Time to shake that shaker and let the chips fall where they may, as we hit up another unknown (to me) album and see what we get. There will be absolutely no prizes for guessing my motivation in choosing this one --- I love an interesting title or band name, and you don’t get a whole lot more interesting than a band called Break My
Fucking Sky, now do you? Of course, it’s virtually impossible to get any information on them, so I’m shooting totally in the dark here, but then, that’s what this section is all about, isn’t it?
If I had to guess (and I’d probably be wrong) I would say this is a thrash/death metal band, just going from the name, but I really have no clue. That could be a massive pink salmon, sorry, red herring, and the band could be a folk indie rock outfit for all I know. Well, that’s probably not too likely, but a name doesn’t always tell the full story. Unfortunately I can find nothing about them on El Webbo, other than YouTube videos and the odd place that sells their album, so I guess we’ll just have to let the music do the talking.
Final breath --- Break my Fucking sky --- 2013 (?)
First impressions: Totally breathtaking opening with beautiful soft acoustic piano then deep synthesiser in an almost orchestral vein --- could be an orchestra to be honest, I have no information at all about this album as I say. Nothing about the players, their discography, their style. This could be their debut for all I know. One thing I do know is I, rather appropriately, fu
cking love this! Soft, ambient, emotional, possibly (probably) instrumental. I find myself wondering though if I’m being setup for a fall, as I would almost swear this is metal, and may explode, if not in this track then in the next, shattering the lovely feeling I have here. Well we’ll see. Hmm. Second track is also piano-led, soft and instrumental with some sound effects loops thrown in.
Likes: The gorgeous atmospheric instrumental opening, giving me hope this may be an amazing discovery. It looks like it goes on like that too.
Dislikes: Nothing so far. And coming back at the end of the album, still nothing.
Development of album: Seems like it may all be instrumental. Piano certainly appears to be the main instrument, the lynchpin around which the rest of the music swings, the heart of the album. Some interesting drum loops almost give it a feel of slower hip-hop at times, and some really nice orchestral synth lays down further layers of beauty on this lush soundscape. Beautiful piece of evocative guitar in the gorgeous if grammatically-incorrect “So silently has become in my world without you”, then the last few moments of “Stop the time” are the first where the music gets anyway fast, dropping back to gentle ambience for “Your personal god”, with what sounds like violins. After all the soft piano tracks it’s almost a shock to hear what sounds pretty close to electronic pop in “You’re living this moment with me” but it goes back to the slow atmospherics for much of the rest of the album, ending on a storming track just shy of six minutes which brings in sort of techno influences into the mix.
Overall sound: Ambient, laidback, post-rock I guess, with piano the main instrument carrying the melodies.
Reminds me of: Hard to say really. So far, the closest I would come is the album from Dreamfire that I reviewed in “Bitesize” and maybe Anthony Phillips and Andrew Skeet’s “Seventh Heaven”.
Favourite track(s): “Final breath”, “Aquarius”, “Moon”, “So silently has become in my world without you” … pretty much everything really.
Least favourite track(s): Not a one.
Overall effect on me: Surprise mostly, but good surprise. As I said, I had no idea at all what to expect, and the fact that this turned out to be an instrumental album, and such a good one, knocked me a little for six. There were no nasty revelations, no sudden changes in the music and no growly vocals. Well, no vocals at all. I’m a little mystified as to the title of the band/project though, considering it’s all pretty laidback instrumental stuff. It kind of precludes any airplay. Then again, instrumental music doesn’t get much of that. Very impressed though, so that’s two for three so far. Wish I knew more about Break my Fuc
king sky though: I have a sneaking suspicion this could be one guy. Or girl. But there’s no way to confirm or disprove that, which is a pity.
TRACKLISTING
1. Final breath
2. Aquarius
3. Moon
4. So silently has become in my world without you
5. Stop the time
6. Your personal god
7. Destruam et aedificabo
8. Do not forget me
9. Embrace my night
10. Fire all over
11. You’re living this moment with me
12. Second chance
13. Sense of touch
14. The last minutes of stars
15. Will you save me
So, the rating then. Well, I definitely enjoyed this album, a whole lot more than I had realistically expected to, but how does that translate into dice ratings?
Die One: Loved this album in every way, so it’s getting a solid six. Early to be giving sixes yes I know, but I was really impressed by this.
Die Two: How familiar was I with the genre? Well, that’s an open question, because when I started the album I had no idea what genre it was. So given that I’m relatively familiar with ambient/instrumental music, but also taking into account that I was flying in here blind, I’m going for a midpoint score and awarding this
So a total dice roll then of
(Highest score yet…)
