Saturday, March 16, 2013

yoso-wa-yoso - Terraformed (2013)

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Japanese math rock might have been born after our brand but they constantly upstage even our most glowing examples.

I'm honestly not going to gush about this and I very well could. Just go listen...really it's that good.

ONE
acerola

yoso-wa-yoso

Langosta - Super Nature EP (2013)

damn kid....

some of the busiest fracking post rock I have heard in a good looooong time. the math is tasteful and goes down smooth. Minor gripe? maybe mixed a bit to high. but everything sounds as it should. does not take away the hidden treasures buried in these songs. Great memorable guitar lines abound. I know nothing of these cats if any one does drop me a line. I am hella impressed.

 Langosta

Piles and Piles - Premonitions Say (2013)






Jesus christmas cracker those are some lush sounding guitars ma'right? Loving the boot staring elements that are sprinkled on this here album as well. Immediate things aside this is some pretty calculated math rock.  Piles and Piles do a fine job of not only bringing the instrumental biz but the vocals are honestly a great addition. Tempo's here are medium to slow and thats more than fine..again back to the shoe gazing.  Get this clear though these song weren't crafted in zero gravity they all move along at a fair clip and remain interesting. Nice to see something a little left of center getting its due's.

pilesandpiles

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Renaissance Sound - II


There are moments that you hang to in complete anticipation.  The wait of what will be...or not. This was that album for me.

After their first album Renaissance Sound had left me with the hope of the future. Their self-titled really struck a chord with me about the boundaries of truly what math rock could be. To me..it was something that I had been waiting to run into through my years of searching. A group that could take jazz structures and heart but could still infuse that with the energy and sensibilities of math rock.

Which brings us to the second release, II. While I didn't expect ground breaking progression there are areas where I can safely say this improves upon the formula they've laid. It is clearly apparent that this group has only become tighter this time around. Compositions are practically teaming with twists and turns. While their first effort was a bit more relaxed this is a Renaissance Sound completely restless with creativity. Speed is certainly one of the areas that has been ramped up considerably. Instrumentally everyone has brought their A game (shocker) but im going to go out on a limb and say MVP for this one is the bassist. Ridiculous Ridiculous run's are everywhere on this beast. As well to say that some of the more memorable moments come from his melodic phrasing.

Enough analyzing really...because this is a solid gold hit right here. Its going to be a difficult one to unseat for me this year, just like last year. I'm relieved that they have taken their proven methods, expanded upon them and given us an incredibly dense jazz math rock record for our first quarter of 2013.

Stunner. All Around.

ii