Posts Tagged ‘indie rock music’

Monthly playlist-Favourite albums May 2024

Posted: 3rd July 2024 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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logo playlistHere we are at the end of the Spring that never came with a monthly soundtrack that probably has the most debut album entries for a long time. There are two entries that need a special mention and they are the new releases by Chameleons and Barry Adamson. Both have been keeping us wondering about a next release and here they are. Chameleons with the EP ‘Where Are You?’ -teaser of an upcoming full-length album and Barry Adamson, faithful to his soul/rock existential blues offered us ‘CUT TO BLACK’ an album that fits very well within the rest of his discography.


Another special mention is due to one of our all-time favourite bands from Italy, no other than Ataraxia who kept us very good company with a nature-inspired, ceremonial, ethereal album entitle ‘Centaurea’. We particularly liked the psych rock releases of this month, both the new single by Julie’s Haircut and the new album by The Janitors which, at times, is reminiscent of the hazy  and grunge atmosphere of the music of The Stooges.

As always, we were delighted to listen to the new album by PIG, as his addictive sensual take on industrial music is always managing to make us realise that we really don’t have enough of this type of rejuvenating energy. Six years after ‘The Heretics’ Rotting Christ have come back with ‘PRO XRISTOU’, another album with big sound and big ideas, faithful to the band’s black metal character and favourite themes.

The debut albums of this month’s soundtrack prove that we are now living at a time when the quality of releases that come to us from new bands, is incredibly high. ‘YOBS’ by YOBS, ‘L’Enfant Terrible’ by L’Enfant Terrible, ‘Weaponize Tomorrow’ by MISSILES, ‘Discerning Spirits’ by A Sinister Light, all add a powerful note and reveal a fresh take on punk, coldwave and post-punk respectively.

We would like to end with a mention of the album ‘Heksescapes’ by Edward Ka Spel, an all-time favourite musician whose sonic spells accompany us like a protective spirit and the release of LEDFOOT, that hits our rock note and made us put ‘Thunder And Rain’ on our portable device so that we could listen to it on repeat.

Until next month, we hope you enjoy this as much as we did while preparing it.

 

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For some reason, we have always thought that reviewing a personal album, like this one, would never do it justice. We overcame these hesitations, and this had everything to do with the album’s particular atmosphere created by the music.

Nick Carlisle coverWe have been trying to think of another album we have come across that had so much light amidst so much darkness…nothing comes to mind and, with every new listening session, we are getting more and more reassured about this. But let’s take things from the beginning.

Bloody Saturnalia‘ comes after the release of a haunting soundtrack to celebrate 100 years from the release of the movie ‘Hӓxan’. It is an album inspired by and dedicated to Nick Carlisle’s father, who sadly passed away on New Year’s Eve 2023. The title of this album and the subjects of its lyrics also relate to the book ‘Defying Hitler: A Memoir by Sebastian Haffner’ whose theme, the rise of Nazism in Germany, is a timely one as we see the rise of populism around the world today. Kenneth Clarke’s documentary series ‘Civilisation’ also fed into the themes of various songs on this album (e.g. ‘Another Level Down‘, ‘Life in A Major Key, ‘Bloody Saturnalia‘).

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Monthly playlist- Favourite albums March 2023

Posted: 27th April 2023 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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logo playlistThere was a palpable darkness all around us in March, which somehow, all our favourite releases of the month, have managed to channel through their sound.

The soundtrack of this month, will take you on a dark experimental journey, pass you through industrial sonic spaces with incredible texture, electronic and synth brilliance and land you on ethereal otherworldly worlds. The trip promises to be poetic, ritualistic and reflective with a few moments of uneasiness.

There were many highlights during this month, and the first one was the return of Depeche Mode with their darkest, most solemn and more gothic album to date. Having teased us with a great video accompanying their best song of the album ‘Ghosts Again‘, Depeche Mode unleashed a darkness that seemed to have been nicely disguised up to now. The band’s life much like everyone else’s has been affected by everything that the world has gone through in the last few years but also by the unexpected loss of Andy Fletcher, the co-founder and keyboardist of Depeche Mode. Their last album ‘Memento Mori’ does not hold the melancholy back, it doesn’t prettify any verse and it is not here to make us feel happy. All this is evident from the slower, darker rhythms and the sadness in the lyrics that traverse this whole album. There is bitterness, there is sadness about the loss of their bandmate, and there is still some jauntiness here and there. Similarly strong, was the new album by Fever Ray ‘Radical Romantics’. Six years after their latest studio album ‘Plunge’, the band’s new album is more haunting than ever. Like Depeche Mode, Fever Ray have embraced the darkest corners of the human mind as far as their lyrics are concerned but have also added tribal, minimal and dance elements in their rhythms, making this album much more interesting this time.

As far as the post-punk part of this monthly soundtrack is concerned, De Ambassade‘s sophomore album was a true revelation. Blending the boundaries between poetry and early industrial music, ‘The Fool’ is a cinematic album that made us wonder where is the movie and/or book that it accompanies? Using Flemish, German and English in their lyrics, mixing vocals and other samples in attractive ways, De Ambassade have been inspired by John Cage but also from new wave and horror folk cinema I dare to assume, judging from the overall atmosphere of this album. One has to admire the air of mystery that this album creates and envelops us with.

Finally, the new offerings by Fatima Al Qadiri and Alan Currall also need some special mention. The former, is an EP that blends eastern music rhythms and vocals with some deeply ceremonial and dark music. The vocals are layered and texturised throughout and their repetitive nature increases the reflective element of the sound before the notes add an air of disquiet in the atmosphere. We don’t often see such level of experimentation with eastern music and for that reason we felt this EP deserved a good place in our soundtrack. ‘Buried Structures’ the latest album by Alan Currall is the only release that got us on our feet and allowed us to breathe without worrying too much. Moments of electro/synth brilliance take inspiration from the house and techno scenes and create the only album that we can dance to!

You can browse the rest of our playlist in order to find out, self-released singles and EPs by new and well-established bands.

We won’t tire you more but we do hope that if you like any of these releases as much as we did, you will not think twice about supporting the bands!

 

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1.Old Timer /2. Common Sense /3. National Team /4. Eastbound and Down /5. Strut /6. Morning After Mourning /7. An Ideal for Living /8. Points of View /9. Eazy Being Lazy /10. Solidarity Song

Release date: 27 January 202
Label: The State 51 Conspiracy

…or else an ode to a disenfranchised leftist youth

First things first – it has been a while since a band has put messages across in such powerful ways. Indeed, it has been about five years since the release of such a powerful album by a different band aimed at an audience with similar political beliefs but a very different idiosyncrasy. Hotel Hotel Lux coverLux are named after a safe house hotel in Moscow to which communists were exiled, though it failed in its mission as a lot of them ended up being killed during Stalin’s purges. The band, however, has been steadily making its mark since 2017, ever since their surreal song (full with political allegory), ‘The Last Hangman‘. That song, and the accompanying video, left us anticipating their debut album.

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Monthly Playlist-Favourite albums November 2019

Posted: 20th December 2019 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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