Buscar:pain

Empty surrounds all of me. It’s a poignant line from the third album by Blackwater Holylight that encapsulates the search for self when suddenly everything has changed. There’s a theme of processing vast personal trauma throughout Silence/Motion that eloquently — both lyrically and musically — and simultaneously embodies the crushing emptiness, sorrow, strength and rebuilding of recovering from personal devastation.

“There was so much grief both in the world and interpersonally during the process of creating Silence/Motion,” says vocalist/bassist Allison “Sunny” Faris. “The four of us gave one another more space to be ourselves, to experiment with each other’s ideas and to be gentle with one another more than we ever have before. So, we knew this tenderness would manifest in extremely honest arrangements, and I think that you can hear that throughout the record.”

Curiously, considering the dark times in which it was created, this is the band’s most melodic and catchy music so far. Blackwater Holylight, as the name suggests, is all about contrasts: It’s a fluid convergence of sound that’s heavy, psychedelic, melodic, terrifying and beautiful all at once. And, Silence/Motion finds the band honing those contrasts, letting ideas and moods fully develop from song to song, rather than filling every song with a full range of their capabilities. It allows the band to go fully prog-rock here, and simply stay hushed and intimate there. There’s a new confidence to the band in how seamlessly they wield their stylistic amalgam.

“Writing this album was extraordinarily difficult emotionally, however it did come to fruition fairly quickly,” Faris says. “In the past, the theme of vulnerability has always been a big player and it definitely showed up full force while writing this album.”

Blackwater Holylight recorded the album as a four piece: Faris on vocals and guitar (on “Silence/Motion”, “MDIII”, “Around You” and “Every Corner”) and bass for the remainder, Sarah McKenna on synths, Mikayla Mayhew on guitar (and bass when Faris plays guitar) and drummer Eliese Dorsay. New second guitarist Erika Osterhout will perform the songs with them live. For Silence/Motion the band chose to work with a producer for the first time, bringing in A.L.N. (of Mizmor, Hell) to produce, along with recording engineer Dylan White — who also helmed their previous album Veils of Winter (2019) — at Odessa Recording Studio in Portland, OR. Guest vocals on album opener “Delusional” are by Bryan Funck (Thou.) Mike Paparo (Inter Arma) and A.LN. (Mizmor, Hell) lend guest vocals to album closer “Every Corner.”

Silence/Motion opens softly with interwoven folky single note guitars over an ominous sounding drone for the first minute, akin to moments from Pink Floyd’s Echoes. Suddenly an irresistibly head-nodding, groovy droptuned riff kicks in with the drums and it’s a full on blackened rocker with soaring synths and Funck’s witchy whispers over the top. “Who The Hell,” the track quoted above, takes proceedings into a Krautrock direction, centered around McKenna’s arpeggiated synth loop and Dorsay’s tom-tom triplets, while 16-note guitar strums add tension as Faris wearily sings, “So tell me who the hell would want to live this way — so afraid/ To feel this void, to dwell in it… I can’t describe this pain I wear/ It suffocates and you left it here.” It’s an incredibly powerful 6 minutes. The title track delivers the 1-2-3 punch of the album’s brilliant opening trilogy. It starts with lightly plucked acoustic guitar, plaintive piano chords and Faris’ voice gliding so softly it sounds more like a Mellotron. The song builds slowly toward crescendo, led by a swinging tom pattern, that abruptly switches back to a heavier version of the opening melody.“Silence/Motion” is about digesting and healing from sexual assault. As Faris explains, “It is an ode to the juxtaposition of feeling paralyzingly blank and and like your entire life is moving through you simultaneously.” Elsewhere, Black Metal guitars collide with dreamlike melodies. “Around You” brandishes a hopeful, hummable synth melody and shimmering shoegaze guitars like throwing down a gauntlet. In the end, it becomes undeniably clear just how completely into their own Blackwater Holylight has come.

“The analogy is that with our first record (Blackwater Holylight, 2018) we were getting into to the car and buckling up,” Faris says. “The second (Veils of Winter, 2019) we were turning the car on, and with this third we have kicked into drive toward our destination. Our destination is a bit mysterious and has the ability to change from day to day, but we’re on our way.”

Empty surrounds all of me. It’s a poignant line from the third album by Blackwater Holylight that encapsulates the search for self when suddenly everything has changed. There’s a theme of processing vast personal trauma throughout Silence/Motion that eloquently — both lyrically and musically — and simultaneously embodies the crushing emptiness, sorrow, strength and rebuilding of recovering from personal devastation.

“There was so much grief both in the world and interpersonally during the process of creating Silence/Motion,” says vocalist/bassist Allison “Sunny” Faris. “The four of us gave one another more space to be ourselves, to experiment with each other’s ideas and to be gentle with one another more than we ever have before. So, we knew this tenderness would manifest in extremely honest arrangements, and I think that you can hear that throughout the record.”

Curiously, considering the dark times in which it was created, this is the band’s most melodic and catchy music so far. Blackwater Holylight, as the name suggests, is all about contrasts: It’s a fluid convergence of sound that’s heavy, psychedelic, melodic, terrifying and beautiful all at once. And, Silence/Motion finds the band honing those contrasts, letting ideas and moods fully develop from song to song, rather than filling every song with a full range of their capabilities. It allows the band to go fully prog-rock here, and simply stay hushed and intimate there. There’s a new confidence to the band in how seamlessly they wield their stylistic amalgam.

“Writing this album was extraordinarily difficult emotionally, however it did come to fruition fairly quickly,” Faris says. “In the past, the theme of vulnerability has always been a big player and it definitely showed up full force while writing this album.”

Blackwater Holylight recorded the album as a four piece: Faris on vocals and guitar (on “Silence/Motion”, “MDIII”, “Around You” and “Every Corner”) and bass for the remainder, Sarah McKenna on synths, Mikayla Mayhew on guitar (and bass when Faris plays guitar) and drummer Eliese Dorsay. New second guitarist Erika Osterhout will perform the songs with them live. For Silence/Motion the band chose to work with a producer for the first time, bringing in A.L.N. (of Mizmor, Hell) to produce, along with recording engineer Dylan White — who also helmed their previous album Veils of Winter (2019) — at Odessa Recording Studio in Portland, OR. Guest vocals on album opener “Delusional” are by Bryan Funck (Thou.) Mike Paparo (Inter Arma) and A.LN. (Mizmor, Hell) lend guest vocals to album closer “Every Corner.”

Silence/Motion opens softly with interwoven folky single note guitars over an ominous sounding drone for the first minute, akin to moments from Pink Floyd’s Echoes. Suddenly an irresistibly head-nodding, groovy droptuned riff kicks in with the drums and it’s a full on blackened rocker with soaring synths and Funck’s witchy whispers over the top. “Who The Hell,” the track quoted above, takes proceedings into a Krautrock direction, centered around McKenna’s arpeggiated synth loop and Dorsay’s tom-tom triplets, while 16-note guitar strums add tension as Faris wearily sings, “So tell me who the hell would want to live this way — so afraid/ To feel this void, to dwell in it… I can’t describe this pain I wear/ It suffocates and you left it here.” It’s an incredibly powerful 6 minutes. The title track delivers the 1-2-3 punch of the album’s brilliant opening trilogy. It starts with lightly plucked acoustic guitar, plaintive piano chords and Faris’ voice gliding so softly it sounds more like a Mellotron. The song builds slowly toward crescendo, led by a swinging tom pattern, that abruptly switches back to a heavier version of the opening melody.“Silence/Motion” is about digesting and healing from sexual assault. As Faris explains, “It is an ode to the juxtaposition of feeling paralyzingly blank and and like your entire life is moving through you simultaneously.” Elsewhere, Black Metal guitars collide with dreamlike melodies. “Around You” brandishes a hopeful, hummable synth melody and shimmering shoegaze guitars like throwing down a gauntlet. In the end, it becomes undeniably clear just how completely into their own Blackwater Holylight has come.

“The analogy is that with our first record (Blackwater Holylight, 2018) we were getting into to the car and buckling up,” Faris says. “The second (Veils of Winter, 2019) we were turning the car on, and with this third we have kicked into drive toward our destination. Our destination is a bit mysterious and has the ability to change from day to day, but we’re on our way.”

Recommended If You Like: Elliott Smith, Hand Habits, Chris Cohen, Sam Evian, Wilco, Bright Eyes, The Magnetic Fields. Press Quotes/Selling Points: "Stewart Bronaugh sings cool and steady about his close experiences with death, what it means to endure your losses, and the gift of being able to recognize the most real love in your life." Angel Olsen. "Spiral Groove" delivers us singer-songwriter Stewart Bronaugh at the height of his artistic powers both visually and sonically. This album is studded with stories of mortality, challenges of addiction and sobriety, and the romance of a lifetime. Recovering from a seizure, Bronaugh’s sudden awareness of the limits of his own body was a “psychedelic experience” that shifted his perspective wildly. No longer “bulletproof, ” Bronaugh splits himself wide open on Spiral Groove, encapsulating all of our existential questions into tidy love songs. You’ll find pianos, string quartets, slide guitar, buzzing synth lines, and plenty of room to breathe. Each song is like a painting you can disappear into, a somber and hopeful spell for life after the end of the world

Recommended If You Like: Elliott Smith, Hand Habits, Chris Cohen, Sam Evian, Wilco, Bright Eyes, The Magnetic Fields. Press Quotes/Selling Points: "Stewart Bronaugh sings cool and steady about his close experiences with death, what it means to endure your losses, and the gift of being able to recognize the most real love in your life." Angel Olsen. "Spiral Groove" delivers us singer-songwriter Stewart Bronaugh at the height of his artistic powers both visually and sonically. This album is studded with stories of mortality, challenges of addiction and sobriety, and the romance of a lifetime. Recovering from a seizure, Bronaugh’s sudden awareness of the limits of his own body was a “psychedelic experience” that shifted his perspective wildly. No longer “bulletproof, ” Bronaugh splits himself wide open on Spiral Groove, encapsulating all of our existential questions into tidy love songs. You’ll find pianos, string quartets, slide guitar, buzzing synth lines, and plenty of room to breathe. Each song is like a painting you can disappear into, a somber and hopeful spell for life after the end of the world

This album is a critical meditation on variations of Orientalism practiced by Arabs themselves, as well as those who were born and raised within the diaspora. It originally began as a documentation of extended drum techniques, but eventually morphed into a project of more ambitious scope. Having an open timeframe, Julius Masri gave himself reasons to include all the instruments he obsessively picked up and learned over the years. The work accumulated intentions and guiding principles, and it became rather autobiographical in nature. Some of the tracks either refer to or were recorded in the actual physical spaces he grew up near, in Tripoli, Lebanon during the 1980s. The "Arabic Room" of the title refers to the sitting room in his family‘s house that was decked out in hyper orientalist exoticism, mashing together furniture, fixtures, paintings from all over the Arabic speaking world. The sitting room, or salon, is common in Lebanese homes made specifically to host and entertain guests. Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade and other western made Orientalist cultural artifacts not only had ubiquitous presence in the house, but also found their way onto tv shows and commercials. After moving to the US, his parents recreated this room in their home. Additionally, his father's generation was one that saw their country transform from a post-agrarian trading society after WWII to a center of banking and finance within the span of a few decades. The sense of some lost Eden like innocence of the interwar years permeated much of the media that was available to him growing up there. This album is neither ironic nor some judgmental pronouncement. Call it critical nostalgia. For Masri, there isn't much difference between this form of exotic fantasy creation, and his own adolescence steeped in comic books and listening to bands like Voivod. They both seem to him part of what's known in German as Fernweh, "a nostalgia for a place one's never been". All instruments are performed by Masri himself, (drums, Egyptian rababa, Azeri kamancheh, circuit bent electronics, keyboards, hammered dulcimer, and vocals). Genre-hopping is foundational to the album’s ethos; jazz, metal, experimental, electro-chaabi, and sound collage all appear within the framework of Arabic music, creating the sense of adventurous possibilities best associated with well curated mixtapes. Julius Masri is a Philadelphia based multi-instrumentalist and performer/composer, originally born in Tripoli, Lebanon. The Arabic Room is his debut solo-album. Currently he is working and playing with members of the Sun Ra Arkestra. The album will be released on vinyl only in an edition of 300 copies.

Stephan Bodzin proves once again why he is one of the most innovative techno artists in the world with new album Boavista. The expressive 17 track full length lands on Herzblut Recordings on October 8th 2021 and is proceeded by lead single 'Boavista' on the Afterlife label.

German icon Stephan Bodzin is globally recognised on a number of fronts - his live show is one of techno's most celebrated, his productions constantly push the genre forward with his own trademark sound. He has put out well-received solo long players Liebe Ist and Powers of Ten as well as worked on many other iconic projects under a range of aliases.

In the last year, Stephan had the chance to look back on the vast archives of music he has recorded but never finished. While spending time in Brazil, he picked his 25 favourites and finished them properly, with the best 17 making up Boavista. His simple aim was to tell stories with each track, to paint musical pictures that conjure up very real emotions in the listener. As always, playing the album live was in the back of Bodzin's mind throughout the creative process. This means each track is a powerful piece that is both emotional and honest, physical and straightforward, but also true to the authentic Bodzin sound. The lack of DJ gigs and club experienceshad no impact on the music: Stephan has long since done his own thing and has never tried to conform to expectations.

And so it proves. The album kicks off with the lush 'Earth' which pays homage to all the elements of life - water, fire, wind, as well as time, light and the rotation of the planet. 'LLL' is an electronic lullaby track defined by a sense of love for the people in Stephan's life and 'Astronautin' has a lead synth that came about after Stephan's daughter said she would like to be an astronaut when she grows up. It truly takes you to the stars before the simple but effective melodic patterns of the title track light up a night sky with real hope.

Elsewhere there 'Infinite Monkey' which was a freeform jam that was led by the music itself, the epic pads of 'Dune' and interstellar explorations of the more thoughtful and melancholic 'Cooper Station’. 'Nothing Like You' was written in a hotel room before Stephan's last pre-lockdown gig, then 'Isaac' is another powerful journey through space and time, different worlds and alternative realities.

Further hypnotising highlights come from the soft melodies but powerful basslines of 'Collider', the expansive synths of 'Trancoso' and the delicate beauty of 'Ataraxia', which references German composer Klaus Doldinger who was a huge influence on Stephan's understanding of melodies and harmonics. 'Breathe' is a second spindling vocal track featuring Luna Semara next to 'Nothing Like You' and closer 'Rose' isa heartbreaking piano piece.

Boavista is another exquisitely crafted album of rich, synth-heavy electronic music that takes you into new worlds of emotion and leaves you in awe

El Michels Affair follows up the massive success of their full length Yeti Season with The Abominable EP. A collection of unreleased tracks, alternate takes, and instrumentals from the Yeti Season recording sessions. EMA's blending their signature cinematic soul sound with influences from Turkis Funk and the grittiest of Bollywood soundtracks yielded an instant classic The Fader calls "a carnival of dusty funk and soul". The EP starts off with the unreleased gem "Messy Grass" whose synth intro, peppered with distant yeti cries, gives way to a tremendous backing track that Tamer Pinarbasi's Qanun dances over. On "Cham Cham" EMA invites Piya Malik to the microphone again to share her styled storytelling vocals over the instrumental track from Yeti Season's "Perfect Harmony". Where some of the tunes on the EP have vocals added, some of them have them removed letting the band take center stage; "Poison Song", "Uncut Gem", "Smoked", and "Progress" are all instrumental here giving them a wholly different energy than the vocal versions. The EP is being released with two different covers, each one has two paintings from different Ghanaian mobile cinema artists commissioned through Chicago's Deadly Prey Gallery and are interpretations of the original album artwork. One version is paintings by Stoger and Heavy J, who also contributed cover paintings to the Return To The 37th Chamber album. The other version of the cover is two paintings by Teshie and Farkira.

Bestial Mouth’s creations in the last two years, the INSHROUDSS EP and the RESURRECTEDINBLACK LP, are the phoenix cries of the project’s rebirth under the guiding hand of vocalist Lynette Cerezo, melding noise and darkwave pop into a theatre of skin-shredding catharsis that brings the project’s post-punk roots to new levels of club-ready destruction—equal parts intensity and accessibility.

THOUSANDNEEDLES pierces that veil with warped reimaginings of both releases, from a diverse selection of artists in the dark underground. Each brings their own unique twist, whether it’s to a dance ritual of pounding EBM and industrialized techno, fog-shrouded darkwave dives, cosmic washes of synthpop bliss, or soul-smashing noise dredged from a sewer cathedral. Dance through the pain, and make new paths of your scars.

Simply calling Curtis Harding a soul man feels reductive. Harding's voice conveys pain, pleasure, longing, tenderness, sadness and strength-a full gamut of emotions. Today his voice takes on an optimistic lilt with his his new album, If Words Were Flowers. If Words Were Flowers is Harding's first new music since 2018, a follow up to his critically acclaimed 'Face Your Fears" album. It features songs like " Hopeful" , where Harding croons with devotion over a classic soul groove, textured with infectious horn playing, background singers and modern psychedelic flourishes. Harding fuels his psychedelic sound with the essence of Soul but isn't bound by it. Instead, his songs convey an eclectic blend of genres leaping from the many musical lives he has lived from following his evangelical Gospel-singing mother on tour around the country as a child to rapping in Atlanta, forming a garage band with The Black Lips' Cole Alexander to singing back-up for Cee Lo Green. Through these experiences he fully embraces life's darkest intricacies and conjures dynamic, addictive melodies.

New album of Québecois performer Bernardino Femminielli after several releases on Mind Records or Desire Records. Produced by Dominic Vanchesteing (Marie Davidson, Jef Barbara, Chocolat, Bernardino Femminielli...). A synth-pop/chanson act in between Sebastien Tellier, Serge Gainsbourg and lust.

Bernardino Femminielli, a lucid and tempestuous entertainer, abandons his performance and his leather clothes to take on the role of a triple agent in a sentimental mise en abyme, far from the tumultuous moral, political and philosophical conflicts. By turns storyteller, voyeur and actor of this tragedy in six acts, it is his word against that of another.

The other is Brad Cerini.
Lulled by the variety of his Italy, this unaware student of Vannier, Lai and Musy projects Femminielli into the heart of the torments of a high school girl in love and betrayed.

The mouse slips out of the shadow of the palaces and embraces her fate with a gunshot. Iris embarks on a hellish journey, assumes her excesses of politeness and turns an unexpected encounter into a grandiose event.

An introspective and/or schizophrenic tale that polarises a toxic, vital desire, carried by a flowery music that frees the artist from her principles.

Femminielli plays "an assumed, sincere role, a more serious posture and a more serious tone, but also an emotional distance in the face of this painting of manners. I had to act for her and him.


Directed by Dominic Vanchesteing (Marie Davidson, Jef Barbara, Chocolat, Bernardino Femminielli...), Dans les yeux d'Iris is the first release of the Parisian label Corps Double.

Over the course of two EPs, two singles and a stripped-back
live album, Puma Blue has established himself as one of the
UK’s most vital new talents, quietly amassing over 50 million
streams in the process and selling out shows from London to LA
and Paris to Tokyo.
 His long-awaited debut album, ‘In Praise Of Shadows’, was a
delirious dreamland of soulful vocals, D'Angelo-ish guitars and
muted electronic beats. Its fourteen tracks are a contemplation
on “the balance of light and dark, the painful things you have to
heal from or accept, that bring you through to a better place,”
says the 25-year-old Puma Blue, real name Jacob Allen. “It's
about finding light in darkness and realizing that it’s what got me
here today.”
 Described by NME as “a brief moment of relief for those lost in
the darkness,” the album found his storytelling at its most
honest and vulnerable to date whilst his production reached
new heights, retaining its characteristic bedroom intimacy. Yet
for all the intimacy of his ‘voicemail-ballads’ on record, his songs
carry a different resonance in a live setting; a mix of
improvisation, in-the-moment escapism and the collective
power of an audience taking his music to new heights.
 ‘In Praise Of Shadows: B-Sides & Live Versions’ features
rarities and live recordings, mostly taken from rehearsals in
early 2021. With limited opportunities for people to hear the
album in a live setting thus far, this represents an intimate first
glimpse at the magic unique to the full band arrangements.
 This edition is completed by two new bedroom studio
recordings with new single ‘All I Need’ (a Radiohead cover)
perfectly extending the album’s small hours spirit, the raw
emotion of Puma Blue’s voice growing in tandem with the scale
of the initially skeletal production, and the previously unreleased
‘Postcard From Toyko’ exploring loneliness with brutal honesty
and a sparse acoustic atmosphere.
 Crystal clear LP in a deluxe clear PVC sleeve.

Marooned at home during Melbourne's 2020 lockdown, with no bandmates in sight, Mark Monnone had no option but to take matters to his cassette 8-track and set to work on the follow-up to Monnone Alone (the quartet)'s 2019 powerpop tour de force Summer of the Mosquito. The former-Lucksmiths bassist then gave his home-recorded tapes to Gareth Parton (The Go! Team, Foals, Breeders) to mix the whole glorious mess into something worthy of human consumption. The resulting ten tracks on Stay Foggy bounce blindly from glum to whimsical, from blurred to razor-sharp, showcasing Monnone's disorientated hopes, dreams and lockdown inertia with an off-the-cuff beach party twist.

Almost 25 years after its last pressing on vinyl, this all-time classic finally get´s is reissue on 2x180 gram vinyl. Including 9 bonus tracks from the bands unleased demos in ’88 and ’91, the extensive oral history of the making of Blind as well as additional artwork and sketches this is the ultimate Corrosion of Conformity collector´s item.

In divided times, the power of music is undeniable. When that music is ferociously original and defiantly uplifting, the impact is even greater. Formed in Paris, December 2014, by Dublin-born singer/guitarist Gary Kelly and Parisian guitarist Steven Andre, MOLYBARON have swiftly become one of the most talked-about bands in the modern metal scene. With a sound that encompasses everything from state-of-the-art tech-grooves and anthemic metal to multi-layered atmospherics and giant, muscular hard rock riffs beyond, the band’s eccentric flair always sets them apart from the rest. From the infectious aggression and giant hooks of opener “Animals”, to the thunderous denouement of crushing closer “Ordinary Madness”, The Mutiny once again affirms MOLYBARON’s idiosyncratic identity and irresistible charms. As Metal Hammer UK put it: “Diverse and satisfying, The Mutiny is a banger!” The album was also declared Album of the Month in Rock Hard magazine. Kelly’s songwriting has hit new heights of ingenuity, and the ensemble performances of comrades Steven Andre (guitar), Sebastien de Saint-Angel (bass) and Camille Greneron (drums) are never less than precise, potent and bursting with personality. Right now, these fearless artisans are in a field of one, evoking the visionary fervour of bands like System Of A Down, Muse, Pain Of Salvation and Rush, while never sounding remotely like any of them. The Mutiny will be re-released by InsideOut Music/ Sony Music Entertainment and is available as 180g black Vinyl + 2page Insert, Ltd. CD Digipak and Digital Album.

But Only After You Have Suffered is a densely layered and deeply personal new work from multidisciplinary artist, composer, percussionist & producer Jamire Williams. Conceived as a spiritual, autobiographical artistic statement, Jamire applies sound collage practice to modern jazz composition, beat production, MC/vocalist features, and his uniquely impressionistic drumming style - making an album as akin to minimalist painting as an art-house film soundtrack or a classic hip-hop mixtape. A "self-reflective, almost testimonial work" that swiftly cycles across a vast spectrum of styles, it's the culmination of his five-year musical journey to the outer reaches of his own sound. It's the album he has always wanted to make.

ORDER was founded in 2013 by Anders Odden, Rene Jansen, Kjetil Manheim and Billy Messiah, the group respectively responsible for early-stage Norwegian death metal (Cadaver) and the origin of the Norwegian Black metal (Mayhem). In 2014, Jansen sadly passed away, leaving the project unrealized. The remaining members decided to move forward despite the setback. In 2015 Stu Manx (f. Gluecifer) joined the band and set the band back on its quest to make unpolished raw black metal for the 21st century. To honor Jansen the band released the demo tape ‘Folly Grandeur’ - with rehearsal recordings the following year - and the debut album ‘Lex Amentiae’.
It has been four long years since then, and they are now finally ready to release their long-awaited second studio album, ‘The Gospel’. This time showing the world what strong recipe the current lineup represent. While the band was very satisfied with their debut album, according to the band The Gospel is on a totally different level. “This time we have arrived at a place where the creative flow truly feels unique and to the core of ORDER”, Kjetil Manheim says and continues. “In The Gospel you will meet us on a very personal level. In this record we open ourselves and invite you into our innermost, both musically and through the lyrics. If you ever wondered who we are, and where we come from musically this album is an answer.” Together again they made music that brought to life sounds from the early days, and with ‘The Gospel’ they have arrived in the energy field that fueled the early era where they first met; The Deathcrush era.

If one always looks at the sky, he will end up with wings, a wise French man once declared. Halifax, Nova Scotia based musician Jeremy Costello had wings, long before he looked up. Wings of imagination. Brandishing in his head, transforming deep-rooted emotions into poetry and sound. Since 2012 the Canadian self-releases music as Special Costello, a moniker under which he records solo or with local friends like Saxophone player Nick Dourado or guitarist Dave Burns. His lyrics are sincerely woven poetic enunciations that balance between introspective emotions and existential philosophical demands. Lyrics from a spirit that is in love without an object, unconditional, mirroring his very own subconscious inner being. The music reflects his tempers in many colours. Glimpses of Synth-Pop, psychedelic rock nuances, traces of new romantic utopia, infantile Casio minimalism, Shoegaze haze, drama wave: Special Costello blends many styles, uniting all in his very own musing grandeur of pop music.

After an array of digital releases, Berlin based label Marmo Music now publishes the Special Costello touch for the first time physically fabricated on vinyl. Seven songs featuring the longing voice of Jeremy Costello, sometimes in correlation with spoken words and dialogues by noted artists, poets, and scientists. All creations have been recorded by himself between Spring 2017 and winter 2020, using the extrasomatic help of instruments and machines like Farfisa Combo Compact transistor organ, Roland JX3P polyphonic analog synthesizer, Roland D50 linear synthesizer, Roland Rhythm Composer TR-08, Arturia Microbrute monophonic analog synthesizer or a Gibson Thunderbird IV bass guitar. In communication with his sensitive inner blues, they created an atmospheric voyage into the heart of Special Costello, that fulfils Arthur Russel’s sapient declaration: being sad is not a crime! Seven musical paintings full of intimate, vibrant feelings and existential thoughts, veiled in an antidepressant neo new romantic glam. An epic tune like “The Next Day”, in which Costello’s singing links with thought-provoking spoken word samples, sounds like Robert Ashley is meeting Hans-Joachim Roedelius in a psychic séance with Brian Ferry. In comparison, a song like “If Not Depression, Then What?” grooves with a pulsating wave bass figure and an overall gently floating electronic majesty, while Costello’s voice takes deep listeners to an unknown higher ground. On the other hand, a composition like “Unsetting” offers a nonchalant graceful funk drift with reverberant hand claps, minimal guitar strains and a chromatic synth pop grace. Above all the music Costello’s voice cries, screams, whispers, and weeps with a compelling introspective elegancy, that invites to associate intensely with the nonpareil Special Costello touch.

Written, composed, and recorded by Jeremy Costello between 2016 to 2020 in Halifax, Scotch Village and Toronto (Canada).

Instruments used by the artist: Farfisa Combo Compact transistor organ, Roland JX3P Programmable Preset Polyphonic Synthesizer, Roland D50 linear synthesizer, Yamaha DX7 Frequency Modulation/Programmable Algorithm Synthesizer and TX7 FM Expander, Roland Computer Controlled Rhythm Composer TR-08, Arturia Microbrute Analog Synthesizer, Gibson Thunderbird IV bass guitar, MicroKorg Synthesizer/Vocoder, Electro Harmonix Small Stone Phaser, Memory Boy Analog Delay, Alesis Quadraverb, and finally, their voice was recorded using Shure Beta57A and AKG D 330 BT dynamic microphones.

Nilüfer Yanya's new release, ‘Inside Out’, is a
compilation of her previous EPs, ‘Small Crimes’,
‘Plant Feed’ and ‘Do You Like Pain?’.
 Nilüfer Yanya is donating her release profits to the
organization Artists in Transit, a non-profit
collaborative artists project bringing creative
workshops to displaced communities and people in
times of hardships.
 Transparent pink vinyl.

Swedish power trio MONOLORD return with their highly anticipated new album, Your Time to Shine. Recorded by MONOLORD drummer Esben Willems at Studio Berserk, Your Time to Shine sees the trio looking inward, cultivating the elements that take their monstrous, heavy riffing to new heights with a darker edge. A five-track journey that spans across crushing doom rock to more spacey, groove laden opuses, Your Time to Shine is MONOLORD at their most unfiltered and focused. Out of the gate, MONOLORD kick-off a wild ride with the soaring, fist-raising opener “The Weary” and its insanely catchy melodies. Elsewhere, the stop/start switch between sweetness and abrasiveness of “To Each Their Own” showcases a new element to the band’s repertoire. MONOLORD embraces the power of the riff with pulsating chugs on “I’ll Be Damned” and the mind-expanding title-track, whose final section brings back some of the band's spaced-out rock n’ roll beginnings. Everything culminates in their new epic, “The Siren Of Yersinia”, whose lonesome call can be heard in each feedback-ridden note and in each pained, buried vocal line. Your Time to Shine is yet another turn for MONOLORD. While the band clearly stays on “Riff Street”, they are poised to find darker avenues.