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6 search results for "the angelus"

The Angelus

theangelusBand Name: The Angelus

Album Name: S/t

Best Element: Strategic instrumental timing

Genre: Ambience

Website: www.theangelus.net

Label Name: Pyramid Scheme (www.pyramid-sheme.com)

Band E-mail: info@theangelus.net

The Angelus is an ambient band that pulls its weight in the music world very well. Its straightforward approach to their music makes The Angelus sound very experienced and confident in their music. The Angelus’ self titled album simply has 5 songs that average around 6 minutes apiece of solid ambient music.
Starting off, The Angelus appears as another average-grade ambient band not quite cutting it. But quickly, the band cuts ties from the average and shows itself to be something very special. The selected instruments of this band are guitar, bass, drums, bells, E-bow, keyboard, and a great set of vocalists. No instrument stands out among the rest, so it is only fair to talk about them as a whole. The guitar, bass, and drum set up are average, but the approach with the bells and keyboard add more feeling and power to every song. Their vocals are well placed and bind the instruments to the emotion trying to be conveyed. The lyrics are articulate poems placed strategically throughout every song with care. The ringing of the bells, on top of bold lyrics and vocals, make this band’s music come to life.
It is very hard to find flaws in an album that so much time was clearly placed in. The only complaint many fans of great ambience will have with this album is the lack of tracks and the feeling of wanting more! The Angelus is a clear cut above the rest- their album is solid ambient that fans of the genre need to check out for themselves.

-Tony Kennedy

Kookemonster2003@yahoo.com

February Playlist

February is a short month, and as such I had a shorter list of things I listened to than in January. You can listen to the full playlist on Spotify. On to the music:

Party Starter – Antone. This is about as minimalist as dusky, club-friendly EDM gets; it’s stripped down to bare bones in terms of number of sounds going on in the tracks. But what Antone does with minimal beats and synths is amazing. I kept coming back to the album over and over, not fully sure of what was drawing me. Was it the melodies? Was it the vibe? Was it the groove? Was it the subtle chiptune bits? I have no idea. But it kept me coming back over and over. Highly recommended.

Spring – Teen Daze. This two-song single from Teen Daze in advance of an upcoming album is about as good a teaser as you could invent. Jamison comes back from his adventures and experiments to this project with a rejuvenated look at the core things that make Teen Daze great: the almost-fully-solved tension between electronic and acoustic, the deliciously dreamy vibes, the dense textures that give way to soaring-but-delicate melodies, the thoughtful layering and mixing to bring it all together. The two tracks here push all of those elements further, deepening the oeuvre that Teen Daze has developed over his career. These are just beautiful, excellent tracks.

Powerhouse – Hyde Park Brass. I used to be in marching band as a teenager, which de facto means I’ve been a low-key fan of drum corps ever since. Hyde Park Brass are basically a drum corps (they also include saxophone, a slightly unusual choice) but they’ve got pop sensibilities and real smooth integration of their instrument sections going on. These are tight, fun, interesting brass tracks. They even group-sing in one of them! If you’re into brass or adventurous takes on traditional forms, go for this.

Nick Box – discography. Box’s music is right on the boundary of piano composition and post-rock, as Box loves a huge build to a giant conclusion. But there’s also delicate moments that rely heavily on the piano itself for gravitas and emotion; it’s not all big rushes of multiple instruments. If you’re in the Lights & Motion school of cinematic post-rock, you will love Box’s work.

Marimba Suites: Gwendolyn Burgett Thrasher Plays Her Transcriptions of Six Cello Suites by J.S. BachHas ever a title been so informative? That’s exactly what this is. It turns out that Bach cello suites on the marimba are lovely. Highly recommended.

Death Will Tremble to Take Us – Death Will Tremble to Take Us. A post-rock album of the Explosions in the Sky / Godspeed! You Black Emperor vibe; it hits all the right notes and is a good addition to the collection of those who like this style.

Pictorial – Killbody Tuning. A combination of heavy post-rock that can power through riffs at great intensity and slowcore work that stretches pensive, restrained concepts out over great lengths. Those who are interested in The Angelus will love this.

Silver & Gold – Frances Luke Accord. Basically perfect folk-pop of the calm, Simon and Garfunkel persuasion. If you love lithe melodies, meticulous construction

After its own death / Walking in a spiral towards the house – Nivhek. Sort of a combination between Julianna Barwick’s clouds of vocal loops and a minimalist post-rock outfit, this is a unique, very ominous work evocative of winter and a dense sense of place.

The Lost Music of Canterbury: Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks – Blue Heron, Scott Metcalfe. On a whole different angle of vocal music, here’s a ton of music in a medieval traditional style that is astonishingly, surprisingly beautiful. I have an interest in choral music from my childhood days as a boy choir member, but I’m still surprised by how enigmatic and beautiful these pieces are.

Ape Shifter – Ape Shifter. I wanted to know what an instrumental classic rock/riff rock album would sound like. Now I know: it’s like classic rock but without vocals. I don’t know what I was expecting other than that, honestly. I enjoyed listening to this.

The rest of the work on the list I didn’t actually get to listen to much, and I moved it on over to the March List.

Early February Singles: Indie Rock

Indie Rock

1. “Holy Moly” – The Forgotten Man. This super-charged indie-rock tune has the whoa-ohs of street punk, the thrashing drums of a rock band, and country touches in the vocals. Yet there remains an overall sense that this could have been a folk tune at one point, albeit in a slower tempo. It’s a blast to hear lead singer Wilson Getchell belt out, “HOOOO-lllly MOOOO-llllyyyyy” in the chorus.

2. “Spring” – The Shifts. Manages to bring together the “bum-bum-da-da-da”s of indie-pop, the melancholy arrangements of minor-key indie-rock and the fury of post-rock vocals together into one eclectic, electrifying, impressive whole.

3. “Bravo Sierra” – Glories. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to make it work really well: here’s some Explosions in the Sky-style, controlled-chaos post-rock, complete with thrashing drums, soaring guitar leads, crunchy distortion, and memorable melodies you can hum along to.

4. “Sea Six” – Datura Daydream. This nearly-nine-minute journey starts off a post-rock piece, then transitions into a driving rock piece with classic-rock tones in the guitar; the murky, distant, heavily reverbed vocals add more texture. The bass then gets in on the action with a bass solo. Then it’s back to post-rock guitar screaming, followed up by some more rock, then some post-metal. Radness.

5. “Thunderbolts I Scatter” – The Angelus. The tag on the Angelus’ work is “Dark Hymnal Slowcore,” which sort of gets at the spirit of the thing, if not the sonics of it. The Angelus is equal parts post-rock (in stormy instrumental fury) and indie rock (via Emil Rapstine’s Nick Cave-esque, occasionally apocalyptic howl and some slightly dialed-back instrumentals in places). This particular track is a furious, ominous, thrashing instrumental that’s almost post-metal in its approach. Fans of Russian Circles will find much to love throughout the record, but especially here.

6. “Deep Blue Heart” – Solhund. This tightly arranged, carefully engineered instrumental track has “movie soundtrack” written all over it, from the pulsing synths/percussion mix to the dramatic string section.

7. “Obsessed” – The Co-Founder. Here’s a crunchy emo/indie-rock tune featuring complex instrumental interplay in the verses, leading into a chorus of churning drums and roiling guitars. Strong, emotive vocals layer on throughout.

8. “Cross” – AB7VN. The cascading strings, thrumming bass, and syncopated drumming make for one of an air of cool all throughout this instrumental piece. Could easily pass for the soundtrack to a really intense section of a dungeon-crawling RPG.

9. “Encore” – Roast Apple. Right when I’d given up on dance-oriented, Interpol-esque post-punk giving me a thrill, Roast Apple come along with tight melodies, slick production, and an attitude of cool. It might get harder to get the gold out of a well-tapped vein, but the best can still do it.

10. “Mexican Jackpot” – Flagship. A tight, focused, lightly-dancy indie-rock song with connections to Capital Cities’ and Cold War Kids’ sonic spaces.

A compilation of serious songwriting reveals some new bands to watch

I love compilation albums, SXSW, live recordings and serious music. So it’s no surprise that I would love New Media RecordingsSelections from NMR Live! Showcase SXSW, which combines all of the aforementioned. NMR is a recording studio and production facility in Fort Worth, Texas, and it shows: this live recording is impressively captured and preserved. So those who hate live recordings for the bad sound quality, fear not.

On to the music: NMR has given us 25 songs from 8 bands spread over an hour and a half. It’s not one-sitting listening. However, it is a good introduction to these artists, as each gets more than the usual single shot to tell their story. Spooky Folk opens the comp with “Polaroid,” which is one of the loudest tunes on the album (and subsequently one of the most difficult to mix – so take my previous note on “impressively captured” with a grain of salt on this track) by easily the loudest of the bands featured. “Polaroid” has an Arcade Fire-esque grandeur, as charging guitars and pounding drums are met with soaring vocals and swooping strings. It’s a great song to kick off the album with, as it sets a high bar for quality.

Most of the other bands meet the challenge. The bulk of the music on the comp is of the serious singer/songwriter type: a Damien Jurado song is fittingly covered, and I thought several times of stately anguish of Songs:Ohia throughout. Jeremy Buller, who played the aformentioned “Oh Death Art With Me” cover, plays especially powerfully on these recordings: The intimate “A Gift and Growing It” creates a gripping mood and expounds on it for six minutes. His “Untitled” is even more sparse, but no less riveting in its mood.

You may remember that I love everything about The Angelus. They contribute stripped-down versions of their dark, foreboding tunes; instead of acoustic guitar only, it’s electric guitar and voice. It fits incredibly well for the Angelus’ tunes while showing a whole new side of the tunes.

Don and Curtis of The Theater Fire, The Migrant, and Clint Niosi contribute more upbeat, often-major-key tunes, but these are by no means throwaway pop songs. The Theater Fire members created a storytellers’ mood to spin tales about life from Cain’s perspective, the thought processes of a rebellious rambler, and a Magnetic Fields cover (“All My Little Words”). The Migrant’s tunes are imported with weight through the vocal performances and lyrics more so than the acoustic guitar work–another line drawn to Jurado. Clint Niosi’s clear vocals and precise picking (“Wild West”) nearest appropriated what we consider folk these days.

The electronic music wild a capella music of Dreamboat Crusaderz and the ominous constructions of Weird Weeds didn’t catch my ear, but six out of eight on a comp is a high success rate. The creators of Selections from NMR Live! Showcase SXSW have a well-tuned ear, and this release is very worth your time if you’re into the genre.

Moody beauty

“Shenandoah” is one of the songs that sparked my love of folk music, so I’m always up for new versions of it. The tune received an elegant, reverent treatment in sound and video here, as Goldmund and Alex R. Johnson (La Chima Films) teamed up to create a beautiful rendition of the Appalachian standard.

The enigmatic video for Exitmusic’s “Passage” sets up an engrossing mood with an inscrutable but intriguing storyline and beautiful visuals. I couldn’t look away.

The eerie, evocative clip for The Angelus’ “Crimson Shadow” is similarly riveting. Jake Wilganowski’s confident direction and gorgeous cinematography meet the tune perfectly, and the result is a powerful piece.

Hoodie Allen’s second video from All American pairs the pensive “No Faith in Brooklyn” with a clip that matches the mood.

The soundtrack to a pretty, terrifying angel

Angelus means “Angel” in Latin, but indie-rockers The Angelus apply more to the terrifying, battle-ready archangel idea than the calming, peaceful messenger motif that is common in our culture. I’m not often scared by music, but the pervasive sense of dread and woe that runs through On a Dark & Barren Land creates some profoundly disorienting and distressing moments.

Emil Rapstine, the songwriter behind The Angelus, is a master of mood: using nothing more than harmonized voices, he can conjure up a profound sense of discomfort (“Let Me Be Gone,” “All Is Well,” where nothing sounds well at all). Add in a tasteful restraint on the arrangements of these dark, gritty dirges, and you’ve got an album that will stick with the listener long after the run time. “Turned To Stone” segues a plodding intro into an indie-rock tune anchored by organ, choir bells, and massively overdriven guitar. Just imagining that should bring up thoughts of The Misfits or Godspeed! You Black Emperor, and it is assuredly more of the latter. “Gone Country” sounds like a doom-thousand The National, while the frantic bass work on “Crimson Shadow” lends an urgency to the tune that jars against the slowed-down guitarwork.

I made the mistake of listening to this last night in the dark by myself, and a sense of dread creeped over me as I read my book. If the goal of all music is emotional connection, The Angelus has succeeded mightily. (Even the album art is darkly fascinating, entering into my best of the year list.) Fans of The Black Heart Processional, darkly atmospheric post-rock, or genuinely creepy music would do well to catch up with On a Dark & Barren Land.

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