{"id":8248,"date":"2015-07-22T05:30:34","date_gmt":"2015-07-22T09:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=8248"},"modified":"2015-07-22T05:30:34","modified_gmt":"2015-07-22T09:30:34","slug":"hundred-word-reviews-for-july-2015-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2015\/07\/22\/hundred-word-reviews-for-july-2015-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundred-word Reviews for July 2015, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Five releases from five acts from five different countries (Poland, The United States, Germany, Belgium and Sweden) are the focus of today&#8217;s brief reviews.<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/lunatic_soul_walking.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/center><strong>Lunatic Soul \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>Walking on a Flashlight Beam<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"float: right; padding: 10px; width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ss&amp;ref=ss_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=musoscribe-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=B00MQ8Y5PK&amp;asins=B00MQ8Y5PK&amp;linkId=R53KIDBPEYYF5YUP&amp;show_border=true&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=true\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nBassist\/vocalist <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=415\"><strong>Mariusz Duda<\/strong><\/a> seems to be taking a cue from the astoundingly busy <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=540\"><strong>Steven Wilson<\/strong><\/a>; he&#8217;s involved in several musical projects all at once, and each is both unique and very worthwhile. His primary band, <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=547\"><strong>Riverside<\/strong><\/a>, has been slightly less active of late (new album coming later this year), but as Lunatic Soul, Duda has released four albums. <em>Walking on a Flashlight Beam<\/em> continues the project&#8217;s avoidance of electric guitars, and Duda sings and plays everything except drums. The music is ambient-leaning melodic progressive rock; it&#8217;s deeply textured and contemplative music that holds up well to active listening. DVD included.<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/hildegard.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/center><strong>Hildegard \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>Hildegard<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nI&#8217;ve occasionally wondered why hardly anybody has come up with music that spans the divide between accessible, electronic-leaning vocal pop and more adventurous progressive-minded rock; it seems as if that could \u2013 if it&#8217;s done right \u2013 be a winning combination. To my delight, I&#8217;ve found that such a thing does exist. And it comes from an unlikely place: New Orleans. Hildegard is guitarist <strong>Cliff Hines<\/strong> and vocalist <strong>Sasha Masakowski<\/strong>, and on their self-titled debut, the seamlessly blend a dizzyingly wide variety of musical styles. The subtle, quieter moments are a slow burn; the many rocking parts do indeed rock.<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/camouflage.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/center><strong>Camouflage \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>Greyscale<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"float: right; padding: 10px; width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ss&amp;ref=ss_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=musoscribe-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=B00R20DKJE&amp;asins=B00R20DKJE&amp;linkId=XAVDLXDLRN7QYXMJ&amp;show_border=true&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=true\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nIt&#8217;s my firm belief that the musical styles of the 1980s aren&#8217;t all used up; while the MTV era gave us untold amounts of by-the-numbers synth-pop and -rock (and then moved on to other things), there&#8217;s a lot that can be done with the musical tools and aesthetics of that period. The cool synthesizers of that period represented the gradual displacement of analog by digital machines. On <em>Greyscale<\/em> (their eighth studio release), Camouflage continues their winning approach of sturdy, moody music. The German group&#8217;s sound suggests a less bloodless <strong>Human League<\/strong>, or a less melancholy <strong>Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/brainticket_ppf.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/center><strong>Brainticket \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>Past Present &amp; Future<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"float: right; padding: 10px; width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ss&amp;ref=ss_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=musoscribe-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=B00R8ILEX4&amp;asins=B00R8ILEX4&amp;linkId=6H6UXZY7EKTLX7UH&amp;show_border=true&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=true\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nOriginally a (sort of) krautrock band of the early 1970s, Brainticket released two of the odder entries in the genre, 1971&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=4029\"><em>Cottonwoodhill<\/em> (reissued in 2013)<\/a> and 1972&#8217;s <em>Psychonaut<\/em>. The prime mover of the group was keyboardist <strong>Joel Vandroogenbroeck<\/strong>. Now it&#8217;s more than forty years later, and while everyone else involved with the 70s lineup is long gone, Belgium-born Vandroogenbroeck has enlisted members of non-German krautrockers <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=6271\"><strong>Hedersleben<\/strong><\/a> to craft a new album. <em>Past Present &amp; Future<\/em> features hypnotic works a la <em>Ummagumma<\/em>-era <strong>Pink Floyd<\/strong>; it&#8217;s dreamier and less insistent than the early stuff, and thus more accessible. Quite enjoyable and recommended.<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/last_days.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/center><strong>Last Days of April \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>Sea of Clouds<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"float: right; padding: 10px; width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ss&amp;ref=ss_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=musoscribe-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=B00W2T69SY&amp;asins=B00W2T69SY&amp;linkId=G37MWYCHOSTZYEXC&amp;show_border=true&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=true\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nIt&#8217;s a peculiarly American perspective to think of ourselves as the center of the pop-culture universe. But the truth \u2013 of course! \u2013 is that there&#8217;s some great pop coming from places that don&#8217;t have English as their primary language. As I&#8217;ve just now discovered, Sweden&#8217;s <strong>Last Days of April<\/strong> is one of these acts. They&#8217;ve been around for two decades, and their sound is one that should please American ears. Singing in non-accented English and featuring simply lovely use of pedal steel guitar, they trade in an engaging, hooky, country-flavored timeless pop. A serious contender for best of 2015.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/the_musoscribe\">Follow \u201cthe_musoscribe\u201d on <\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/the_musoscribe\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/icon_twitter_small.jpg\" alt=\"\" name=\"graphics3\" width=\"18\" height=\"18\" align=\"BOTTOM\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"1\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/the_musoscribe\"> Twitter<\/a> and get notified<br \/>\nwhen new features, reviews and essays are published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five releases from five acts from five different countries (Poland, The United States, Germany, Belgium and Sweden) are the focus of today&#8217;s brief reviews. Lunatic Soul \u2013 Walking on a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,49,50,51,56,57,65],"tags":[398,454,997,1285,1364,1400],"class_list":["post-8248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-krautrock","category-new-release","category-new-wave","category-pop","category-prog","category-psych","category-review","tag-brainticket","tag-camouflage","tag-hildegard","tag-last-days-of-april","tag-lunatic-soul","tag-mariusz-duda","cat-43-id","cat-49-id","cat-50-id","cat-51-id","cat-56-id","cat-57-id","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}