Artist of the Day: Amia Venera Landscape

Rollicking metalcore riffs, with as much ferocity as a derailed freight train? Diminished chords, striking as bolts of lightning against an otherwise serene landscape? Me expressing apparent fanboyism? These three things all lead to one conclusion: Amia Venera Landscape, the Italian metal act that dropped jaws everywhere in late 2010. Sure, their debut album The Long Procession was released a tad too late to appear on most music critics' Best Of 2010 lists, but none of us have forgotten the group's landmark debut.

Listen to this monolith for free here. 

And now for some very exciting news - Amia Venera Landscape has announced the release of their sophomore full-length! It'll be coming out at some point this winter, so we won't have to wait much longer. The group also claims to have written more than 90 tracks in the last year or two, which is exciting but also a bit disconcerting. After all, The Long Procession was amazing, but it may have lived up to its title a bit too much through its 70-minute runtime. Everything the group touches is gold, though, so perhaps I shouldn't worry.

Keep up with Amia Venera Landscape on Facebook!

Album Retrospective: Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister

Album Rating: A+

From queer nobodies to overnight sensations, it's fair to say Tigermilk left Belle & Sebastian in a pretty good position. College funded and limited to a thousand vinyl copies, the LP catapulted the group to the very forefront of Scotland's independent music scene, simultaneously sparking a frantic label scramble from which Glasgow specialists Jeepster eventually emerged victorious. It was the type of achievement which smacked of a one-off - not that anyone bothered to tell Stuart Murdoch, the creative lynchpin around whom the entire outfit was based. Whereas most would have taken years and considerable thought following-up such a classic debut, Murdoch set about the task immediately, perhaps conscious he was in the eye of a purple patch most writers can scarcely fantasize over. The resulting album, If You're Feeling Sinister, surfaced a mere five months later, a side note which somehow winded up being one of the less remarkable facets to its blessed existence.

Jukebox: Volcano Choir - "Still"

When I did my artist of the day about Bon Iver, I looked at Blood Bank for the first time from a critical standpoint, and there were a few things that shocked me about it, like the auto-tune. However, upon a re-listen of "Woods," I've come to appreciate just how much artistic merit the song actually holds, how using auto-tune as an instrument to blend differently auto-tuned voices together was an incredibly new innovation to me. It was disconcerting at first, but now I look at it as a stroke of genius, and props to the band for having that kind of creativity and ingenuity.

And then I discovered Volcano Choir. A side-project of Justin Vernon's, the band releases similar works to the more group-oriented material of Bon Iver. Specifically, I'd found that "Woods" had been re-recorded on The Volcano Choir's Unmap as the song "Still" (seriously you probably already know this, but it's blowing my mind right now) and the differences are as wonderful as they are varied. While "Woods" has only the auto-tuned vox as instrumentation, "Still" utilizes vox in addition to clean, powerful guitars and layers of depth from synthesizers. The result is something incredibly close to post-rock, something I would never have associated Justin Vernon with in a million years - yet Volcano Choir proves me wrong, right in front of my face. Although it was up in the Billboard 200 back in October 2009, it's just really cool to see a tie with everyone's favorite indie band and my favorite genre of music.

Artist of the Day: Modest Mouse

With my hometown Tigers' recent exit from the World Series, I began to remember the last time they had failed to capture the world title in 2006. For some reason, the only thing I could remember about the series was the theme song: "Float On" by Modest Mouse. The uncharacteristically upbeat ode to taking things as they come sparked my idle interest in one of the most interesting rock bands I've heard. After catching their single from We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, "Dashboard," I was hooked. Fast forward to present day and Modest Mouse still holds up well, despite not having released an album since 2007.

The main reasons for their success are Isaac Brock's lyrics and Jeremiah Green's incredible drumming but it's also their ability to change styles at the drop of a hat and not seem to miss a beat. When Brock decided the band needed a new direction after 2004's Good News For People Who Love Bad News, they added three new members and made everything work as if there had been no change. However, it's as a trio that the band made the most noise. "Teeth Like God's Shoeshine," the raucous opening to masterpiece The Lonesome, Crowded West, begins with Brock yelling over Green's cymbal crashes and his own powerful chords only for it to stop into a digression about "the man with teeth like God's shoeshine." Repeat the process a few times over and you have one of the least appealing yet brilliant 7 minutes of music ever put to wax. Compared to the comparative purity of "3rd Planet," opener to their previous effort, The Moon and Antarctica, it's a shock that it's the same band; just another example of Isaac Brock's unique brand of genius. 

There's nothing inherently appealing about the band. Brock sounds as if he's tone deaf and has the vocal range of Eddie Vedder. The lyrics are weird, profane and often nonsensical. All the instruments sound like they're too loud and were recorded together with no regards to mixing. Yet, when you put their records on, everything seems to fall into place to form a beautiful cacophony. It may not sound great at first, but the grittiness of the recording and even Brock's vocals will sound good with time- if not immediately. 

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Artist of the Day: Fucked Up

Man, David Comes to Life was a damn solid album.  Dropping last year, the enormous concept record was a breath of fresh air; an intelligent and thoughtful hardcore punk album with a confounding yet refreshing story to tell.  With heavy themes, David Comes to Life was conceptually challenging, which is strange considering the incredibly welcoming tone of the album.

Live Review: Ambassadors, Black Cat DC (9/4/12)

To some people, large stadium shows are the absolute best thing that they can imagine. The screaming crowds of tens of thousands of fans, the huge visual displays, and echoing sound are exhilarating to these fans, and they live for these shows. I however am far more partial to smaller shows, where the bands call out the crowd to come closer and gather around while experiencing an intimate moment with the 20 people that came out to the show, belting out every word to every song. At that distance, every move the band makes is magnified, and even the smallest errors can ruin a show, but Ambassadors were perfect throughout the night during their supporting set, giving their Washington area fans something great to talk about.

Album Review: Cyantific - Liberty

Album Rating: B+/A-

It's difficult to say that Cyantific hasn't been near the center of the drum & bass world for the past ten years. After the then-duo released their first single way back in 2002, Cyantific has come out with a full-length on one of the biggest labels in all of electronic music at the time (Hospital Records), won an award for biggest breakthrough DJ, gone through a split that left Jon Stanley, half of the duo, to continue the Cyantific production alone, hopped around big-name labels like Ram Records in the hopes of finding a more permanent home, and recently solved the above problem by founding their own label that has seen releases from genre stalwarts like Logistics as well as up-and-coming talents like Dimension. And the producers deserve the attention: huge tracks like "Little Green Men," "Timescape," and "Ghetto Blaster" are modern classics of sorts, and the experimental style that Cyantific is known for has taken center stage in the drum & bass world as of the past few years. Cyantific have ridden on a steady wave of successful releases and DJ sets, and Stanley has kept up the sound he's known for in a way that shows his mastery over his genre, even without the help of Matt Whitehead (the other half of the duo). At this point in his career, Stanley is flexing his creative muscle, sometimes stepping away from the standard double-time breaks of most drum & bass. His remix of The Resonators' "Sweet Love Affair" demonstrates the versatility of the Cyantific sound and sets expectations high for what's to come in the Cyantific catalogue, as it's difficult to accuse him of "playing it safe."

Artist of the Day: Photek

There's a lot to like about Photek. On top of spearheading much of the Drum and Bass movement in the mid 90's (with the track KJZ being a personal favourite of mine), he managed to release consistently contemporary and brilliant music until what can only be referred to as a minor slip-up in 2007 with Form & Function Vol. 2. His very latest, KU:PALM, is something of a return to form: moulding itself to the current electronic dance scene without abandoning his sense of pacing, restraint and absolutely devastating knack for percussion.

Things have changed, of course, as every electronic artist in the spotlight has had to. Eager ears won't go too long without noticing the omnipresence of more saturated, summer chords; and eager eyes will soon spot the three instances of "feat" pushed shyly to the end of the track list. Nevertheless, the album remains 'damn classy,' and while it might contain a little too much rumbling than is comfortable (which is any rumbling at all, in most instances), KU:PALM  can easily be described as incredibly good.

It's just out. Go get it.

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Artist Of The Day: Fred V & Grafix

In today's drum & bass world, the artists seem to be split into two major camps. In one camp, there's the classic sound of DnB - techy, clicky drums, a focus on a grimy low end, and a special love for Amen breaks (for those of you who don't know what that is, go here). In the other, there's the style that's been especially popular recently - mid-range synths, a more standard, less inventive DnB beat that plays second fiddle to the instrumentation, and a sound that synthesizes all of the best elements of pop into a 175 BPM offering. Fred V & Grafix fall definitively into the latter category, and they're one of the foremost reasons why that style of drum & bass deserves recognition. The British duo (Fred Vahrman and Josh Jackson) have ascended to the top of the DnB world with almost unbelievable speed, becoming two of the youngest signings to Hospital Records when they joined the label this past winter, only two years after their first official release (a single on KG's Talkin Beatz label). They've backed up their rise to the top with some solid songs, too, as they've been producing fantastic tune after fantastic tune for the two years they've been active. Whether it was before they were officially producing together (see Fred V's "Catch You"), when they were doing both collaborations and solo tracks (see "One Of These Days"), or now that they've officially become a duo (check out "Just A Thought (ft. Reija Lee)"), all of their songs are very well-produced and ready to make a club go crazy at any time. Up next release-wise for the duo is a track on Hospital compilation Sick Music 3, out late November. As of now, though, all of their songs so far are worth a listen, and I have high hopes for these two in the future.

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Artist Of The Day: Lasorda

One of the cooler side project "supergroups" I've heard about in recent times is Lasorda. The most recognizable name of the group is The Get Up Kids vocalist Matt Pryor, but don't expect to hear his voice lead songs in this project other than on "Sleep When You Are Dead". Instead, get used to hearing Suzannah Johannes' sweet voice, which goes perfectly well with the synths that dominate the project. Rounding out Lasorda is Nate Harold (fun., The Honorary Title, Waking Ashland), Dustin Kinsey (The New Amsterdams), Mike Strandberg (Kevin Devine and the Goddamn Band), and Josh Adams (Ghosty), bringing a wide diversity of indie rock influences together to create a really solid debut effort. You can currently stream the album's first two tracks "The Age Of Wonder" and "Interlaid" on the band's Soundcloud page, and look forward to hearing the rest of this great album when it is released on December 11th.

Album Review: Little Comets - Life Is Elsewhere

Album Rating: B

It'd be interesting to know how Little Comets feel about their current situation. Now reasonably respected with a nationwide UK following, the Newcastle-based trio have nevertheless experienced their fair share of setbacks - an ill-fated stint on Columbia Records being chief among them. Upon signing the contract in 2008, their young imaginations must have been rife with promises of sales and exposure, so the fact the major label severed ties before they'd even got around to releasing a record must have come as a brutal kick in the nads. In the words of singer Rob Coles, they "just didn't sound enough like Ke$ha," but while the episode left a sour taste there was silver a silver lining in that it left the group with a measure of self-control they were otherwise deprived of.

Interview With A Great Big Pile Of Leaves, Round Two

One of the first interviews we did here at MuzikDizcovery was with A Great Big Pile Of Leaves. Since then, the band has gained quite a fanbase, while headlining a tour that also included MuzikDizcovery favorites Young Statues and Mansions and releasing two EPs on Topshelf Records. The band is now gearing up to release their second full length record in the coming months, and that should continue to launch this great band to new heights. On their last date with Cheap Girls and The Front Bottoms, the guys sat down to take some questions from us regarding topics such as the improvements from the debut to the new album, their Making Moves 7", Matt Fazzi's addition to the band, a possible vinyl issue of The Fiery Works, and much more that you can read below.

Album Review: Van Morrison - Born To Sing: No Plan B

Rating: B+

When I heard my passionate man crush Van Morrison was coming out with a new album, I responded with screams of "NOOOO," whispers of "WHYYYYY," and maybe even a few humongous tears.  I thought that Van Morrison making an album in 2012 would be a shame because his earlier works had accomplished one of the rarest of rare musical feats: they had defined multiple generations.  With lyrical themes about love, joy, peace, and patience, a brilliant fusion of acoustic folk and jubilant jazz, and some of the most vivid yet simple songwriting of his time, Morrison's first four albums (Blowin' Your Mind, Astral Weeks, Moondance, and His Band and The Street Choir) were not only able to define the generation, but future generations beyond that.  The albums were filled with calming and gorgeous atmospheres, soaring and soulful choruses, and timeless track after timeless track.  The albums were not only classics of their time, but reminders that even though every passing generation will say it is the most significant and most important generation that has ever existed, we are really all going through the same struggles, same divisions, and same general experiences.  Van Morrison's music wasn't the product of his time, but time was a product of Van Morrison.  Because of his ability to make timeless music and his ability to make sure that music sounded great to any listener in any decade, Van Morrison was truly one of the more unique musicians of any time.

Artist of the Day: The American Dollar

We saw a release from our friends The American Dollar a bit earlier on in 2012. And Awake In The City was a fantastic album; I had nothing but high praise for it. The new release has a lot going for it too, though; it's a remix of the prior release, with some added tracks and additional flare (or lack thereof). Not in a bad way, though, because the band decided to go about each track a different way, with a heavy focus on ambient. The result is...well, it's pretty cool. We haven't really heard from these guys in a while, since they've been on tour and have had things in the works, and getting this from them out of the blue was pretty cool. Comparing the remix of "Faces in the Haze" with the original was really neat, with commonly shared musical themes between, but an incredibly obvious split in how the themes were presented; Awake In The City tends to be a little more driving, while Ambient Three rises up from the mists, and becomes an overwhelming force without the listener even really noticing until the end of the track. If you liked Awake In The City, but want something a little more laid back and relaxed, Ambient Three is definitely the way to go.

Check it out on their bandcamp for free here.

Artist of the Day: Troubled Coast

In my humble opinion, any band that is capable of completely re-inventing themselves with each release is deserving of praise. Lately, it seems the bulk of these kinds of bands are receiving the recognition they deserve, such as Between the Buried and Me and Converge. Both reviewers and listeners seem to have acknowledged the progression they've gone through since the start of their careers. So why hasn't anyone done the same for Troubled Coast? Like BTBAM and Converge, they're a band that has consistently changed their sound, and their latest release, Awake and Empty, is simply a beast of an album.

Artist Of The Day: Eels

Even in this age of social networking and avid fan engagement, Mark Oliver Everett (aka, E) remains defiantly old-school. It's hardly out of character - this, after all is the man who wanted Eels' debut album to sound like one of his old, worn out cassettes - but it does mean followers experience a sharp rush of excitement on the rare occasion one of his various outlets does spring to life. That much was evident on Friday when, for the first time in well over a year, the elusive songwriter submitted a tweet. Yes, a real digital tweet. The message in question ("Hi.") could scarcely have been more ambiguous, but the sense of inevitability surrounding it was backed today by confirmation his band's 10th studio album is well on its way. Entitled Wonderful, Glorious, it's due on February 5, and will mark the first Eels release since the Hombre Lobo, End Times and Tomorrow Morning trilogy of '09 and '10. As a shameless worshipper of all things E, I for one can't wait.

If you're unfamiliar with his/their work, here's a quick guide to get you started:

Live Review: Converge, Torche, Kvelertak, KEN Mode

How does one begin when putting to paper their thoughts on the greatest show they have ever seen?  Well, obviously with a sentence like that!  But in all seriousness, a mere day isn't a lot of time to digest a show as stunning as Converge, Torche, Kvelertak, and KEN Mode, but then again there's almost no amount of time that would.  For a few hours, the denizens of Columbus, OH were able to leave everything at the door and lose themselves to the chaotic and cathartic noise of the aforementioned bands.  It was a wild and frenzied affair that was both horrifying and beautiful.  The strange and unconventional bonding of strangers over some of the biggest names in the scene was a feeling that won't soon be forgotten.

Artist of the Day: Submotion Orchestra

If 2010's most brilliant gem Finest Hour had any flaws, it'd have to be its lack of playfulness. While Submotion Orchestra hit the mark on everything they did accomplish within its 60-minute playtime, the album had an underlying blueprint it followed. This wasn't a problem, seeing as Finest Hour successfully merged urban jazz with brooding dubstep like it was a small feat. But in order for the group to continue to be prominent in the underground music scene, a change had to take place.

Live Review: The Twilight Sad, The Cluny, Newcastle, 18/10/2012

I honestly can't think of a better setting in which to see The Twilight Sad. Winter is closing in. It's pitch black, wet, increasingly cold, and every path I use on my way to The Cluny is coated in a mass of sodden, decaying leaves. The venue itself is similarly appropriate. A decidedly wiff-waff-free zone, it's of suitable size to house such an acclaimed act yet intimate enough for audience members can gaze into the haunted whites of James Graham's eyes - truly ideal surrounding to such a snug, immersive soundtrack. In all honesty, tonight's script appeared set right from the moment the sun went down, so the fact the Glaswegians (expanded to a five-piece for live purposes) not only matched but transcended such conditions was nothing short of extraordinary.

Album Review: Stray Ghost - Those Who Know Darkness See The Light

Album Rating: B+

How we love to laugh at any modern-classical/ambient project that comes our way. Strings and piano, again? Hah! ‘You’ve got to be kidding me...’ It’s only when something really high-brow comes along that we withhold our almighty judgement: something that pushes itself so far from any recognisable trait that we’re forced to admit that yes, this is suitably new. See, in this little corner of the musical world emotional indulgence is often looked down upon; whereas if you were to take the trip over to folk, indie, rock and all things in between you might see that the opposite is the case. Perhaps it’s something to do with the often pretentious world of classical music, or maybe it’s more to do with the increasing number of pretentious people (such as your reviewer for this evening) who inhabit this world.