vinyl – Eternity Tree

Cool Maritime – Big Earth Energy (2022 Western Vinyl)

Reviews

Artist: Cool Maritime

Album: Big Earth Energy (2022)

Label: Western Vinyl

Genre: New Age / Ambient / Electronic

Record Store: Zia Records, Phoenix, AZ

We’ve all heard the mantra ‘never judge a book by its cover,’ and yet the same rule of thumb could hardly be said to apply to the world of vinyl, where off-kilter, intriguing artwork oftentimes speaks directly about the music contained within. Case in point – Cool Maritime’s glorious 2022 LP ‘Big Earth Energy,’ which I picked up the other day solely because of the wonderful Lisa Frank-esque neon tree frog gracing the front cover, as well as the promotional sticker which promised an experience inspired by ‘Myst and Studio Ghibli.’

The music almost lives up to this high bar, with seven tracks of instrumental electronic goodness that will bring to mind the cushy, muzak-adjacent environments of pre-2000 personal computer game soundtracks like SimCity or, indeed, Myst. Pleasing sin waves, pitched to replicate electronic tom drums, bounce and squiggle around synth pads and buoyant synthesizer melodies. Drum machines are notably absent, and the resulting music works equally well as background tones to do yoga to, or as an active listening experience. It will most certainly pair well with your next session of whatever intense simulation or strategy video game you’re currently obsessed with. Excellent find.

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Thomas Jacob Jr is a Producer, Composer, Singer-Songwriter, Music Educator and Digital Artist currently based in Arizona – Bringing us rare and interesting selections from his extensive Vinyl collection! For more content follow his vinyl-dedicated Instagram account

Kiefer – When There’s Love Around (2021 Stones Throw)

Reviews

Artist: Kiefer

Album: When There’s Love Around (2021)

Label: Stones Throw

Genre: Nu Jazz / Downtempo

Record Store: Zia Records, Phoenix, Arizona

Blame it on the algorithm, but when I switched over from Apple Music to Tidal a few months ago, I couldn’t listen to an album or playlist of anything remotely downtempo without being recommended Kiefer, the soulful hip-hop influenced pianist and producer. A cursory glance at his credits reveals piano work on Drake’s Certified Lover Boy, as well as producer or songwriter credits for another dozen or so artists.

It’s easy to see why this young man’s popularity has blossomed as of late; judging by his recent long player ‘When There’s Love Around’, Kiefer’s vibrant style of downtempo jazz is eminently listenable and chill without devolving completely into uber-smooth cocktail jazz (although I’d probably still be a fan of that). A few synths pepper the landscape, either as melody instruments like on ‘crybaby’, or as mood-setting soundscapes like on ‘loving hands.’

The whole album plays like a greatest hits of town and village theme songs from a lost ‘Final Fantasy’ game circa the PS2 era. There’s just something about the twinkling piano melodies, downtempo grooves, and melodic phrasing that brings to mind the shores of Besaid Island. I can practically hear the menu screen click sound effects in the background.

In an eerie case of foreshadowing, ‘When There’s Love Around’ comes pressed in a vibrant blue and yellow, the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Its release predated the current conflict by many months.

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Cloakroom – Dissolution Wave (2022 Relapse Records)

Reviews

Artist: Cloakroom

Album: Dissolution Wave (2022)

Label: Relapse Records

Genre: Shoegaze / Post-Hardcore / Alternative Rock

Record Store: Puscifer the Store, Jerome, Arizona

Shoegaze as a genre is experiencing a small renaissance in the underground rock community. Hum returned after an extended hiatus by diving head first into bludgeoning post-metal soundscapes; harsher black metal acts like Deafheaven have gradually softened their edges to reveal the smooth, dream pop center hidden underneath; and fellow Relapse Records brethren Nothing continue to hone a thoroughly contemporary brand of shoegazy alternative rock. As excellent as all these bands and records are, Cloakroom’s newest long player Dissolution Wave may be the strongest of them all.

While my roommate was adamant that Cloakroom merely sounds like ‘a hundred alternative rock bands I used to listen to in the 90’s’, I’m not sure I can write them off so quickly. Yes, the reverb, the choruses, and the overall vibe of Dissolution Wave may carry a sheen of nostalgia for the slowcore of the mid 90’s, but the songwriting and atmosphere elevate the music to the upper echelon. The washed out, almost ambient nature of much of the music makes Dissolution Wave go down smooth regardless of whether you’re listening to it actively or as background music. A truly stellar effort from a scene that hopefully has much more to reveal down the pike.

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Blue Lab Beats – Motherland Journey (2022 Blue Note Records)

Reviews

Artist: Blue Lab Beats

Album: Motherland Journey (2022)

Label: Blue Note Records

Genre: Neo-Soul / Jazztronica

Over the last several weeks I have been teaching my junior high school music students about the cross pollination between the jazz and hip-hop music genres in modern music. There is no better contemporary example of this than with Blue Lab Beats’ masterful debut long-player for Blue Note Records, Motherland Journey.

Much like the title suggests, MJ encompasses a kaleidoscope of influences and sounds while still retaining a distinct identity. They fuse the sounds of the African diaspora with modern instruments and rhythms from the London underground music scene, resulting in a melange of jazztronica, afrobeat, neo-soul, funk, and fusion. Guest stars abound, adding contemporary pop, r&b, and hip-hop flair to the smooth fusion instrumentals laid down by producer NK-OK and multi-instrumentalist Mr. DM.

At 17 tracks and an hour’s worth of listening time, one would thing that Motherland Journey might strain to maintain a sense of cohesion and unity with all the genre-skipping, but the opposite is in fact true, as MJ instead plays like an expertly-curated celebration of the London underground electronic music scene.

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Author & Punisher – Krüller (2022 Relapse Records)

Reviews

Artist: Author & Punisher

Album: Krüller (2022)

Label: Relapse Records

Genre: Industrial Metal / Darksynth

Tristan Shone is the one-man bandleader and mastermind behind the industrial darksynth project Author & Punisher. Shone performs his music using a unique collection of hand-built electronic synthesizers and sound machines and has been doing so in earnest for the better part of the last decade.

With 2018’s ‘Beastland,’ Shone found a new audience by shifting to the roster of Relapse Records, a label better known for forward-thinking death metal than doom electronics. With his mind-blowing new album ‘Krüller’, Shone has achieved a clarity and purpose of sound previously unheard in his other work. Of particular note are collaborators Justin Chancellor and Danny Carey, better known as the rhythm section of alternative metal stalwarts Tool, who show up sporadically to fill in some of the low end of Shone’s electronics.

The music reveals shades of late 90’s industrial acts like Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, and Type O Negative, especially in the aggressive vocals and lush layers of metallic distortion, yet ‘Krüller’ remains an absolutely singular listening experience. Shone’s songwriting chops are on display here as well – no longer content with half-finished sound collages or drones, Shone instead focuses on a more streamlined compositional style that benefits the flow of the album as a whole.

This one’s definitely one of the stronger releases of 2022 so far and a easy recommendation for fans of industrial music, alternative metal, or darkwave electronic music.

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Kayo Dot – Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike (2021 Prophecy Records)

Reviews

Artist: Kayo Dot

Album: Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike (2021)

Label: Prophecy Records

Genre: Avant-Garde / Gothic Metal / Darkwave

Kayo Dot are a shape-shifting experimental band from Brooklyn led by the inimitable multi-hyphenate Toby Driver. Over the course of the band’s history the group has recorded and performed music ranging from neo-classical chamber music (‘Blue Lambency Downward’) to neon-drenched synthwave (‘Coffins on Io’) and sprawling progressive metal (‘Hubardo’).

With ‘Moss,’ Toby has invoked a spiritual connection to Kayo Dot’s previous form, the experimental death metal group Maudlin of the Well. Bolstered by the soaring lead guitar of former Maudlin guitarist Greg Massi, the songs on ‘Moss’ take on a particularly epic scope, an expansion of the proof-of-concept of this style from the group’s previous album, the excellent and underrated ‘Blasphemy.’ Driver handles most of the other instrumentation, laying down rhythmic bass lines, flighty and progressive drum grooves, and layers of synth pads to create a dark, hazy, and foreboding aura that envelops the listener from track one. His vocal performance is once again stellar, crisscrossing between soaring clean choruses (‘Void in Virgo’ contains one of his finest) and piercing death metal howls (everywhere else).

This sense of eclecticism, coupled with a blurry production that doesn’t do the music any favors, make entering the world of Kayo Dot a daunting supposition, but it is well worth taking the plunge into the ether for the rewards buried within.

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