Thisquietarmy - Unconquered

Artist: Thisquietarmy

Album: Unconquered

Label: Foreshadow Music

Year: 2008








Tracklist:
01. Immobilization
02. Battlefield Arkestrah
03. Warchitects
04. The Sun Destroyers
05. Death Of A Sailor
06. The Great Escapist
07. Mercenary Flags
08. Empire

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Thisquietarmy is a solo project of young Canada-based artist Eric Quach. He is also known for being a guitarist in a renowned shoe-gaze band Destroyalldreamers. As Thisquietarmy, he explores never-ending spectrum of guitar ambience and loop drone sounds. From the mellow opening of "Immobilization", through grandiose "Battlefield Arkestrah" and "The Sun Destroyers", gloomy "Death of a Sailor", to closing notes of "Empire", Eric Quach manages to capture the essence of contemporary alternative guitar experimentation while maintaining disturbing but also captivating aural atmosphere.

"Unconquered" presents this musical project as consciously standing among the best artists of this genre, which is symbolized by the guest appearance of Aidan Baker. On the other hand, Thisquietarmy, already on his debut album, looks far into the future and crosses the boundaries, the best sign of which are the clean female vocals of Meryem Yildiz in one of the tracks – something not common in the field of ambient drone guitar music. Eric’s experience in Destroyalldreamers, numerous live performances, brave open mind and genuine artistic freedom allowed him to deliver his first official debut full-length album in a flawless and extraordinary way. -by (someplaceelse.net)

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Mouth Of The Architect - The Ties That Blind

Artist: Mouth Of The Architect
Album: The Ties That Blind
Label: Translation Loss
Year: 2006








Tracklist:
01. Baobab
02. No One Wished To Settle Here
03. Carry On
04. Harboring An Apparition
05. At Arms Length
06. Wake Me When It's Over

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Mouth of the Architect’s 2006 release The Ties That Blind is a dense slab of spacey rock and metal in a style similar to that of bands such as Isis, Cult of Luna, and Neurosis. What sets Mouth of the Architect’s music apart are the extremely well-crafted, sludge-laden riffs that develop throughout the mellow passages. When one of those monster riffs really kicks in, it’s powerful stuff, made even more effective by the build-up process. That's not to say that the more atmospheric segments are strictly filler for the riffs, it's just that many songs in this particular genre meander for too long without actually leading anywhere.

There are only six tracks on The Ties That Blind, yet it still runs over an hour in its entirety (the shortest track still surpasses 7 minutes). There aren’t any specific stand-out tracks, and each song builds and expands over time, so this isn’t one of those albums that will work for every occasion.

The plodding build up and the monotone vocals are likely to bore quite a few listeners; however, if you have the time and patience to allow the tracks to fully develop, The Ties That Blind is definitely worth checking out.-by (livingformetal.com)

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The American Dollar - A Memory Stream

Artist: The American Dollar
Album: A Memory Stream
Label: Planetary Records
Year: 2008








Tracklist:
01. The Slow Wait (1)
02. The Slow Wait (2)
03. Call
04. Bump
05. Intermission
06. Lights Dim
07. Transcendence
08. Our Hearts Are Read
09. Anything You Synthesize
10. We're Hitting Everything
11. Starscapes

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The band American Dollar arranges songs into soundscapes and visions of futuristic music.
American Dollar has been together for seven years. MTV picked up the band's first song for its battleground television show. Their previous albums managed to become number one and two selling albums in Tokyo in 2007. (For them, "We're big in Japan," is true.)
"A Memory Stream" is a journey into new sonic territory. American Dollar has managed to make a true sound experiment while finding uncommon ways to explore the sonic world.
The song "Call" has a very repetitive drum machine part that seems looped. The pianos sound natural and the atmospheric quality of the track borders on techno. This music has a soothing quality that is suitable for dance clubs or someone listening to a CD player.
"Were Hitting Everything" has a synthy electric piano intro with gated electronic drums. This track could've been used on Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" soundtrack.
It has a very spacious sound quality to this track. American Dollar has managed to transcend the fixed space of the audio world with "A Memory Stream." It's a must for listeners of ethereal and new-age music.-by Rich McCracken II (metrospirit.com)

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Joy Wants Eternity - You Who Pretend To Sleep

Artist: Joy Wants Eternity
Album: You Who Pretend To Sleep
Label: Beep Repaired
Year: 2007








Tracklist:
01. Exitences Rust
02. Above the Clouds Lies Eternal Sun
03. From Embrace to Embrace
04. Death is a Door the Opens
05. What Lies Beyond
06. Yet Onward We Marched
07. Uriel
08. You are the Vertical, You are the Horizon


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Joy Wants Eternity is a 5 piece band based out of Seattle, Washington that by sifting through materials online would lead you to believe that they are another instrumental post-rock band. Honestly that’s what I figured it would be when I initially checked out the group’s page on MySpace, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear what began to play as soon as it loaded. The song, which was “Existences Rust” from their upcoming debut album You Who Pretend to Sleep, sparked the thought in my head that if I were to be in a band like that, then this is what I would want to sound like. So I was thrilled to find the actual album show up in my mailbox this past Friday and it has proved to be every bit as good as my first impression of them led me to believe.

Comparisons to fellow post-rockers like Mogwai, Mono, and etc. are sure to be pinned on these guys. It’s obvious that there are parts of You Who Pretend to Sleep that draw from these bands, but I found myself being taken in by the amount of warm feedback and the almost full scale ambient direction they tend to take the music at times. I would consider this album to be more motivated by past shoegaze acts than anything else. The crashes of slow melting feedback are quick to remind me of either Slowdive or Flying Saucer Attack, especially the more ambient and spaced out tracks like “Death is a Door That Opens” and “What Lies Behind”. To me, this is where they really excel, in creating such warm and lush sounds that will do more than get your blood pumping for a few mere minutes. Joy Wants Eternity has created an exceptionally beautiful and powerful sounding record that will wrap itself around the listener for eight solid tracks. I can’t recommend this one enough for those that enjoy both post-rock and shoegaze; it’s a great mixture of the two that will surely please fans of either. -by Jonathan (builtonaweakspot.com)

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Hen:ge - Stationery/Crater EP

Artist: Hen:ge
Album: Stationery/Crater EP
Label: Close Nerd Recordings
Year: 2008







Tracklist:
01. Stationery
02. The Way To Enclosure
03. Crater
04. Untitled

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Story:

Hen:ge is a three men group from Regensburg, Germany. Björn Schmitz and Tobias Zenger (Silent Duel) who both play in the band fire walk with me! and are members in the close nerd collective had the idea of moving some steps back to explore some more experimental droning and slower soundscapes. The original idea was making music just for personal catharsis. At that time they met Matthias Menath who had also the idea of creating hush. Finally they invested two hours for recording the Stationary / Crater EP.

Description:

Hen:ge's music can be described as movements of slow rhythms surrounded by hounting walls of guitar and explosive escapes into the static or even the epic. It shows a landscape of sound in which the atmosphere is mostly dark, lost and less plastic than vivid.

Stationary / Crater EP (Concept):

A lot which is neither worthy to live nor to die for. Proud men built it all up with their own perspiration. Now the people don't have the right any more to just close their eyes and let the tyrants do whatever they like. It's time for them to unite. The way to the enclosure must be paved. Don't be that foolish to confide in anyone blindly. No tyrants, no tears, not even a dust particle will outlive our nature. But on the horizon beyond the majestic mountains of dust beyond our own lies lays the visage of our own nightmares. The last bridge between desperation and aspiration. Deep under the sprawled ruins of ancient times, under the aspirations which were buried there in older days lurks arcane animosity which will resist the devastation. It draws the pain of the world to concentrate it like a magnet. Just like children they will grimly judge one below the other without any meaning of right and wrong till they recognize that in a final step the nature is above all things and everything they prayed for and wanted to die for... the lot is turning and... ...is now just a scar in the earth.

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destroyalldreamers - Wish I Was All Flames

Artist: destroyalldreamers
Album: Wish I Was All Flames
Label: Where Are My Records
Year: 2007







Tracklist
01. Wish I Was All Flames
02. Cendres En Transe
03. Automne
04. A Summer Without You
05. Le Pianiste Météorologique
06. My Eyes Were On The Dancefloor
07. Perdre Est Une Question De Méthode
08. Her Brother Played The Riot (Pt.1)
09. Her Brother Played The Riot (Pt.2)
10. Her Brother Played The Riot (Pt.3)

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I've never been too fond of this subset of instrumental music often referred to as shoegaze. That is not to say I don't enjoy it, because I do, but I do stop short of calling myself a 'fan' due to my lack of experience in the genre. I have listened to several years of shoegazing bands develop, but never listened intently enough to form any kind of lasting impression. To some extent, that is slightly the point, I suppose. The sheer aesthetics inherent in this type of music dissuade you from listening intently by making the immediately noticeable exterior satisfying enough for most people. This is even how i felt upon listening to Destroyalldreamers' first effort A Coeur Leger Sommeil Sanglant. Though it was a confident collection of songs, it lacked a certain addictive quality that, thankfully Wish I Was All Flames exhibits handsomely.

Though this album has all the trademark sounds and clichés rife in the shoegaze genre, it somehow manages to display them with such panache and skill that listening further never becomes difficult. The hardest part of the whole experience is reminding yourself that you have things to do, and that sitting around all day listening to one album develop on each listen is not only quite counter-productive, but it's also a bit unnecessary. Such is the "learning curve" on this release is that it's cleverly applied so you can not listen for days and then pick the headphones and be right back where you were when you left off.

Tracks like "Automne," reminiscent of Bowery Electric, are typical of the smooth quality of many tracks on this collection, beginning with a simple bass-line then lifted almost instantly with a phased, panned shimmering guitar chord-drone. Most of the tracks develop this way, yet it doesn't come off as boring, or samey. More as a way to have a thread of continuity throughout the album, and it works very well. The album finishes on the exceptional trio of "Her Brother Played the Riot," which are a lot more ambient and atmospheric. All of these pieces are beautifully continuous and act as a sort of denouement from the rest of the collection, leaving the listener in a trance-like state.

The only discernible problem I have with this release is that, at times, it feels like the middle sections of the songs could in fact be interchangeable. While that is no bad thing per-se, it does tend to make things have less of an impact than if the sections were clear-cut, but then herein lies a lot of the appeal. As it is now, Wish I Was All Flames is an incredibly competent and desirable collection, and it faulters in very few places -- a golden moment in shoegazing, and a fantastic return for Destroyalldreamers.
-by Barry Smethurst (thesilentballet.com)

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