William Within's Alex Simpson on why the band are calling it quits
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“William Within started off as my recording project. You’re in your high school bedroom and there’s just nothing better than that.”
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Bodylessness and History as Told through Genres: A Conversation with M Lamar
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“Genre-defying” and “experimental” are words that music critics enjoy tossing around, especially when it comes to genre-mixing. However, most genre-mixing is old news, and the terms only gesture at describing a diverse arrangement. Every once in awhile, though, someone earns the terms. M. Lamar’s records are shining examples that successfully blend opera, doom metal, classical, and electronic music, usually within the course of one song. Sound confusing? Give him a listen and you’ll see what I mean. Until the day where Lamar’s work gets a specific genre tag, we’ll be scratching our heads trying to explain it, and reveling in its abstract wonder.
Read MoreProtomartyr sacrifice some dynamics for a denser set of encyclopedic and confounding post punk on Relatives in Descent
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Relatives In Descent packs as much content into each song as possible. Within ‘A Private Understanding’ alone, there’s talk of Elvis’ final days, lead-poisoning by snide men in Flint, and Heraclitus the Obscure, a philosopher who cried endlessly about the awful state of the world. If punk rock was originally intended to inflame and inform the underserved masses, Protomartyr haven’t fallen off the mark; just be sure to keep an encyclopaedia next to your headphones.
Read MoreGodspeed You! Black Emperor once again prove to be greater than the sum of their succinct parts on Luciferian Towers
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If you pay close enough attention, you can see the underserved masses finally defenestrating that which Godspeed have been sonically dueling for the past two decades. Even naming the band member by member doesn’t complete the puzzle of intention, since Godspeed You! Black Emperor are much more than the sum of their succinct parts. It’s almost a picture we can hang on the wall of our living room to help remind us of the beauty that can be found in humanity; and how much it’s at stake in the era the band operate in.
Read MoreChad VanGaalen pulls off another wonderfully bizarre set of songs on sixth album Light Information
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Light Information is much more direct and less impressionistic than what we’ve heard before, and the rabbit hole of ideas isn’t as deep. However, Chad has certainly retained his sense of humor: “Should I take the advice of the graffiti on the wall telling me to go suck it?” he asks on “Broken Bell”, almost giving in to defeatism. But, Chad has a wife, daughters, and way too much ingenuity to acquiesce to anyone else’s mantras. “Try to remember as much as I can/and try to keep faith in my fellow man”, he decides cheerfully on closer “Static Shape.”
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