I would like to present a LP made by Sergey
Mogilevsky an Ukrainian music producer. It belongs to a music style called
UK Garage which I haven’t presented on this blog so far. When you play somebody
a track like the ones on this album he will probably compare them to Burial.
That can be a compliment, but on the other hand you could get “Another Burial
copycat?” reaction. In this case I think that we can say that it’s a
compliment. Twelve tracks and each one filled with emotions, pitched vocals and
rhythmic drums. As I’m writing this I am trying to pinpoint the best piece, but
it’s rather hard. I didn’t have an occasion to listen to it walking around at
night in the rain which is what I usually tend to do with this kind of music,
so maybe that’s the reason. Maybe we will go with the "tempus fugit" one.
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Saturday, April 4, 2015
bvdub - Today He Felt Life (from "All is Forgiven")
Another
week, another post, another bvdub’s album.
Recently I’ve had an urge to listen to some relaxing music, so obvious
choice here is something from Brock Van Wey. The other day, or evening to be
precise, I listened to his tracks from various albums for about 2-3 hours, quite
an experience I must say. I was sitting comfortably in my chair, looking at the
sky, unfortunately through my window and not in the open, drinking tea and all
that put together created an amazing atmosphere and a wonderful evening. “Today
He Felt Life” is one of the pieces that I own it to. It lasts almost 32 minutes,
so you can guess that it’s not an ordinary track, and I perceive it as a two-part
song, the second one being the superior one, but hey, it wouldn’t exist if not
for the first!
Saturday, March 14, 2015
"All you need is love"? Not according to Schopenhauer.
The other day I was presenting Schopenhauer’s ideas
about love and thought it would be a good idea to post some of them as well.
One might wonder why Schopenhauer, well known for him optimism and sympathy towards humanity, picked “love” as his object of studies. That’s
because he thought love has a very important meaning in the human life. We tent
to idealize it when in fact it is just a sexual instinct. What purpose does it have?
Only one, prolongation of the human race. It doesn’t care about personal interests
of individuals, about happiness and so on. For that Schopenhauer called it an
invention, an illusion and deception of nature. The poets across history
described love and the longing for it, which can’t be done completely. It’s
just too big of a force to try to exhaust it’s content.
So there we have it, a few words about Schopenhauer’s
vision of love.
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Dark Souls OST
Today I would like to present music from a videogame called “Dark Souls”. It was released in 2011 and was well received by both, the press and the gamers. What stand out is it difficulty level, which is just brutal, unforgiving and ruthless. The back cover of the game says “prepare to die” so really, what can you expect? And why music from a videogame and not just form an album? It think that a lot of people don’t appreciate this form of entertainment, categorizing it as childish and utterly useless. I find it completely wrong because we can find examples of games that could be considered art. Putting that aside, let’s concentrate on music. It was composed by Motoi Sakuraba (Japanese musician, arranger and compositor) and reflects the game atmosphere tremendously well, although it appears mainly during boss fights. Without further ado, here are two tracks.
Sunday, February 8, 2015
birds of passage - Winter Lady (2011)
The weather outside is reminding us which season it is
right now. I wanted to follow that fact, so I’m presenting an album of Alicia
Merz, a minimalistic masterpiece.
It starts with “Fatal Melody” a dark, sad and kind of depressing
song. It doesn’t get happier as the album focuses on creating a desolate and
icy world in our imagination. Many other songs use vocals as an additional
instrument, but here the voice of Alicia is the key instruments in all the tracks,
accompanied by piano, ambient drones, some fields recordings and so on. It’s really
a unique music and I find it strange that listening to it always makes me experience
peacefulness, even though it’s cover and titles such as “Hollow”, “Disaster Of
Dreams”, “The Monster Inside You” are definitely not bound to do such a task. I
love listening to it in the dark, laying down with my eyes closed, in fact I
once or twice fell asleep while doing so, which just proves the calmness it
produces in me.
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Sorrow - Dreamstone (2013)
From a guy who’s nickname is Sorrow it’s natural to
expect sad, depressing music, right? Not in this case, at least not in “Dreamstone”.
None of the twelve tracks available on the album is filled with…well, sorrow. I
know that’s a subjective thing, but still I will insist on the fact that this LP is devoid
of sadness. The first track “Elixir” is a wonderful example of it as it makes me think about childhood, that carefree
time when we were always playing about joyfully. Maybe that was the idea behind
it, it was supposed to have that effect hence the title. “Dreamstone” and “Dalliance”
on the other hand are, for me, the highlight of the album. The appearance of
CoMa, an uprising female vocalist, had much to do with it. Her delicate voice
adds another dimension to the tracks and makes them oneiric.
bvdub - The Art Of Dying Alone (2010)
Another one
from bvdub, but this time something a little different. Brock Van Wey creates
music using repetition, because of that his tracks are usually very long (up to
almost 30 minutes), it produces a hypnotizing experience. Before recording the
first notes bvdub thinks about an emotion he wants to evoke in the listeners,
he reminds himself about past experiences he had and comes out with a title.
“To Finally Forget It All”, “No One Will Ever Find You Here”, “The Art Of Dying
Alone” - we can see that the titles have meaning and that this album is filled
with isolation, melancholy and contemplation. It reminds me of the medieval
theme “Ars moriendi” although it wasn’t related to music. Listening to it
really makes you contemplate about your life and death, and about life in
general. It isn’t just something to listen to in order to kill time, mere
entertainment, it is something more, something deeper, something more profound.
Friday, February 6, 2015
Clubroot - Clubroot (2009)
Finally I’ve decided
to write about a dubstep album. I really like this genre (or liked because it has
changed so much over the years) because it focuses on the low frequencies, on
the bass. Also because old dubstep tracks are known for the dark atmosphere
and characteristic slow tempo. This album is the first of the trilogy and by
some proclaimed as the best. I don’t totally agree with that statement, but I’ve
listened to it quite a lot and even now I am not bored of it. For a long
time “Dulcet” was my favorite thanks to
it basslines and choir-ish synth…and that hasn’t changed.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Igorrr & Ruby My Dear - Maigre (2014)
In this post I would like to present a unique EP from two breakcore artists: Igorr and Ruby My Dear. This 20 minute long mini album is fast and furious, as one would expect from breakcore music, but it is also atmospheric and emotional. While listening to the first track “Barbecue” I think of…Christmas, but not of an ordinary one. I have images of some crazy, weird, Tim Burton influenced Christmas. And I would have never guessed, not in a million years, that listening to breakcore may remind me of that time of year. The others tracks are definitely more aggressive than the first one, it is after all breakcore, and my favorite is “Biquette”. It gives you a feeling that the album is ending and what a great ending it is.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
bvdub - Serenity (2012)
If you are listening to a lot of music it’s really hard
to choose a favourite artist. But if someone would ask me „Hey what’s your
favourite music producer?” I must admit that I would say bvdub. His work is
just astonishing. In one interview he said that he spends almost all his free
time creating music. One time, while he was on a barbeque with his girlfriend
and some friends, an idea came to him and he felt such an urge to make music
that he just left and went straight to his studio. “Serenity” may be his most
famous album so I have chosen a tune from it. Precisely the last song which
title is the same as the album’s name. And what can one say about if the name
says it all?
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