Serenading webs and trapping harmonies: introducing Tali Dennerstein

Tali Dennerstein is a British rock singer, songwriter, and producer who is beginning to lure eager attention with her unique mix of Pop/Folk Rock, Gothic Rock, Grunge and Dark Ambient Music. It is a kaleidoscope of flavours embraced by imagination and invention as evidenced by her latest release and videos. We seized on the chance to find out more by talking to the lady herself, exploring her creative beginnings, her solo project, new EP and more besides…

Hello Tali and thanks for taking time out to talk with us.

Can you first give us some background to yourself?

I’m an alternative rock singer, songwriter and producer. I’ve always been very passionate about music and from a very early age, I grew up listening to a lot of 80’s and 90’s Gothic and Grunge Rock music, which really inspired me to want to start my own musical journey. I’ve always enjoyed writing lyrics and after being in a few different bands, I decided to become a solo artist, mainly because I liked having control of the direction my music was taking.

You mentioned previous bands. How have those experiences impacted on your own musical explorations?

I’ve been in a few different bands in the past. My first band was a more electronic /trip hop style band and my last band was a heavy rock/grunge band and I think it definitely helped me to decide the style and direction that I most enjoyed working with. I’ve also collaborated with a couple of artists online and recently I’ve also started a synthwave side project, which has been really fun to work on because I love the 80’s electronic sound and it’s been fun to do something so completely different.

Many solo projects decide to go under a created moniker; you?

As a solo artist I decided to use my own name, although I did consider having a band name but I just couldn’t think of anything that was good enough.

Was there any specific idea behind the direction you wanted your work and sound to offer?

I had a lot of song material, which I’d written over many years that I hadn’t really had a chance to do anything with for a long time and I really wanted to get as much of it completed and out there, as possible for people to hear. That was my main reason for starting my solo music. I also really wanted to try and create my own sound by merging both gothic and grunge rock styles together, as those were my two favourite genres of music styles, when I was growing up. I like folk and electronic music too, so I also tried to add some of these influences into my sound as well.

Are you driven by the same creative things and intent from being a fresh-faced musician or have they evolved over time?

As a solo artist, I’ve only really just begun so it’s relatively new for me but I think the same thing drives me as a songwriter and that’s always been to create meaningful music, that people can enjoy and relate to and that helps them in some way.

Since your early days as a songwriter how would you say your sound has evolved?

My sound has evolved quite a bit. I started with a very 90’s indie pop and folk rock and ambient electronic sound but my next album will be much heavier and a lot darker, both lyrically and musically.

Has it been more of an organic movement of sound or more you deliberately wanting to try new things?

I do like to experiment with different ideas and sounds, so I try new things to hear how they might add to a song but with regard to changing the direction of my music to a heavier sound that was deliberate because it’s how I felt the songs on my future album worked best and it just felt right. I do still like to write softer more folk rock and electronic tracks, as well but I tend to go with what feels right for each individual song, when it comes to creating the right sound.

Presumably a wide range of musical tastes you have an equal array of inspirations; are there any in particular which have impacted not only your music but your personal approach and ideas to creating and playing music?

I’m inspired by a lot of artists and bands but my biggest inspirations are Curve, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, and Nick Drake. I love Curve’s Doppelgänger album and the way the guitars create just this huge wall of distorted sound. I also loved the way they used a lot of electronic elements, which merged in with the guitars. It made the tracks sound quite industrial, even though they were considered a shoegaze band. They had a very interesting and unique sound. I’ve also been very inspired by how grunge bands wrote their lyrics. They were often really deep and introspective and really made me think about what message they were trying to convey. I liked the fact that the lyrics weren’t straightforward and were hard to figure out and that everyone could find their own meaning in them.

Is there a particular process to your songwriting?

I always start by recording any melody ideas that come to my mind and I get a lot of ideas every day, so I like to keep my sound recorder next to me no matter what I’m doing. I tend to think of the subject matter usually after I’ve thought of the melody and that’s because I get an idea for the theme, usually based on the feel of the melody.

Where do you, more often than not, draw the inspirations to the lyrical side of your songs?

I’ve drawn a lot of my inspiration from some very tough situations I’ve had to face in my life, so my lyrics have sometimes reflected my hopes for things to improve, as well as my need to face the pain and fears I feel each day, due to my situation and to become stronger, despite the circumstances. I’ve also written lyrics based on things I’ve experienced in the past, such as heartbreak or bullying or about things that are happening in the world around me, that I feel strongly about such as war conflict and also about peace.

Could you give us some background to your latest release?

My latest release is a 7 track EP called Live For Tomorrow and I recorded the songs a while ago but I’ve only just recently released them.

Give us some insight to the themes and premise behind it and its songs.

The first song is called Summertime and it’s a very upbeat pop rock song, with a feel good Summer vibe. It’s about releasing and letting go of negative thoughts and instead embracing all of the small but meaningful and beautiful things that life has to offer, that we sometimes don’t always see, when we’re stuck in a cycle of depression. It’s also about keeping hope alive and just trying to stay optimistic. The second song is called Tonight and it’s a folk rock song. It’s about a girl being led on a journey, to find herself and unknowingly being guided by invisible forces in the right direction who are watching over her and protecting her. It’s lyrically written in a fairy tale style. The third song is called Live For Tomorrow and the track is an indie pop song, about a relationship that just isn’t working out and it’s about just accepting things and looking to the future and letting go of the past. The fourth track is called Hurt. It’s a slow electronic ambient song and is about unintentionally hurting someone you love and feeling guilty about it and how you miss them after they’ve gone. The fifth track is called See The Sun. This one is very 90’s Brit pop, in style and it’s about closing the door to the past and looking forward towards a brighter future. The sixth song is called Skyline and is about being there for someone who’s hurting and telling them you’ll always be there for them. The final track is called Far Away. That song is about imagining a better world, where hatred, greed and fear don’t exist.

Do you go into the studio with songs pretty much in their final state or prefer to develop them as you record?

I usually have some idea of how I think a song should sound and then I use that as a base to develop and add any ideas later on. I also work with a really great producer, and we work together until each song sounds right, so it’s a slow developmental process right up until a song is finalized.

Tell us about the live side to your music?

I love performing but at the moment, due to my circumstances I can’t perform, although I’d really love to. I’ve been concentrating on recording from home, as many songs as I can and I’m hoping sometime in the future, I’ll be able to perform them live.

It is not easy for any new artist to make an impact regionally let alone nationally and further afield. How have you found it?

I honestly don’t know because I usually use social media to get my music heard. I don’t think where I live, there’s much of a music scene.

So the internet and social media has been a potent impact on your music? Some see it as something destined to become a negative from a positive as things progress and grow. How do you see things?

I think social media is a great and very positive way for helping musician’s and bands to get their music heard. It can take time but it’s amazing to be able to connect directly with music lovers from all around the world. I think the only negative aspect is that there are a lot of musician’s and bands trying to promote themselves on social media and it can be hard to get people to click on music links as the market is saturated but it just takes determination and hard work and it is worth being on social media in the end.

Once again a big thanks for sharing time with us; anything you would like to add or reveal for the readers?

I’m giving away 3 free songs to whoever signs up to my mailing list, plus an extra free track off of my latest EP.

Explore the music of Tali Dennerstein further @ https://www.facebook.com/TaliDennerstein.music as well as https://talidennerstein.bandcamp.com/album/live-for-tomorrow-ep and https://twitter.com/talimusicartist

Pete RingMaster 13/07/2017

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Circle of Dust – Machines of Our Disgrace

As treats go, the re-release last year of all four Circle of Dust albums was rarely rivalled, until the last sigh of 2016 that is and the unveiling of a brand new collection of songs from the 90’s emerging industrial / electronic-rock project. Circle of Dust was the introduction to the craft and stirring talent of artist/producer Klayton, the fore-runner to his acclaimed and inspiring project Celldweller though the differences to the pair of propositions is an open roar no more potent than in the breath-taking Machines of Our Disgrace.

The quartet of Circle of Dust releases in Circle of Dust, Brainchild, Metamorphosis, and Disengage and also the Misguided album from his side project Argyle Park had been ‘lost’ to our ears for over twenty years with the rights to all unavailable to Klayton after the labels they were released through shut down back in the nineties. After two decades chasing, he re-gained ownership of the rights in 2015 and set about re-mastering each of the five full-lengths last year, expanding all with additional demos, unreleased bonus tracks, acoustic/alternate versions of tracks as well as some new remixes.

Whether they were the spark to writing new Circle of Dust songs and creating a brand new episode in its distinct landscape of adventure or a new album was an idea already in motion matters little in the face of an imagination lit and gripping proposal offered by Machines of Our Disgrace. Entangling metal and electronic essences in a virulently infectious industrial incitement, Klayton and album set another bar for others to be inspired by. There is formidable steel to riffs and a backbone of rhythms which invade the senses with a crunch throughout the release while surrounding them a multi-varied and ever present snarl stalks sound and lyrics.

Opening with the suggestive air and throbbing ever intensifying lure of brief encounter re_Engage, the album swiftly consumes ears and thoughts with its title track. From behind an initial sample, repeated throughout, Machines of Our Disgrace looms, advancing with rapacious intent before launching its metallic riffs and wiry guitars grooves. Electronic provocation unites with this predacious embrace, senses and imagination infested and pleasured by the predacious tapestry as Klayton’s tones prowl with harmonic enterprise and invasive potency.

It is an exceptional full start sparking body and emotion and backed just as powerfully by next up Contagion. Living up to its name, the track soon surrounds ears with a treacle like melodic tempting, subsequently beginning a relentlessly catchy enticement with just a whiff of Ministry to it, that evolving into a more Dope/Society One like trespass as Klayton’s vocals prowl and question while the song reveals its full repertoire of creative stimulation.

There is no relinquishing of imagination and appetite with Embracing Entropy next. Featuring Celldweller, i.e. the combining of Klayton’s two unique creative sides, the track pulsates with intrusive drama and invasive energy. As across the whole of the release, samples are skilfully and evocatively used whilst sounds feverishly bubble, igniting senses and thoughts in turn. From blisteringly agitated to melodically seductive, the song is a theatre of sound and texture, inescapably persuasive and hungrily addictive.

Just as powerful is the ferocious presence of Humanarchy, the track a ravenous threat of metallic and vocal rabidity locked in allegiance with a just as imposing electronic swing while after the warning of Signal, the following alt_Human uncages a sonic tempest as enjoyably challenging as its lyrical examination of science and morality. Fuelled by rapacious infectiousness, the song easily infests body and imagination with a swift and almost prurient craving.

Hive Mind is a simmering, bordering on predatory croon tempting ears like a blend of synth pop era Ministry, Ghost In The Static, and Nine Inch Nails while straight after Outside In and Neurachem serenade and growl respectively. The first of the pair is an absorbing melodic embrace, almost warm in its touch, whilst its successor is an irritable and fiercely captivating trespass binding ears with metallic and introspective melodic seducing, both adding further pinnacles to the lofty heights of the release.

A sonic kaleidoscope evocatively devours ears next with k_OS, samples narrating its dramatic landscape before Neophyte bubbles and bursts in electronic espionage for another irresistible, contagion loaded adventure for the imagination to lose itself in.

The album closes with Malacandra, a brooding fog of sound and atmospheric suggestion haunting ears and thoughts alike across its instrumental soundscape. It is an edgy and emotionally charged piece of noir lit evocation bringing a superb adventure to a powerful and magnetic close.

Even though Celldweller has forged pleasure and lust in ears and imagination, Circle of Dust has been missed, its distinct industrial presence an absence never filled until now with the exceptional Machines of Our Disgrace where Klayton swiftly suggests he is ready to push genre boundaries once again.

Machines of Our Disgrace is out now via FiXT across most online stores and @ https://circleofdust.bandcamp.com/album/machines-of-our-disgrace-2 or http://fixtstore.com/circleofdust

http://circleofdust.net     https://facebook.com/circleofdustofficial    http://klayton.info

Pete RingMaster 17/01/2017

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Inwolves – Involves

In music the imagination needs feeding as much as ears and that is certainly what Involves masterfully achieves. The new album from the dark cinematic invention of Inwolves, the release takes the listener on a host of individual journeys and sonically eventful adventures which, whilst carrying their own suggestive dramas, sparks the mind to create its own imagined exploits in tandem. It is one of the most fascinating and provocative collections of aural experiences and sonic explorations for thoughts and emotions to immerse in, and in turn one of the most beguiling listens in a long time.

The project consists of Karen Willems, previously a drummer for a.o. Yuko who has also worked with Dirk Serries on Cycle and the Zita Swoon Group among several side projects, alongside Jürgen De Blonde and Ward Dupan. Their sound draws on the inspiration of seventies “kosmische musik” as it ventures into explorations of electronic and spatial soundscapes drawn from the predominant palette of drums, guitars, and synths textures. To be honest listening to Involves shows that any attempted hint to their music is persistently redundant as each track comes, infests, and seduces the imagination with its own uniqueness. To put it simply, the band creates expansive tapestries of sound and styles which certainly our interpretations can only attempt to provide a clue to.

Involves opens with I Va Va Vimedoom, an initially shadow wrapped persuasion swiftly engaging ears and thoughts with its melancholic synth cast entrance. There is a childlike innocence to the single melody courting the darker hues, though it soon, as the senses, enveloped by the portentous electronic smog that rolls in like stormy invasive clouds. Peace becomes tempestuous, emerging finally again to stand as that lonely initial charm within an absence of everything which shaped its birth.

It is a magnetic thought provoking start, though further contemplation is put on hold as Minimal steps forward next to bewitch and seduce. From its post punk scented electronic opening, exotic melodies and rhythms jostle for attention; eventually sharing ears as a south west Asia flavoured tempting wraps the senses and imagination. Closing eyes and allowing thoughts to wander brings a personal flight across Abyssinian and Mesopotamian landscapes but one surrounded by lurking dangers and encroaching dark times which in turn leads to thoughts to the destruction of ancient sites by modern terrorism.

The track is irresistible, as too is the following sinisterly toned Vladimir. The track is again an imagination nurturing episode on the album’s creative narrative. It easily incites mental and emotional involvement as its popping beats become entangled in a dark web of sonic and suggestive intrigue which blossoms around them. There is a kinetic virulence to the rhythmic shuffle also gripping attention before the track suddenly turns on its head and swims with synths into a dark bluesy and increasingly intensive devouring of the senses. There is a sixties hue to its controlled yet intimidating new tempestuousness, Procol Harum coming to mind initially as streams of orchestral and gothic flames rise up to evoke further persuasion upon the listener.

Strange Waltz provides exactly what its name implies; its opening muggy sonic climate eventually descending into clarity and a slow and flirtatious but again sinister three step shuffle as darkly romantic as it is emotionally apocalyptic, and ridiculously compelling. Maybe not the intention but the instrumental plays like a death dance within the imagination, suggesting and enthralling before the cosmopolitan business of Intown takes the listener down a whole different highway. Krautrock and slimline but pungent industrial essences converge on ears, the analogue embraced romancing of the recording, as across the album, memory provoking as too the bordering on obsessively rhythmic prowess which invites thoughts of bands like Kraftwerk and Neu! to the hypnotic endeavour.

Involves is completed by firstly, the invasively dark and increasingly distressed and psychotic Dirty Monks, a track unleashing a maelstrom of tortured voices and souls within its cathedral spawned ravenously shadowed depths. Its suffocating majesty subsequently makes way for the closing suggestive alchemy of Be Kind. The track is a cosmically spiced venture with Devo-esque tones to its electronics and Landscape like mystique to its discord and melody woven spatial drama. It is also another enslaving attention as it leads ears into a revolving flight of intimate and broad aural stimulation, every turn fresh from the previous with vocals an extra stirring spicing to the array of captivating textures.

It is hard to accurately describe Involves or its individual temptations but fair to say each will feel a unique experience for every singular exploration into a band which specialises in creating, to borrow the last words of their press release, “a world of endless possibilities.”

Involves is out now via Consouling Sounds and @ http://inwolves.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/Inwolves-266399616750821

Pete RingMaster 30/03/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

For more exploration of the independent and promotional services check out http://www.zykotika.com/

Banshee – Say My Name

Formed in 2011 as Life on Standby, Scottish quartet Banshee has re-launched themselves for 2016 with a new twist in their alternative rock sound to go with the new band name. Embracing electronic imagination and textures within their already recognised rousing melodic rock sound, the Greenock hailing outfit has equally found a new flame to their creative fire; it all in captivating evidence in new EP, Say My Name.

The foursome of vocalist Erin Donnachie, guitarist/keyboardist Gavin Williams, bassist Liam Walker, and drummer Gianluca Demelas have already potent successes like playing Download and supporting the likes of Fearless Vampire Killers and Marmozets under their belts. 2015 though was not as lively a time for the band. In a recent interview with Contact Music, Demelas admitted, “Last year things were so slow, at one point it felt like we had hit a brick wall and we were struggling to move forward.“ From the outside it looked like a spark went out of the ascent and subsequently emotional energy of the band. But Banshee is obviously a band never willing to give up without a fight and so they have burst back into ears and attention with their new name, EP, and going by its energy and hungry sounds, re-ignited energy.

Taking inspirations from the likes of Biffy Clyro, Enter Shikari, PVRIS, and Marmozets into their electronic fuelled alternative rock, Banshee open up Say My Name with the brief and atmospheric Intro before uncaging its title track. The opener quickly entices ears with its suggestive keys and the vocal potency of Donnachie before the band’s new single, from a similarly low key opening, spins a dramatic and feisty tapestry of sound and voice for the imagination to play with. In full flow, song and Donnachie swiftly reveal their tenacious qualities, riffs and grooves a fiery haze around crisp and brooding rhythms as synths cast an emotive mist.

It is a pungent ‘introduction’ to Banshee and the Bruce Rintoul and Romesh Dodangoda produced EP; one quickly backed up by the highly enjoyable Eagles. Less intensive and slightly calmer in its touch, the song unveils a landscape of evolving sonic adventure and aggressive energy; all the time springing imaginative twists and feisty endeavour from its transfixing scenery. As all the band’s tracks, subsequent listens to its busy creative exploit brings something more in texture and enterprise to grab eager ears.

One Step Behind is another dramatic tale of sound and craft; its mellow entrance the lead into fretful sonic suggestiveness and rhythmic trespasses held in check and simultaneously sparked by the rousing presence of Donnachie. The track grips ears and imagination, again as all within the releases equally inspiring the body to get involved in varying degrees; a success even more firmly spun by closing track Landing Strip. Increasingly contagious and robustly combative without losing its melodic and synth bred elegance, the track, whilst taking best track honours, is a compelling close to a thoroughly enjoyable encounter.

Whether the band would have been just effective and potent in their next release under the old name we can only mull upon, but Say My Name certainly hints at a new forceful spirit in their music and creative heart to reflex the new moniker…one also hard to see allowing Banshee to be ignored.

The Say My Name EP is out now via iTunes and @ http://bansheeofficial.bigcartel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/BansheemusicUK/   https://twitter.com/BansheeMusicUK   https://www.instagram.com/bansheemusicuk/

Pete Ringmaster 25/03/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

For more exploration of the independent and promotional services check out http://www.zykotika.com/

Fins A Luminous – Setting Souls/Funeral Shake

The introduction made to us by Fins A Luminous when making us aware of their new single was “We are UK music makers Fins A Luminous and we make music that combines dark electronica, mind-bending soundscapes and hypnotising vocals.” That just about sums up all the info available about the project but more importantly also the style and impact of their music as evidenced by the double A-sided single Setting Souls/Funeral Shake. Each track is an individual adventure of evocative electronic and emotive exploration which, though one song connects with personal tastes more than the other, leaves the imagination and pleasure revelling in the immersive prowess of the music.

Setting Souls is a fusion of house inspired electronics and melodic expression with shadow wrapped vocals a potent temper and contrast. There is an eighties hue to the track early on, a whiff of bands like Heaven 17 and Associates emerging before darker shades and repetitive enterprise emerge carrying hints of later decades and electronic diversity. From a good first impression, the song becomes a potent grower, making a bigger persuasion with every listen though each time it still gets eclipsed by its companion.

As expected the tone and atmosphere of Funeral Shake is a darker exploration living up to its name in tone and atmosphere; the gothic air and crawling melodic suggestiveness a haunting funereal romance on body and thoughts. It carries an intimacy in its vocal reflection and melancholic sound which counters the wider ethereal atmosphere of its compelling spatial soundscape. Again the track is a fascinating blending of contrasts and irresistibly mesmeric as it smothers ears in emotively thick and immersive electronic smog, its lingering success breeding a needy compulsion to hear more.

Funeral Shake certainly stole the show with a personal appetite and inspired hopes it was a reflection of the core direction of the Fins A Luminous imagination, but then again Setting Souls was more than a small part of the enjoyment found in the single so something similar for the band’s next release would not see a turning up of the nose either.

Setting Souls/Funeral Shake is out now as a name your price download at the Fins A Luminous Bandcamp profile.

https://www.facebook.com/finsaluminous   https://twitter.com/finsaluminous

Pete RingMaster 15/12/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

For more exploration of the independent and promotional services check out http://www.zykotika.com/

Niall James Holohan – New Wave (Is This Rock N Roll)

Just who is Niall James Holohan, I hear you ask. Well there is little to share about the Irish born, London based solo artist and producer it seems except to say that his debut single, New Wave (Is This Rock N Roll), is a real devilment of electronic fuelled rock ‘n’ roll to get down and feisty with. Already described as being ‘reminiscent of Odelay era-Beck and Morning Glory era-Oasis with allusions to 90s hip hop and EDM’, a suggestion we can certainly half agree with, the first part, the Dubliner’s introduction is a virulent stomp of boisterously varied flavours and seriously inciting energy, and hell of a lot of fun.

Pulsating keys with a throaty tone and magnetic shimmer instantly cup ears before New Wave (Is This Rock ‘N’ Roll) erupts in a lively and eager shuffle punctured by deftly landed beats and guitar bred sonic fire. Every passing second though, brings an unpredictable jab of sound and twist of imagination, the track’s core a perpetually determined incitement in tone and shape but attracting splatters of enterprise like a magnet. Holohan’s vocals similarly have a variety to their delivery which matches the infection of hooks, subsequent spicy grooves, and the evolving web of keys.

As great as New Wave (Is This Rock N Roll) is, it is only one song so not really enough to get too carried away over in regard to the Niall James Holohan sound and invention, but just roll on its successor is the nurtured reaction and anticipation.

New Wave (Is This Rock N Roll) is out now via Black Meringue @ http://nialljamesholohanmusic.bandcamp.com/track/new-wave-is-this-rock-n-roll

https://www.facebook.com/nialljamesholohan https://twitter.com/darkprinceofpop

Pete RingMaster 23/10/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

For more exploration of the independent and promotional services check out http://www.zykotika.com/

Midday Veil – This Wilderness

The release of Midday Veil’s third album, This Wilderness could possibly not come at a more apt time in the course of mankind and civilisation. In a world of beauty being ravaged by its occupants, in a time when worldly community is being questioned, tested, and shown up, perfectly epitomises the stark reality but also beauty, globally and intimately, we all are an integral essence of. Vocalist Emily Pothast describes it best with “Lyrically, the songs on This Wilderness are a cycle that explores the self-destructiveness implicit in the civilizing impulse. It comes from a place that is critical, but ultimately acknowledges its complacency in this beautiful, terrifying culture that we all participate in whether we want to or not.”

The release goes deeper than that in many ways too but ultimately the biggest thing about the Seattle band’s new proposition is that it is simply virulently glorious, a musical travelogue of spatial sound, mystique lined textures, and sublime beauty. It is a feast for ears and the imagination, a perpetually giving confrontation that sublimely seduces as it incites thoughts and emotions. The successor to the band’s acclaimed 2013 full-length, The Current, the seven track exploration is Midday Veil creating a new plateau for themselves and for others to seed ideas from.

This Wilderness opens with Babel, the keys of David Golightly immediately conjuring a cosmopolitan weave of sound and suggestion. Initially minimalistic, beats are soon throwing off their restraint to dance engagingly on ears in union with electronic vivacity and the swiftly seducing tones of Pothast. In no time, the song is a busy bubble of sound and activity with the bass of Timm Mason exploring the shadows lining the vibrant scenery, sparked by Jayson Kochan’s guitar, revelling around it. The track is sheer magnetism, a feisty serenade on the senses which just gets funkier, more diverse, and increasingly compelling with every invigorating minute.

     There is a darker lining to the song though and equally the lure of Pothast’s lyrical narrative. Her voice alone is siren-esque if in an understated way but though all radiance provides, as the song, a vehicle for brooding shadows which are a stronger presence in the following Cages. Straight away there is a more melancholic feel to the song, in its air and tone even as keys pulsate with melodic light around the mellower and more sombre heart of the song. The percussive coaxing of Garrett Moore adds to the warmer side of the track’s flowing landscape whilst between them Golightly and multi-instrumentalist Mason create a tapestry of melodic suggestion within an evolving sound which as good as besieges the imagination.

The irresistibility of that song is intensified in Empire Is No More, the pinnacle of the album. Around a chilled sonic lure, crystalline shards of keys transfix, enticing the listener into an emerging exotic and sultry stroll. Rhythms quickly have feet and bodies involved as Eastern mystique lines the melodies oozing from keys and voice. There is a flirtatious nagging to the encounter too which through Kochan’s bass, he switching his string prowess on different songs, and Moore’s beats never lessens in potency as the song slips through the sense of past empires, and with an increasingly volatile energy, subsequent turbulence and discord. The song is rousingly mesmeric, at times igniting ears like a mix of eighties band Monsoon and the colder infection of a New Order, whilst persistently inflaming the senses and imagination.

Assumed Stockhausen inspirations prowl the dark elegance of The Water which follows, its haunted atmosphere a cavernous but again intimate embrace of primal rhythms and percussion within slowly revolving, melodically bred aural luminance. Pothast’s voice is dreamy and slightly shamanic, an external lure to inner reflection and accompanying instincts in the sonic, almost erotic, pool of sound cast by band and song. It is pure bewitchment which again has thoughts working feverishly before Circle takes over with its bolder electronic pulses and temptations within a lofty flight of vocal caressing and provocative enterprise. Closing eyes adds to the sense of soaring inspired by the track; celestial warmth soaking the senses’ wings as vocals fly alongside and over darker rhythms amongst sizzling textures cast by keys and the inventive strains of guitar and additional strings.

I Am The War has the body swaying with more urgency next, it’s still restrained but more tenacious energy and melodic resourcefulness touching on essences of artists such as Cybotron, Ladytron, and Propaganda. Lighting ears and appetite with its more classically honed wash of strings, a swift immersion into evocative depths and poetic incitement is unavoidable; and it is the same with closing track Universes. Both songs are individually ethereal beauty; the final track a gorgeous gloom lit haunting wrapped in Siouxsie and the Banshees like, or maybe more so The Creatures, bleak but golden seduction. With ghostly harmonies and limbo-esque sounds, it is simply majestic and another massive peak in the stunning landscape of the album.

Also featuring guest appearances from musicians such as Bernie Worrell (Parliament, Funkadelic), Eyvind Kang, and Skerik amongst a few, This Wilderness is a major moment in 2015, in fact it is possibly the album of the year.

This Wilderness is available from September 11^th via Beyond Beyond Is Beyond.

Pete RingMaster 11/09/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

For more exploration of the independent and promotion services check out http://www.zykotika.com/