OPM: The Art of Tension

storyinsoil – distillation

Engaging and spacy hybrid of ambient, kosmische and IDM. Embracing the languid pulse of classic kosmische, these tracks stay busy enough to reference IDM’s restless fidgets while still existing in something of the timeless, expansive state of the best ambient. 

It’s a potent fusion of potentially clashing audio ideologies, and as well as it works, some will no doubt find it too active to embrace as ambient, or too chill to take as IDM. That’d be their loss. Forget about the little boxes these things are supposed to fit into; relax, listen and unwind within this fascinating space. There. Isn’t that nice?

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Daniel Vincent – Means of Escape

Varied collection of art rock that encompasses industrial, Big Beat, post rock, prog, psych and more. The album is split between instrumental and vocal pieces, roughly half of each.  The vocals are distinctive and a touch unusual, but well within the art rock tradition. The instrumental tracks tend to go a little further out, unbound by traditional structures or need to make space for the singer. 

Both work well enough that fans who prefer one or the other will no doubt feel the balance should have tilted toward their preference, but honestly the tension between the two is part of the charm here. 

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VHU – “Estrella de la Mañana”

Gorgeous, textured cosmic art-pop song with powerful yet ethereal vocals. That’s not the only seeming contradiction in this tune – it’s drifting without being insubstantial, mysterious and exotic but also comfortable and welcoming. 

Realized with guitar, percussion, layered vocals, synths, and environmental sounds, there’s something interesting happening in every second of this song. It is, in short, an absolutely beautiful and unusual bit of art pop that is definitely worth four minutes of your time to experience for yourself.

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Lord Dealwithit – Look Into the Mirror…

Rough-edged, relentless horrorcore rap with influences from most of the alt rap genres of the past two decades. Given my lack of grounding in most of those genres, I can’t help but think of it in almost punk rock terms. The beats, for example, are varied and interesting, favoring the same raw, good-enough, put-it-all-out-there aesthetic as the punk I was raised on. 

The raps, similarly, have the kind of fiery, angry delivery I grew up with on a hundred different punk and hardcore albums, only here more spoken/rapped and less sung/sneered. The content of those raps is extremely topical and, unfortunately, fitting for horrorcore – don’t blame the artist, blame our horrorcore reality. 

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Modern Silent Cinema – Guitarworks: First Folio

Quasi classical guitar that exists within a vortex of psychedelic synthesizers and production. Imagine wandering into a fancy restaurant or art gallery where they have an honest-to-god classical guitar player (a good one!) playing some pleasant, welcoming piece – maybe a nice Vivaldi? And you are just absolutely tripping your face off – so high you can barely find the floor. 

That’s a fair approximation of this album. Lots of lovely, classical-style guitar compositions executed well and surrounded by layers of wild, trippy synth and production. You can add your own face-melting psychedelics, or just let the music do all the work – your call!

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