Forum Member Album Reviews

Mondo Bungle · 02-23-2016, 03:54 PM

6 has this poem though http://www.musicbanter.com/1667642-post1023.html

Mondo Bungle · 02-24-2016, 04:40 PM

Daydream Society - Fervor

Avulsion (which for some reason is not recognized as a real word by my browser) was a nice sounding, easy to enjoy display of atmospheric electronica kind of stuff. It was simple and subtle in it's layering of light, lush pads and friendly little notes and melodies. It was predictable... alright that's probably not a good word, that sounds negative... It was, consistent, easy to imagine the way a track would play out. I mean that in a good way, really. Just trying to set up a comparison to Fervor. This album is not entirely different, but still a new animal compared to the last. More unpredictable in nature, utilizing sounds that spring out of left field unexpectedly, but it all comes together perfectly. It is more experimental, with a much wider array of noises that make up a unique musical experience.

This review is from a first-ish impression. I sampled the tracks after downloading and I heard a lot of very attractive drones, melodies, and quirky soundscapes. Today I listened to it in full and enjoyed it as much as I thought I would from those quips. It was engaging from start to finish, so I plan on keeping it for a bit and may do a track by track dissection soon, but for now I'm giving my impression on the whole unit, and I think that would work better honestly. I found it to be a very cohesive piece, each track drifted seamlessly into the next, constantly evolving upon an already established sound yet at the same time changing in tone and feeling quite often.

As I said, this is more experimental than the last album I listened to, and while I enjoyed that a great deal, I found this much more appealing and interesting. There's even a fair amount of noisy influences on display. It reminded me of things like The Jesus and Mary Chain or MBV in the way it combined an entirely accessible and pop-ish sound with dissonant and almost harsh effects. Very full and diverse. It has a somewhat psychedelic, noise pop-esque quality and could easily be enjoyed by casual and experimental music fans alike. It is truly an amazing balance and I'd really like to see it explored further.

YorkeDaddy · 02-24-2016, 07:12 PM

Hell yeah dude, thanks for the review and again some great writing there and I'm thrilled you enjoyed it so much. I really love the musical identity I'm starting to carve and I do indeed plan on expanding on the sound and style that is present here.

Ol’ Qwerty Bastard · 02-25-2016, 08:54 AM

Fervor by Daydream Society

Spoiler for MB users already know enough about YD to skip the intro.:

If one thing can be said about both of the last two projects, it's how much I found the music correlated with the album art. The brightly lit neon city that graces the cover of For Now matches the vibrant synths of the album perfectly, and often times the music itself provoked the feeling of walking down a brightly lit city street on a dark rainy night. Meanwhile, the artwork for Avulsion is quite different, yet the wintery forest that you are presented with on the cover still manages to connect with the music quite well, as this time the sound is more of a warm blanket, enveloping you much like the bright sun that can be seen peaking through the aforementioned trees does to the forest.

So, what about the newest album, Fervor? This one was hard to get a read from by simply looking at the album art, but after hearing the first few songs, it becomes immensely clear what the artistic direction is. The project, which Bryan himself referred to as being "an album about love, without using any lyrics" is the darkest I've heard him get. The angry, dirty distortion on tracks like Daring to Deceive You and Fate or Fiction Pt. 2 feel both loud and abrasive when contrasting the hauntingly beautiful synths that occupy most of the other tracks, however when set against the backdrop of the shadows and darkness of the album's cover, it all seems to make complete sense.

While he has classified his previous projects as experimental, it wasn't until Fervor that I felt the tag truly belonged. The closing track The Best Dream of Your Life, a cut that comes in at nearly 7 minutes long, is a wonderful example of that. The extra slow pacing of the piece is wonderful, and while it's kicked off with the same buzzing atmosphere that you might expect, it's as the track progresses that we find surprises such as the ugly keys which manage to still boarder on being pretty in their own eccentric way. When that's mixed in with what appears to be a very sci-fi inspired sound, it creates one of my favorite tracks on the entire album. It was an ambitious decision to venture further into experimental territory, but fortunately the plethora of new sounds included on this record don't interfere with the same atmospheric nature that can be found on the rest of Daydream Society's projects. Even with some moments being more out there and unpredictable, the project as a whole remains very coherent and has it's own unique identity without alienating any of the elements found on older material.

This is certainly the most ambitious Daydream Society album I've heard, and for each second of beauty and love, there's also a moment of sadness and despair, but after all, isn't that what love is? In many ways, I consider an ambient piece to be much like surrealism is in art. You may not be able to hear or feel exactly what the artist was thinking when creating it, but each listener will have their own interpretation of what's beneath the surface. For me, Fervor is a journey for both love and lust, a journey that has ups and down, and is equal parts alluring as it is tragic. Is Fervor Mullins' best project? Perhaps not, but it certainly is on par with the rest of his works. What it truly is however, is a sign of musical maturity and further development of what was already an incredible approach.

Rating: 4/5

Mondo Bungle · 02-25-2016, 04:37 PM

General Disregard - No Gods, No Music Theory! (2015 Demo)

This was a fun recording that surely wore its influence on its sleeve but had a sound quality and music clarity of its own enough to set it apart. I'm not entirely sure what Fang song the intro was a cover of but it was an easy instrumental to get going. The next track is some unexpected folk fun with a wailing harmonica that I enjoyed a bunch. Was very quick and didn't evolve into much but a rather fun acoustic track to contrast the rest. "White Trash Anthem" begins with a riff noticeably heavier than the first track. I think there's some vocals here but they're incomprehensible. It goes onto slam into a reckless outro of guitar nonsense and blastbeats. Pretty great. "Ultra long titled track 4" continues the heavier guitar tone, I like this one better thanthe last though. "REM with a fuzzbox" employs that acoustic guitar some more for the beginning before the rock band re-initiates. Vocals are still hard to make out but that's fine. This track was very catchy and a great, almost anthemic close to the demo.

All in all some basic punk stuff that might be looking for a little bit of a different identity with catchy folk elements here and there. It has a Pussy Galore reckless noise punk feel as well. With improvement and more musicality in general they could pick up a cool sound for some longer recordings. I'd personally enjoy the folk elements to stay and even expanded upon

Tristan_Geoff · 02-25-2016, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mondo Bungle

General Disregard - No Gods, No Music Theory! (2015 Demo)

This was a fun recording that surely wore its influence on its sleeve but had a sound quality and music clarity of its own enough to set it apart. I'm not entirely sure what Fang song the intro was a cover of but it was an easy instrumental to get going. The next track is some unexpected folk fun with a wailing harmonica that I enjoyed a bunch. Was very quick and didn't evolve into much but a rather fun acoustic track to contrast the rest. "White Trash Anthem" begins with a riff noticeably heavier than the first track. I think there's some vocals here but they're incomprehensible. It goes onto slam into a reckless outro of guitar nonsense and blastbeats. Pretty great. "Ultra long titled track 4" continues the heavier guitar tone, I like this one better thanthe last though. "REM with a fuzzbox" employs that acoustic guitar some more for the beginning before the rock band re-initiates. Vocals are still hard to make out but that's fine. This track was very catchy and a great, almost anthemic close to the demo.

All in all some basic punk stuff that might be looking for a little bit of a different identity with catchy folk elements here and there. It has a Pussy Galore reckless noise punk feel as well. With improvement and more musicality in general they could pick up a cool sound for some longer recordings. I'd personally enjoy the folk elements to stay and even expanded upon

I was kinda just busting your balls earlier but thanks dude! We're actually starting our live performances with acoustic and drum busking so we'll have more folk for ya later. Our next demo, possibly out Monday, is way better than this demo (songwriting wise and musically) and has another folky track. If I wasn't in the band I'd listen the hell outta this next release.

Oh and White Trash Anthem has no vocals. REM's vocals were Neil going blah blah blah de blah blah de blah etc.

Mondo Bungle · 02-25-2016, 09:23 PM

Someone review this track plz https://troublesalad.bandcamp.com/tr...g-for-a-savior

The other song on the album is a 50 minute drone and I'll tell you right now it pretty much doesn't go anywhere. If you wanna listen, by all means go for it, just saying you don't gotta. This track on the other hand is a very interesting thing for me. I've literally played about 20 minutes of piano my whole life and they're all eight here. Haven't even touched one before or since, yet i think this sounds really cool. Sure there's some awkward moments naturally but really nice and atmospheric.

Mondo Bungle · 02-26-2016, 03:04 PM

New album I'd like feedback for if you could be so kind https://troublesalad.bandcamp.com/al...eval-cosmology

YorkeDaddy · 02-26-2016, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mondo Bungle

New album I'd like feedback for if you could be so kind https://troublesalad.bandcamp.com/al...eval-cosmology

I'll get this **** sometime next week fam

Mondo Bungle · 02-28-2016, 05:42 PM

So I think this is completely and utterly amazing, been wanting some in depth analysis more than anything else I've ever made, but yes, it is very long.

https://znmusic.bandcamp.com/album/mount-gaash

It is a double album though. So I'm propposing to split that and call it two albums, meaning if you wanna exchange, we could go disc for disc or I'd do two if someone does both