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Week 44 |Tobi’s New Music Monster Picks
A totally random, whatever came to mind first, selection of the latest additions to ourNew Music Monster
Music Reviews written by Tobi Davis
Artist: Mind Cinema + Telepathic Teddy Bear Track:“Neon Fire” Mexico-based alt-electronic three-piece Mind Cinema and electro-synth one-man-show Telepathic Teddy bear deliver sizzling synth-sonics, rich ambient hues, and pulsating neo-synthpop grooves with new single, “Neon Fire”.
Driven deep by weighty bass grind, the 3-minute 32-second track erupts in an on-going cascade of awesome synthesizer arpeggio, lead, and pad; layers of electronic modulation arrive in waves, both organic and blast; the stereo field set alight with a firework display of inspired musicality. Tight and dry kick and snare punch and smack down the center with a dazzling array of electronic percussion exploding left/right. The song shifts through various scenes, as the instrumentation forms and reforms to fit around the evolving vocal melody. Well worked use of delay and reverb in conjunction with smartly judged harmony, both natural and pitch FXed, create an ever-changing sense of width, depth and weight to the vocal line.
An unrelenting standard of accomplished production in partnership with ceaseless attention to arrangement makes for a heady and engaging listening experience; the sheer force of creativity akin to the animalistic and belonging to nature. It also serves as a clear demonstration of the talent and ambition of both Mind Cinema and Telepathic Teddy Bear; two musical forces destined for and deserving of success well beyond the borders of their nation.
Facebook.com/mindcinema Twitter: @mindcinemamusic IG: mindcinemaband
Artist:
Natalie Holmes Track:“Plasterboard” Stand-out singer-songwriter Natalie Holmes successfully blends contrasting musical influence into a singular composition of striking emotional sincerity, new single, “Plasterboard”.
Drawing upon apparent conflicting inspiration from genres as diverse as folk and EDM, chart-pop and lo-fi grunge, the 3-minute 17-second builds with a disarmingly familiar sense of simplicity that belies the great range of musical idea at work throughout the track. Gloriously rustic drones give way to dance kick and contemporary pop percussion; raspy guitar riffs echo alongside ambient pad; vocal shifting from the steady burn of melodic pop to the expansive phrases and harmony of a piano ballad, only to drop into the rhythmic beat by beat of UK garage; well-judged use of instrumentation and arrangement creating overlap and overhang from one musical scene to the next, resulting in an effortless, organic listening experience.
“Plasterboard” moves with a quiet grace throughout; the deeply contrasting musical ideas woven together by a rich core of heartfelt emotion. And as impressive as Natalie Holmes’ uniquely intuitive sense for combining an eclectic range of musical influence is, it is her gift for honest, straightforward songwriting that ultimately resonates in the hearts of her listeners. Very much the modern artist and yet, at the same time, possessing that most vital and ancient of characteristics for storytellers and songwriters, sincerity.
Facebook.com/natalieholmesmusic Twitter: @natalieholmes IG: _natalieholmes
Artist:
Body Type Track:“UMA” (EP2) Sydney-based garage-rock four piece Body Type drop a gloriously noisy dose of distortion and trash that’ll mess with your head while kicking your a*se.
Delivered in grungy tones of bass line drags and overdriven six-string riff, rake, and grind, the five-track EP rocks and drives with heavy kick and tom, punch-smacked snare, and raspy cymbal ‘n’ crash. Tremolo arpeggio tumble reverb-rich, kick and bass pounding the beat deep; contrasting use of saturation across the various electrics, creating placement, width, and depth in the stereo field. An inspired use of harmony coupled with inventive panning makes for an ever-surprising vocal presentation that engages throughout. The EP shifting from the gloriously noisy to strikingly oblique, odd, and introspective. Fantastic overdriven guitar fizz ‘n’ fuzz giving way to quiet expanses of ambient and sad wonder.
All to easily written off by critique and music fan alike as amateurish or unmusical, Garage Rock and its fellow DIY/Lo-Fi and punk genres have been far too long under-rated and under-recognized; Body Type’s latest release is a work rich in both musical and lyrical idea, willfully unrefined and at times intentionally ill-defined.
Independent music is dysfunctional music for dysfunctional people. It is crafted raw in the realization that many thoughts, feelings, and experiences are broken-up, conflicted, and confused. It speaks to the moments and people that live in the shadows of our lives, the outcast and maligned. And while the great dim of mass entertainment ignores, isolates, and invalidates, Independent Music embraces these ill-formed, broken moments and people.
Bands and Artists like Body Type of writing soundtracks to the lives and moments of the otherwise alone, the denied, or the outright rejected. With the mainstream at best indifferent, if not out and out destructive, Independent Music will be what gets them through the night.
Facebook.com/bodytypeband Twitter: @bodytypeband IG: bodytypeband
Share your music via Thursday’s #Musichouruk 8 pm – 9 pm (UK Time) for considering on our New Music Monster Playlist and review as one of our New Music Picks!
About Tobi Davis (BRASH! Magazine/Blog Writer) Good producing is like good plumbing. If you do your job right, no one notices. Mix, Remix + Master. Run @monsterthread w/ Singer Songwriter Jon Magnusson. Host Thursday’s @musichouruk. Music Reviews for BRASH! Magazine. Promote. Occasional Lyricist. Love my beagle Enzo + fav bands Little Empire and Moxi. Check out Tobi Sonics – Mixes + Remixes!
ShowreelFacebook.com/TobiProducer Twitter: @producedbytobi Instagram: ProducedbyTobi
About The Monster Thread The #MonsterThread is a community of Independent Musicians, Bands and Artists supporting each other in making and sharing Indie Music.
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