REVIEW: Hot Victory’s self-titled album

If you’re into electronic based progressive rock, you might find this self-titled album (Eolian Empire) from Hot Victory a bit to your liking, but with a modern twist. The entire album is synth/keyboard based and could easily find its way alongside albums of the 70’s and 80’s, but what it has is a heavy touch that will make it appeal to fans of indie and math rock. The drums sound real, it doesn’t sound electronically manipulated although someone please correct me on this if I’m wrong. The bulk of the energy comes from the different keyboard textures used, and with every song being instrumental (with the only dialogue coming through in a non-lyrical way, think of how dialogue is used on Dark Side Of The Moon), you’re finding a need to concentrate on how everything works and interacts with one another. Some songs are strangely beautiful while other parts get rough and raunchy to where you might want to get into a pit and rock in a counter-clockwise fashion, but that happens because of the emotional qualities involved. It’s nice not only to hear music like that of Hot Victory, but that people are making music that is this damn good.

(The vinyl pressing of the album can be ordered directly from Eolian Empire.)

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3394280782/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=FF672A/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/

REVIEW: Jonas Reinhardt’s “Mask Of The Maker”

Jonas Reinhardt creates the king of electronic soundscapes you might have found on an electronic or progressive rock album from the mid to late 70’s, or an electronic soundtrack for a movie you have have caught on cable at 2:35am. Mask Of The Maker (Not Not Fun) is indeed the musical mask of its creator, Jesse Reine. He not only examines and explores the music he loves, but he uses analog synths to create a (at first) distant sound, but listen to these songs long enough and you’ll hear how today’s music are influenced by these sounds of yesterday, even though they are very much as modern as anything out there. One might hear songs like “Jungle Jah” and be reminded of the music of Giorgio Moroder or Jean Michel Jarre, or maybe even a bit of Chemical Brothers if they existed as a band circa 1977. Or you may also be reminded of Kraftwerk pre-Trans-Europe Express, but with a greater push towards musicality and dance tracks, opposed to being accidentally funky. “Brood And Talk Rot” sounds like some long lost extended mix of a song on Casablanca Records, and from start to finish, the vibe of the music feels good and you want to be able to get lost in whatever direction Reinhardt takes you. The sounds swoop down and sweep you in, which is what any listener could hope for. However, Mask Of The Maker keeps you up and allows you to look at everything from different perspectives, or wherever the music takes you. You could easily turn this as background music, but the songs here are much more than background atmospherics. It’s worthy of many deep listens.

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AUDIO: Filthy Huns’ “Watch Of The Bear”

“Watch Of The Bear” is the latest track from Filthy Huns, which can be found on their self-titled cassette album on Not Not Fun Records (orders can be made here.) Filthy Nuns is a one-man project from one Nick Koenigs, and his album will be released as a limited edition of 100 cassettes.