Hante.

Episode 193 - Review Roundup

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This week on Talking to Ghosts we are knocking out a bunch of the reviews we wish we had time to write. 2021 has been a banger of a year for content so far, so we'd thought we'd spend some time going through some of our favorites.

Wes reviewed:

Michael Reviewed:

Talking to Ghosts is produced and recorded by Michael Kurt and Wesley Mueller.

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Poltergeists: Week of September 5, 2016

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Michael

Oathbreaker - “Needles In Your Skin

I have definitely written about Oathbreaker before, but their new album is coming out at the end of next month and the previews from it are crazy good. This will be their 3rd full-length album and the experience and experimentation that made the last album so great have definitely settled into a great blend of calm, damning moments and intense blasts of aggression. “Needles In Your Skin” starts off with a cathartic minute of reversed strings and clean - although pained - vocals that quickly devolve into the signature intensity that Oathbreaker brings to their albums. The song structures - notably the moments of calm resignations that are allowed to go just long enough to forget about the chaotic times - and the production value are some of the qualities that really set this album apart from 2013’s Eros|Anteros.  

Oathrbeaker is a hardcore band from Belgium and their third album, Rheia, will be out September 30th on the Oathbreaker Bandcamp and directly from Deathwish Inc.

FVNERALS - “Shiver”

FVNERALS is a doom / shoegaze / ambient metal band from Glasgow that was suggested to me when I was telling someone about the new Muscle & Marrow. The instrumentation in this track is carefully slow, which is something that I think is actually hard to pull off in a way that makes the track interesting and charged with the right amount of emotion. The guitars and the vocals contrast in a very signature way. As I went back through 2015’s The Path and 2014’s The Light, I picked up a few very distinct things about FVNERALS: The tone of their songs overall is very solemn and morbid; even when the vocals are operatic and beautiful. The tracks have a weight to them. The air feels heavy in the recordings and I love it.

FVNERALS has a new album coming out on October 14th called Wounds on The Native Sound Records.

Wes

Hante. - “Living in a French Movie”

I absolutely have not been able to stop listening to this track since Michael wrote about it. There is so much to love in the construction of this song - the way it starts, with those banging toms and soft pads, the way it builds with those plucking synths and reverbing snares, every moment of this song feels so intentional and so emotional.

Right away, you can feel the melancholy of the track. This is a song that doesn’t feel like it has hope left - the narrator is calling out, wanting without hope for things to be different. Love has, without reason, been snatched away, leaving only pain. Mirroring the feeling of the song as a whole, the track is abrupt; like the narrator's love, the track is snatched away with little to no warning. It’s a beautiful song, and the way the composition ties to the content is something I don’t feel like I hear enough. I can’t wait to hear the rest of the album.

Hante. is the solo project of Hélène de Thoury. Her latest release, No Hard Feelings, is available for pre-order on Bandcamp.

Essaie Pas - “Depassée par le fantasme”

I realized it’d been a bit since I checked in with Essaie Pas, and I have really been missing out on this release this year. Taking leads from synthwave, techno, and darkwave, Essaie Pas have a fairly unique sound. It while there are the hits of darkness in the bass progressions, and the vocals are drenched in reverb, it doesn’t exactly hew to any particular goth sort of label; instead, Essaie Pas, using string synths and tom fills familiar to any synthwave fan, build their own sound apart. This track in particular pulls nicely from a kind of minimal techno sort of feel. It builds slowly, morphing gently over the course of the song with just touches of vocals. The subtlety of the changes doesn’t mean this won’t get you moving though. It builds to a real drive by the middle of the songs, and that drive holds on for most of the track (with a bit of a breakdown to give it breathing room).

Essaie Pas are a minimal synth duo from Montréal, Québec. Their latest release, Demain est une autre nuit, is available on Bandcamp through DFA Records.

Poltergeists: Week of August 22, 2016

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Michael

GosT - “Maleficarum”

GosT "Maleficarum" music video - directed by Daniel Schwartz (Astronoid). This is track number 8 on GosT's highly-awaited sophomore album, "Non Paradisi." The album will be released on September 30th, 2016 through Finland/USA label Blood Music. https://www.facebook.com/gost1980s https://www.facebook.com/BlooodMusic

Blood Music really knows how to pick out the haunting and dark outrun artists. GosT, who is often on tour with labelmate Perturbator, is spot-on with this music video in both vision and execution. It is a great way to present this style of music because when you see outrun videos you usually see a bunch of neon and futuristic skylines, but this is a lot closer to the version of the movie The Witch (2016) that I wanted: creepy, dark, and at times bloody. GosT does a good job of bringing distorted bass breakdowns, mixing them with a little bit of lo-fi synth, and then just punching it hard.  

GosT has a new album out September 30th on Blood Music called Non Paradisi. People are very stoked about it, and you should check it out.

Hante. - “Living in a French Movie”

First single of the EP "No Hard Feelings" to be released on September 6 through Synth Religion | http://www.synthreligion.com Directed & edited by Hélène de Thoury Filmed by Hélène de Thoury and Paul Vauvrey in June 2016 in the Pyrénées (France) Lyrics: Nothing's gonna happen I'm sinking in a fantasy If we love each other Why can't we be dreaming together?

Hante., who we have mentioned here before, is at it again with a great new music video to promote their EP No Hard Feelings. They’ve included the lyrics in the description of the video - which, if you are taking votes, is a much better way to do it than a goddamn lyric video - which is a great move for this song because the images in the video (showing a woman walking along a path who slowly starts to run through the forest, then later a car driving quickly through mountain roads) reflect the almost maudlin nature of the lyrics. The video is shot in the Pyrénées Mountains in France, but it could have easily been shot here in the Pacific Northwest. The trees and the beautiful lakes in the video make me want to run out of this office and up into the deep forest forever - which I think is the point of the video and the lyrics.


Nothing’s gonna happen
I’m sinking in a fantasy
If we love each other
Why can’t we be dreaming together?

Nothing’s gonna happen
I cannot stand reality
Does true love only exist?
I don’t want to live in a French movie.

The No Hard Feelings EP will be out September 6th on Synth Religion records.

Wes

Zanias - “Follow the Body”

Video filmed and edited by Zoè Zanias and Clay Adamczyk From the 'To the Core' EP [NTK007, September 2016] // Written and produced by Zoè Zanias and Alex Akers

The first track from Zoe Zanias’ solo project produces an interesting mix of responses from me. The music is both driving and danceable, but also almost relaxing in a way. While the percussion and bass push forward, the synthy string pads and Zanias’ vocal delivery pulls back, airy and thoughtfully paced; the contrast between the elements, rather than clashing, feels right.

It’s interesting - you definitely draw lines to previous work from Zoe Zanias. The vocal delivery isn’t so different from Keluar, and there is still sort of an EBM feel. However, where Keluar’s ties to EBM feel direct, Zanias feels like she’s pulling the parts of EBM she needs and discarding the rest, building a sounds that feels distinctly hers.

Zanias is the solo project of Zoe Zanias (Keluar/Linea Aspera). Her first release for this project, To The Core, will be released in September 2016 on Noiztank.

Chynna - “Reaper [prod. Park Ave]”

If you haven’t heard Chynna before, I don’t know why, but you’re really missing something. The production on this track is really fantastic; slow and moody, the sampled electric organ provides a great backdrop to Chynna’s fierce flow. Chynna has a diverse arsenal of cadences, but for the most part, she keeps it pretty consistent in “Reaper”. It feels purpose driven - she has something to say, and isn’t going to stop until it’s been said.

 

Chynna is a rapper from Philadelphia now based out of Brooklyn. Her latest release, Ninety, is available on Soundcloud.