It’s finally here Worriedaboutsatan’s album Arrivals has landed, in your record store on the 25th May. They have been working on it for a year or more now and if you’re a regular reader you’ll maybe remember previous posts on the demos and rough mixes of album tracks that they sent over. But now the finished article is here in its full glory.
Arrivals is a slight departure in sound to previous material the take their beloved ambient post-rock electronica roots and squeeze in their love for minimal techno with truly wonderful results. Electronica and post-rock have long had a relationship but post-rock and minimal, well it’s a new one. The two are joined together effortlessly by Gavin and Tom of Worriedaboutsatan with a subtle pallet of sounds and enchanting song writing.
The album flows effortlessly from one track to the next with the help of small dot named segments of the title track ‘Arrivals’ along with tannoy samples announcing tweaked and freaked coded messages to passengers. Opening track ‘One Down’ really sets the scene, from out of the blue you get bright pads and a gentle build into a big bass drop that loops and draws you in. The only track with a vocal of sorts ‘Evil Dogs’ is a killer track with a dubbed out atmosphere that opens into some beautiful yet sad chords like a minimalist classical piece being tweaked into ambient shape. The beats and bass tones really do propel this one forward as the ghostly vocals swoop in a high and beautifully subtle falsetto taken through a bed of effects.
It’s good to see ‘Pissing About’ didn’t get a name change since the demo stage, plus it’s a monster of a track in a Luciano meets Mono kind of way. The pulsing bass rings out loud and clear over a minimal kick and energetic jacking arpeggios that get tweaked and dubbed out as ambient soundscapes make for a dreamy background. ‘History Is Made At Night’ is in a similar vain but a lot more subtle, glitchy and organic; it’s an undisputed highlight. The way the hook blips and flips into action against the huge kick drum and baseline is sublime.
The delicate guitar ballad ‘You’re In My Thoughts’ is a beautiful melancholic number full of melody. The synth lines and bowed guitar build in layers to create a real sense of hope and subdued joy. Then when it builds it turns into something else all together. The way the beats are slightly industrial and skippy remind me of early SAW era Aphex Twin especially with the subtle and moving chords playing above.
The subtle almost drone like ambient track ‘All Things But You Are Silent’ makes good use of guitars and whooshes with a gentle build up of electronics. It’s a wicked transition to the album closer, ‘Arrivals’ which maybe without noticing you’ve been hearing bits of here and there throughout your journey so when it kicks off you get a feeling like you’ve been here before yet all at once you’re somewhere new. It’s a wonderful track that builds subtly with sampled vocals and violin like sounds and bows on guitars before glitches and bass take you deep, it’s mesmerising. There is a real sense that you’re home from a journey, the vibe is weary yet comfortable and somehow joyous in a slightly melancholy way.
Arrivals is a wicked album and Worriedaboutsatan really do have potential to crossover by joining some post-rock and alternative guitar music fans with the electroinica and minimal crowds. This idea is further enforced by the band dropping a second CD full of remixes, from the likes of P45 and Marco Zenker with the limited addition release of the record.
Vessels are one of my local bands, I say local they are based in Leeds and I’m a bit out of the way but I just count Leeds as a bit of a musical home town for me as it’s so damn vibrant.
This is a remix of Descent by guitarist and electronics wizard from the band Lee Malcolm. And I think he does an excellent job, I’ve not heard much else from the band but this track is just so sublime. I’m glad it dropped into my inbox for me to share with you guys.
The track has a beautiful mellow kind of electronica meets post-rock feel to it not unlike the wonderful Leeds band Worriedaboutsatan who do a similar mixture with great success and who are also fond of a remix. More about them another time though this is Vessels time.
Descent is an addictive track that makes me feel a little bit warm and fuzzy on the inside. The subtle builds grow into sweeping soundscapes before dropping into a mellow acoustic breakdown with beautiful plucking and mesmerising electronics. This loops and loops to make the second half of the track a true gem. Check it for your self bellow…
Thank you Cuckundoo Records for hooking me up so I could share some Vessels.
Check this video out to see what they sound like in none-remixed form it’s a super slow-mo relaxing trip until they get all brutal on our asses and whip out the post-rock guitars, good stuff.
Post rock can sometimes be a bit of a chore to listen to full of epic un-penetrate able sound and tons upon tons of artists that sound exactly the same as one another, a bit like prog rock for the kidz instead of all the dads. Maybeshewill bring a bit of playfulness to the post rock sound, which is well needed, in my opinion. The flit between styles while staying well within the genre its self. There are chugging beastly metal style riffs, sweeping piano lead moments and glitchy electronics, all combined to make a joyful album. They never steer to far away from post rock sounds and its regular template, but for once I’m not board senseless.
Ixnay On The Autoplay is the opening track and starts with fruity piano and a digital loop before melting into the second tune with guitar noise and drums. We get a good heavy dose of rock/metal riffing here in a post rock kind of way of course. I find the drumming a bit under whelming at times but apart from that I can’t really fault Maybeshewill. I especially like the digital passages they bring a little bit of flavour to the ye olde tried and tested Post Rock formula. The Paris Hilton Sex Tape is a beast of a tune. Again the drumming is a bit samey but the guitar work and drum machine rumbles perk it up no end. We Called For An Ambulance But A Fire Engine Came is a bit of a chugger I like it. The string orchestral part in it is pretty cool too. Heart Flutters even has vocals which is pretty odd for Post Rock, shouldn’t they be looking at FX peddles or something? Its good anyway the girls voice is pretty sweet. C.N.T.R.C.K.T. is a metal beast and one of the stand out tracks, I wonder what it means those strange letters. He Films The Clouds Part 2 is pretty beautiful, the piano and strings work up the melancholy while the skitting double time beats bring the tension, the guitars soon follow in a fuzz. More vocals appear on this one too, in the form of a chorus. Not For Want Of Trying is defiantly a stand out track, a real joy to listen to, with its metal riffs and beastly sound. The film samples are a brilliant addition; I wish their where more tracks like this on the album it would make it even better.
P.S. They are in need of a bass player find out more about that here.
Pyramids conjure up some mad images, not the huge imposing mysterious Egyptian tombs, although that isn’t a bad description for what is currently freaking my ears out. Pyramids is the self titled debut album from this Hydra Head Records artist from god knows where. It doesn’t really sound like they are from this world, or if they are they only came to use our instruments. Metal and Post Rock are obvious touch stones for Pyramid they are combined into something damn new sounding, to my ears anyway. The badass scariness of Metal is mixed with the down right freaked out instrumentals of Post Rock. The drums are freakin’ ace they stomp away in the background as another layer in the fuzzed masses of sound. Each tune sounds like the un-dead rearing their head, from somewhere you didn’t know existed, and they ate all the drugs they could get their hands on while they were at it. Pyramids are dirty and down right wrong, this is shoegaze for freaks, freaks like me it would seem as its strangely addictive and alluring, while staying deeply disturbing. The soundtrack to pure evil, pure unadulterated, brilliant evil, evil has never sounded so intense and beautiful.
Hammock are a two man post-rock band from Nashville in the USA. I say post-rock, Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow is more of an ambient work. There is a hint of Sigur Rós and Stars Of The Lid to Hammock’s music, it’s entirly instrumental and has an orcestral sound to it. Live instruments are subtely combined with digital effects and loops to create a beautiful sweeping and sad soundscape. Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow reminds me of Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient works II and of some of Eno’s work. Very laid back as the name would suggest, Hammock have made a wonderful album for late nights and dark days. Its raining while I write this and this is a brilliant soundtrack to it.
To my ears Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow isn’t a massive sonic inovation, but it is so well exictuted and arranged that it doesn’t matter that other artists sound kind of like them. In-fact I got a mix tape (well mp3… I still call them tapes) called S’No Beats last year and much of that sounded quite like this, and to my knowledge not a single Hammock song was involvend. S’No Beats is beautiful acctualy I will ask the DJ who made it (That’s you Pauly Pea!) if I can host it on this blog.
Each song is the sound of ambient bliss, the loops and subtle distorted guitar lines fill the room like a ghostly preminition of long lost mountains or something else just as epic. Violins and pads of sound bring a mellow and meloncholy atmosphere to many of the tracks. As a whole Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow is a wonderful album I don’t think I can pick out a single track as a highlight, as they are all so beautiful and it flows so well. One of the ambient albums of the year so far for sure. They don’t get round to singing for us on this record really, but they might do tomorrow I guess.
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It’s finally here Worriedaboutsatan’s album Arrivals has landed, in your record store on the 25th May. They have been working on it for a year or more now and if you’re a regular reader you’ll maybe remember previous posts on the demos and rough mixes of album tracks that they sent over. But now the finished article is here in its full glory.
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