Entry 1429 - Saor - Amidst the Ruins

Style: Atmospheric black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: the beauty of nature, fusing the violence of the storm with the peace of the calm that comes after

Thoughts: I can't express how disappointed I was in Origin. Almost all of the magic of the first four albums was gone. In it's place was a stripped down and tamed version of the unrestrained spirit known only as Saor. 

When Amidst the Ruins was announced I was skeptical at best. I didn't think that Andy had another good album in him after the dismal songs on display from the previous album. This skepticism stayed with me until I got to hear the first single - the twelve minute title track.

Two things immediately stuck out. The track was twelve minutes long, four minutes longer than anything in the previous album.  Saor's best music is in the long form songs, and part of what made Origin so bad is that the songs were never allowed to fully develop... they felt hamstrung as a result. Secondly there were a lot of guest musicians listed - violin, tin whistle, cello... none of these were really present to great extent in the previous album. Their inclusion peaked my interest.

When the track finally debuted I sat back and took it in, much like I am with the whole record right now. I let the music wash over me, take me on its musical journey - wherever that may lead. I mystical foray into the unknown, to lands never once touched by human hands. This was the Saor I missed, this was the Saor of old.

Return to form is a phrase used to frequently that it's hard to write it seriously... but in the case of Saor I can't stress how much Amidst the Ruins is a true return to form. There are so few bands out there that can make music this atmospheric, this potent, this powerful... I thought that we had forever lost one of the great modern bands in atmospheric/folk metal. I am so very pleased to say that I was wrong.

Amidst the Ruins picks up right where Forgotten Paths left off. The music is large and grandiose. It's open and inviting. The melodies are powerful, they sweep into me and give my spirit life. Be it a guitar, a violin, bagpipes, a whistle... really anything that is carrying the melody it doesn't matter - they are all equally potent. 

The power of the music is only amplified by the way that the songs are structured and delivered. They know exactly when to be loud, they know when to be quiet. They know when to blast the hell out of me and they know when to lay me in a soft cloud of musical bliss. It knows what to do and when to do it... a quality most bands never learn much less master.

Amidst the Ruins doesn't completely forsake the sound found on Origins either. It takes some of the tribal drumming found on that album and incorporates it into the deeper Saor sound. In essence this is the fulfillment of the sound found on Origins as well as the continuation of the core Saor sound. Not only has Andy Marshall brought my faith back into band, but god damn I'm looking forward to what they have next again.

Entry 1428 - Swans - Love of Life

Style: gothic rock, ambient, experimental

Primary Emotions/Themes: Happy, joyful music that extols the virtues of living and restores my faith in humanity... certainly this is what the album is about... most certainly

Thoughts: Whenever I have a Swans album to write about I cringe a little inside. Not because of anything wrong with the music... rather the opposite. There is so much going on in these albums that I feel overwhelmed and don't know where to start, where to finish, or even what direction I'm going. Love of Life offers little respite from this.

Trying to summarize a Swans album is trying to describe the texture of water without calling it wet. Trying to define the warmth of the sun to someone who has only ever felt cold. Explaining to someone what death is like when all we have ever experienced is living. It's nearly an impossible task. Yet here I am, once again trying to take up this task for the sake of completion.

Love of Life sounds like the most uplifting and joyful album that Swans ever have written. Those who are familiar with the band though know that this is as far from the truth as you can get. There is a sarcasm... no a bitterness to these lyrics that speaks to the deep loathing that Mr. Gira has of humanity and our perpetual need to commit atrocities. 

The music does have a much milder tone musically than most of the albums that came before and after it. There is a subtle uplifting touch that is present in most of the songs that is completely absent from Swans other albums (except for maybe Leaving Meaning). That's not to say that the music is outright happy, this still is a deeply mournful album... but there are small but fleeting glimpses of hope from time to time.

Gira's voice in particular has cast aside most of the harshness from earlier works. He now wields a soft croon that drive the music forward. That combined with the extended use of acoustic guitars and keyboards make this album a surprisingly pleasant listen - at least by Swans standards.  

I feel like I've written a lot of words and I haven't even started to touch the essence of what makes Love of Life itself. I could probably write another 10k words and not be able to adequately describe the music contained on this record accurately. 

If I had to sum it up into a concise statement Love of Life is an album of contradictions. It celebrates the decay in life, it tears down the happiness that can be found in small moments. It emphasizes the joy that small victories bring, and shines a tiny light in the darkest of places. It has a bitterness about it that comes from the knowledge of what humanity is. It has a smirking sarcasm that comes from a life lived fully.  It has all of these things at once. It never tries to justify its existence, it simply is content to be. 

Entry 1427 - Gloria de Oliveira & Dean Hurley - Oceans of Time

Style: Ambient, pop, orchestral

Primary Emotions/Themes: Lost endlessly at sea, calming soundscapes with female voices guiding me onwards, peace, serenity with a hint of darkness, random interludes of pop rock

Thoughts: This album came out of nowhere. I stumbled upon it at a clearance event and listened to the first few tracks and was interested enough to pick it up. 

Gloria and Dean have created quite the interesting album with Oceans of Time. A vast majority of the play time is spent on slow melodic ambience with female vocals floating across the music's surface. I would say a good 70 to 80 percent of the album falls within this description... and then there is the remaining parts.

In stark contrast to the slow ambience, the remaining tracks on Oceans of Time are beat driven pop-rock songs. They don't even seem to be fully fleshed out as they most often will just be a drum beat over some keyboards with Gloria singing a bit more forcefully than the ambient tracks. The melodies are sparse and don't offer enough of a hook to really draw me into them, despite the haunting nature of Olivia's excellent vocals.

This is really where the album loses me. The two styles are seemingly at odds with each other. They are in stark contrast and do not allow the album to get into any type of flow. It can't decide if it wants to be more ambient or more of a pop album and this dissociated identity ends up being the downfall of the album. 

It's not that one is inherently better than the other, its that we got two separate albums or EP's here. If one side focused exclusively on ambient and the other on the pop sounds I think we would have the start of something really cool... but alas the track order can't get out of it's own way here. Just when I start getting into a groove with the pop, or into a relaxed state with the ambient the album switches gears again and I have to recalibrate myself. There's a good album in here somewhere, but the way that this is arranged currently that opportunity is lost.

Entry 1426 - My Dying Bride - The Angel and the Dark River

Style: gothic/doom metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: deep... tragic loss, an uncontrollable grief, lack of a stabilizing force, longing, needing... yearning

Thoughts: My Dying Bride. I don't think I can think of a more consistent discography than these guys for their first eight albums. The first four in particular are nearly all flawless masterpieces. Each providing a different side of the band. Each providing a unique perspective into the sorrow that only these Brits could do.

Their third offering - The Angel and the Dark River - sees the band venturing further from the death metal roots. Abandoning the aggressive riffing and harsh vocals all together (save for one bonus track), opting instead for a more drawn out and emotionally explorative opus.

We've traded rage for remorse. Hatred for loss. Death for longing. Death metal for ambience. Aggression for reflection. 

There are only six songs on this record, and yet it still is near an hour in length. These songs are long, and they use that length to explore things that the band had not to this point. The ambient sections that were teased in the longer songs on Turn Loose the Swans are now major components of the entire album. Over half of the opener's epic 12 minutes are the band experimenting with different sounds and effects. 

When I first heard this album I didn't care for it nearly as much as the first two. It seemed like the band had lost their way, got too far into the experimental portion of their sound. It reminded me too much of their 5th album (34.788% Complete), and at the time I thought that album was a complete garbled mess. Years of reflection and listening have changed my mind though. 

The ambience on this album (and later albums) allow the band to explore more abstract emotions than metal had been able to at this point. A sense of wandering and loneliness can be exemplified to a much greater extent in six minutes of meandering ambience than nearly an hour of metal. Metal can portray the soul crushing effects of these emotions well, however the complete lack of direction and confusion that come with them are best left to other genres.

The Angel and the Dark River is a complex work that walks the line between genius and disaster nearly flawlessly. The experimentation that the band show here is a clear sign of the band evolving beyond their brutal roots. It took me a while, but I can definitively say as of this writing that this evolution was for the betterment of the band and where they were at this time in their career. 

Entry 1425 - Amesoeurs

Style: Black metal, post-punk, atmospheric black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: a study in how two vastly different styles can exist in the same medium and still produce a cohesive album, post-punk songs interspersed with post-black metal songs steeped in atmosphere

Thoughts: Slow ambience breaks the silence only still to yield to a bass line. The ominous atmosphere continues to build as the guitar strums in its accompaniment. Like dark clouds forming on the horizon the music builds and swells until it all gives way but to a single guitar melody. Lonely. Forsaken. Forgotten.

In the midst of this the music abruptly explodes. All remnants of the previous abandonment left in the dust as the music overwhelms the senses with full chords, blast beats, and a flurry of activity. The foreboding darkness that was showing signs of the incoming storm has now unleashed the full extent of its downpour onto the listener. Gas In Veins, the opener has set quite the high expectations for the black metal album that is to come. 

I brace myself for the next moments, getting ready to have my ears blown out by whatever the band has planned... except I am greeted with clean guitars, female vocals, and a pop drum beat. What is this? Did I somehow put the wrong record on? Did the wrong songs get pressed on here? 

I've heard quite a few abrupt transitions in my time on this earth, and going from Gas In Veins to Les ruches malades is probably within the top ten. Not only does the album immediately set high expectations, it absolutely obliterates them with the very next song. Within the span of ten minutes the band has established two things: 

1) this is going to be one hell of a ride

2) you'll never know where you end up next

It's not until we get to Heurt that we see the band fuse the black metal with the post punk to any degree. The riffs and drumming match the intensity of the opening instrumental, but the vocals are the same even keel female ones from the second track. It's quite the contrast and I don't think I've ever heard anything like it before or since. 

In many ways Heurt is very much a statement of the album as a whole. It has moments of black metal, it has moments of post punk. It has post punk riffing with black metal distortion, it has black metal riffs with post-punk clean guitars. It's the closet thing the album gets to a cohesive marriage of the two extremes that so much of the album delves into. 

Amesoeurs is a one off album, nothing further would be released from the band... at least not as of this writing. It remains as an artifact, frozen in time. A testament to the experimentation that was happening around the late 2000's with mixing black metal with shoegaze and other genres. Not only does it succeed in the individual genres of black metal and post-punk, it manages to tie them together in such a manner that the album does not sound like the audio equivalent of oil and water. Rather it sounds like the emulsifier that ties them together. It's a damn fine record, and one I'm very happy to have in my collection. 

Entry 1424 - Anathema - Hindsight

Style: Acoustic 

Primary Emotions/Themes: a reimagining of some of Anathema's best songs 

Thoughts: Why are some bands so incredibly talented and creating music that resonates directly with the frequencies of my soul? There aren't many band's that can do this, but for a few albums Anathema certainly was one of them. 

The period between Judgement and Weather Systems is some of the most resonant music that I have ever heard. It has a deep resounding sorrow in it, music written by people who have lived life and have seen what it has to offer... Life, as a rule is a place where suffering molds us into the people we are. There is a deep sadness that comes with the realization that nothing is fair, nothing that you do ultimately matters, and that is exactly what is reflected within Anathema's music.

Hindsight is at it's core a compilation album, but if it were just that I would not have it in my collection. Rather than just put a bunch of tracks in a compilation the band has decided to strip down all of the rock and metal elements that were once present and do an all acoustic rendition. Instead of distortion or overdrive we have an acoustic guitar. Instead of percussion we have violins and cellos. 

Anathema has always written intense music, however the intensity is no longer felt through the music, but through the tender touch of the emotions that these new renditions channel. The music gently caresses me and gently assures me I'm not alone. There are other people in this world that have suffered as well. 

"No matter what I say, no matter what I do... I can't change what happened, I can't change what happened..."

Entry 1423 - Super Sonico - First Astronomical Velocity Vol. 1

Style: pop rock, anime

Primary Emotions/Themes: Genuinely happy guitar based music 

Thoughts: "Been listening to Sonico all morning, the album makes me genuinely happy." These are the exact words I spoke to a friend when I put this record on earlier today. Listening to Super Sonico's music unironically makes me smile. It's completely unlike any other music I have in my collection. It's unadulterated sugary sweet guitar driven pop, and I'm here for it.

I'm naturally drawn to the darker side of music, and for the most part this works for me. Sometimes though this has an ill effect on me and instead of resonating with me it drags me into a darker place. To counter this I need some music that temptation to fall all the way into the abyss. That countering force is provided by First Astronomical Velocity. 

From the instant the needle drops, Sonico and company are only interested in spreading joy and happiness through my speakers. Nothing else will do. The music that's on their debut record is actually quite diverse, much more so than I would have expected considering her origins.

The first two tracks are upbeat pop-rock songs that prominently feature Sonico's voice. Their lighthearted nature and quick pace are exactly what I need on a day where the world is trying to beat me down. Her sugary sweet voice is almost too much at points, but then again that's exactly why I'm listening to this: a way to reset my brain from being amongst the rotten.

There are other genres represented here as well: good ole' pop, pop-punk, it's even got a couple of ballads. They all fit well into the structure of the album, and the track order is such that I forget this is a compilation record most of the time. These songs really feel like they were meant to be together, especially the second side and it's absolutely beautiful selection for the last few tracks.

First Astronomical Velocity is a great first foray for Sonico and company to be pressed into wax. I've had this record on my turntable for the better part of two days at this point, and I hesitate to remove it. It's a wonderful album to listen to, and I know I'll be revisiting it in short order - especially if I have another day that requires some lighter intervention. 

Entry 1422 - Modest by Default - ص​​​ا​​​خ​​​ب

Style: vaporwave, barber beats

Primary Emotions/Themes: shades of music that pierce through the subtle darkness to shine meek tendrils of light into the places that need it the most

Thoughts: It's funny how perceptions of genres change over time. When I first got back into barber beats I was buying up just about anything and everything I could that was available. I got some good albums and some duds. Mostly the duds have been cleared out from the collection at this point. I'm much more selective now on what I allow into my hallowed stacks. The music needs to strike me in different ways that a simple "oh that's cool." I've got enough of those albums now... I need music that genuinely moves me at this point. That's where Modest by Default comes in.

There's music in the world that settles in the darker recesses, there's music that aims to channel nothing but the light... and then there is music like ص​​​ا​​​خ​​​ب which falls somewhere in between these two extremes. The music constructed by Modest is largely light hearted and on the gentler end of the spectrum... but there's this subtle sadness and sorrow that casts a dark undertone to the entire album. 

ص​​​ا​​​خ​​​ب is the kind of album that is best taken in when attention can be provided exclusively to it. As much as most barber beats provides an excellent backing track to every day activities, ص​​​ا​​​خ​​​ب requires a bit more from the listener. These ten (mostly) instrumentals have a deep sense of nuance and purpose to them that a casual listen does not allow for the album to fully reveal all it's secrets. Even now, having listened to this album for what seems like a dozen times, I am still uncovering subtle details buried deep within this albums textures. 

What is it then that makes ص​​​ا​​​خ​​​ب different? Why can I lose myself in this album above most other ones in the barber beats genre? To be honest I am not entirely sure I've formulated an answer for that. Maybe it's the way that the music is layered upon itself, and utilizes every instrument to the absolute maximum. Maybe it's the subtle yet potent use of reverb on most of the tracks, it gives them a depth that is not often seen. Maybe it's the intentional use of silence between notes to allow the instruments to speak their musicality completely before the next note interrupts. Maybe it's the varied percussive instruments that know when to both engage and when to abstain their presence. It could be all of these things, it could be none, it could be the combination. I'm not sure, nor do I really know if I truly care as for the reasons.

ص​​​ا​​​خ​​​ب is in the running for one of my top barber beats albums. The music here feels casual on a cursory listen, but the more time I spend with this album the more I find that it affects me on a deeper level. The music is more than simple instruments and beats... it's light in the darkness, it's shadows in the sun, it's darkness and hope, it's all these things yet none of them. It is its own entity, and that I believe is what draws me to study this album the way that I have.

Entry 1421 - October Tide - Rain Without End

Style: Doom/death

Primary Emotions/Themes: What would have happened if Katatonia had stayed extreme metal? 

Thoughts: Discouraged Ones was a defining moment for Katatonia. It set them on a path that would define the rest of their career, further and further away from their extreme metal roots. It was with that album that they finally turned the corner, dropped the growls and to a large extent the metal and decided that forge a new path. But what if they never strayed? What if they went further down the extreme path? Well that's the question that October Tide asked.

Rain Without End is a special album in October Tide's discography. Not only do we have the one mainstay of the project, Fredrick Norrman, we have the one and only Jonas Renkse on drums and vocals. This is essentially Ktatonia without Anders (which is another level of irony considering Anders just left Katatonia). 

So outside of the obvious Katatonia comparisons, what is Rain Without End all about? Well to put is simply, it's melodic/doom death that evolves the style of Brave Murder Day further. Instead of repeating the same thing over the course of long form songs, these songs are shorter and involve more riffs. That said, they still have the main backbeat on the drums giving them that same hypnotic sway that the songs off the previous album had. 

Where the band further evolves is through the use of melody. These songs incorporate more intricate and frankly more memorable moments through the use of both delayed guitars, well thought out leads, and various other instruments such as sparse keyboards and acoustic guitars. The real treat here though are the vocals. 

This is perhaps the last full album that I ever heard Jonas growl on. He's got a deep and longing harsh voice that he uses throughout the entirety of Rain Without End. It's exactly what I wanted from him, and this would be the last moment in time that I would ever get it. Outside of a few moment in an Ayreon album Jonas would never use harsh vocals again to my knowledge. This is the true reason why this album means so much to me.

October Tide would go on to have a long and storied career with Fredrick taking over the project after he left Katatonia. The albums after Jonas' departure are of various quality, but it's here at the very beginning where I got what I truly wanted from the band: the extreme continuation of one of the finest bands in the 1990's.

Entry 1420 - Haircuts for Men - к​​​о​​​г​​​д​​​а з​​​л​​​о г​​​о​​​с​​​п​​​о​​​д​​​с​​​т​​​в​​​у​​​е​​​т

Style: vaporwave, chilled, barber beats before barber beats

Primary Emotions/Themes: The original, the OG, the creator of barber beats

Thoughts: There is nothing like sitting down and enjoying a nice adult beverage on a weekend night knowing that you got nothing going on the next day. The sense that your responsibilities are completely met and that there is nothing - nothing - that is preventing you from enjoying yourself... that is a thing of beauty. That is the exact moment that Haircuts for Men (HFM) was made for. 

This my friends is one of the origonal albums, one of the novel creations in vaporwave that got me interested in the style. No one, and I mean NO one was doing this when HFM was starting his thing. For years, he was the only one doing this stuff, the only one that managed to create this hyper chill atmosphere in the vaporwave sphere. When everyone else was slowing down 70's and 80's music and adding boring beats to it, HFM was pulling together some of the chilliest music ever created. 

For those who don't know Haircuts for Men's music is what would later become known as barber beats: super chill plunderphonics that relies heavily on a deep groovy bassline and lounge/smooth jazz styled instrumentals over top. These instruments repeat in sync with the beat to create hypnotic grooves that compel my body to move. Even now listening to this thing my head won't stop bobbing to the intense groove that HFM has created.

Music like this is best listened to with a good sound system. There is a LOT to be gained from a strong solid bass response on the speakers. With the right stuff you can get your entire house to shake and your whole body gets wrapped up in the same vibration - it's amazing. Highly highly recommended.

I never thought I would see HFM music on vinyl ever again. There has been some controversy with the individual in the past and that largely meant that their label cut ties with them. Now half a decade later here we are, with one of his best albums on vinyl... who would have ever thunk it? Maybe small miracles can still happen.

Entry 1419 - Count Vornok - Towards the Black Vaults of Angorn

Style: Atmospheric black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Like listening to black metal under water or in slow motion

Thoughts: Well this certainly is an interesting album. Interesting good? Interesting bad? I haven't really figured that part out yet. 

Count Vornok was a black metal/dungeon synth band that had a distinct beginning and end from the moment the project was conceived. The first album (which I have not heard) was to be the introduction, followed by this opus. The trilogy was closed out by a dungeon synth EP. That is the entire scope of the Count, and I respect the hell out of bands that have a distinct arc predetermined when they start making music. 

Now then, where does that leave us with Towards the Black Vaults of Angorn? The first order of buisness is the guitar tone. This has to be the only black metal album I've ever heard that uses this kind of tone. It's deep... exceptionally deep. It feels like it was processed under water or in slow motion, it's really unlike anything else I've ever heard within black metal. 

Along side the guitars we have melodic keyboards that mostly play a backing role but will sometimes offer a melody. They add to the music's somewhat distant and somewhat mysterious feel. Now that I think about it, the production is seemingly another take on the obscure productions of the second wave bands. It's difficult to make out the individual aspects outside of the vocals and drums, in some strange way it mimics the raw production of the early black metal artists of the late 80's and early 90's. 

In many ways I'm used to the standard black metal production qualities, I've cracked the code so to speak. Raw music hardly feels raw anymore, and I can for the most part follow along with all the different instruments. Count Vornok is different though, this is obscure in a different way. The guitars and the keys are blended together in new ways that I haven't heard before, and to be honest I'm here for it. Maybe this interesting good after all.

Entry 1418 - Oblique Occasions - Punishment

Style: vaporwave, barber beats

Primary Emotions/Themes: 

Thoughts: Ahhhh yes, barber beats. At the risk of sounding redundant this genre is about the only part of vaporwave that I truly enjoy anymore... and even that is wearing a bit thin. I think I have nearly all of the entries into this genre that I need. It all tends to blend together after a while.

Oblique Occasions is one of the bigger names in the genre, and this is for good reason. The music that they create - or construct, whatever you want to call it - is highly representative of the genre as a whole. Not overtly creative, but very pleasant on the ears. 

The thing that Oblique does better than most is finding the correct groove to the music and sticking with it. These tracks all have a huge bottom end. When the bass goes it will rumble the very foundations of my house, vibrate the very core of my brain and make me giggle with glee. And that's what is going to be what draws me back to this album over and over. 

On top of these delicious grooves you get the typical flavors of barber beats: jazz trumpets and saxophones, Hammond organs making a nice chord, a deeply groovy bass guitar, and some other random trinkets sprinkled in for good measure. It's enough to make my body sway, even if I'm not consciously aware of what's happening.

Punishment is probably one of the poorer names I could have come up with for this album, as the music isn't punishing on my ears in the slightest. This is groovy, sexy music that works perfectly as background music or something to keep the silence at bay. It's not going to win any awards for creativity, but I highly doubt that was the intention in the first place.

Entry 1417 - Bersarin Quartett - II

Style: Dark ambient, modern classical

Primary Emotions/Themes: Darkness comes in many shades, some are grey... others are more insidious in their tones and nature

Thoughts: I have been looking for a decently priced copy of this album for years. I found this project randomly on Spotify well over a decade ago and I have been borderline obsessed with his music ever since. There are very few projects/bands that sound like this... very few indeed.

I was initially attracted to the music because of it's surface level similarity to Ulver's Svidd Neger - an album that remains one of my favorites in Ulver's discography and in the dark ambient genre as a whole. The music paints bleak and dismal images with the use of both electronics and modern orchestral arrangements. That doesn't even begin to describe the impact that the music has on me though.

II is more than just a collection of notes or soundscapes. It's more than an orchestra playing minimalist arrangements. It's more than the silence, it's more than the climactic swells... it's far more than the sum of all it's parts. 

The music that's contained in II is potent. It stays with me when I listen to it, it reverberates in my brain after I'm done listening to it. The album r e q u i r e s my attention when I listen, it grabs me by the ears and does. not. let. go. until it is finished playing. Even then it compels me to queue the record right back up so I can listen again.

There is so much depth here. Even with a full orchestra at his disposal, everything is only used when absolutely needed. The subtle use of strings and even horns is what lays the basis for these multi textured soundscapes. They contain long notes that evolve into either subtle melodies or overt ones as time passes. Sometimes these melodies swell into massive moments, but most of the time the album is content to stay in its subtle sway. 

Again though, these individual elements are only half the story. The way that the music is contracted brings out emotions that I rarely feel in music. A subtle darkness, an insidious creeping evil that works its way in with the music. When listening to II or really any other album by Bersarin Quartett I find myself contemplating the darker aspects of life, and it's all from his ability to channel these emotions and themes that so few can.

I spent years looking for this album on vinyl. It was one of the few albums that I KNEW was missing from my collection. It finally got a repress and I ordered it immediately. Then I waited... and waited... and waited. It was initially supposed to ship in February of the year I bought it, and I didn't have it in my hands until nearly Christmas. It's a long time to wait, but looking back I would do that all over again because of the quality of the music that is in these grooves. 

Entry 1416 - Leila Abdul-Rauf - Phantasiai

Style: dark ambient

Primary Emotions/Themes: There is an evil in the darkness, one that no one has ever seen, we've only ever seen its effect, and heard it's sounds

Thoughts: Eerie and creepy are word that are arguably overused when it comes to describing dark ambient music. They can be cop outs or generic throw ins instead of digging a little bit deeper to find a more appropriate word for the emotions that the music is emulating. Sometimes though, they are exactly what is needed to describe the music coming out of my speakers... just like Phantasiai is currently.

Phantasiai is eerie. It channels a deep sense of the unknown; we see only glimpses and reflections of the true state of things. Leila has done this expertly here. The album is as much about the notes that are played as well as all of the different elements that are left out. Why is that horn playing such a disjointed melody? Why did it stop mid note? What on earth is going on in the background? What kind of instruments are those? So many unknowns, yet so few answers are ever provided. Eerie. 

Phantasiai is creepy. The music grates on me like it's intentionally pulling at the strings in my primal brain. It's inducing a flight or fight mechanism by putting me in unfamiliar situations. It pushes me into uncomfortable places by pushing music into my ears that is foreign and morbid. Creepy.

Leila Abdul-Raul has created not only a fantastic album, but a fantastic experience. One that encourages the listener to dig into the music, one that tries to get the very most out of the engagement with the listener. Not only does it reach deep into the more instict driven parts of the human mind, it entices us by hiding parts of the music from us... obscuring its true nature through the way it's presented and produced. Phantasai is quite simply harrowing.

Entry 1415 - Timeshare'94 - HORIZONS 地​平​線

Style: vaporwave, barber beats

Primary Emotions/Themes: It's a vibe man

Thoughts: The last time I heard Timeshare'94 it was when I was listening to Couples Resort a while back (Entry 1354). Times have changed since that released and so has Timeshare. They have evolved from classic vaporwave into the now flourishing barber beats genre. This is a pretty crowded field so I was curious if their new style measured up.

Needless to say this record is now in my collection, so that should say something about the quality of the music on here. As expected this music is smooth as butter, that's been microwaved and then sculpted into a fine rendition of a Renaissance statue. 

Horizons is all about the beats. There's no moment on the album that is not beat driven, and man do they ever groove. They form the foundation for everything that the album has to offer: silky smooth sample arrangement, heavily reverbed vocals and effects, and dreamy atmospheres. The album flows like a bubbling brook on a spring morning with the sun coming over the horizon illuminating the morning dew. 

I actually have an unintentional history with this album now. When I was looking at getting my second turntable this was the first record that I played on it. The record kept skipping on side B all the time with no apparent reason. It worked fine on my primary table, but on my office one it was a mess. It ended up leading me down a rabbit hole that spanned three turntables before I landed on my current one. Quite an adventure that was catalyzed from one skipping song. Just goes to show you never know what kind of memories are linked to specific albums.

Entry 1414 - Fåntratt - Ångerstupa

Style: dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: wandering through a forest or seafaring, who knows what wonders await us

Thoughts: What an absolutely fascinating album. The other album I have from Fåntratt sounded like a one take record and press it dungeon synth album. It was sloppy and was the epitome of DIY... at least that's how it sounded.

Ångerstupa stounds nothing like it's predecessor. In fact I would have a hard time believing this was from the same project if I didn't know any better. The songs on Ångerstupa are clean, well crafted and sound very well put together. They come in two distinct sets. 

The first is on side A which runs at 33 rpm. These songs are quiet, and for the most part lay low. The melodies are subtle and don't call much attention to themselves. It's like a gentle rain is falling in the forest, not too heavy that it's an inconvenience yet not so light as to go unnoticed. The perfect balance of being in the background yet giving the listener subtle nudges of its existence every so often.

The second side runs at 45 rpm and is much more active in it's engagement with the listener. More overt melodies and other various elements such as vocals, percussion and field recordings make this the livelier side of Ångerstupa. 

Fåntratt have stepped up their game significantly with this album. The way that the album is crafted, laid out, and arranged is far superior to what I have heard from them in the past. The album is perfect for vinyl, with the two sides having distinct sounds and even RPM requirements for the turntable. An album to enjoy during the dark of night or traversing through the woods.... or traversing through the woods in the dark of night. Whatever suits your fancy.

Entry 1413 - Legend of Zelda - Wind Waker

Style: video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: The music fully embraces the sea and all of its wonders and perils

Thoughts: This entry is a bit of an end of an era. This entry marks the last record that I had in my collection at the point where I started this blog. I added some along the way but at one point I said "I'm finishing what I have first" before moving into anything new. This is the last record on that list... this is a big moment for me. It's fitting that it's such a wonderful soundtrack.

Wind Waker is a game that took me by suprise when it launched. I wasn't sure what to do with the graphics, but I found that the gameplay was fun so I stuck it out. I know several people that stopped playing the game completely because of the cell shading. Looking back now with how revered this game is it seems crazy that anyone would do that. 

As with any Zelda game, the music is excellent. This again marks a huge upgrade in the sound quality and composition for the series, finally getting into fully uncompressed samples and instruments. 

The main theme of Wind Waker is water and of course wind. The music reflects that. There is a natural sway to much of the music that resembles being in the water. It's a subtle touch that brings the soundtrack closer together. 

Like any good soundtrack listening to it will make you recall playing the game and hopefully bring back fond memories. That is exactly what Wind Waker does for me. This isn't my favorite Zelda game by a long shot, but it is one that I enjoyed well enough to complete. That in itself should be more than enough for me to have this record set in my collection.

And with that my original collection comes to a close. We now enter a new and exciting chapter of this blog where things are less structured and I can write about whatever strikes my fancy. I've been looking forward to this moment for a long time.

Entry 1412 - Legend of Zelda - Majora's Mask

Style: Video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: If OOT was the ray of hope, this is the darkness that comes from the shadow cast from that light

Thoughts: Zelda is such an interesting series, every now and then you'll get an entry that completely defies all expectations and changes the formula completely. That is what Majora's Mask is.

Much like the change in style the music has also changed to accommodate the darker tone of the game. Many of the same themes that we've all come to know and love are still here, but often they sound tainted... the music is a bit off. 

This is all intentional of course, Majora's Mask is a dark game and the music reflects that. Things that we took for granted before are now no longer the case. We're not looking for the master sword or even Zelda.. were looking for a way to not die every three days. Quite the change.

For the longest time this was my most wished for soundtrack to be put to vinyl, when it was added to my collection I felt like there were very few video game releases left that I needed. After having this for several years now I still feel the same way. My collection is one step closer to complete for having this record in it.

Entry 1411 - Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time

Style: video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: perhaps one of the most beloved game soundtracks ever created

Thoughts: Anyone who has ever played video games for more than a few years will know about Ocarina of Time. This isn't just one of the most popular games ever, this is perhaps one of the most influential and important games to be created as well.

For the purposes of this blog were going to focus on the music. This is essentially the continuation of Link to the Past in musical form. There are similar melodies, there are many of the same songs but everything is bigger and better. The N64 soundchip was that much better than that of the SNES, so we have more instruments, more arrangements, more of everything.

This is the kind of record set you want to put on during a Friday night and enjoy reliving memories as each of the songs comes on. Hyrule Field? Lets remember riding Epona across it endless amounts of times. Death Mountain? Remember the dangers of lava and trying to repair the giant's knife? Song of Storms? Man, is there a more iconic song in this soundtrack? 

This isn't the perfect Zelda soundtrack, but it's gosh darn close to it. This has everything that a Zelda fan would want... the definitive experience. Essential video game music. 

Entry 1410 - Ys VIII - Lacrimosa of Dana

Style: video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: the joy of exploring an undiscovered island only to have a huge twist at the mid way point

Thoughts: I absolutely adore this game. It was some of the most fun I ever had playing my Switch. The sense of exploration and adventure mixed with the free flowing combat was something I hadn't really seen in a game in a very long time. Then there was the music.

The way that the music goes in this game is exactly in line with what I would have expected given the gameplay. It's wide open and encourages the player to move forward. It's upbeat and almost had a progressive rock feel to it. The guitar duels with the keyboards for the lead melodies, mix this with upbeat drums and you got a winning recipe. 

It's not all fun and games though. There are some very somber moments of the game, and the music matches. Really though the album knows what it needs to be when it needs it. The danger with a soundtrack like this is that it is overly long for one sitting. Not so with Ys' VIII. For me at least, this is an easy listen from start to finish, and the music works as well on it's own as it does in the game. 

I need to play the newer Ys games, this one left such a strong mark on me that I want to see if the newer games can repeat it. Even if they can't though I still have the fond memories I built while exploring the mountains in Lacrimosa of Dana.

Entry 1409 - Swallow the Sun - Songs from the North - Part III

Style: Funeral doom metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: the heaviest and most desperate the band has ever been, soul crushingly heavy.

Thoughts: For every reaction, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If part 2 was the lightest the band had ever been then this by the simple nature of physics will be the heaviest.

To my knoledge the band has never created funeral doom before. If this is indeed their first attempt, then they have done exceptionally well. This music is dismal, completely devoid of hope and the only true escape is death. All of the complaints I had of Mikko's voice on Part 1 are gone. His deep growl fits perfectly here, and he has a high scream that I have not heard him use much before this either.

The music itself is as slow as you would expect from funeral doom. The melodies are played wither by keyboards or one of the guitars, and whoever is taking the lead knows exactly what to do at any given moment. The band's sense of atmosphere is also on point. There are several moments when everything stops and all that can be heard is a singular funeral bell. Haunting.

This is one hell of a way to end out this trilogy of an album. The album as a whole is a massive undertaking to do in one sitting. I'm glad they split it up into three smaller chapters in case I wanted to focus on just one at a time. If you only ever get one Swallow the Sun album, this is the one to get.

Entry 1408 - Swallow the Sun - Songs from the North - Part II

Style: Acoustic

Primary Emotions/Themes: This part drops all of the metal and focuses on the bands lighter acoustic side

Thoughts: This may be my favorite thing the band has ever done. For one moment they dropped all metal, all pretense of being heavy and simply allowed the melodies flow and let the music speak to my soul. Not that their metal is bad, it's quite good... it's just that this is better.

I can't get over how wonderful this music is. The melodies from the guitar and voice are the closest he band has ever come to being truly comforting. It's... god I wish I had words for this. This part defies me talking about it, just go listen to it and be ready to be swept away by the music. Best thing these guys have ever done.

Entry 1407 - Swallow the Sun - Songs from the North - Part 1

Style: melodic doom death metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: The first part of Swallow the Sun's magnum opus, melodic doom death in their normal style

Thoughts: Swallow the Sun has been around for a long time. For many years they played a genre defining version of Finnish melodic doom death. They were good at it, very good at it... then the quality started to slip a little bit around Emerald Forest. It was almost as if the band heard my concerns, because the follow up is easily the best album in their entire discography.

Songs from the North is a three part monster album. There are three parts, and this is the first. Part 1 shows where the band came from. This is their quintessential style: a mix of light and dark, of heavy and soft, violence and peace. The album starts out with soft guitars that soon give away to a massive riff and deep bellowing growls. 

Slow sullen music is exactly what is in store here and the band is in high form as they deliver these eight songs. There are a couple of missteps however, mostly with the growls. Mikko's voice isn't what it once was. Those deep earth shattering growls from Hope and Ghosts of Loss are gone. Instead we have a bit of a broken and forced growl in it's place, not terrible but not up to the standard the band set previously.  The clean vocals though are as good as they have ever been, maybe even better than before and are a clear highlight of this part as well as what is coming in the next part of the album. 

Songs from the North starts off with likely the weakest part of the trilogy, and considering how good this entry is were in for one hell of an album. Buckle up, it only gets better from here.

Entry 1406 - Stardew Valley - Part 4 - Fall

Style: video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: the final season is here, we prepare for the winter by the bounty of the harvest

Thoughts: Life is a cycle. As all things come all things must go. The summer yields to autumn and with it the preparedness for winter arrives. The harvest that spent all of spring and summer growing is now ready, we must ensure that it is properly taken care of before winter arrives.

The music in the fall record may very well be my favorite in all of Stardew Valley. There is an acceptance in this music, like something is coming... winter is coming. It recognizes that things must be done, but not in a hurried fashion... more like we are now transitioning to the hardest part of the year but we can still enjoy the beauty of the fall.

The melodies here are somewhere in between the bountiful melodies of summer and the cold yet cozy melodies of winter. They urge action, but not with a huge amount of urgency - there is time to enjoy what we have.

Fall is my favorite time of year so it's only fitting that the music here is my favorite as well. There is a ton of music in this boxed set, and each record has it's place. If any of them are going to get more routine play I believe it will be the fall and winter records as I find those the most enjoyable. Regardless of their play frequency going through this boxed set has been a fun reminder of what it's like to go through the year. A new routine may  be forming where at the solstice or equinox the corresponding record gets played to bring in the new season.

Entry 1405 - Stardew Valley - Part 3 - Summer

Style: video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: summer is here and with it the festivals and all the joy of companionship. 

Thoughts: The music in Stardew Valley is something else. I don't know if there is another game that has it's music so much in tune with the change of seasons and how that affects the environment within the game.

As one could probably surmise, the music in the summer record is active and full of warmth. The whole town is bustling with activity and this music is here to capture all of that adventure and joy in audio form. The songs have bright and airy synths, the melodies are full of life... it truly captures the spirit of summer in a small town.

Stardew Valley continues to impress me with the depth that the music shows on every record. I don't think that this is something I will seek out very often, but when the change of seasons comes this is about as good of music as you can get to celebrate the occasion.