Heartbreaking Bravery

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Tag: melancholy

September 15, 2014

Medicine – Move Along – Down the Road (Stream)

medicine

Another day, another string of great releases to cover before moving on to the day’s main event. Among them: a full stream of the sublime split 12″ from Joanna Gruesome and Trust Fund,  a full stream of Terry Malts’ hard-charging Insides EP, and a characteristically incendiary performance from White Lung that also doubles as the official video for Deep Fantasy highlight “I Believe You“. Even with all of those being more than worthy of their own individual features, there was one song that surfaced today which managed to make a surprisingly large impression: Medicine’s “Move Along – Down the Road”.

Ever since Medicine’s surprise comeback record last year, To the Happy Few, they’ve been forcing their audience to re-adjust their expectations. Not that this is a bad thing; they’ve blown nearly all of those expectations out of the water. That trend looks like it’ll continue with their upcoming record Home Everywhere. After the multi-color swirl of lead-off single “Turning” suggested the band might be indulging their more psychedelic impulses, their most recent look at Home Everywhere confirms that with an even greater authority. “Move Along – Down the Road” is a near-claustrophobic cacophony that plays like a pissed-off, alternate world version of Andorra-era Caribou. In short: it’s a thrilling, fascinating, whirlwind of a song that hints towards Home Everywhere becoming one of 2014’s most widely celebrated releases. Medicine seems to be emphasizing their more cinematic sensibilities this time around and it suits their left-field shoegaze to tailored perfection.

Listen to “Move Along – Down the Road” below and pre-order Home Everywhere from iTunes here (all pre-orders will including the accompanying soundtrack to shoegaze documentary “Beautiful Noise“).

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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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