late 2008 he released his sophomore album, "So close to the sky itself". Ivanov consciously decided to produce a much different album from his first effort. It is a darker and more progressive effort, with a more complex and multi-layered concept and sound. Ivanov cites as influences MARILLION, PINK FLOYD, KING CRIMSON and THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT along with more contemporary artists like TINDERSTICKS and RADIOHEAD.
| TRACKLIST |
| 01 - Прашинки от хаоса 02 - Град на птици 03 - Погледът на съзерцателя 04 - Среднощна сюита 05 - Пустота 06 - Диапозитив 07 - Компромис 08 - Кръв по асфалта 09 - Цялата в мен |
Creative Commons license: All Free - All C.C.
The Silence Industry – The Teeth Of Tomorrow
GENRE: Rock, Gothic Rock, Progressive Rock, Experimental
Label: AFmusic
Release date: 2010
Total running time: 0:34:25
“The Teeth of Tomorrow” 5 song EP marks The Silence Industry’s 5th official release. Layers of cold guitars and driving bass riffs dominate the band’s sound in these songs of alienation and industrial decay. The Silence Industry was formed in early 2007. It consists primarily of Graham J., along with others who wish to collaborate with him on music at a given time. Right now, those collaborators consist of Laura (some guitar), Hyuma (some bass), and Josh (some noise and synths). It is not their intention to necessarily play any particular genre of music, but at the same time they are not scared of showing influences to some extent either, which range from post-punk, to prog rock, to experimental and noise music, as well as simple pop music. It is their intention to play music for the pure sake of own self expression and self actualization, not for some naive dream of becoming “rock stars” or anything of the sort.
| TRACKLIST |
| 01 - The Teeth of Tomorrow 02 - Together (Perfect Isolation) 03 - Ruins of the City 04 - Kissing Clouds 05 - The Colour of Heaven (All My Love) |
Creative Commons license: Attribution - Non Commercial - No Derivs 3.0 DE
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Comments
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If you liked "Songs for Rainy Mornings", try "Sketchbook" of the same musician http://humantracks.blogspot.com/2011/04/cd-sketchbook.html Written by Roxana on 20 April 2011 -
Thanks for your support :) Written by dustedwax on 5 April 2011 -
Thanks! :) Written by Joe, Ruined Machines on 28 March 2011
