Here is a list of the 10 most popular record and live reviews of the past year. Hope you enjoy looking back at some of the great music that we have been fortunate to help bring to your attention.
10. Opaline – Colour The Atlas
“Colour The Atlas trade in atmospheres as much as they do music, often using the space between the instruments as much as the instruments themselves. It is the art of using music to build shells around space, space that is filled with intangible qualities, emotions, fleeting memories, love and loss, sense and sensuality, dreams and reflection. Around these atmospheres they weave vibrant yet delicate shells from sumptuous vocal harmony, pastoral trip-hop soundscapes, soaring dynamics and shimmering guitars.”
http://dancingaboutarchitecture.info/2014/10/20/opaline-colour-the-atlas/
9. Seeing You – Roxanne de Bastion
“The attraction is the simplicity of it all. No gimmickry, no drive to be fashionably cool (and all the cooler for it) no compromise to chart acceptance, just a crystal clear vocal that sounds innocent without resorting to girlish and songs that are light and poetic without straying into fey hippydom…or indeed hipsterdom.”
http://dancingaboutarchitecture.info/2014/09/15/seeing-you-roxanne-de-bastion/
9. Atmospheric Disturbances – Casey Fallen
“If the English post punk genre created a sound track to the grim northern back streets or beige suburban prison of a generation looking for its place in a bewildering world, then Atmospheric Disturbances is the modern US equivalent. Drawing largely on soundscaping electronica rather than the angular guitar lines of its colonial cousins it nevertheless channels the same dark and bewildering thoughts of a lost generation, albeit one that has lost its grip on the elusive American Dream.”
7. Crashing Angels – Louise Latham
“Spacious yet working the dynamic shifts with exquisite precision from brooding instrumental interludes to soaring, dreaming vocal spires, from gentle shimmering piano to full band crescendos and showing a brilliant understanding of how to work with all of these textures without over playing the song.”
6. Machines – SkyBurnsRed
“As soon as the opening musical salvo of Malfunction issues forth from my computer, I remembered exactly why I love SkyBurnsRed. Their ability to forge accessible, heavy guitar music and then cut sideways through those rock drives with sweeping violin, is what sets them apart from most bands working on the same circuit today.”
http://dancingaboutarchitecture.info/2014/06/09/machines-skyburnsred/
5. Rust – Luke De-Sciscio
“And if he is able to create a distance between himself and those obvious historical references, he is also able to out distance modern competition as well. I can’t think of another singer who is able to infuse their work with such passion, such intensity, such pain, creating an elegiac quality and a sweet romantic melancholy and leaving everyone else sounding tongue-tied and found wanting.”
http://dancingaboutarchitecture.info/2014/07/21/rust-luke-de-sciscio/
4. Red Letter Day – Courtney Yasmineh
“What follows is the art of being throwing musical curveballs but without sounding out of line with the overall sound of the album. I guess the phrase “it’s the singer not the song “ is appropriate here as it is the bands component parts, their familiarity and skills as a working unit that provide the cohesion allowing the songs to head off into more adventurous musical territory yet without seeming too far from home.”
http://dancingaboutarchitecture.info/2014/10/07/red-letter-day-courtney-yasmineh/
3. Mushi Features @Tiefgrund, Berlin
“Mushi Features musical charm lies in their ability to take a core doomy, stoner rock and add enough melody and Riot Grrrl sensibilities to create something that is unique yet marketable at the same time. Heavy and uncompromising enough to appease the gods of rock yet melodic and accessible enough to catch the ear of the mere mortal music punter.”
http://dancingaboutarchitecture.info/2014/11/06/mushi-features-tiefgrund-berlin-31st-oct-14/
2. Relics – Faded Paper Figures
“The musical building blocks are standard fare but it is what they fashion out of these materials that really blows your mind. This is more than song writing, this is slick, sonic architecture built with layers of synth beats and gorgeous harmonies, guitars and other strings delicately woven into the tapestry and a warm, sensuous feeling that is often missing from electronica bands.”
http://dancingaboutarchitecture.info/2014/07/10/relics-faded-paper-figures/
1. Songs of Candlelight and Razorblades – Wayne Hussey
“Tales of innocence, unrequited love, loss and longing and a spoken word piece describing Burkowskian back street ballets all backed up musically with baroque moods, sweeping strings, plaintive pianos and dark atmospherics that linger at the end of the verse as the sentiment floats away into a lonely night sky. Blimey, he’s got me doing it now!”
http://dancingaboutarchitecture.info/2014/09/25/songs-of-candlelight-and-razorblades-wayne-hussey/
