Explosions In The Sky - Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean

Starts off very calmly, slow, rippling guitar music which is nice. Some chiming chords, it's all very pretty. It's gradually getting louder, but it's still very calm and peaceful. More and more layers are adding on, with nothing being rushed nor sounding out of place.

A silence, then the drums kick in and everything steps up to match. A driving guitar riff gives the track much more pace and you feel like you've hit the main body of the song.

Everything dies away again, with just some high guitar. A riff starts building up, with many guitar parts beginning to be played.

Utter silence once again, then the guitar begins to get more trippy, as if we're descending beneath the waves.

We then move into almost another movement. Very flowing melodies, nice sounding instruments. The guitar shimmers over the top, and the simple beauty returns. It starts to build up again to the main refrain, and it's still amazing, even though it's been going for 6 minutes already. The drumming gets gradually more insistent, and more complex layers are piled on again.

More delicate riffs play, really creating the sound of the sea. I'm loving this so much, as you can probably tell. The music keeps coming up then fading away, like the waves. This is a very intelligent piece of music. It's the kind of thing I never want to stop, but it's drawing towards the end and getting faster and more intense. A few last drum beats, a little guitar and it's gone.

I absolutely adored that, it was incredibly gorgeous. [b]10/10[/b]

[b]My Picks:[/b]

John Frusciante - This Cold (catchy indie rock)
Kasabian - Club Foot (dance-influenced Britrock)
Sigur Ros - Untitled 3 (experimental ambient post-rock)
The Postal Service - Weather Sensitive (alt. rock)

OMG, you're the first person who reviewed that song after months of Forced Listening.

This made my day :)

Beautiful description ashtray girl! I just had to put the song on after reading that. Why did they end this song so abruptly?! I could listen to it forever

(not a dibs)

[QUOTE=leiferikson]Beautiful description ashtray girl! I just had to put the song on after reading that. Why did they end this song so abruptly?! I could listen to it forever

(not a dibs)[/QUOTE]

I put it right on after I read this too :p

Great song.

ok then, dibs on the postal service

EDIT: Grr i was slightly suspicious of this song being Ben Gibberd. Its actually by a band called Postal BLUE! So please ignore references to the postal service, deathcab and Gibberd.

I havent really heard The Postal Service properly yet even though i probably should have by now being a deathcab fan and all.

This song gets straight down to business with a pleasant bassline, breezy guitars and cute organs. Its very summery. It reminds of Belle and Sebastian thus far, which is a good thing! Nice intro

Whoa is this Ben Gibberd singing?! (turns out it wasnt) He sounds like a young Morrissey! :) The summery feel of the song continues throughout. Its high-tempo but kinda laid-back at the same time. I'm liking this.

Theres a break with some electrical beeps and whistles (or a strange guitar effect) which adds to the lightness and happy-vibe of the song. Stops then starts again back into the lovely chorus. Oooh some brass comes in towards the end making it feel even more uplifting. The track ends and i'm left with happy feelings glowing inside me.

Wow, what a lovely, summery song. Perfect to put on a girlfriend's mixtape methinks. I may also learn it to play to girls, they'll love it.

Great song overall. Sure to put a smile on your face. 9/10

Secret Machines - The Road Leads Where Its Led (darkish-electro-kinda-rock)
Cinematic Orchestra - Man With The Movie Camera (cinematic-orchestral-jazz)
Steel Train - Blown Away (pleasant folksy easy guitar music, i guess)
Cooper Temple Clause - Who Needs Enemies? (snarling-britrock)
Mae - Summertime (Summery emo with pianos. Its good, honest)

P.S Now to download some REAL postal service. And some postal blue too, theyre pretty good!

You're the first person on this board that i've ever seen mention the band Mae. 'Destination:Beautiful' is a pretty good record, reminds me of 'photo album' Death Cab.

Actually somneone suggested This Time is the Last Time on page 3 of this thread I think. But yeah destination:beautiful is a pretty good album, I'm surprised not many people recognise them, I dont think I've met anyone else who knows them

Dibs.

Sorry, revoked. I'd gotten a source for Summertime, but it's slowed to a crawl.

dibs

Is the Cinematic Orchestra song called "Work It" by any chance? Because it seems that there is no song called "Man With a Movie Camera", but "Work It" comes up in Soulseek.

Steel Train - Blown Away - 4:04

The song starts off with vocals and an acoustic guitar only. The vocals are soft, and not bad, but they don't do a whole lot for me.

After a little bit, bass guitar, electric guitar, and drums come in and the song becomes a bit fuller. There is a nice little change of a pace with the "you got a ways to go, crawling your way back home" part.

Then the song goes to lo-fi vocals which I don't really understand as they don't fit with the rest of the song. They aren't there for long, and before long there is a short piano part with bass guitar. The instrumental doesn't last for too long before another full verse comes in.

Lo-fi vocals come in one more time, followed by an instrumental part featuring a piano again, and dreamy choir-like background vocals it sounds like. The song has a different feel every minute it feels like.

The dreamy part quits abruptly and there is a piano solo that takes the song out.

Not bad, I liked it a bit.

7.5/10

Phoenix - "Love For Granted", "Victim of the Crime", "If I Ever Feel Better", or "Everything Is Everything"

I'll do it.

It wasn't what I was expecting. The music is uplifting in a way, but the lyrics are kinda sad.

Theres an acoustic guitar over a vocal track, with some drums and bass.

The chorus is good, it sticks and you remember the song. The vocals are good, clean and he sings good.

It ends about where it should, although you still feel like you want more.

Worth a listen if you haven't already.

8/10

The Depature - all mapped out
Poison the Well - today (smashing pumpkins cover)
The Music - Freedom Fighters
Palaxy Tracks - Up My Sleeve

[QUOTE=Scott Herren]Is the Cinematic Orchestra song called "Work It" by any chance? Because it seems that there is no song called "Man With a Movie Camera", but "Work It" comes up in Soulseek.[/QUOTE]

This is a bit of a late reply but yes you were right, on the soundtrack album "Man With a Movie Camera" the song is called "Work It!", but thats a different version of the song. The version I was talking about is a newer mix and is called "Man With THE Movie Camera" and is from the album Everyday. Tis a bit confusing and im not totally sure why they changed the name, probably to make things less confusing. This post is a bit pointless cos you already reviewed the Steel Train song but I thought I'd just clarify anyway.

FYI: "Man with a Movie Camera" is a kinda documentary montage thing about life in the Soviet Union made in 1929. I saw it at Shepherds Bush Empire with Cinematic Orchestra playing their own soundtrack to it live on stage behind a translucent screen onto which the film was projected, it was quite simply brilliant. This info probably belongs on the Jazz boards but I mention it here because sometimes, for fleeting moments, Cinematic O remind me of GY!BE and I think their fanbase shouldnt soley be made up of Jazz and/or trip-hop enthusiasts

dibs

Poison The Well- Today

At first i thought it was actually the smashing pumpkins song, but then the guys voice comes in. he usually does the screamo thing(to my knowledge) but in the verse he tries to be really soft, but just ends up being boring and making me wish i was listening to billy sing it instead. then once we get to the big chorus he does his scream, which in no way suits the song. the instrumentation is almost identical, and the vocals are pretty boring.

5/10

my songs:

Can- Mushroom
Sebadoh- Together or Alone
Nick Drake- Northern Sky

bump

I wanna do the Sebadoh song but it has a long queue. If anyone wants to dibs go ahead;)

edit: okay, dibs

[B]Sebadoh - Together or Alone[/B]

So this is the first song I'm hearing from them.

The bass and guitar go in harmony with the opening riff. It's very easy and calm sounding. Soft drumming accompanies it until the vocalist comes in. I like how his voice fits in the song, though not like it's that unique; kinda reminds me of The Doves'.

Anyways, this song is a fairly straightforward, forumulaic soft indie rock song. There's not a lot of stuff going on here, just pure musings on romance. It's simple, and that's how it appeals to me. But then, there's not much that stands out in the song, other than the nice little solo in the end. Hopefully I'll get to listen to better Sebadoh songs, this interested me quite a bit.

[B]6.5/10[/B]


Songs:

National Skyline - October(upbeat indie pop-rock, Phoenix-ish) [url]http://www.epitonic.com/artists/nationalskyline.html[/url]

Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra - Hypocrite(jazz enzemble)[url]http://www.epitonic.com/artists/antibalasafrobeatorchestra.html[/url]

Miho Hatori - [url=http://www.espew.com/cgi-bin/spew/188473/IncredibleMosesLeroy-TheColorOfSky.mp3]The Color of Sky[/url](electronic indie j-pop)

Pele - Black Socks(alt-rocky post rock) [url]http://www.epitonic.com/artists/pele.html[/url]

Adrian Belew - [url=http://www.murple.com/media/adrianbelew-sideoneteaser.mp3]Side One Teaser[/url](funk rock weird mix)

bump

ok, dibs

I wanted to do the Belew track, but it's a bunch of clips from different songs, rather than just one song, so I couldn't really review it. It does sound like an interesting album though. But instead I chose...

[B]National Skyline - October[/B]

Well I've never heard of this band, so I'm going in with no expectations.

Starts off with light guitar, sounds like it'll be a nice lil poppy song. The vocals aren't doing much for me. He seems off key. Maybe he wants to sound that way, I dunno, but it's annoying, and it's distracting me from what is otherwise a very nice song. He does sound ok in that "save all your violence" part, that's really good and catchy actually, best part of the song there.

And now it's over. It [i]was[/i] a nice lil poppy song, but I spent most of the time distracted by the vocals. It has the potential to be a good song, like I've said it's very "nice", but I just can't get past the singer. Oh well.

[B]5/10[/B]

Songs for the next person:

20 Minute Loop - Jubilation (very catchy alt pop with an edge, can be downloaded at this site: [url]http://www.epitonic.com/artists/20minuteloop.html[/url])

Hilltop Hoods - The Nosebleed Section (Australian hip-hop, very old-school-feeling)

Neu! - Hallogallo (Kraut-rock. Warning, it's 10:07 long.)

dibs

You must get Hilltop Hoods. You MUST!

Crap, i'm gonna have to decline this dibs. I'm gonna have to re-install Windows soon, so someone else can take it.

I'll do it, my last FL for 2004...

[QUOTE=moderaterock222]You're the first person on this board that i've ever seen mention the band Mae. 'Destination:Beautiful' is a pretty good record, reminds me of 'photo album' Death Cab.[/QUOTE]

I like Mae, but I've never mentioned them on here :thumb:

Actually, I've only heard "Tisbury Lane", but still.

[b]20 Minute Loop - Jubilation[/b]

Theres some soft fuzzy feedback and a bass line over the top.
Pretty much straight away theres some female vocals doing a somewhat chromatic drop.
It sounds pretty raw. A man sings too now, the lyrics sound seem to be about cooking body parts, the female vocalist does this strange "hip neh ahy neah" thing. Then there is a more melodic chorus with both vocalists, it does seem pretty catchy and dirty at the same time. It reminds me think of an Eels song that I heard once.

In the 2nd verse, the guy is using a harsher voice and theres a bit of lead guitar, once again, dirty. Chorus again, and it sounds a bit country this time.

Just as well since it leads into a short country break. But goes back to the chromatic dropping bit. Verse 3, back to how the first one went, lyrics sound semi gory still. An attempted guitar solo, now it's reminding me of Muse.

Chorus again, things seem safer now with the melody here, the female singer is putting on a real thick country accent now, and there it ends on a cool harmonized vocal interplay.


It's not really my type of thing, so I wasn't expecting I would enjoy this as much as I did.
I liked the way it flows, the contrasting dirty verse and melodic chours, the structure wasn't totally standard either, especially with those little extra bits thrown in every now and then. Something interesting, catchy, and some harshness all in one, and done well too. 9/10


It kind of reminds me of a band called Bird Blobs if anyone's interested.
but... another time.. right now I feel like recommending some POP, Mainstream style.

[b]Kylie Minogue - Confide In Me[/b] - kind of dark

[b]Madonna - Frozen[/b] - arty with a little trance influence. Try for the 6 minute version

[b]Spice Girls - Viva Forever[/b] - nice and soft, with some flamenco guitar

Just ignore who sings it, that might cloud some peoples judgement. Remember, it's about the music. I would think these will be easy to find, so enjoy.
make 2005 a good one, and the rest of 2004 as well.

insane bump