Astronomique - Sharp Divide (2018)

OFFICIAL: http://www.astronomiquemusic.com

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BANDCAMP: https://astronomique.bandcamp.com

Written by Daniel Boyer, posted by blog admin

The ten track, nearly forty minute full length release Sharp Divide from Minneapolis’ Astronomique is as rich and varied of a studio album as you can hope for in 2018. This isn’t slight; the depth on display from this four piece band is completely modern while still recalling iconic acts and halcyon eras in music history. Logan Andra Fongemie’s vocals and synthesizer playing are keys to the success of this collection, but her main musical partner guitarist and backing vocalist Sean Hogan contributes much to the band’s vivid tapestry of sound. Their music has been labeled as space-age electro psych-pop and it’s as good of a description as you’ll find for what is, essentially, a potpourri of musical creativity. Sharp Divide gains a lot, as well, from the contributions of bassist/backing singer Preston Saari and drummer Mitch Billings. Their fluid, slightly funky spice added to the band’s mix gives these songs an added idiosyncratic quality that makes them stand out from the pack.

Much of Sharp Divide is distinguished by the rhythm section performance without Billings and Saari obscuring the other musical elements. Their contributions to album opener “Forefathers” helps give this track the sort of necessary ballast that a first song deserves. It’s impressive how artfully Fongemie and Hogan integrate vocals, synths, and guitar over the firm rhythm section work – their touch is light, but unmistakably stamped with energy and great timing. Sharp Divide’s third track, “We Disappear”, is one of the best expressions of a dominant theme on the album and has a steady mid-tempo push that rarely relents. The upper register synthesizer contributions to the track bring a little extra flair to the performance and the lyrical material is among the finest heard on Sharp Divide.

“Losing Our Control” is another album highlighted by a tight, lively melody line and enormously sympathetic performances from each of the band’s four musicians. One of the most impressive factors making Sharp Divide such a success is the consistent unity of the band’s performances and rarely do they sound so completely on the same page as they do with this track. Hogan’s guitar work, in lesser hands, would serve an ornamental purpose, but his additions to “Losing Our Control” are colorful and nuanced, never overwrought. The title song has similar merits to recommend it. “Sharp Divide” is the strong musical statement we’d expect from an album title track and elicits one of Fongemie’s best vocals. The lyric, as well, expands the band’s established range with some particularly evocative imagery that always remains accessible to listeners.

“Smoke” is cut from a slightly different cloth than other songs on Sharp Divide. The band clearly focuses more on invoking a mood with this number without ever sacrificing their approach to crafting durable, coherent songs. The same penchant for evocative imagery explored in the title song recurs here with similarly strong results. “Bleed Me” definitely has a dark tone, but the musical mood never bogs listeners down in despair and, instead, tempers the mood. The melancholy atmosphere of this song embodies the album as a whole and stands among its strongest tracks. Sharp Divide is a work of vital musical creativity that Astronomique will work hard to surpass.

Josh Birdsong - Where the Light Bends (2017)

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Written by Laura Dodero, posted by blog admin

Where the Light Bends, EP number two from Detroit-to-Nashville singer/multi-instrumentalist Josh Birdsong is a colorful display of interlocking and interwoven guitar melodies ala David Gilmour, pulsing electronica undercurrents and gripping, higher register vocals that avoid falsetto cheese for something earthier and more relatable…  All things considered it’s a very complete piece of work.  If it has any flaw it’s that only a few songs truly standout but strangely enough this is also one the recording’s strengths as well. 

This EP exercises its charm more and more with every subsequent listen.  If you’re looking for a release where you can simply skip around to your favorite tracks, you’ll find that Where the Light Bends doesn’t cater to finicky listeners.  Instead, Josh Birdsong treats the EP like one lengthy 6-part magnum opus with many soft change-ups in terms of dynamics and a thematic mood that is completely coherent if you play the songs in order.  Slight yet pleasingly melodic phrasing and structure adjustments become apparent once you get to know the songs.  For example, opener “Complex Contrast” unfolds new guitar licks (both backmasked and straightforward) each time you hear it.  The slow, deliberate first half is alive with guitars that constantly morph and shapeshift beneath a camouflage of synths and hymnal electronic drones.  Once the groovy percussion kicks in midway through, again the music becomes something else entirely.  At the center of this psychedelic tempest’s eye stands Birdsong’s unwavering voice; an expressive, emotional skyward timbre that crafts gargantuan hooks while never stepping on the music’s toes… and it’s without a doubt that the music itself is a larger focal point than the superb melody-intensive vocals.    

As “Complex Contrast” ends it spills over into the shoegazing, angularly bent guitar melodies of “The Sound Beneath the Static” which is like a crosspollination of My Bloody Valentine’s white-washed audio collages if filtered through the poppy indie rock of Sub Pop’s sadly forgotten maestros Pond and their tripped-out ballads.  “Cloud 8” is a tight mesh of push/pull guitars and keyboards that go from a pretty, sanguine mid-tempo to some late game bombast in the post-midsection where the riffs swell like tidal waves while still retaining their clean tones.  “Too Much to Hold,” while a nice song in its own right with a bluesy bent and more tangible rock n’ roll structuring, feels somewhat against the grain as it sticks out like a sore thumb when measured up against the rest of the album. 

Returning to the EP’s main progression, “Arctic Desert” is a sprawling, epic composition where western-tinged guitars collide into galactic, psychedelic melodies as Birdsong’s vocals reach for a bit gruffer registers.  It’s a powerful piece that should have been placed as the album’s finale instead of the stripped-down, cosmic pop of the title track which relies heavily on vocals and tangible guitar melodies.  Where the Light Bends is an stellar second outing from Josh Birdsong.  There aren’t any bad tracks and the EP could only be improved by tweaking the track listing.  “Arctic Desert” should certainly be at the end and you could move the title track to the position right after “Too Much to Hold.”  Still, minor nitpicks aside, this is easily one of the finest EP releases this year.    

EZLA - Outcasts (2017)

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Written by Frank McClure, posted by blog admin

Firmly lost in the weird, oft-forgotten electronica underbelly that populated movie soundtracks during the 90s or even the stranger side of the late 80s enters EZLA and her brand new disc, Outcasts.  The singer/songwriter’s alchemical mixture of pop, indie, trance, dub, noise, drone, Top 40 and house music doesn’t sound like anything that’s come barreling onto the scene lately.  You might be able to make some correlation to EZLA’s music and the solo work of Irish wild woman Leslie Rankine, as both Ruby and under her own name.  You may even find that touchstones as varied as Blondie, Tricky and even Bjork apply to the music heard on Outcasts, but the fact remains that this EP is very much its own thing and plays by its own rules. 

The EP seems best relatable for discussion when the tracks are dissected as pairs.  “Outcasts” is a brisk open with dysfunctional beats congealing into a mid-tempo, shuck n’ jive chorus while the themes zero in on the pulse of living forever and a certain degree of urgent profanity that punctuates much of EZLA’s work all across the 5 tracks on display.  Laid out beside track #2 “Skeletons” where its equally soft to loud dynamics and acerbic, dysfunctional verse beats simultaneously shake things down only to shake them up again, later opening up into an arid, sing-a-long pop chorus. The two compositions are very, VERY much alike.  The vivid, poignant beauty and crystalline hypnotics of “Satellites” and “Hangman” explore deeper themes of love and the damage it does to a person, while the percussive backgrounds and gliding chorus synths provide numerous parallel points that ensure these tracks are the perfect companions for one another.  Whereas the opening pair of songs feel like they could break apart at any moment until the listener reaches the chorus destinations, it seems as if the next pair feels as if they are much more ordered, arranged and designed to follow a more tuneful, song-oriented trip down a dark New York City alleyway.  

This leaves the somewhat crazed and psychologically unstable “Psycho Killers” to occupy a space all by itself.  Proudly belting out the EP’s most harrowing set of lyrics, EZLA’s voice goes from a wispy croon to nearly satanic vocal back-masking atop a pounding, urgent beat and caterwauling synths; a proof positive snapshot that the singer operates from a darker frame of mind than anybody peddling pop songs in modern times.  Quite frankly, the extremes covered on Outcasts will be too intense for the casual listener, delegating the EP to record collections that favor honest, frantic electronica that’s not afraid to bombard the audience with curveballs.  Outcasts is an excellent piece of work from front to back cover and it makes clear the point that EZLA is an artist to keep an eye on as she progresses from release to release.