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December 1, 2015
JC Luff

Roofy – Tweak Your Path

By JC Luff

“Tweak Your Path” from Corbin Roof ranks among the albums I used to keep in a wallet, with my Panasonic Shock Wave CD player. For me, Alt rock was about a re-arrangement of a number of genres into the kind of Rock that pushes the boundaries of both reality and broadcast (or publishing media), such that Alt Rock can change absolutely everything if it is embraced honestly. It’s about the right blend of tones, angst, and evolution. The layers of sounds and the experiences recounted in “Tweak Your Path” are a unique intersection of elements pure and twisted, and soul consuming… while life affirming, crafted brilliantly into a concept album that could influence Joe Camel to put down the cigarettes for a moment and consider his lungs.

When I went through a couple phases of bad experiences with the side effects of recreational chemicals, I decided that I would “Transmutate” (an Alchemical term, describing the transformation of lead into gold, for example) my fear, illness, and anger into electronic scenery and poetry. Over the years, I have met a few artists here and there who told me about their darkest hours being the brightest red lights in the jam rooms and such… However, Roofy delivers the full Monty in his exquisitely ordered, innovatively produced, and over all stone cold real cross-genre opus, “Tweak Your Path”.

I would not walk into a methadone clinic and suggest to everybody in the place that they write a concept album to heal from their conditions, but I would leave business cards for roofymusic.com anywhere I thought there could be people who think that they are struggling with their monsters alone… Or unsure how to build a creative foundation for their avant garde productions and / or recital careers… But, hold the phone ! I am not saying that “Tweak Your Path” is only an inspiration sewn from adversity, or a concept album that packs an emotional response to take the edge off, as if it were tailored to the fringe culture. I am also saying (typing quite loudly) that I am going to be blasting my advance copy at the next party without a DJ, because this album is flat out sick!

Roofy’s work (in context of broadcast value) Plays aces wild and is a versatile selection of room changing atmospheres and strategically engineered synthetic tones suitable for bar, or car, or office, or home, or in a box (and / or) with a fox.

It is very difficult to combine portamento synthesizer riffs, grunge over drive (guitars), strong lyrics, and iron clad counter-culture vocal harmony… And Then … To keep a trip together with the right meter flow and progression of keys and variants in percussion structures and such. I am inspired by this album on several fronts, and would suggest Roofy’s work to a diverse crowd, such that “Tweak Your Path” is a technical, artistic, and lyrical product that is packed with honesty, and all sorts of melodies to keep those keys tapping and add a good blend to the “CD changer” I work to.

All this having been said, I would like to tell all you cats out there in radio land that Corbin has been sober for over a year and three months, and that half of all proceeds of sales from “Tweak Your Path” will contribute to fellowships helping those who are struggling with addiction to give something back to society. There is absolutely no shame in being sober. Being an advocate for supporting individuals struggling with addiction shows society that even an artist named Roofy can create music that is worthwhile and serves a greater purpose.

You Can find “Tweak Your Path” on Bandcamp

Corbin Roof has created a gofundme campaign for the album to raise awareness for addiction. Even if the music is not your cup of tea, you can still help by going to the link below. Donations are appreciated.

https://www.gofundme.com/twcna538

 

Follow Roofy on Twitter. 

#WEATNU Digital Magazine Dec 2015

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Archivesreviews
October 20, 2015
Jessica Pink

How Hot Is Your Cloud? – Autumn i

By Jessica Pink

Having only heard a couple of track by How Hot Is Your Cloud? prior to listening to this release I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.

Autumn i, is the conclusive piece in How Hot Is Your Cloud?’s ‘Seasons’ series, and  is also How Hot Is Your Cloud?’s 4th release to date.
Tagged as avant-garde, experimental, and ambient, it fills each of these genres/descriptors nicely, with a reverb heavy, dream like quality.
It twists directions taking you on a ride through the three tracks carrying the weight and burden of its titles themes.

Each track flows through a variety of different sound palettes.
In ‘September (Your Last Breath)’ melodies and lead lines, collide with some spooky synth pads. Swelling into very rhythmic bass lines.
Birdsong and tearing sounds, overlay a building staccato, in the track ‘October (Funeral)’ and drop into ethereal, almost whisper like sounds before strange melodies, and distant drum beats are lead in by a surreal choir.
It all ends with ‘November (Going Through Your Things)’ starting up with eerie white noise and strange keys, shift to vocals edited into a curious mantra, that fade into a swishing soundscape with bells. The arrival of electronic drum beats and synths breaking into the flow of the final track, give it some punch, as though realisation is breaking through. An acceptance of an ending.

The artist them-self states;
“My most avant-garde yet personal album.
My dealings with death in experimental electronica.”

There is a general atmosphere of departure, and sudden changes in the tracks seem to express varying levels of acceptance, and loss.
Day to day sounds in the field recordings merge with the synths and white noise, creating moments of clarity amidst the ebb and flow of the albums sonic landscape.

I’m going to be checking out more of this artists work now, and if you are a fan of exploratory or experimental ambient, with something unique to offer structurally, go listen to and purchase their albums on Baboom.

Also on Bandcamp

Social media links
Follow How Hot Is Your Cloud? on Twitter
Like How Hot Is Your Cloud? On Facebook

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ArchivesNew Videos
August 24, 2015
weatnu_dm

ensnares – little bell

En snares release their ep ‘(volume adjusts bright)+’ this month through WEATNU Records. What does this album make us feel like? Happy, excited, and a reminder of our childhood. Those past summer experiences. The single from ‘(volume adjusts bright)+‘ Little Bell fills us with dubby emotions that only en snares can create, while other songs on the EP bring out influences like Lady Tron/Experimental modes.

Follow ensnares on Twitter. 

Buy ensnares (volume adjusts bright)+ on WEATNU Records

 

Almark –#WEATNU Digital Magazine

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Archivesreviews
July 21, 2015
almark

Review: FTNM – Kin

It was a gloomy, post-Canada week Saturday night, when I was drifting in and out of easy chair consciousness, figuring out where to begin with the next slur of album reviews… I should probably mention to those whom do not reside up here in the north, that Canada Day was Wednesday, July first, and (being a Canadian) I was socially obligated to be a poetic mess for close to a week or so, and to ferment in the presence of recording devices… All this being said, I did not intend to write this review right now (honestly), but as a result of Twitter, I found myself listening to “For the Naked Mind!”, now glued to my desk while the outside obligations of my civilian consciousness are faded into a rhythmic nonsense, unaware of the passage of my Saturday evening into the ether and back for a subtle change in what was once my bio-rhythmic pattern of menial daily activities and once conceived notions of what was downtempo / ambient / progressive electronica.

The implication of glitching, set to a concise and cerebral choice of melodies and chromatics, using well-crafted and immaculately timed synthesizer anomalies has successfully convinced me to return from the fluid and transcendent experience that is “For The Naked Mind”, spreading word of what may very well be an electronic opus, brought into the Internet market place through an invigorating cellar discourse with abstraction that has in fact changed my patterns of thought enough to the point of attempting an explanation of a harmony of both an invigorating and calming aural imagery…

Here being the point in my article, where I do so humbly invite the Internet audience to visit #WEATNU and give a listen, such that I could quite easily say something remotely clever, or somewhat philosophical, but I cannot use words for that which cannot be described as other than being an open door to a train of thought that is without words and has been concocted by “For The Naked Mind”.

Buy Kin on WEATNU RECORDS.

Follow For The Naked Mind on Twitter.

JC Luff – #WEATNU Digital Magazine

 

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March 20, 2015
weatnu_dm

Album Reviews: Meter Bridge

Feel guilty reviewing this, as since becoming an avid fan and acolyte of Meter Bridge, I’ve also become great friends with Jill and Richard (albeit by proxy, across the Pond). So this is not work, just a big wad of heartfelt pleasure.

Canadian purveyors of the sweetest swooniest electro-pop for decades, Meter Bridge have long become the earworms burrowing into this particular cranium. The music on this titular mini album suggests a deeper bonding between our dynamic duo, intimacy beyond mere musical partnership (and they are indeed a couple), with duelling – dual – vocals that writhe and coil around each other like lovers. I am reminded of the octaved vocals of classic Bowie, or Psychedelic Furs, or more recently, TV on the Radio. This is dream-pop at its purest and simplest, with a sinewy sensual dance pulse and funky Alomaresque guitar grooves, Berlin-era. It has Hansa soul. And fire. Sure, there are touchstones – Grace Jones, New Order, early Depeche Mode, Art of Noise – but ultimately this is a artfully original sound of an act clearly enjoying making music together (and sharing their lives together).
The opener, ‘Secret, sets the benchmark, of skittering 808 beats, arpeggiated Kaossilator synth and basslines to die for. Central piece, the acid squelch and stomp of ‘Kite’, has been on repeat for days. It is THAT good. ‘Missing You’ manages to make a glacial ballad throb with romance and warm blood.
This is a sensual, sexy record, pulsing with ideas, foreplay to the anticipated climax of their upcoming album proper. I brace myself for the inevitable orgasmic shudder. Mmmmmmm.

by C Manga. 

Check out Meter Bridge latest album on their bandcamp

Follow Meter Bridge on twitter.

 

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March 15, 2015
weatnu_dm

Album Review: Jeff Appleton: ‘Drawing Trees on Paper’/ ‘Greatest Misses’

The title of Appleton’s previous work ‘Drawing Trees on Paper’ can hint at unfinished work: cursory pre-amble sketches, tentative explorations, charcoal lines, pastel hues, primitive, primal and primary. But it is a fully realized work. A work rewarded by repeat listening. The beautifully rustic hand-crafted design of the physical copies and their artwork adds to the artful personality of these very distinctive instrumental tracks. The title track (favourite of this listener) takes my breath away in its granular, sub-atomic detailed glory. Appleton travels down his own nature trails, very much an original, but if you’re looking for touchstones, maybe the ghosts of William Orbit and Moby are in the wings. This is Warp as cottage industry, homespun and beguiling.

Now we have ‘Greatest Misses’; a compilation of Appleton’s earlier albums (including a couple from ‘Trees’ – title track’s missing though, so you have to buy both). Like a vast tome of pressed flowers, it’s hard to select stand-out individual beauty because the beauty is in the context and the sequencing. Appleton’s work works as a whole, the segue and sequence are important. I’m a fan of the album format, so at first, I’m a bit thrown off by the new order (hmmm – Ed) of this collected works. But, no! I’m as happy as a hippo in mud, wading and wallowing in new found delights. And if I had to be pushed, for a secluded island, I’d grab this in the lifeboats.

Maybe most of these older tunes ARE the sketches for ‘Trees’ but I once again find myself in shimmering translucent soundscapes, hinting at space and even deeper negative space, soft undefined edges and washes of pale soft-focus water colours. The palette is subtler than primary colours. John Cage’s transparent music sheets play in my mind, of viewing things that shouldn’t be seen, although atonality has no part of this. These are pretty electronic tunes indeed, joyous, symphonic. And pastoral. I see summer through heat shimmer and sun-flared dandelion seeds. And glacial wintery landscapes glimpsed through headlong cascading snow.

The word ‘translucent’ keeps resurfacing in my mind, as this is translucent, transcendent pop-musik at its most artful and refined. It’s not always about what’s included but what’s left out. There are no edges or outlines but merely suggestions, by Appleton’s use of textures, pastel smudges and tonal shading. A joy to behold. Drum machines skitter like brittle decaying leaves, his Stratocaster chimes like shards of sunlight. There is immense skill in play here, with fluidity and layering in his synth arrangements, all is pristine and uncluttered. We can hear (and ‘see’ everything), things half-glimpsed beneath other surfaces. This is the purest pristine electronica, born of both Cubase and Acid. But, contradictorily, seeming of nature, and wholly naturalistic. Two beautiful and compulsory pieces of tonal Art (with the biggest possible capital A). Jeff, I doff my cap to your canvas

Craig M #WEATNU Digital Magazine

Follow Jeff Appleton on twitter

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March 8, 2015
weatnu_dm

Album Reviews : Jazzykat: Think about your future

Eclectic Chillout/Electronica Artist: Jazzykat.

Jazzykat lets a little sunshine into these bleak, wintry days in Northern England with her new ep ‘Think About your Future’.

No disappointment on this release, all Kat’s traits are intact: the smoky jazz inflections, the house beats, her pure sense of melody and those pristine synth textures.

Opening with the titular track, an almost Plastikman sparseness takes our dancing bones and rattles them into life, before the strident piano vamping and those typical JK synth lines take sinewy control. The bass-dominant ‘Main Street’ is in Orbital territory circa the classic Brown Album era. My body is flung into hedonistic orgiastic delight, with my head reeling from the nostalgia and thrills of discovering new sounds. Surely that’s impossible.

Hell no, JK is a expert at touching on the past and making it fresh, always “thinking about the future”. This is jazzhop (for want of a better term), of the finest ilk. And even when you can’t imagining it getting better, it fricking does, ending on the ep high of ‘Next Exit’.

Stripped back of all gimmicks and frills, ‘Think about your future’ re-tools and re-imagines all the tropes of modern dance musik (Italian House, techno, electronica) and re-invigorates this jaded listener and non-dancing wallflower into wanton toe tapping abandon. I forget myself.

Dance, Under-grounders, dance. Dance yourself back to the future. Knock yourselves out.

Craig M: #weAtnu

#WEATNU Digital Magazine

You can purchase Think about your Future through WEATNU Records

Visit Jazzykat on twitter http://twitter.com/jazzykat7

Buy her releases on bandcamp, iTunes and Google Play.

 

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