Rapid Fire Reviews 4/5

Posted: by Sean Gonzalez

Dam Gila – Face The Sun

As if capturing what staring at the sun would sound like in a dazzling psychedelic dream pop fashion, Dam Gila burst with sonic atmospheres to trip over. Right away Adam Gil reels the listener in with the corruptibly catchy “What Fire.” It’s a track that’s easy to fall in love, placing a romantic veil over the listener’s eyes as the soundscapes ease away the worries of life. The weeping guitar lines mixed with the bouncing pianos make each song have it’s own personality, whether it be glimmering dance vibes (“Undertow”) or a hallucinatory ballad (“Face The Sun”). Face The Sun falls into your lap and laces your body with nothing but artistic and poppy passion, evidenced by how many of your problems seamlessly burn away just by listening.

Score: 8.25/10

Mamiffer – The World Unseen

The best part about The World Unseen is the gripping textures that ooze out of the the audible glory that Mamiffer managed to create. They instill massive, sweeping movements into their songs; whether placed within a swelling four minute song or a gigantic epic stretching across 10 minutes. The motifs are ingrained and hammered into the listener’s heads thanks to the soft vocal coos that accompany the easy to listen melodies, perfectly evidenced by “Flower Of The Field II.” The three parts that make up “Domestication of the Ewe” pack twenty minutes into a sonic experience that makes an impact with the journey of harmonic dissonance that blend into pensive instrumentals droning through ambiance much like a leaf would flow in the wind. There is still plenty of gorgeous progressions lying dormant throughout The World Unseen, and honestly just putting this record for background noise captures and swallows the rest of potential noise in the room, it’s that pretty.

Score: 7.5/10

Night Idea – Breathing Cold

A bit more raw then the previous two, Night Idea take a different road to breathing post-rock. They allow their instruments to roll together, climbing through different progressions in a mathy style and jazz progressions, exemplified by “Silver Understanding.” The vocals lightly tread on top of any progression they create, as with most others on this list giving an emphasis to the melody rather than drowning the instrumental parts out. Everything is done in a light coo, letting the progressions exhale and live through dark motifs. “Call” is an extreme blast of windy dissonance riding through a soft expression of the daily of life. “Response” answers directly after with it’s own pulsating beat. Needless to say, Breathing Cold is a record that makes you interpret music in a different light. 

Score: 7/10

Winter Dust – Thresholds

A listen that transcends post rock atmospheres all together, Thresholds breaks the ice with visceral screams and dark guitars. Winter Dust present themselves with the standard dynamics of most post-rock. They hail from Italy, which as is cool to be connecting with, especially when the music bleeds out torturous screams through the mix, at times when no one expects. It adds a pure emotion that cuts across the normal high of screaming music and the instrumentals find their own build without having to rely on that aspect of the song. It’s rather hard to describe. “Let The Morning In” has a terrific atmosphere of music with the pianos that peep in through the building distortion. The four songs that ring out on this release are considerate about emotion, experiencing them with the listener as they dive in. 

Score: 6.75/10