From Altpress.com:
SWIMMING WITH DOLPHINS
Water Colours (Tooth & Nail)
This synth-based project from
Austin Tofte, formerly affiliated with
Owl City, blends a million indie-pop moves in mostly entertaining, occasionally toothache-inducing ways. “Easy” could be a ’90s rave anthem, while “Diplomat” sounds like one of those unfunny nerdy-white-guy covers of hip-hop songs (it’s not). “Jacques Cousteau” is VH1-ready fluff, with piano, drum machine and ’80s keyboard arpeggios adding up to a big cotton-candy ball of nothing—until a buzzing,
Discovery-era
Daft Punk-style keyboard solo mid-song vaults it into the land of awesomeness. Various female duet partners (
Sarah Beintker on “Holiday” and “Sleep To Dream”;
Sunsun on “Happiness”) transform already upbeat songs into ideal summer singles. Some might be tempted to blow this album off, fearing that it’s half-assed “chillwave” crap or just disappointed that “Holiday” isn’t a
Madonna cover, “Good Times” (which features a guest rap verse by
Mod Sun) is neither a
Chic cover nor a version of the theme from the ’70s sitcom, and “Sleep To Dream” isn’t a
Fiona Apple cover. Those would all be bad reasons to skip this record, which at its best reaches near-
Pet Shop Boys levels of synth-pop brilliance (minus
Neil Tennant’s heartbreakingly acerbic lyrical genius, of course). (
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IN FEAR & FAITH
Symphonies EP (Rise)
Following the drama surrounding the departure of screamer
Cody Anderson last year,
In Fear and Faith have been left with only one vocalist:
Scott Barnes. Consequently, on this stopgap seven-track EP of orchestral reworkings of old songs, he’s calling in old friends for help. Four tracks feature guest vocalists—
Nick Martin of
Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows on “Bones,”
Tyler “Telle” Smith of
The Word Alive on “The Taste Of Regret,”
Caleb Shlomo of
Attack Attack! on “The Solitary Life” and
D.R.U.G.S. frontman
Craig Owens on “The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions.” Smith, of course, was the band’s original clean singer, and recorded “The Taste Of Regret” on their debut EP, 2007’s
Voyage, while Owens sang on “The Road To Hell…” in its original version, on 2009’s
Your World On Fire.
The orchestral arrangements feature drums, keyboards and some subtle electronics, plus lots and lots of surging, swooping strings, and they reshape the songs pretty radically. “The Taste Of Regret” gets reworked most substantially; formerly four minutes and change, it’s now more than six minutes long. Whether this EP will appeal to anyone beyond
In Fear And Faith’s most diehard fans is an open question; if these were the only versions of these songs to exist, it would be a downright bizarre stylistic choice. But if you like screamo/metalcore bands’ lyrics even if you think the music all sounds the same, this could help you make your case to skeptics. (
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From Allmusic.com:
JD Allen Trio,
Victory! (
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)
Asking Alexandria,
Reckless & Relentless (
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)
Peter Brötzmann/
Joe McPhee/
Kent Kessler/
Michael Zerang,
Guts (
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)
Gallhammer,
The End (
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)
Art Hirahara,
Noble Path (
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)
Indian,
Guiltless (
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)
Inzinzac,
Inzinzac (
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)
Memphis May Fire,
The Hollow (
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)
Primordial,
Redemption at the Puritan's Hand (
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)
Sylosis,
Edge of the Earth (
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)
