Suche nach: me and that man
„Bleed it out! Bleed it out! Bleed it out!“, truly: few other records in 2014 mistreaded their listeners as adamant as White Suns 'Totem', this unapologetic balancing-act between the extremes, that bestowed the California based label The Flenser with one of their most mercyless highlights of their year not poor in highlights. And with their third album being an exceptional case, it doesn’t come as a surprise that the list for the Heavy Pop advent calender by the Brooklyn three-piece is of the unorthodox kind.
Okay, what kind of reckless style amalgam ist he opening title track? The mercilessly slaying 'Schnaiserkitt'? How epic in scope is the wave breaking 'Valhalla'? Fjort actually need no more than these three songs to leave the listener speechless, but they do it another seven times. Close to nine months after the release of 'D’accord' we still marvel at This Charming Man for their 6th signing sense; at the enormous explosion in performance, that wasn’t to be expected in this magnitude after the very promising introductory-round of 'Demontage', or that this record has indeed been mangled out of their instruments by a three-piece wrecking ball.
'This World' works as interface between the acoustic landscapes of Grails and Slint, the two closely related bands that qualify Watter as – excuse the marketing-speak – supergroup. First and foremost though, Zak Riles, Tyler Trotter and Britt Walford made their debut a beautiful and mystically surreal voyage through the bluring borderlands of post- and krautrock. To ease the waiting time for their Euro tour at the start of 2015 (with dates in Linz on Feb 12th and Vienna on Feb 14th), Mr. Riles tell us about his favourite records of the year for the Heavy Pop advent calendar.
At the end of this thriumphal past year in doom, a two-piece from California stands out from the heap of excellent releases in the genre – with their debut of all things. And the 46 minues served don’t only work as a first demonstration of talent for Keeper, even in this early state the band succeeds in articulating their hate and disgust for the world between perfectly formed crust and noise-innuendos. Jacob Lee and Penny Keats play this nihilistic mixture from close to scratch, and instantly positioned themselves as one of the most unapologetic current genre bands.
First you may think: writing about Black Map of course means to write about Dredg, Far and The Trophy Fire, if only because „…And We Explode“ bears trademarks of the three other bands Mark Engles, Chris Robyn und Ben Flanagan are involved with. But it comes as a bit of a surprise, how effortless the three-headed powerhouse succeeds in combining the straight walk in direction of atmospheric alternative rock, the constant flirt with grounded stadium-sound and the steadfast traction of meaty hits. And yeah, in the end actually it works perfectly without even mentioning their other prominent playgrounds.
First and foremost, The Tidal Sleep made their homework in contemporary US-hardcore; though 'Vorstellungskraft' foreshadowed some of the things 'Keep You' succeeded in months later, but without the same radical break with their own past. On their second album, the Mannheim/Karlsruhe/Leipzig/
Their dynamic style of pop punk combined with fun, oldschool skate punk vibes make Gnarwolves one of the most interesting new bands the UK currently has to offer. On their first headline tour through Europe Thom (Guitar, Vocals) and Charlie (Bass, Vocals) met Heavy Pop at dasBach to talk about their debut album, skateboarding, and why their song 'Smoking Kills' isn’t really about smoking.
With their single 'Promised Land', Polkov clinged to the upper regions of the domestic indie charts. But one thing needs to be said at this point: every other song from the captivating summer dream of a debut album by the band from Graz could have taken that spot, with their style-savvy country-homages and grandiose folk-pop-tweaks. Now, before the next singles from Polkov cuddle themselves through airplay, Laurenz Jandl tells us which records apart from 'Polkov' should not be missed in 2014.
2014 couldn’t have started better for KMPFSPRT: „Jugend Mutiert“ easily lived up to the high expectations euphoric concert reviews and the „Das ist doch kein Name für ‚ne Band“ EP were suggesting. Close to eleven months later, the albums punkr rock hits lost nothing of their pressure and vigor. It doesn’t surprise, thatt 2015 seems to be off to an equally good start: the split single with Boysetsfire is ready to go, looks amazing, and serves a good cause. For the time being, guitar player David gives off some recommendations for 2014.
Einer der gängigsten Kritikpunkte an '9' war 2006, dass das Zweitwerk von Damien Rice zu deutlich in der Nähe des alles verschlingenden Gravitationsfeld von 'O' stattfand. 8 Jahre in weitestgehender Funkstille später setzt der irische Wundersongwriter nun vieles daran, diesen Teufelskreis von vornherein zu umgehen.
