Record Of The Week

This Patch Of Sky – Newly Risen, How Brightly You Shine

Eugene, Oregon based This Patch Of Sky have just released their second album, and it is quite a release. The album comprises 5 tracks at just over 30 minutes in length. Its well written, well played, well mixed and sounds excellent. There is not a bad track on this album, every track seems to have its own character, there is melody over melody, quiet and loud  all over the place on this release. This is post-rock, of that there is no doubt. But, this just isn’t any post-rock, its This Patch Of Sky post-rock and I think this is important. This album was also funded by a Kickstarter project, of which I pledged, so it was the fans who, in the end, actually made the recording of this album possible.

So sit back, relax and crank the dial to 11 and enjoy the awesome sounds of This Patch Of Sky.

Biography

This Patch of Sky is an instrumental/rock band from Oregon which was founded in the summer of 2010 by Kit Day, Nate Trowbridge, Joel Erickson, and Andrew Sandahl. What started out as a work of passion for the four guys had mutated into something bigger. As fans began popping up across the globe, the band realized that what they had to say had found an audience.

This Patch of Sky released their first EP, The Immortal, The Invisible, in February of 2011 and have since been playing shows throughout the West Coast. Later that year, the band joined forces with German post-rock label, Oxide Tones. After receiving overwhelming support from fans across the world, they decided it was time to record their sophomore album a little over a year later.

Newly Risen, How Brightly You Shine was recorded at Clarity Recording in Hillsboro, Oregon and consists of 5 songs, approximately 30 minutes in length. To fund this album, the band decided to launch a kickstarter asking for other people to donate money to help fund this project. After seeing an amazing amount of fans donate to this cause, the album was fully funded in less than 30 days.

The goal for this EP was to create music that reflected their hearts, to turn music into more than just music. They wanted to give people a sense of belonging, a hope, a connection. Newly Risen, How Brightly You Shine became available in June of 2012 as a free download on Bandcamp, NoiseTrade, and other various web sites to show how thankful they were to family, friends, and fans.

After recording their 2nd EP, guitarist Andrew Sandahl parted from the band to pursue new things in life. His role was filled by Austin Zentz in May of 2012 who gave a new sound to the band. Christopher King was also added to fill in on synth and piano. The band is eager to continue sharing their music and hearts with family, friends, and fans across the world.

Record Of The Week

Lights Out Asia – Hy-Brasil

From the N5MD website

Hy-Brasil was said to be a phantom island off the south west coast of Ireland. The island’s lore contains such accounts as more advanced yet opulent inhabitants, an unusually round geographical layout, and a strange attribute of only being visible every 7 years. To further add to the island’s mystique it is widely speculated to be the geographic coordinate included in an alien binary code that is also thought to include the phrase ‘EXPLORATION [of ] HUMANITY’. Such multifaceted myth seems to be the perfect name sake the band Lights Out Asia’s multifaceted 5th album.

For Hy-Brasil the band is now back to the core duo of Mike Ystad and Chris Schafer. The absence of Mike Rush’s guitars have left a bit of space for the duo to explore more visceral sometimes ‘Vangelian’ synthwork, warm emotive cello passages and more dexterous electronic beat workouts. From the opening track onward each composition on Hy-Brasil twists and turns through the organic and synthetic seamlessly while yielding what we think is their most dynamic, expansive and universally accessible album to date. The sense of urgency so prevalent on their previous album In The Days Of Jupiter has given way to an underlying mood that seems to reflect moments of transition or exhausting post-catharsis. Maybe even an ‘exploration’ [of] the duo’s own ‘humanity’ while looking outward, questioning what truly “is”. [52 09’42.532″ N 13 13’12.69″ W]

Record Of The Week

When Clouds Collide – We’re Just Making Sound

When Clouds Collide release We’re Just Making Sound on the German based record label, Oxide Tones. 10 tracks in total clocking in at just over 47 minutes. Based in New Jersey in the North East of the USA, they have really embraced the genre with this solid release. They list a host of bands are their influences across a few different genre, but they have resisted the temptation to sound like those influences. I like the ambient, post-rock, minimalist sounds throughput the album. I also like the quiet/loud aspects of their music, and the strings are very well placed in the music, the strings just bring out that bigger, more expansive, fuller sound. The quiet is very ambient and dreamy while the loud is big sounds but well controlled big sounds that don’t go totally crazy, they seem to hold back rather than letting it all go.

All in all an awesome release, which is well written, produced and performed by these two talented musicians. If you haven’t heard this then I urge you to do so.

From the Oxide Tones Website

When Clouds Collide is a post-rock duo from New Jersey comprised of Matt O’Connor and Michael Coyle. Their debut LP – entitled We’re Just Making Sound – was completely self-produced. Both members wrote, recorded, and produced the album with the exception for a few parts written and recorded by Russ Frank and Ryan Lederer. Their influences range among several genres and include bands such as Minus the Bear, This Will Destroy You, Cloudkicker, and many more. Their sound can be described by the quote, “…they avoid self-indulgent interludes and solos – and their songs possess propulsion. In a concert hall, the reverberations would likely fill the room, drowning out conversation and evoking the euphoria of layered instrumentation.”

Record Of The Week

Apta – Algorithms EP

To say i was impressed when this 4 track ep by Apta hit my inbox is an understatement. I knew Apta, the solo project of Barry Smethurst, from the his work with the Circle Project, and I did play a track back in February called ‘Little Waking Light’.This EP, titled Algorithms, is just splendid. Lots of melodies intertwine with each other, electronic sounds with IDM overtones is really pleasing to the ears. There is a certain organic simplicity about how it sounds, but there is also the complexity of having multiple melodies playing at the same time and having the overall feeling that they all fit. That has always impressed me with songwriters, how to have all these multiple melodies and beats playing and not making it sound messy. So the four tracks, titled Rise, Break, Shadows and To The Sky all have a certain beauty, and a slightly different feel, contained within each track. Overall there is a growing melancholic feel to it, the first track is fairly upbeat but gradually each track seems to slow down ever so slightly. The field recordings on To The Sky at the end are a touch of class and kind of close the curtains on the whole EP, as if this EP is closing act one and the next act is to follow.

Thank you to Thomas for having the vision on securing this outstanding release for the ‘We Are All Ghosts’ net label and thank you to Apta for sharing your creativity with us all and here is hoping the next release is not too far away.

Self Penned Bio

Apta is a one man Electronic / Post-rock / ambient project from Manchester, UK. I now live in Cardiff and spend most of my free time fiddling with synthesisers, Morphing sounds and listening to vinyl.The music I write is almost entirely original, using very few samples. The drums, keys, and synthesisers are all Virtual instruments sequenced through midi, but the guitars, and Harmonium (where applicable) are live instruments. Most of my inspiration comes from great electronic acts of today (Four Tet, Tycho, Clark, Aphex Twin) mixed together with old electronic pioneers, and analogue synthesis ideals. Together with this is a healthy love of post-rock in ALL of it’s forms, (GYBE! are probably my favourite band of all time, The Echelon Effect and The Eternal Twilight, more close to home, are big influences), brought about mostly due to being a writer for the (now defunct) Silent Ballet. I have a great appreciation for all things musical, and enjoy music in almost all of it’s forms. My goal is to develop my sound, and to make music I am truly proud of, that is well written, and (more challengingly) impeccably produced. It is a learning process, but one I enjoy hugely.

About the label 

Founded by music fan Thomas Mathie aka Headphonaught as a means of giving back to the independent music community…… We Are All Ghosts is a small non-commercial netlabel based in Motherwell, Scotland; that specialises in ambient electronic soundscapes but is open to other styles of music.

For more info… and early warning of our releases… please follow us on Twitter :: @weareall_ghosts

Record Of The Week

L.T.D.M.S.- (<Inserer Titre>)

L.T.D.M.S are a post-rock band from Belgium, in fact they are from Brussels and a smaller town called Ciney.

They have just released this four track album on the German based Oxide Tones record label. Oxide Tones seem to have a knack of releasing albums by bands who are not particularly big in the genre. But they choose real good bands who deserve to be better known in their given genre. This release is no different.

The title of this album is (<inserer titre>) which in English translates to Insert Title. A clever album title I think. There are 4 tracks on the album clocking in just under 50 minutes and they used 4 different engineers on the album, one for each track. A very novel and interesting idea and I think it works rather well. There is a vast array of instruments with horns, flutes, strings, keys, guitars, bass, drums. The tracks are very individual and are full of twist and turns and it can be intense and dramatic at times but it is also very enjoyable. I guess there are elements of progressive rock in there but with real post-rock overtones. This to me is a really good release, they really have captured what this genre is all about. Its full of interesting melodies that change in a heartbeat into another movement in the same song.

This is an album that deserves to be in any record collection and the more you hear this album then the more you will appreciate its beauty.

Record Of The Week

Silian Rail – Each/Other

This release from Silian Rail is some of the best music that I have heard for a long time. The two members of this band, Robin and Eric really know how to craft songs. It is post/math/experimental-rock, but overall it is just incredibly put together. This is their third and possibly best release to date. I played the opening two songs on my show, Young Mood then The Beast. I had a hard time picking what songs to play, such is the quality of the music. 8 songs just coming in at over 40mins. Contrast the complexity of the track Glass House to the intricate sound of A Nothing Summer and you appreciate how good the musicianship is and the versatility of these guys. it would be easy to keep it all uptempo but they also like the slower end of the spectrum. There is also viola, played by Dina Maccabee on a few of the tracks which just add to the sound.

All in all it is a great release and will definitely be in my top 10 releases list of 2012.

Members :

Robin Landy– guitar

Eric Kuhn– drums, guitar, synth, piano

with
Dina Maccabee– viola

Record Of The Week

Ghosts Wear Clothes – Threads

Ghosts Wear Clothes are a post-rock band from Nottingham, thats how they describe themselves on their Bandcamp site and on their Facebook page they describe the sound as post-electronica weirdness. Both these descriptions are not far away from the truth. This debut album was two years in the making, it has a nice sound to it, you can tell they took a lot of time over the sound and what they wanted it to sound like.

There are seven tracks on the album running at 53 minutes in total with track ranging from just under 3 minute tracks to just over 13 minute long. The sound is cinematic and very haunting at times,  beautiful melodies accompanied with soundscapes in the background, there are lots of layers to the music and they build on top of one another. The musicianship is first class, keys, guitars, drums and whatever else these guys play on the record. This is first class post-rock/electronica/ambient, the music does open out occasionally and explodes with great effect then they bring it back down to a more gentler sound.

In summary it is an excellent debut record from this trio and this is an album that should be in your record collection.

Two years is a long time to make a record, heres hoping their next release won’t take that long.

Members :

Iain Anderson: Guitars, Bass, Video Editing

Wain Evans: Bass, Guitars, Synths

James Neep: Keys, Bass, Guitars, Samples

Record Of The Week

Crisopa – Biodance

Biodance is the much anticipated debut album from Madrid (SP) based electronic musician Crisopa. A densely layered album squeezing inspiration from electronic music sub-generes such as IDM, dub-step, post-rock, nu-gaze, and ambient while remaining cohesive, ever evolving and remarkably danceable. Anyone having seen Crisopa live undoubtably knows they were eventually coerced into moving their bodies by the ebb, flow and trajectory of his music. And Biodance is no different, however it is not all about moving your body. A quick look inside the CD case reveals the motivation behind the album: Biodance “is a system of self-development that uses music, movement and positive feelings to deepen self-awareness”. Whether he’s talking about his own self-awareness our ours, that just about sums the album up. Crisopa just wants you to loose yourself in the moment and Biodance is the perfect soundtrack for getting lost within.

Crisopa is the name in which Madrid based Santiago Lizón has chosen to release his music under. This project Of Lizón’s first saw the light of day in 2005, when all his influences of that time, IDM, shoegaze, post-rock and classical musics shaped his output into a more coherent creative entity. Crisopa has evolved in parallel with the netlabel scene of Madrid, as Lizón has released several quality works on netlabels such as Plataforma-ltw, Persona-isla, Add-sensor and Escala before signing with stateside imprint n5MD. Crisopa’s music has been described as blissful, dense, melodic and emotive. In it, the layers of guitars, pads, voices and intricate rythms are combined to frame a particular travel from one landscape to another. This is done by Lizón’s adeptness in displaying nostalgia, hope, transcendence, and melancholy all with a sense of confidence and humility. More recently Lizón’s music has been further shaped by his musical contributions to short-films and documentaries in his native Spain.

Record Of The Week

Dumbsaint – Something That You Feel Will Find It’s Own Form

Review to follow

Record Of The Week

Labirinto – Kadjwynh

Labirinto release the follow up to their highly acclaimed album Anatema. It is in the form of a 4 track EP. It is called Kadjwynh and its a great release. Anatema consisted of 6 tracks all greater than 10mins in length, this four track EP only has one track that hits the 10min time. It kicks off with the very brief track ‘Daemones’ which serves as a moody drone/dark ambient dramatic introduction which leads into the next track called Tuira, this track develops from a guitar based to sublime violin sounds towards the end, with subtle piano playing in the background. The next track Piam Ket starts off in a very rhythmic way with drums pounding and accompanied by guitar. The track quickly builds up pace with big guitars in the forefront, but it returns to those rhythmic drums occasionally, and there is an ambient interlude towards the end which just gives this track a great sense of depth and variety of sound. The EP closes with the 10minute track Cairo, this is Labirinto at their finest. Lots of amazing strings and ambient sounds before taking us on to the next part of the song. This is a fantastic EP and well worth getting a hold of. Labirinto seem to have a style all of their own, and it is also a sound that has you wanting to hear more. That more will have to come in the form of their next release. Hopefully that won’t be too far away.