INDIVOTION SCORE: 8.5/10
Saturday, August 03, 2019
Friday, August 02, 2019
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Monday, July 15, 2019
OFF RADAR [#3]: Orations - Receiver (2019)
OFF RADAR is a new blog feature with the sole purpose of highlighting all the albums that could have easily made INDIEVOTION's Album of the Week or Album of The Month but did not since due to unpredictable circumstances these albums weren’t given a proper, attentive listening by the time of their release though they all sound unquestionably good. This week we have Orations sophomore album full-length “Receiver” which has all the right ingredients to stand out as one of the very best post punk albums of 2019.
Going back to 2017 Orations debut album “Wych Helm” i can only say that it still undoubtedly stands out as one of the absolute best Post-Punk albums of the 21st century.
Would the Orations be able to manage to reproduce such a high profile, reinvigorating performance on a second album? It came with no surprise that the answer was an affirmative, gigantic yes, they can. And that’s precisely what they have done.
“Receiver” is Orations brand-new box full of treasures, in broad terms it is the grandiloquent eulogy of Post-Punk taken to its heights and sounding like it should sound considering some insurmountable musical influences brilliantly plasmated throughout Orations discography.
“Receiver” displays a mesmerizing, polished renewal of the hypnotic rhythm disquietness built upon glassy, dreamy, gut wrenching guitars; voracious, galloping bass lines; demolishing, tribal drumming all of this wrapped up to a level of perfection with the stunning Jess Collins vocals, literally one of the most fascinating female voices of contemporary modern indie music scene, capable of blending the vocal texture of Siouxsie Sioux, Elizabeth Frazer and Harriet Wheeler song after song...simply superb.
Orations “Receiver” offers the listener an entirely delightful, unusually visceral, classic 11 song track list for an utterly rewarding sonic, melomaniac experience where each song deeply resonates beyond its immediacy proving once again that Orations put a lot of effort and detail on the making of this second album which resulted aesthetically coherent without highs and lows between songs and awesomely balanced from opening to closing. Our Royal Flush of standout songs would be: All The Honey, Enemy, Knoetry and False Face. Orations second album is undoubtedly a brilliant, fabulous one and unquestionably the Post-Punk release of the year so far.
INDIEVOTION SCORE: 9/10
Saturday, July 13, 2019
Saturday, July 06, 2019
Wednesday, July 03, 2019
Tuesday, July 02, 2019
Saturday, June 29, 2019
Saturday, June 22, 2019
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
AUSTRALIAN GEMS 2019 [#14]: Sarah Mary Chadwick - The Queen Who Stole The Sky
INDIEVOTION SCORE: 9/10
Saturday, June 15, 2019
ALBUM OF THE WEEK [#24]: Marissa Nadler & Stephen Brodsky - Droneflower (2019)
INDIEVOTION SCORE: 8.5/10
Saturday, June 08, 2019
ALBUM OF THE WEEK [#23]: She Rides Tigers - Scars (2019)
Back in 2015 I got pretty well impressed by She Rides Tigers (SRT) and their surprisingly brilliant debut EP “Standing on The Edge” which was beyond any doubt one of the very best records released that year and it still roars unbelievably good four years and a new drummer later. It is becoming a true classic of the genre.
When a band coming out of nowhere without the music press extending them the red carpets of vanity and the spotlight of futile fame suddenly delivers an EP as sonically addictive as “Standing on The Edge” you inevitably raise the quality bar a bit too high no matter how involuntarily the next time the band gets into a studio to work on a new record.
This said it's not difficult to guess that we’ve indeed nurtured great expectations about what this solid, exciting power trio from Chicago, formed by Joe O'Leary (vocals/guitar), James Scott (bass/vocals) and Ryan Birkett (drums) recurrently blasting some vicious, electrifying rock & roll would do when they find time for a debut full-length.
She Rides Tigers aren’t hard to define if you get to the core of their influences. The band is basically embedded into some inspirational Led Zeppelin mentorship although in its very essence SRT seem to be sounding much more to Oasis than to anything else. They can easily be considered the ambassadors of BritPop in Illinois.
She Rides Tigers debut album seems to be not much different: reverberated, fuzzy, distorted guitars; thick, vibrating, dark bass lines; steady, pounding drum patterns and vocals reminding Liam Gallagher. The album is pretty much well-balanced from opening to closing displaying considerable aesthetic coherence and above all cohesiveness throughout the song alignment.
Eight perfectly crafted songs seemingly corresponding to the appropriate formula to avoid asymmetries resulting overall in a brilliant and consistent debut album. “Scars” has a bunch of stand out songs that entirely deserve to be played on big venues across North America. For a start there’s the catchy poppiness of “Scars of Allegory”, “Perfect Crime” and “Take a Bow” where one can perceive the Led Zeppelin influence but what really overwhelms is the omnipresence of a certain “under the Oasis influence”. Take for instance the chorus parts of both “Perfect Crime” and “Take a Bow” as two good examples of this. “Heart Worth Breaking” sounds to some nice mix between Al Di Meola, Link Wray and Johnny Marr with the original SRT touch. From this moment on the album gets on fire with the absolutely thrilling, hit song that is “Out of My Mind” (Johnny Marr could have perfectly written it) followed by another highlighting moment with a slightly Bob Mould-esque super groove of “Something to Believe In” just before the superb 70s classic rock groove of “No Way Out” (a hybrid blend of Free and Alex Harvey Band) after coming to an end with the one more “under the Oasis influence” with the quintessential “Should’ve Known Better”.
She Rides Tigers did keep the bar really high with a great set of songs that leave absolutely no one indifferent because they capture the spirit and troubles of a generation which stands as one more reason why one can unconditionally rank SCARS as one of the best 2019 albums so far.
INDIEVOTION SCORE: 8/10
Wednesday, June 05, 2019
Saturday, June 01, 2019
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
ALBUM OF THE MONTH [MAY]: Rose Elinor Dougall - A New Illusion (2019)
For all those acquainted with her solo career it’s probably not difficult to admit that something necessarily changed since her first album (Without Why) a magnificent gem of introspectiveness to the second one (Stellular) where she displays some truly sophisticated dark pop geniality and a handful of anthemic songs.
Unexpectedly early this year when her loyal followers were preparing for another long hiatus in between studio albums Rose Elinor Dougall announced that she would be releasing a third album in April 2019. In good time she did it because A New Illusion actually is one of the most stunning albums of the year so far. A Priceless beauty.
A New Illusion is immensely poetic, delicate and detailed, even contemplative with a touch of bittersweet nostalgia that seems not only to to coin Rose Elinor Dougall compositions but actually became some sort of her trademark quality seal, not a common place and decidedly not a cliche.
A New Illusion will probably sound less produced and in some way a much simpler album when in comparison to Without Why and Stellullar. We might concede that the album is more organic, more stripped from studio tricks, but that is precisely the source its strength: less produced but masterfully arranged in such a way that sometimes it sounds that there are songs within a song such is the extreme beauty of many of the arrangements and the cinematic imagery displayed demanding a careful listening that turns into pure delight.
A New Illusion uncompromising beauty lasts for about 45 minutes and a handful of stunningly, gorgeous tracks such as That's Where The Trouble Started an authentic and mesmerizing ode to beautiful songwriting; Wordlessly the filigree, creative moment of the album. Stripped down poetry; Take What You Can Get a viciously addictive song, superbly nostalgic with a psych-krautrock feel. Magnificent composition, almost epic.
Too Much Of Not Enough sets another fine example of how good a songwriter/composer Dougall actually turned into. The song’s intro intense sonic imagery brings to mind while listening to that piano is the silence of early, hazy mornings by the seaside on a coastal city such like Brighton. Dougall’s vocals are beyond very good while the song slowly evolves keeping an essential tension among all instruments turning it in another high quality moment of the album.
Christina In Red is a song to remind us of the sonic experimentation that Dougall has been doing post “Without Why” with some superb saxophone brilliance and krautrock groove. Simple Things is another a pure gem of good taste and fine songwriting where everything seems on spot with the most beautiful piano layers ever on Dougall’s work resulting in an extraordinarily gorgeous song, a true appeal for new beginnings, new illusions.
INDIEVOTION SCORE: 9/10
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