Reviews

Record #847: Foals – Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost—Part 1 (2019)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

A trip to the record store used to be spontaneous. I would usually walk out with a small stack from bands I had never heard of before, or at least albums I had never listened to. These days, I’m far more intentional with my budget. I have a to-buy list that is constantly revisited and revised with repeated listens, organized by some careful calculus of how much I enjoy it and how inexpensively I can get the record.

Sometimes though, the old tinge of spontaneity will spark again, and I’ll take a calculated risk. In this case, I had been familiar with Foals for many years—Holy Fires still gets a decent amount of play time, but I’ve never ventured into the rest of their catalog. At least, until I found a sealed copy of Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost—Part 1 (a title borrowed from the warning screen from the original Legend of Zelda) at a local shop for a price I couldn’t ignore. And as gambles sometimes do, this one paid off.

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Record #846: Eli Kahn – How Are You? No Really…How Are You? (2022)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

If you’ve gone anywhere in South Bend over the last ten years, there’s a non-zero chance that you’ve happened upon a performance by Eli Kahn. You might find him providing mood music at a winery or playing with his jazz duo After Hours at a party or headlining a music festival with the hip hop project The B.E.A.T. or providing a soundtrack for an experimental dance show or creating ambience for an art opening.

He’s practically a local cryptid at this point, playing anywhere and everywhere live music can be found with an impressive array of effects pedals and a custom fanned-fret seven-string (with two bass strings on the bottom).

His first solo record, How Are You? No Really…How Are You? is as comprehensive and delightful CV anyone could ask for from Kahn, tying together diverse influences like lo-fi hip hop, jazz, and post rock.

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Record #845: E-L-R – Vexier (2022)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

The German word “Vexier” is an odd term. It’s likely derived from the Latin “vexare” which means to plague or irritate, but it’s used in some dialects to describe a puzzle. For instance, “Vexierbild” is the term used for a double image: an innocent illustration that hides a more sinister image (the best example being “All Is Vanity” by C. Allen Gilbert).

With that in mind, it’s a more than apt title for the sophomore release of Swiss doomgazers E-L-R. The band itself is so mysterious that I can’t find any information about the members besides their initials (there are plenty of photos of the band, but they aren’t labeled). It is a deceptive album that has the initial impression of being rather subdued, but closer inspection reveals a far darker album lurking beneath the surface—not unlike a Vexierbild.

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Record #844: caroline – caroline (2022)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

There’s a phrase that gets tossed around sometimes: strange beast. And for the life of me, I can’t think of a better description of this record.

It’s as approachable as it is esoteric, as subdued as it is grandiose, as domestic as it is wild, as patient as it is frantic. It feels almost like a big huge fluffy bear-like beast that you want to snuggle up to, even though you know it might rip your head off.

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Record #843: Absent In Body – Plague God (2022)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

There’s been no shortage of “Pandemic Records.” Whole hosts of artists have attempted to put our shared angst to tape, and if I’m honest, I’m starting to grow weary of it—and I’m even in the process of recording one myself.

But when it comes to Plague God, the devastating debut from post/sludge/industrial metal supergroup Absent In Body, diving back into the darkest parts of the last two years isn’t just tolerable—it feels essential. The collective trauma of the Covid pandemic—and all the political and spiritual upheaval that ran adjacent to it—is a heavy weight to bear, but Absent In Body seems tailor-made for the task. It’s as radical as it is reverent, using crushing heaviness, dark atmospheres, and delicate passages as a canvas for a portrait of mourning and celebration, grief and hope, devotion and doubt.

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Record #842: Chalk Hands – Try Not To Think About Death (2022)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Ever since I’ve discovered that screamo was an actual subgenre and not just what my mom calls any band with screaming (Thrice and Alcest have both bore the term), I’ve found it very difficult to find much screamo that I like. Bands like envy and Boneflower are gorgeous and cathartic in a way that hits me to my core, but most of the pioneers of the genre—Orchid, Saetia, pg.99, et al, have inspired an almost visceral rejection from my ears. As a relatable tweet once said, “scream fans will say, ‘this track is legendary’ then play the absolute worst song you’ve ever heard.”

But every once in a while, something will come out of that scene that blows me away. Don’t Think About Death, the long-awaited debut full length from Brighton UK’s Chalk Hands, definitely uses screamo’s conventions as a sonic center, but it uses that palette to create one of the most moving records I’ve heard yet this year.

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Record #841: Life on Venus – Odes to the Void (2019)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Every once in a while, I get a desire for new music that can almost be called bloodlust. A few weeks ago, that spell came over me, and I took to the hunt. I scoured Spotify, Bandcamp, review sites, Amazon recommendations, and more trying to find something that would slake my thirst.

There, in the “Fans also listen to” section of Holy Fawn’s Spotify page, I found Life on Venus, a Moscovian shoegaze/dream pop quintet. After finding both their Bandcamp and Discogs out of stock, I spent a few hours searching the internet trying to secure a copy. I finally found one on Amazon.de, gladly paid the extra for shipping, and waited impatiently.

And now that my prey is secured, it’s time to play it far too many times.

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Record #840: Les Discrets – Prédateurs (2017)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

For most of their career, Les Discrets has been intrinsically locked with Alcest.

Both projects are pioneers in the blackgaze scene. Les Discrets bandleader Fursy and Alcest mastermind Neige played in the supergroup Amesouers (Neige has also played bass for Les Discrets on certain tours). They even shared drummer Winterhalter—who also played in Amesouers.

But when Winterhalter decided to work full-time with Alcest, Les Discrets was left without a drummer. Instead of try to replace him to write more hard-hitting, epic metal, Fursy decided to use the opportunity to change gears. And while the resulting album is a major change from earlier albums, it maintains the same delicate and beautiful balance between darkness and hope.

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Record #839: Least – Folding My Hands, Accepting Defeat (2021)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Somewhere around 2005, I decided that emo was dead.

I had spent my formative years in devout reverence to bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Thursday, Appleseed Cast, and Further Seems Forever.  But when the wave shifted to bands like Fall Out Boy, Anberlin, and My Chemical Romance (who, even they will tell you, were not emo), I let my attention stray from the scene and moved on to things like indie, folk, and post rock.

The last decade or so has ushered in an honest-to-goodness emo renaissance so profound it’s not even fair to call it a revival anymore, with bands all over the world resurrecting the best parts of the halcyon emo scene of yore with stunning results.

And while Florida emo outfit least may bear some superficial resemblance to the guy-linered mallcore that put such a bad taste in my mouth in the first place (some have jokingly referred to them as “Transberlin”), if any of that stuff sounded like this, I never would have retired my girl jeans in the mid-oughts.

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Record #838: Joy Divison – Substance: 1977-1980 (1988)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

For as ubiquitous as they are in pop culture, it’s almost a shock to remember that they only released two studio albums. Their trademark sound, marked by melodic basslines, robotic drums, stabbing guitars, and Ian Curtis’ distinct baritone drew up most of the post punk blue print, but they also had a huge impact on new wave, goth rock, and indie rock (as nebulous as that term is, it’s impossible to listen to bands like The National, Arcade Fire, Interpol, LCD Soundsystem, etc and not hear shades of Joy Division).

And while Substance is best celebrated for “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” their only Platinum single, this compilation serves as a career-spanning chronicle of one of the most important bands in pop music history.

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