Berated

It’s telling of a band’s ambition when their first full-length is a double-album. The Wind’s Harum Scarum is just that. Except unlike the plethora of double-album misfires – a trend prevalent even among music veterans – Harum Scarum is an exceptionally crafted and well-paced epic that is bound to do more than generate buzz for [...]

The Stanley Blacks are a no-gimmicks indie rock band from the UK. Fitting into such a category is presently a tricky maneuver, as many of their counterparts are shrugged off in favor of over-produced, industrial sounds. But the four-piece have stayed true to the purest of music, even if their new album – which is [...]

Artists like Scott Walker, Tom Waits, and Nick Cave are often commended for their eccentric tendencies; their music is entirely one-of-a-kind, as thematically engrossing through narrative idiosyncrasies as their musical accompaniments are haunting. Every component sticks with the listener, granting their music a radical enigma despite never venturing into shock value or explicit fervor. Their [...]

A jovial summer breeze comes quickly and unexpectedly, catching bystanders off-guard before they hastily yearn for more. If only this antidote for endless humidity was available at the snap of a finger. Technology does not permit climatic changes via an audible interface, but Warm Weather’s EP Dances is the closest you’ll come to audibly reliving [...]

Whoa. Where did Shabazz Palaces come from? It has only been a year since they’ve emerged onto the scene, and in that time have managed to subtly and fundamentally stretch hip-hop and dubstep to their exaggerated conclusions; expounding on beats and soundscapes while spitting venom-filled, staccato-infused lyrics hazily above the vibrations. And while Tyler and [...]

Barely a day passes without another mash-up band hitting the scene. The past decade’s emergence of various genres and styles of music being combined to create new sounds is not particularly new, and is rarely executed in any kind of stylish manner. But Fenech-Soler are one in a line of acts taking influence from indie, [...]

Let’s start with a cliché; why not? These are the building blocks of popular music. In the balancing act each song represents, the scales are always tilted heavily in one direction to allow for monolithic (both in the religious and ominous all-encompassing sense) acts of melody and arrangement. The lyrics must be repetitious and innocuous. [...]

The fleeting guitar-pop of The Demos presents itself like a smörgåsbord of indie-rock influences. Pop pioneers like The Beatles and Brian Wilson can be heard in much of today’s music, but the prevalence of contrived imitation over infused creativity now prevents listeners from fully grasping their impact on a variety of pop/rock styles. The Demos’ [...]

Figurines’ eponymous fourth studio album has a lot in common with another import from Denmark: Hamlet. Like the Dane, Figurines has a lot of ideas and a lot of drive but is often less than successful in bringing those ideas to fruition. Also unlike Hamlet (spoiler!), the album’s final track does not end in the [...]

Pittsburgh-based duo Ennui tout the shimmering guitar riffs, glossy reverb, and meekly pastoral vocals of many dream-pop acts, but labeling them singularly as a dream-pop group isn’t fully conclusive. Elements of alternative-rock, specifically the ambitious electronic-minded sort that emerged in the late ‘90s, are as equally prevalent in their music. Some of their efforts, like [...]