MELOMANIA has 7 new releases for you. While it starts bracing and brooding - we finish with sunshine.
Because. Music should provide a range of emotions - regularly. We hope it does for you.
BEBEWINIGI - Stupor [LP](SubSound ITA)
Multi-hyphenate Bebewinigi has made an album as unpredictable as the next turn in her career. “Stupor” is a bit like if Bjork or P.J.Harvey had a little Diamanda Galas deep down. “Ayahoo!” is a bracing start as Bebewinigi filters a Yoko Ono-esque crashing melody through grinding guitars, swooping strings, and her multi-tracked vocals. Bebewinigi is mostly a study in contrasts. “Mr.Fat” disturbs its groove with wild noise. “Go Back” is a kalimba-led ballad that is beautiful as Bebewinigi trades off her unique (almost raspy) vocals with warm clarinet-like sounds. “Stupor” seems to be centered around her elastic voice which regularly defies genre specifications. “Space” is a Mike Patton-esque (maybe they will meet) mesmerization that wonderfully mines the moments of both its grinding riff and the uncomfortable twinkling passages for dramatic vocals with near child-like melodies. “The Call of The Deep” is cinematic in its scope, slowly drawing you into Bebewinigi’s almost ritualistic singing and then exploding into a muscular, near-dissonant gallop. Finally, just to prove that she loves toying with us, “Stupor” ends with a multi-voice near a capella rendition of Grieg’s “In The Hall of The Mountain King” that soars into madness. Defiantly original. One to watch.
DROWSE - Wane Into It [LP/CD](Flenser)
Drowse elicits a lot of emotion from its lack of emotion on this noisy, affecting album. Recorded over the last three years, Kyle Bates often sounds like he is producing a more detached version of Shoegaze (mostly reminiscent of Red House Painters.) Bates likes to hide his clever lyrics behind chugging dense walls of sound. “Untrue In Headphones” is an opener that makes you brace yourself as the last glimmer of hope hovers in his voice at times. “Mystery Pt. 2” builds from its hollowing Elliott Smith-ish acoustic figure to a dramatic Godspeed-ish conclusion. “Ashes Over The Pacific Northwest” even approaches a Doom-y point of no return, but Bates is smart enough to counterprogram with inventive organ and bells. On “Wane,” Bates uses the dark parts to explore quiet pain (the riveting title cut,) and the propulsive passages (“Blue Light Glow”) to encapsulate the space between anguish and anger. While Bates never raises his voice, the levels he mixes the elements of his music often speak more for his rattled mood and the overwhelming sense of loss.
BLEAKNESS - Life At A Standstill [LP](Quiet Panic LLC/The Orchard)
Like early Killing Joke, French group Bleakness rage into their driving Post-Punk. On their most visceral and thunderous Rock songs, they always find the most anthemic chorus (“Dancing With Darkness” is the best example and hope for a single.) While their sound could use a little more dimension, “Standstill” is generally an album of attack. For instance, they pummel the blistering Punk out on “Affected Heads,” then follow it with the brooding Cure-ian winding instrumental “19061924” whose speeded-up ending blends smartly with the punishing opening of “Rush Into The Night.” The 90s-meets-Post Punk 1-2 punch of the muscular “Hold On” and “Resignation Kills” best shows how well they harness their power and slowly release it with tracks that they continue to drive harder until they peak in the end.
MOUNDABOUT - Flowers Rot, Bring Me Stones [LP](Rocket Recordings UK)
As if GNOD had not already almost cornered the market on hypnotic Rock, Paddy Shine takes an ethereal, bucolic trip down the well with Phil Masterson. Moundabout’s haunted Freak Folk trip is an album that needs to unwind before you. Shine’s deep, sonorous chants and distant echo-hidden whispers clearly obscure the mysteries of the universe. With the stringed instruments generally mixed up front, their droning tracks need to fill your room first - then hook their minimal melodies into your mind’s eye. “Waste of Peace” wants to be a Hippie epic with its trills and hidden string bends. Instead, it plays like a slightly happier Skip Spence circa “Oar.” “Bring Me Stones” feels immediate. Like Wet Tuna or even Incredible String Band, listening to the melody wrap around both their voices and the dark Folk strum is riveting. Moundabout’s music is not designed to leap out at you. It needs to occupy you like a ghost (the centerpiece “Dick Daly’s Dance” needs 12 minutes to build to eruption including a subtle Butthole Surfers-esque stretch) but once it does - the songs feel like they are ending too soon.
ELIMINATOR - Ancient Light [LP](Dissonance/Cherry Red UK)
British NWOBHM Metallers Eliminator returns with an album that would fit perfectly into the early Eighties peak of British Metal. Danny Foster is a great vocalist whose range and power fall directly between Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson. He pushes the title cut to operatic heights upping the ante on a pair of guitar solos that merge into a classic Thin Lizzy-style dual lead. The guitars of Jack MacMichael and Matthew Thomas get their best/most creative workout on the Maiden-esque “The Sculptor and The Stone Lady.” Somehow their ideas gel on the opening salvo, then bind back together in a different, tougher manner for the middle solo and a thrilling dual-guitar-led slowdown. The best showcase for the rhythm section (especially bassist Jamie Brandon) is the locomotive single/shout of “Silent Stone” which hits all its switches (driven beautifully by drummer Dave Steen) and sounds like equal parts ’80s and 90’s metal. “Ancient Light” shows Eliminator as a band on the brink.
THE MELLONS - Introducing… [LP/CD](Earth Libraries)
Straight out of the “land of milk and honey” (their words) that is Utah come the Brian Wilson-obsessed Mellons. Like Emmit Rhodes circa ‘68, Mellons are at their best when their songs find that bittersweet space between happiness and desperation. “So Much To Say” changes moods beautifully with its chord choices. As musicians, the recording here is near perfect with chiming guitar, moving bass, and harmonies that stretch over you like a rainbow. “What A Time To Be Alive” bravely moves the Beach Boys-ian midtempo Pop of the Sixties forward with a McCartney-esque steady beat and funhouse carnival instrumentation. While “Strawberry Girl” goes even further into the “Smile” era deep echo yet peaks on a mixture of Sunshine Pop tenets and brief Badfinger-era guitar squall. The Mellons cram a lot of ideas into each song, and we cannot wait to hear what results when they further digest their love of classic Pop and Power Pop for the next chapter.
TONICO 70 - “Vic’L/Fantasie (Sampled Version)[7”](Four Flies ITA/Light In The Attic)
With or without Banda Maje, Tonico 70 sings/speaks/raps with a lot of personality. “Vic’L” is a smooth groove with a bumping beat and cool horns. However, Tonico 70 fills it with a 70’s-esque vocal melody that is so infectious you may not notice the legato flute part until the track finishes. “Fantasie” with Banda Maje (on his album “Antonico”) heats up perfectly with a hot brass line and cool Rhodes piano. The “Sampled Version” from the single is even hotter as Tonico 70 changes flow like an American rapper. Simply accompanied by beats, hand claps, and brief melodic bites, Tonico 70 loves to unravel when the song is at its busiest and then build mightily when only accompanied by the beat. In the end, Tonico has such presence - you really feel deflated when he takes a rest.
Well, another week, another list of several different styles and pursuits in music for you. Enjoy. Listen again. Share as you wish.
NEW RELEASES lovingly compiled for you from this very week!
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