PeerValidated Byte Size Reviews are short and sweet introductions to albums. A new one almost everyday gives you some basic info, opinions and an mp3 to let you decide what you think. These reviews are compiled into a list for two weeks, then we throw them into the Byte Size Archive and start a new one. Check back often!
DiVA – The Glitter End
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I don’t care if Lynch comparisons are alt. media cliché, the comparison suits this track. The Glitter End achieves the same blend of terror and soap-opera-caliber melodrama that shows up in a lot of Lynch’s work. Musically, the latter half of the track is very similar to the Twin Peaks theme. DiVA adds to this theme a chorus of vocals that are eerily out of tune: an effect enhanced as the voices grow short of breath as their chanting draws further and further on with out a break in phrase. - Caleb (August 5, 2011)
Radiation City – The Hands That Take You
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The lead vocals are densely harmonized and soaked in the warbling grain of lo-fi-ness, simulating the ghostly cheerfulness of a pop recording from the 1940’s. Vaguely Latin syncopations shuffle non-descript under R&B inspired vocal flourishes. The quasi-exotic rhythms are often blended with (or manipulated into) a dance beat half disco half electro that recalls the 80’s attempts to merge world music and pop music via electronics. Finally, the lyrics turn the song into feel-good soundtrack to the end of the world. Assessment: a hard hitting track and a cool new band from Portland. – Caleb (July 28, 2011)
Letting Up Despite Great Faults – Paper Crush
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Letting Up has been praised for producing charming, straight forward and well crafted indie rock. The first single off their upcoming EP validates this assessment. The band’s insistent backbeat and fluttering textures provide a driving yet flexible backdrop to the whimsical coming and going of Mike Lee’s breathy voice. The achingly intimate lyrics are a perfect match to Lee’s fragile croon. They center on a person who is beginning to look beyond the oppressive bounds of adolescence: a humble prayer to the gods of alienation and perpetual discontent, asking them for graceful release. - Caleb (July 27, 2011)
Adam & the Amethysts
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Adam & the Amethysts is the one man project of Adam Waito, formerly of Miracle Fortress and Telefauna. The Montreal multi-instrumentalist isn’t without a long, talented cast of aides however, counting on help from members of The Luyas, Sunset Rubdown and The Acorn, among others. As heard on the single “Prophecy,” above, Flickering Flashlight is a feathery light and spectacularly creative piece of work, donning a brilliant pop mentality and Waito’s crystal clear, lighthearted vocals. It’s hard not to get behind something as sweet as this. - Andy (July 23, 2011)
M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
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Anthony Gonzalez announced the Oct. 18 release of M83′s new double LP Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, and gave its first single. Gonzalez says the album is poppy and epic, and mostly about dreams. He says he found inspiration for it from one of his favorite childhood albums, Smashing Pumpkins’ 1995 double LP Melon Collie and The Infinite Sadness. Our first taste, “Midnight Sadness,” is as eighties-tastic and creative as we’d expect, with aggressive keyboard zaps, electro beats and gaudy bass grooves leading to a very saxy ending. No confirmation as of yet that the mp3′s space alien artwork is for the album. - Andy (July 20, 2011)
Teen Daze – The Harvest
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Inspiration behind its creation is often as much a part of the overall package of an album as the music itself. Over the past few years, no other story has been more romanticized than the artist holed up in a space alone. Jamison, aka Teen Daze, who refuses to make his last name known, is yet another of these. After a semester of studying philosophy in the Swiss Alps, the Vancouver chill-waver took to hiding in his parents’ house at the base of Mt. Cheam. A Silent Planet is an ode to C.S Lewis’, Out of the Silent Planet, the novel that Jamison obsessed over and made his musical guidebook. – Andy (July 18, 2011)
