Year End Round Up (part 1)

This is by no means a post to down play the sweetness of any of the groups below. All of these fine releases have been on my person for a spell and as 2012 comes to an end I need to have some closure. This will be a multi-part post and continue through December.

side bar: why is there not a band called "progressive knife"?

Mayors of Miyazaki 
dropped a nice little split with death pedal's in Nov. I keep coming back to their brazen all out attack. Punchy production and some nice shouty math's. watch these kittens
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Little Hunts
is a one man effort that indulges more the post rock end of the math spectrum but certainly no less exciting for it. Jamie Darken weaves some pretty interesting math rock twists in what seems to be his first outing. Really interesting and strong ideas. However I could really use some live drums. 

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Neur
Has a really nice mix of driving post-punk, indie rock and math rock. mixing and matching where needed to great effect. Really tidy little EP that proves a lot in its 6 track length. Well done vocals as well. Some left field moments really spice this outing up and have me highly excited for something new. Must Have. Must Have. 2010 you say? yea well I cant be on time to every party.

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Hikes - Shepards Clock (2012)

First off...take a moment...breath.... now click on the bandcamp link below and listen to the track Hikes has on for display. Come back when you are done I'll wait here.
















WTF?@!  THAT OPENING RIFF IS DEVASTATINGLY GORGEOUS. OMFLIP.

Seriously it could open a portal into another dimension. The rest of the song? equally gorgeous. These cats have something truly special brewing and I need more of whatever they are currently dishing out. Math Rock? yea sure but that guitar has clear Folk finger picking down home goodness baked in. harmonies? check. Sweet memorable melodies? check. Soaring boy/girl vocals? check. If this was part of an album and every song was this arresting I would dare say I'd need to block off some time to digest it. Can't say enough good things about this other than "I NEED MORE"


hikes

One Lick Less - & we could be quiet

Been sitting on this duo for a bit. Not for lack of enjoyment but just for processing sake. This as a lot of my posts lately has some questionable math validity however traces do crop up. This two dude affair is a mix of moody post-rock, improv, indie rock and some folk rock style guitar riffs.  The BPM's on display here are more of the slow core variety however this should deter no one. Very clear old school 90's flavors as well.  Some vocals as well. Check er

onelickless

At Years End....Almost

We are quickly approaching the end of our very own year 2012. There have been a A LOT of math rock releases with many of them still in heavy rotation for myself. I highly dislike year end lists...for a number of reasons that I'm not going to get into. Boring bits. However I would like to point out two groups that have managed to keep my brain in a death strangle hold since earlier in the year. 

 

#1:Renaissance Sound. 

I 

cant 

stop 

listening 

to this EP. 

Honestly just so fresh and interesting. While many of the groups this year falling on the well worn "rock" portion of "math rock" these cats are laying down highly calculated jazz that hints at math. Sure some of you may question how valid this position is given that you could argue this is just straight jazz. But come on at the heart of this release youve got a honest to god math group. With another EP on the way I am very much hoping these gentlemen continue to capture my heart. 

PoS

Bandcamp

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Another wild exception to this would almost certainly have to go to Gastric Bands brain melting mutant world music math.

Heavy on the percussion with interesting rhythms all over this beast. Classic progressive rock mixed with equal parts math. Truth be told this is what I need when I am listening to a math group do their thing. Again being able to go out on a limb and trying something a little left of center goes a long way.

PoS

bandcamp 

Both of these groups get a gold star in my book this year and I couldn't be more excited to hear from both in the future.

-Ace