Heartbreaking Bravery

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Tag: ferocious

August 11, 2014

We Need Secrets – How You Remember (Stream)

wns

At the end of last month, We Need Secrets (the project of Halifax-based Chad Peck) released Melancholy and The Archive, a shoegaze-heavy debut LP that’s been four years in the making. Anytime that amount of time’s invested in a single release, expectations are going to be considerably heightened. Fortunately, Melancholy and The Archive immediately obliterates any lingering doubts with its scorched-earth opener “How You Remember”.

Ferocious and delicate in equal measure, the oneiric “How You Remember” demonstrates Peck’s near-alarming levels of understanding in regards to genre, composition, and control. Even from the record’s first few seconds, a brief stretch of quiet ambient noise that gets obliterated when everything kicks in, it’s evident that there’s something rare happening with the music in Melancholy and The Archive. Effortlessly commanding attention, Peck (who plays next to every instrument throughout the record) holds nothing back from the get-go, going full-throttle and never letting up over the course of the record. It’s a wonder his name’s not one that’s gained greater familiarity, which is a possibility that’s not entirely out of the question if We Need Secrets is consistently held to a standard this fully-realized.

Listen to “How You Remember” below and then let the rest of the record play through- it’s easily one of 2014’s most stunning surprises. Order it here.

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June 6, 2014

Greys – Use Your Delusion (Music Video)

greys

Quite a bit of kind digital ink has already been spilled on Greys (hell, quite a bit’s already been spilled on this very song) and they keep providing reasons for more to get added to the already overflowing pile. In the previous review for “Use Your Delusion” (which can be clicked on via the hyperlink directly preceding this sentence) there was a bold claim or two claiming the song was “all adrenaline rush and pent-up frustration [that] channels the best of both post-punk and classic hardcore.” Nothing’s changed. All that’s happened is that the band’s released another Amanda Fotes-helmed video toying with the idea of linearity that winds up providing an extra punch to the given statements.

As a video “Use Your Delusion” features the band playing the song to an empty room and then letting most of the magic happen in post-production. Very rarely travelling at regular speed, the video is instead presented at a brisk sped-up pace or in captivating slow-motion. There’s a brief recess from the action where the band all reveal yo-yo’s but for the most part, it’s just them crashing headlong into one of the year’s best songs- at constantly shifting speeds. It’s a jarring bit of modernism that feels both slightly antagonistic and entirely appropriate, landing the band yet another compelling bit of media and pushing expectations for what they’re capable of even higher.

Watch “Use Your Delusion” below and join the rest of the world in salivating over the promise of the band’s upcoming debut, If Anything.

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