Thanks for visiting this canvas where I express a bit more about my passion for music and sound which acts as the firm glue of my interests and day-to-day life. I hope all visitors will come in with an open mind to sharing the love of expression, not to quibble or critique.
Happy listening!
When I started up school at UMN, it was the first situation in some time where I expected to have stability of remaining in one location for a notable length of time. Because music was my motivating factor to getting into work with sound and its perception, I looked to reignite that initial passion by joining a local band. I advertised on a local FB group about my interests and sought to get something going. I found some very cool musicians, who were unfortunately reckless when COVID reached a later peak and I needed to be considerate of loved ones who are immune-comprimised by leaving this group of musicians. Nonetheless, the guitarist of this group reoriented me to the works of The Contortionist (I'd listened to the album Language in years past and seen them perform with Periphery, Intervals, and Tooth Grinder at the Broadberry in Richmond, VA). He pointed me towards Clairvoyant, which for some months became an album I listened to on repeat. Michael Lessard's raw expression of grief regarding loss of a friend who spiraled into drug abuse as a result of loss of a loved one ran so close in parallel to the lack of control that I was experiencing in my life with the start of COVID, deaths of friends and family, and a world which was seemingly crumbling before me. Even now, I can listen back and fall into those emotions readily.
I recently came across some independent works by Michael Lessard outside of the context of The Contortionist which are closer to a pop classification than prog metal-- they are just as intimate and well-composed. Certainly something I'll need to dig into more closely. That said, if you are looking for emotional, cathartic music, I would strongly recommend checking out the full experience of Clairvoyant (album) by The Contortionist.
A fantastic 3-piece group, and I can say I've had the pleasure of catching them perform at a small venue in Mexicantown of Detroit. At the time, I'd invited a friend of my fellow externs along, as he was very receptive of various genres of music and we'd just caught a 25th anniversary concert of Explosions in the Sky at the Detroit Masonic Temple about a week prior to Russian Circles coming through. Brian Cook, the bassist of the group, also has a history of performing in Botch and These Arms Are Snakes-- his grinding tone and the drive his parts lend to the songs are phenomenal. As matters of inspiration are concerned, his playing, along with the bassist of Kerretta (a questionably defunct group from New Zealand without enough social media presence to provide me certainty one way or the other), are two musicians that I happily strive to play like when approaching this post-rock/metal genre.
When I began exploring this type of music more (during pandemic), a friend termed my new listening habits as being something like "moody chillwave, but in a non-perjorative way". The slow tempo and space of the recording create an atmosphere that can transport you out of the moment-- in general, this is an aspect of some recordings that I quite enjoy. I think most music does not work so heavily on the production as they do the content, but a track with both done well can be a golden find.
"Noise". If you're prone to throwing that label on music, don't bother clicking. 😎
I found this track earlier during this past fall as I began exploring some more punk/ hardcore music, Ã la Dealer, Knocked Loose, Gideon. I find it neat that whereas most of the metal music I enjoy has a tendency towards 6+ minute songs, pulling the genre towards this direction adheres more to what some would call a "pop formula".
Enjoy the heaviness! Or don't! 😉
An awesome tune off the group's Blue Sky Noise album. The striking opposition of a driving, upbeat work in a major key juxtaposed against lyrics like "I know nothing's gonna change that hopeless feeling I get when you say you understand, but I know you can't." This was oddly one of the later albums that I encountered of the group's-- having found Circa Survive by way of Anthony Green's work on the Saosin album "Along the Shadow of Man" in 2016. The trending work of CS at the time had me find the BSN album only some time after listening to The Amulet, Descensus, and On Letting Go. In fact, I'd even managed to see them perform alongside Thrice during their co-headlining tour in 2017!