Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Mojave 3 - Ask Me Tomorrow (1995)

Genre: Dream Pop, Alt-Country
Country: United Kingdom

Not exactly obscure, but I suppose if you wanted more output out of Neil and Rachel of Slowdive you should listen to Mojave 3. They still build on dream pop vibes present in their work in Slowdive but the only difference is that they add alt-country elements like twangy guitars through an ethereal scope. Unless you vehemently dislike alt-country, then there really isn't a reason to dislike this if you enjoy Slowdive. Just don't expect something like Souvlaki because that would be a dumb standard to uphold. Just imagine if songs like 40 Days had a little more twang to it and you'll get this as they use more of more moody elements of their songwriting.

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Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Ichiko Aoba - 0 (2013)

Genre: Folk
Country: Japan

Ichiko Aoba writes some of the most soothing and relaxing folk that I've heard in a while. It's a very bare bones type of thing where her songwriting is completely dependent on how well her voice complements her guitar playing. What I find interesting about her approach is that she really varies the styles she crafts and they oddly seem like they belong there. Like if you listen to the third song, roughly around the middle of the song she really shows that isn't afraid to show her guitar playing skills through some fast playing that didn't really seem to fit at first but after a few listens, you realize how well it fits the part before it. She even throws in some field recordings here and there to fill the empty space that her music tends to create and they don't take too much of the spotlight of Ichiko Aoba's playing at all. If you're just looking for something to wind down to, this is a pretty fitting album that does that but I would say there's a little more to it than that if you listen carefully.

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Saturday, November 1, 2014

Corea - Los peores 7 peores Km de mi vida (2004)

Genre: Screamo, Post Rock
Country: Spain

In all honesty, the whole screamo/post rock hardly does anything for me anymore. Only a few bands out there are able to capture the same spirit and vibe of earlier screamo and balance it out with emotive post rock. Every other band starts to sound like watered down post rock coupled with uninteresting and weak screamo. Corea seems to be the exception to this rule because they're able to really emulate the violent and rough aspect of screamo while being able to add post rock/ambient interludes to provide atmosphere and emotions in a different way. This sounds really rough around the edges so if you really enjoy the more violent side of screamo/post rock, then check this out.

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