A Storm of Light "And We Wept the Black Ocean Within"

A recent band (they started around 2007), they are sometimes labeled as post-metal and other times as doom metal. From Brooklyn, not all this trendy hype bands are born: this band is a fine argument.
This record has a more doomy approach, according to my ears. Their music features slow and dense rhythms, with guitars raging the air with their high distorted notes. Blend despair with music and you get A Storm of Light.
The tracklist is:

1. Adrift (the albatross I)
2. Vast and Endless
3. Black Ocean
4. Thunderhead
5. Undertow (the albatross II)
6. Mass
7. Leaden Tide
8. Breach (the albatross III)
9. Descent
10. Iron Heart

My favourite tracks are: "Black Ocean", "Mass" and "Iron Heart". The whole album is great though: and it's the band's debut record, don't forget this. Since then, they've released 2 more albums.
Their myspace can be accessed here.
The album is available here.

Below is the third track, "Black Ocean":

[upcoming bands] Mob of God

Fortunately, I got to know this band because one of the members sent me a message over on youtube, saying that he saw a comment I made on a Gogol Bordello video and thought I got a fine musical taste.
Mob of God are a portuguese band that fuses genres like alternative rock, jazz and metal (awkward, isn't it?). They also like Fado (a portuguese traditional musical genre).
The band members are: M.ª João Oliveira on lead vocals; Nuno Tavares on guitar andvocals; Ricardo Penedo on keyboards; Pedro Torradas playing bass; Bruno Gaspar on drums.
Their influences are, according to what they've written on their myspace page: " The flavors of our world - the grunge scene, the metal scene, the blues meet jazz and soul, the 60's, the 70's and early 90's plus world music". Bands that to me they resemble sometimes are: Doors (specially on keyboards and ocasionally on guitars), Jefferson Airplane (specially on vocals) and Shocking Blue (particularly on vocals and kind of similar to the guitars Shocking Blue played on some songs).
Their myspace can be accessed here. To download some songs they offer for free, click here.


Below is a video of one of their songs entitled "Lion of Judah":

[gig reviews] Soft Circle at Galeria Zé dos Bois' rooftop

Ok, last sunday, by a pre-dusk part of the day, I filmed Soft Circle (Hisham Bharoocha's project, since he departed from Black Dice). It was a cool gig, that started more or less by 17h:45min. Hisham uses loops with modern music technology, then looping again with his guitar's help and some pedals and finally, he sings and plays drums, while these loops set a dazzling beat, with rhythmic cycles that hypnotize the viewer. Hisham, himself, seems like a spiritual person. A great musician, that excells in good timing while playing his drums, this project that started around 2007 seems to promise us a lot of good music. Soft Circle's second album, with Ben Vida, is scheduled to be released by Spring of 2010.
For more info on Soft Circle, click here.

I'll upload the entire gig, if I can spare some more time... By now, I uploaded this short one:

Xiu Xiu Larsen "¿Spicchiology?"

This album is a collaborative effort of experimental indie rock band Xiu Xiu and post-rockers Larsen (this collaboration is entitled XXL and this is the second album they've released). The album came out in May 22 of 2007, released at Important Records (the label that Larsen are on).
The first and second tracks have more of Larsen's influence than Xiu Xiu's, as I can hear. But both are very good, smooth and relaxing. They have Larsen's common hypnotic (and somewhat obscure) drone and Xiu Xiu's melodic experiences. The first track is "So Easy, So Cheap" - 2:03- and the second track is "Daydrinking" - 3:53.
The third track, which is"Little Mouse of the Favelas" (4:15 minutes), is more melodic and now has Jamie Stewart's distinctive voice. I strongly advise you guys to hear this one.
The other 5 songs I haven't heard them enough to comment them, sorry, although I think that I enjoyed hearing "Last in the Society"- 3:40.
There are, as you could see, 8 songs:

1. "So Easy, So Cheap" - 2:03
2. "Daydrinking" - 3:53
3. "Little Mouse of the Favelas" - 4:15
4. "King of Koalas" - 4:50
5. "The Green Count Tapes" - 4:40
6. "Last in the Society" - 3:40
7. "...Nothing About Dwarves?" - 5:45
8. "Tale of Brother Cakes and Sugar Dust" - 9:52

The album's lenght is around 37 minutes and 37 seconds. In this album there's an ecletic variety of musical instruments. I deduce they are the following: electric viola, drums, vocals, guitars, basses, synths, acordeon and some others, I presume...
Pitchfork scored it as 7.4 out of 10.0.
You can have access to this album here.

Oh, by the way, I've met Larsen this year, May 15 of 2009, when they played at Galeria Zé dos Bois. They had a successful concert. They signed one album of mine too and Julia Kent was also able to sign it.

Below is the 4th track "King of Koalas":


You can hear and view below a Larsen concert I've filmed some months ago, May 15 2009, at Galeria Zé dos Bois:

Liars "Liars"

Liars consist of a three-piece experimental rock band that was born in New York (its early years were lived at that urban cage). Currently, these Liars are living in Berlin, Germany. The band's members are: Angus Andrew (vocals/guitar), Aaron Hemphill (percussion, guitar, synth) and Julian Gross (drums).
This is their 4th album and their latest one (it was released in 2007). Mute Records released their album. I think it's more accessible than most of their albums, but its really good at the same time. The songs featured in it are trippy sometimes ("Plaster casts of Everything"- watch the videoclip too) and other times they convert themselves into eccentric sound waves that wash your brain with a peculiar and semi-ambiguous mix of emotions ("Houseclouds", "Sailing to Byzantium", "Protection" and "The Dumb in the Rain").
The album's lenght is 39 minutes and 6 seconds. The producers are the following: Liars and Jeremy Glover.
You can get the album here - have fun.

The three wise men are above.

The videoclip of the song "Houseclouds":


The song "Sailing to Byzantium":