We’re all familiar with the feeling of being on the edge of falling apart. Struggling to get by, yet somehow keeping it together.
Milk Teeth’s music is the sonic embodiment of that state of mind.
Vile Child is a fucking challenging album. Imagine a mega-jam involving pretty much every even remotely grunge-related band from the ’90s, the chaos controlled only by an insistence that the results groove as hard as Read more…
With the music world gradually gearing up for a brand new year, here are six underground bands to watch in 2016:
I’ve ranted and raved about these guys for years – and frankly, they fucking deserve it. Dorje are an industry unto themselves, topping album charts across the Internet with their latest Catalyst EP, racking up some 800,000 YouTube views for their signature song Aeromancy, and nailing one of Indiegogo’s top crowdfunding campaigns while handling everything in-house with zero label backing.
Respect is due here – and this year will see a second EP alongside much touring. By the time Dorje are done, their peers will be craning their necks to catch a glimpse of them.
If you just can’t cram enough mind-ruining math rock into your day, Black Peaks’ latest single Saviour is a must-listen. A massively improved version of an already epic track from early EP Closer To The Sun, and a mouth-watering taste of what to expect from Black Peaks’ upcoming album Statues, Saviour will blow you away. Play loud.
As with Dorje and Black Peaks, I’ve written many an evangelical word about Signals over the years. Breaking fresh ground with every note, this Southampton-based math-pop quartet are genuinely unique. Hard-earned technical skills, thoughtful musicianship, never-less-than-perfect production, and an instantly recognisable sound topped off with Ellie Price’s consistently passionate vocals all add up to an act capable of cutting the mustard like a legendary ninja.
When they’re not inducing jawbreaking gurns in Dorje, guitarist Rabea Massaad, drummer Ben Minal, and bassist Dave Hollingworth can be found frying facial features as Toska. Instrumental progressive metal is the name of the game here, departing from the standard Periphery-aping clone formula employed by many of their peers in favour of a genuinely new vibe. Toska’s debut EP Ode To The Author does contain hints of Karnivool, Porcupine Tree, Tesseract, and even Incubus – but more than that, it represents the birth of a meditatively immersive New Sound.
More to come on this one – but for now, just trust me. This will be frickin’ special.
Hatton Manor – aka Matt and Hannah – are in the earliest of early days right now. But they are still one of the most flat-out superior acoustic guitar-and-vocal duos I’ve ever heard. Dipping their toes into the live and festival circuits during 2015, as well as releasing their debut EP Eden, Hatton Manor are moving into a new phase full of experimentation. By turns graceful, gritty, joyful and dark, Hatton Manor know how to strap you into an emotional rollercoaster from note one. Awesome.
Thoughtful EDM might seem like an oxymoron – but Princess Slayer make it work through a creative approach that blends hedonistic playfulness with ruminative sincerity. Drummer and producer Vince Welch digs up gut-rumbling grooves, cute melodies, and carefully constructed sonic strata while vocalist Casey Lim thinks out loud through an intimate and vulnerable yet confident vocal. With many collaborations and their Living EP behind them, a Princess Slayer album is rumoured to be on the way. With any luck, 2016 will be the year it surfaces – and when it does, expect something exceptional and exceptionally cool.
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Where have all the real rock stars gone? Those unique individuals capable of capturing the imagination of a mass audience without dumbing down the fruits of their labours? The musicians who can spin your head around, widen your horizons, and still meet with large-scale acceptance?
On Blackstar – his twenty-sixth album – David Bowie inspires, provokes, bewilders and bewitches as only he can. Taking the scenic route through Blackstar‘s title track, full to bursting with Read more…
For lovers of fresh new sounds, restlessly creative musicians like Javier Reyes are a godsend. In addition to rewriting the metal guitar rulebook alongside Tosin Abasi in Animals As Leaders, Javier has also spent the last few years writing and releasing music through his side project, Mestis.
Mestis’ latest long-player, Polysemy (reviewed on TMMP here), was recently listed as one of my favourite albums of 2015 in this feature – and here, Javier Reyes discusses Mestis, creativity, generous fans, and the future of his pet project…
Your new album Polysemy has been out for about a month now. How’re you feeling about it?
I am pretty happy with it. I wasn’t sure what people were going to think, considering some of the parts are so mellow in comparison to material they are used to from [Animals As Leaders]. Thankfully the overall feedback has been pretty positive.
What initially inspired and motivated you to create Mestis? What’s the project’s origin story?
Mestis is a bit of my bedroom project. It started [with] me making some songs in my bedroom that I knew were stylistically different [to] Animals As Leaders, and I felt the material was strong enough to be released.
After the first EP, I didn’t really expect to write more music for Mestis, but throughout touring with Animals As Leaders people kept asking me if I was going to release more music for Mestis; so thanks to all those people who asked me, I was Read more…
Few music-related experiences are as satisfying as discovering a musician who completely spins your head around – even when you feel sure you’ve heard it all. Fifi Rong is just such a musician. Following the release of her new EP Violently Silently (reviewed on TMMP here), I caught up with Fifi Rong to discuss the creative process behind her latest release, while she dug deep into the motives behind her music…
Your new EP Violently Silently is starting to make its way out into the world. What thoughts and feelings are going through your mind right now?
I’m happy with the creative cycle, putting my thoughts and feelings and what I have become into my songs and production. Passed on to the people who are there to receive and interpret the music subjectively. What was once mine is now theirs; it’s a great feeling.
What was the underlying creative process behind Violently Silently? I understand the tracks are linked together in a very intriguing way…
I used the same set of sound elements, sampled, crafted, and re-sampled, to present a set of songs that Read more…
2015 has been a big year, soundtracked by a slew of spectacular albums. Picking an overall favourite was a pretty stressful task – and in the end, Jon Gomm’s gorgeous collection of live fan picks and what is, in my opinion, the definitive modern-day Joe Satriani album both had to go on top.
Deciding who would ultimately top the tree was made infinitely easier by putting them in alphabetical order by surname; if you put a gun to my head and demanded I choose between Jon Gomm and Joe Satriani in terms of quality, you’d just have to shoot me. They’re two sides of the same coin, Jon Gomm representing the acoustic world, Satriani the electric. Put together, these guys represent almost unparalleled guitaristic virtuosity.
In joint second place, you’ll find a whole host of alphabetised winners who would each be done a terrible injustice were they to be placed in a lower position. From legends with glittering careers spanning decades to stunning comeback albums and a fair few brand new names facing bright and hopeful futures, TMMP’s top albums of 2015 are all here.
Dive in – there’s a lot to get stuck into – and follow TMMP via Twitter for more from the world of world-class music in 2016!
1) Jon Gomm – Live In The Acoustic Asylum
1) Joe Satriani – Shockwave Supernova
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2) Read more…
Looking back on a big year for metal, Lithium Dawn’s brand new Tearing Back The Veil I: Ascension marks them out as genuine innovators. I’ve already ranted at length about it in this review – and here, Lithium Dawn discuss the story behind the new album, their plans for 2016, and more…
You’ve managed to spice up an epic prog-metal mix with some unique flavours of your own. So, I have to open with an old cliché: Who were your influences while you were writing your new album?
Well, [the] earliest influences that informed our sound were prog rock/metal bands like Porcupine Tree, Tool, Opeth, Meshuggah, and some of the newer bands like Tesseract and Periphery. Deftones and Korn were also a big influence early on.
Our founding members, Ondrej Tvarozek and Matt Benoit, actually met on Korn’s message board back in the early 2000s. As we were making this new album though, we embraced a lot more of our experimental influences: reggae, psy-dub, and other electronic music played a big part in that, particularly artists like Ott, Shpongle, Younger Brother, John Brown’s Body, Stick Figure, and many others.
Tearing Back The Veil I: Ascension is about to be let loose into the world. What thoughts and feelings are floating around the Lithium Dawn camp right now?
We’re all just excited to have people finally Read more…
Back in 2003, SikTh tore the metal world a new one with The Trees Are Dead And Dried Out, Wait For Something Wild. In 2006, the already respected legends pushed proceedings to another level with Death Of A Dead Day. Then came the split mourned by fans the world over.
Today, things are different. Tech-metal has undergone a titanic transformation thanks to the likes of Periphery, TesseracT, and Animals As Leaders. Bars have been raised, boundaries broken, new names forged in the fire.
And SikTh are back, with new six-track mini-album Opacities. And in terms of outright stunning, mind-bogglingly bizarre, infectiously groove-heavy and utterly singular originality, the bar has been raised once again.
Opacities takes precisely zero seconds to get going. Behind The Doors throws Read more…
If you’re a sucker for finely crafted trip-hop-flavoured tunes, London-based Tricky collaborator Fifi Rong will make your ears prick up.
Violently Silently‘s Intro is guaranteed to lull you into spy-movie-themed daydreams, all grittily seductive beats and slowly swirling samples – but before you assume you’ve heard it all before, Once proves a right-angled tangent. Fifi Rong refuses to be easily pigeonholed, leaning hard on her experimental inclinations and digging out odd alt-pop hooks that feel awkward and alien on first listen, but slowly work their way into the mind. Beachhead established, Slow Poison bounces with Read more…
This is one of the most inspiring metal albums of 2015.
With the first part of Tearing Back The Veil, Lithium Dawn have set out to stretch the boundaries of tech-heavy progressive metal. It’s an ambitious task, to say the least; with luminaries such as Meshuggah, Karnivool, Periphery, Tool and Tesseract already forging new paths into the future, it’s easy to overlook the underground underdogs out there, and assume that everyone bar the legends are paying lip service to progression while actually playing catch-up.
One of the most attractive aspects of the prog world is the fact that anything goes. It’s like watching a Thunderbirds rerun from the ’60s: “Anything can happen in the next half hour!” We expect twists, turns, and tangents – but Lithium Dawn don’t just live up to that expectation. They go beyond it, into the Read more…