Quicke’s Picks #2
This week on New Music Faster, I am delighted to unveil my Quicke’s Picks for this week. I revel in hearing music that is completely brand-new, from bands and artists that you probably have never heard of. The problem with reviewing music in the digital-era is that you can quickly be submerged in music, and not all of it good! Having heard hours of new music this week, here are my picks for you.
“Ultimately, we’re trying to convey the message that life is hard, we all get sad, and sometimes we just don’t want to be alive, but it’s okay to talk about it.” So Matt Bastos tells me, drummer of the post-hardcore, alternative rock band Sistine, based in New Jersey. Their debut EP Right Now, I’m Numb Inside, is released on October 21, but is up on Bandcamp now for pre-order for just a buck. Tired is their first track and is well worth your attention. My favorite part is at 01:47 when echoing and lashing distorted guitars rake their chords over pounding drums with serious feral effectiveness. There’s a lot going on here, I like especially the dueling vocals of guitarists Brian Pharai and Marc Perdon, underpinned by the driving bass of Will Reyes. This is a band creating authentically-rendered music, radiating energy that bursts from your speakers. Check them out here:
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Next up, surrender to the expansive pop-sounds of Blondfire. The band is Erica and Bruce Driscoll, siblings who started writing together in LA back in 2011. Unabashedly anthemic in sound, the song Pleasure is indeed just that. Guitars shimmer across a pulsating and whirling synth-drenched bed. There is something undeniably and explicitly joyous about this music, a real treat to listen to. A soundtrack to accentuate the very experience of being fully alive. Check it out:
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Finally this week…a slice of Ephemeral Ephemaris. Pure soundscape music – rather like listening to the epic conclusion of a Michael Mann film. Press play and let the music unfurl like cascading fog onto the floor and crawl into the corners of your room. It’s ambient music that requires no-prerequisites of understanding on your part. Ephemeral Ephemaris is a man named Allan, hailing from Glasgow, Scotland. The song is of the same name, and starts deliciously slowly, before nudging itself into a soft beat at around 01:52. It ends precisely as it started. The journey is over. Roll end credits.
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That’s it for now – more next week. Take care and stay alive!
– Rob Quicke
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