Artist Of The Day: Nihkeetah

Every so often, I happen across a small project or solo artist that's doing something really cool; the last time that happened, little-known band Aerials turned into massively successful, Deep Elm-signed Lights & Motion. So, ultimately, anything could happen. Nihkeetah has the same thing going on. It might not be as cinematic as Christoffer Franzén's masterworks, but Artūras Juškevičius has as much creativity and passion for his music.

Getting into the debut from Nihkeetah, Perceive:Create is something of a rough-cut wonder. Juškevičius recorded everything from his home in Vilnius, Lithuania and the mixing is quite impressive for one man recording in his home studio. The spacious atmosphere of "Dissolve: Walls of Existence" is beautifully created, and the way he sets the drums in the backdrop of "A Perception" but brings them to the center-stage in "A Deception" is fantastically ingenious to shift the emotional context of the song. Juškevičius has a way with his recordings that portray something magnificent in a way that's very difficult to find with someone working on their own. Needless to say, I'm excited for more Nihkeetah.

To support the man, like Nihkeetah on Facebook and download and donate on Bandcamp!

Artist Of The Day: Televisions

Despite the rush to improve musical quality through things like lossless audio and high-quality studio tech, lo-fi still has an enormous place in indie music culture. Take Televisions, for example. It's a solo project of a fellow named Nicholas Rattigan, and the quality of his music echoes a 1960's radio broadcast, with a nostalgic lens of fuzz overlaying every song. A listen to the most recent effort, Neon Gold, will take you to a place that doesn't exist anymore save in dreams, feeling simple and elegant in good taste. "She's Dreaming" leaves a taste of slow M83 songs in your mouth, while "I'm Free" is faster, and definitely hints at surf-rock, all in that filter of a past era of music. It's a refined and wonderfully elegant sound, leaving you wanting much more than just 10 easy minutes of music.

And you can have more! Kindly Mr. Rattigan has all of his recorded material available on his Bandcamp for free! Stream and download as much as you would like, and be sure to watch for updates on his Facebook page.

Artist Of The Day: The Sun Explodes

The Sun Explodes released their second album in two years just a few days ago. The newest release, We Build Mountains, brings all the same ingenuity and creative new sounds that the first release brought us in the same strain. However, the sophomore, released just earlier this week, strays much further towards traditional metal, with influences from instrumental, rather than a sheer post-metal performance as featured in Emergence. This is good in some senses, such as the first single released before the more recent full-length, "SevenThreeOne," which features a prominent mathcore feel in the verses, a quieter post-rock-type bridge, and an outro that screams metalcore, which shows a large variety of genres in the composition. This genre-blending gives them the same degree of originality that was featured on their debut, and will serve them well throughout their musical career.

With the album released and everything going well for the band, there's almost sure to be some tour dates posted soon. Keep up with their website and watch for them!

Artist Of The Day: Russian Circles

After a successfully crushing release with their 2011 release, Empros, one can only expect powerful things with Russian Circles. Since the band announced their entry into the studio in May to start recording, there are only good things on the horizon. Since their release of Geneva, the band has pleased many critics with their musical changes and stylistic advances. And following Geneva, of course, the band's masterwork to date. Empros was such a fantastically written album that it received universal acclaim, so as always, I can't wait to see how the band plans to follow it up with currently untitled LP5.

Album Review: Owen - L'Ami du Peuple

Album Rating: A

Anytime a new Owen album surfaces, there somehow always manages to be a place for it on my list of top releases. L'Ami du Peuple is no different - Kinsella's fine ear for instrumentalism continually improves, and each of his releases are essentially stepping stones towards the newest point in his musical history. The emotional presence on each of his albums is slightly varied as the man himself grows to adopt new ideas and his own life story changes a little bit every couple of years, but it's no less present on this album as his self-titled debut. In fact, probably the most impressive thing about Mike Kinsella is his ability to reflect a different side of himself on each album, and L'Ami du Peuple is a powerful example of just that.

Artist Of The Day: Iron & Wine

Sam Beam has had a large hand in the popularization of indie folk. Along with folks such as The Mountain Goats, Fleet Foxes and of course, the band that comes to everyone's mind for the genre, Mumford & Sons. As far as staying to a particular sound goes, though, Beam has a particularly simple time due to being a solo project, and the biggest perk that comes with being an individual in the music industry is room for creativity. For example, he began with a solely folk-central sound, with a Neil Young sort of style, purely acoustic strings and a fresh sound in the new millennium that we hadn't been accustomed to for quite a while. As he wrote more and more, Beam added other tastes and colors into his music, including electric guitars and brass instruments. He's also explored different types of sounds, delving into traditional Mexican music, pop, jazz and R&B, while keeping the core of Iron & Wine at the base of everything. His most recent effort, April's Ghost On Ghost, expands the pop sounds featured on his previous album, Kiss Each Other Clean, but including some of the experimental jazz style and of course, his folk roots.

Beam will be touring for Ghost On Ghost more extensively in the fall, so take a look for tour dates and locations on his site.

Artist Of The Day: Chemtrail

Chemtrail recently Kickstarted a new album in an attempt to try to get their fans to fund their music, and see how much of a demand there was for a crowd-funded album. The results were very optimistic; the band not only hit their goal, but surpassed it by almost $1500, which allowed for not only a vinyl and digital version, but also for a CD version as well. It does make me pretty happy to know that a great band like Chemtrail has enough fan support to be able to do this sort of thing though. Their entire discography is golden, and the Sounds Like Ghosts EP got me very excited for any new music they're planning to put out. I'll be reviewing the digital version of the album in the coming weeks, but needless to say, there's a lot of good things already happening for the band, and I'm excited that there are still loyal fans out there that want to support their favorite artists.

You can find the Chemtrails discography here.

Artist Of The Day: Oak

When I included this little French band in my first quarter update, I figured not many people were going to know about them. Heck, before about halfway through March, I didn't know about them myself. But once I took a listen, I knew it was exactly what I was looking for. Oak's Not Afraid Anymore takes on the kinds of sounds that appear in Mogwai's Les Revenants, a slowly creeping sound that establishes an aura of ghostly fear, and then it broadens into a dark post-metal jam that easily matches up with Russian Circles' riffs on Empros. The coolest thing to see, though, is the band hearkening back to when post-rock artists didn't care about song length. Their most impressive work is absolutely "ER, 2am," probably the darkest thing I've heard this year. It crams so much misery into ten minutes that it feels like the song could go on forever, and there would never be a break from feeling anything but an eternal pit of despair. And despite releasing a 40 minute effort in January, the band lets their Facebook page know that they're back in the studio, working away on the next biggest thing. With so much promise in the first full-length, I can't wait to see what else they're coming up with. Bring on the sadness, Oak. I'm ready.

You can stream and download all of their music on their Bandcamp page.

Artist Of The Day: Pianos Become The Teeth

More than anything, a quality most prized in a band is a sense of self-awareness. Pianos Become The Teeth is a band that is very highly aware of their place in music, and what they sound like, as seen by their part in "The Wave," an inside joke with post-hardcore friends Touche Amore, La Dispute, Defeater and Make Do And Mend. On top of this, though, the band has a very exact idea on where their sound is and where they want to go. For example, Old Pride was a fantastic record, and was released to high acclaim. However, knowing the sophomore album is as big a test (if not bigger) than a debut, the band firmly put their foot down on The Lack Long After, saying "This will not be Old Pride pt. 2," and it wasn't. It was a full-length that delved deeper, darker, and distinctly more heavy. It was a beautiful success, and a perfect follow-up to prove that the band has chops.

With 2013 nearly halfway through its course, we've seen the Pianos / Touche Amore Split, and the band's newest track, "Hiding." Probably the closest shot to post-rock featured on the discography so far, it actually feels very natural with a hint of reverb and atmosphere, like the newest Appleseed Cast album, or anything Prawn has ever released. With this slight shift, though, it loses absolutely none of its strikingly powerful emotional wells, and brings a good portion of excitement when the band says they're beginning to write their third record. They have some tours this summer they need to focus on, but it's fairly safe to say we'll see something by the first quarter of next year at the latest.

To keep yourself busy in the meantime, here's the band's discography minus the single on Bandcamp and the single can be found here.

Artist Of The Day: Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate)

There's little reason not to love the solo project of Michigan's Keith Latinen. Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate) echoes twinkly bands of the 90's into the present and ceases to amaze with sounds so very reminiscent to Mineral and American Football that you can taste the bittersweet melancholy on the tip of your tongue when you pop in the band's solo full-length effort What It Takes To Move Forward, or anything else they have out, for that matter. More importantly, though, it seems the band actually does understand what it takes to move forwards (horrific, but it had to be said), as their Facebook page details news for their sophomore album, which was officially started on April 8th. Hopefully this means we'll be receiving LP2 from the great folks in Empire! Empire! sometime in 2013, finally closing their now four year gap between full releases, but delicate care produces great results, and more often than not, the wait is worth it. With such talented and good-spirited folks in the band, the album will be nothing less than incredible.

While you eagerly await any more news on Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate), you can listen to their discography for free on Bandcamp.
Also, be sure to order the repress of When The Sea Became A Giant.
Finally, be sure to check out the Count Your Lucky Stars Facebook page for details on how to download Empire! Empire!'s entire discography for free next week!

Artist Of The Day: God Is An Astronaut

With recent news about their 2013 album being finished, God Is An Astronaut will once again come out strong this year. A series of live shows to build up to the album are coming, and they will reach culmination in September, when the three-year gap will be closed with a new release. According to band frontman Torsten Kinsella, the new album will be "quite different from [their] current work," which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone after an interview about a year and a half ago, prominently featuring Torsten talking about the style of the band right now and where they want to go. The frontman vocally expressed his grievances about being classified as a post-rock band, in much the same way that Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai often does. He went on to suggest that their new material will be in much more of a progressive-rock style, and heavily emphasizes that the mixing on the album will be very professional; one of the biggest complaints the band had about themselves as well as other bands in the instrumental genre is a lack of production value. With Torsten the perfectionist leading the charge and the rest of the band working in a closely knit group to bring the best they can, it's sure that the new record, whatever they have planned, will be huge.

Album Review: The Appleseed Cast - Illumination Ritual

Album Rating: A-

If there's anything that helps The Appleseed Cast write their albums, it's experience above all else. While trying to move towards the post-rock sound, it's their background in emo-rock that keeps things different than the rest of the genre. Fusing the best elements of Two Conversations and their earlier experimental work Low Level Owls, Peregrine came into being; this emo post-rock was then evolved on Sagarmatha, which many thought was a perfect culmination between the two. However, the Kansas-centered project has something else to interject, and that would be Illumination Ritual. The musical maturity on this album is absolutely explicit, and there's no question that the band has mastered the sound they were looking for since 2006.

Album Review: Their / They're / There - Their / They're / There

Album Rating: B+

Their / They're / There's EP is essentially the creation of indie punk. Mike Kinsella of Owen joined together with Evan Weiss of Into It. Over It and Matthew Frank of Loose Lips Sink Ships to hang out and play some music, and it turned into this six-track indie gold. The record uses the past musical experiences of three very large names in indie rock and meshes them wonderfully, with creatively progressive rhythms and melodies that more than tip their hat toward emo bands of the 90's.

Artist Of The Day: Daft Punk

While this isn't my normal area of expertise, it goes without saying that the new Daft Punk album is going to be big. There's a clip of their new single, "Get Lucky," circulating around the internet, getting blood pumping for fans everywhere despite being only a minute in length. However, any new Daft Punk is good, seeing as their last release was a soundtrack for the famous sci-fi reprisal of Tron: Legacy, and the LP before that was 2005's Human After All. The full release of Random Access Memories is coming next month with a lot of change from the original sounds of the band, but the same technique and dance style. Rolling Stone actually reports that there will be a large reduction in the amount of electronic instruments used on the album, instead replacing these pre-recorded effects with mixed versions of studio-recorded melodies. The band never fails to impress, so we'll get to see what happens with the new album come May 17th. In the mean time, keep a look out for the full version of "Get Lucky," which is being released at midnight tonight.

Visit the Random Access Memories site or check out their Facebook page to watch for the new single.

Artist Of The Day: Álfheimr

The last album I listened to by Álfheimr was released around the same time I started writing at MuzikDizcovery, and Madison Asche has increased his musical repertoire greatly since the last time I looked. Since the first quarter of 2011, the solo project has released two full-length records, two EPs, at least three singles, and a B-sides set, all of which are absolute stylistic advances on top of what Álfheimr already had to present. They seem to be inspired by different things as well - while What Allows Us To Endure is centered on the traditional post-rock sound, Here feels as though it was written with minimalist folk in mind, and Asche took and ran with it, and it sounds incredible. If post-rock / folk became the new norm, I'd be fine with it, if tracks like "Sleep" were prominently featured. The mix between so many acoustic bells and strings combined with just a small number of electronic effects to enhance the song's atmosphere is just about perfect. New tracks are slowly being released through SoundCloud, so watch for song releases in the near future. Additionally, the entire Álfheimr discography is available to stream and download for free on the Bandcamp page, so definitely take a look and check out how far the project has come.

Artist Of The Day: Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Possibly the most well-known indie band around the world alongside Modest Mouse and Bon Iver, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs nevertheless still have their same quirky charm in 2013 as they did over a decade ago. From their self-titled EP and Fever To Tell, though, they've advanced quite a ways with their songwriting, and lost a bit of their punk origins, and 2009's It's Blitz includes more electronic than any of their other albums combined (which is still essentially zero). The recent single off of their newest album, however, portrays a nice compromise, echoic electronic effects over a garage-rock styled, head-bobbing melody, along with excessive lyric repetition in true Yeah Yeah Yeah's style ("Maps," am I right?). An interesting addition to Mosquito's "Sacrilege" is the gospel-like choir towards the end of the song, which sounds incredible due to the way you can vamp on and expand off of a repetitive line in gospel music. The song is a great change of pace for the band, and it brings interesting foresight to the rest of the album, which comes out April 16th.

Further updates are posted pretty consistently on their Facebook page and their own website.

Artist Of The Day: Rorcal

Winter is the perfect season for metal. They go hand in hand, truly; with early nights in the cold season, what better way is there to call in the day by blasting some of the darkest genre of music? Sadly, winter is on its way out, but it is fairly safe to say that new metal releases are only beginning. Enter Rorcal, with their third album released late last month. Unfortunately, I was unable to review it within a timely period, but I still wanted to talk about the album, which fits the style of their debut, Myrra, Mordvynn, Marayaa in the sense that it divides the tracks up in a conventional way, but very much hearkens to their prior release, Heliogabalus in terms of musical experimentation. The atmosphere on Vilagvege is well constructed, beautifully set-up by "I" and featured first on "D." However, after the black six begin (tracks "II" to "VII"), the tempo speeds up, leaving the traditional doom feel behind and working their way towards blackened death metal, which is a departure from Heliogabalus in both concept and sound. The change may not be welcome to some, but I think Vilagvege is one of the best metal releases out this year so far.

You can listen to the new record, as well as the rest of Rorcal's discography, on Bandcamp for free.

Artist of the Day: Moving Mountains

Two weeks ago tomorrow, I lost my grandmother. The moment I knew, I picked up Pneuma again, and began to listen; it was a wordless, unrelated connection that affected me on a level deeper than skin, or even consciousness. Moving Mountains' debut album is deeply musical, thoughtful, and powerful. They draw the name of the album from the Greek work pnévma, meaning "breath," but commonly translated as "breath of life." The sounds that appear on the album are fluid, light, and move lightly, like exhaling steam in the winter; the emotional side, however, is more like a sigh, that you release heavily from your chest. Pneuma burdens you, and creates a weight from nowhere that stays with you for a while after you stop listening. The tracks make you think, about sadness at first, but level out to a broader plane, and eventually, even existence itself comes under speculation. It takes an inspired mind to write an album that causes you to think so much, and absolutely deserves the belated critical acclaim it received. The music is wonderful, studio tuned to perfection, and the time and the effort spent on refining it more than deals justice to the message original band members Gregory Dunn and Nicholas Pizzolato were trying to send: one of fleeting love, loss, and somehow, acceptance. I know my grandmother isn't coming back. But I know that, like this album, all things end, sometimes on a low note, sometimes on better terms. Pneuma is one of the things that makes me able to move on - if an album this depressing can end with "Hallelujah," I can acquiesce to the impermanence of life. It's the final and hardest step of moving on, but we all can, and we all do, with time.

You can find Moving Mountains' newer music on their own site, and their older material on their Bandcamp page.

Free Music February: Take One Car

As the second month of an exciting year draws to a close, we want to offer up what we can find in terms of free. With everything becoming more expensive, the term draws the eye more and more every day. Thus, our Free Music February experiment continues.

The latest addition we have for you is Take One Car, a New York band who came out with a chart-topping album precisely one year ago. The band labels their sound as "Rock or something," which doesn't really define the genre-mixing with justice, but is essentially applicable - elements of heavy post-rock are there, but with both traditional rock influences (which is where Tyler Irish's astonishingly good vocals come from) and much darker post-metal roots as well, melding to form It's Going To Be A Nice Day, which both Casey and I thought was impressionable enough to appear on our year's end lists. On top of the band's fantastic second album, both their first album and live recordings will also be included in Free Music February, due to the band's generosity in celebrating the one-year release of Nice Day. It is an excellent offer for an even better album, absolutely worth a minute of your time.

You can find all of Take One Car's discography on their Bandcamp page, free for the next week only.

Artist of the Day: The Sun Explodes

As JFK so boldly said over 50 years ago, "We celebrate the past to awaken the future." Since the first review I wrote for MuzikDizcovery, two years ago today, I've found that nothing is more rewarding than helping bands get their names out to big audiences, which often gets people excited about music they've never even heard. So I decided the best way to celebrate my tenure would be to get people excited. While I have indeed talked about The Sun Explodes before, and they may not be the smallest of bands, they've got a big release coming up very soon that's worth mentioning. We Build Mountains is the post- / prog-metal band's sophomore album, and seeing as Emergence had so many unique things going for it, I'm expecting some quality composition on this new record. Without a definitive release date, we can't really do anything but hold our breath, but the album will show its face sometime within the next month or two, by the look of the band's Facebook updates. Until then, keep an eye out for the seemingly episodic teaser videos spotlighting the album, and check out Emergence if you haven't already.

The Sun Explodes has limited music on MySpace, but if you have an account, all their music is on Spotify.