The World Inside
Dance-Punk, Minimalism, Post-Minimalism, Death Metal, Pop Punk, Emo, and Power Pop!
Mornin’ y’all.
My apologies for missing the new music Friday post last week. For whatever reason, I just couldn’t bring myself to do much except listen to Erik Hall’s Canto Ostinato (2023) on repeat that day. Like I mentioned previously, maybe it’s seasonal depression kicking in or maybe it’s something else entirely, but I just couldn’t hack it.
Speaking of my deteriorating brain, for some reason I’ve been buying every Dean R. Koontz (the R stands for Respectable!) paperback I come across. I think I’ve officially crossed into “this is a problem” and “wait, why am I doing this?” territory, but I cannot resist the siren song of old horror paperbacks it seems.
Now… to find time to read some of them.
We’re also getting into year-end list mode. I’m sorting out the specifics of mine soon, so this will likely be my last post before I get working on that (which always takes longer than I expect it to, unfortunately.)
So for now, here’s a Circling Back exclusive edition of the newsletter for you. Some drips and drabs of my writing about older stuff I’ve had in my ears.
What have you been stoked about lately?
Icon legend:
⛏️ denotes picks of the week.
🌱 seedling denotes albums I liked, but may grow on me.
✨ means worth a look, if you like the genres listed in particular.
✂ denotes favourite tracks from a given record.
As always, please reach out on the hellsite, the better site, or join the Rosy Overdrive Discord server where I can be found now and again. You can also find me in the corners of Rate Your Music scrounging for obscure emo, hardcore, indie rock and pop punk.
Don’t forget: if you’re reading this in your email it will be cut off. Read on the web for the full list of reviews!
The Faint - Fasciinatiion (2008)
Genre: Dance-Punk, Indietronica, Alternative Dance, Electropop
Wild to me that this is rated lower on RateYourMusic than the albums that come after it, which are fine but unmemorable. I think a part of the reception to this album at the time was lyrically, since a lot of this album is "oh no celebrity culture," "oh no technology" and "oh no religion". It is not deep and in 2008 especially it was pretty well worn territory.
But I'm not listening to the Faint for great lyrics, and this album is definitely above-average texturally and melodically. Crunch-bass forward with blown out electronic textural glitches and big hooks mean I still like this album quite a bit. Love the little video game-y blips on "Machine in the Ghost."
There's definitely a stack ("Get Seduced," "Mirror Error," "The Geeks Were Right") of stronger tracks that sit alongside a couple middle-of-the-road ones ("I Treat You Wrong", "A Battle Hymn for Children"). Actually, most of the mid-tempo or slower songs here are the weaker links. "Fulcrum & Lever" bucks that trend in the way it slinks around and builds up back-and-forth tension in its energy.
Still, the band have always been one to release records with very high-highs and very middle-mids. I can say the exact same thing about Blank-Wave Arcade and Wet From Birth. Both have some of the best songs of their career and some of the most shrug off-able. Fasciinatiion is a bit closer to something you can call consistent, as the gap between the best and least best material here is a measurable bit closer together than those other albums. I'd need to revisit Danse Macabre to see about the consistency on that one, or if it's just held up in my memory as their best. This one would be in contention for me, though.
⛏️ Erik Hall - Canto Ostinato (2023)
Genre: Minimalism
This review was originally written for my 2023 year-end list, but is included here because I feel like it and I’m the boss of this newsletter and also I haven’t been able to stop listening to it again.
When this came on my radar, I had no idea about the history of Canto Ostinato, or who Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt was either. Hell, I have to admit I wasn’t familiar with Erik Hall either, who continues their reimagining of “classical minimalism” works for modern listeners with this release. I just thought the album art looked neat, okay?
Canto Ostinato was originally composed by Simeon to be performed on four pianos, and here Hall has re-imagined the piece on organ, electric piano, and grand piano. It’s hypnotic, texturally brilliant, and above all beautiful.
What gets me here is how much warmth there is to the recordings, which were done sequentially where each could “react to the last” and are “complete with flaws, noise, and the faint sound of turning pages.” It gives a whole other emotional level to the repeating and interlocking melodies that are already truly captivating.
🌱 Incantation - Onward to Golgotha (1992)
Genre: Death Metal, Death Doom Metal
As usual, my journey through death metal began with me diving into random stuff (basically taking a thrash metal thru tech thrash thru tech death approach) and hidden gems etc. and not necessarily the "accepted" bold-status'd certified classics of the genre.
Anyway, trying to pepper in some stuff like that when I reach for death metal these days. This is a really disgusting, nasty sounding record for sure. The vocals are always a bit of a hurdle for me on records like this, but for whatever reason here I was able to adjust pretty quickly. I generally like when death metal injects slow headbanging ass riffery into the mix and this does that particularly well. I like the whiplash from tremolo blasting into chugga-chugga shit with pinch harmonics.
I imagine that, like others in the review pile, this will grow on me more with time, but for now I found it quite enjoyable and right up my alley in terms of balance of ingredients on classic 90s death metal.
⛏️ Dawn of Midi - Dysnomia (2013)
Genre: Post-Minimalism
Really been in the mood for this kind of super repetitive, tension-filled post-minimalism stuff lately and that brought me to this record. This is 45 minutes of hypnotic stabs of piano, percussion and double bass that create a wonderful palette of sounds and textures. I love when music builds something really resonant out of repetition and this is exactly that kind of thing. Things get verrrrrry close to being jazzy here but they're always so deconstructed and abstract that it ends up being this crazy mix of satisfying yet unresolved. I loved it.
🌱 Melvic Centre - Melvic Centre (2023)
Genre: Pop Punk, Emo, Power Pop
One-man band (bandcamp credit: Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Drums, Percussion by Will Mitchell)) punk that has orgcore bearded flannel atmosphere and some slight grungy emo textures to the guitar work. Feels a bit like Avail in the way that it borders punk and "melodic hardcore" genres without really being able to be fully categorized as them. They get pretty close to melodic hardcore with "Start Again" though, for sure. There's traces of that super melodic 90s EpiFat sound that feels Alt-Rock and power pop adjacent on songs like "Giddy Up" as well.
I enjoyed this, though I feel like closer inspection would be needed to really know where it lands at. Despite saying that, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt as I hear a lot of music like this and it feels a bit above-average to me in my gut so I'll throw a bonus half-star their way.
✨ Poor Form - Demo (2014)
Genre: Pop Punk
Scrappy, recorded in a jam room poppy punk rock demo tape. Sometimes they sound a bit like RVIVR and other times they have more of the power-pop-punk kind of sound of bands like Chinese Telephones. "July" sounds a bit like the indie-rock-pop-punk of bands like joyride!. Pretty great for a demo tape and exactly the kind of thing I'm always scrounging around for.
✨ Bracket - Like You Know (1996)
Genre: Power Pop, Pop Punk, Skate Punk, Punk Rock
Bracket got dropped from their record label - apparently alongside every other "rock" act on the label - in 1996 and as a result their third album never saw the light of day.
That is, until promo CDs surfaced and were ripped. Tracks were also included here and there on other releases or MySpace uploads and I believe fans were able to cobble together their own versions over the years. Eventually it hit vinyl and streaming, which was very cool to see this finally get officially released.
For my money, Bracket are one of the more overlooked and underappreciated acts of this era of pop-punk/melodic-hardcore/fat-wreck whatever you want to call it. They had their songs on compilations but honestly they didn't get their due - Bracket are one of the most overtly power-pop influenced acts of this genre/era (and not just in the usual 'its fast and poppy' way) plus they were one of the most willing to stretch out into different areas of production and orchestration.
There's country songs here, organs, horns, lush pop arrangements, and other textural elements that separate them from the also-rans of the era. It’s maybe not the most immediate album of their career, but it has some great highlights (“Hermit,” “Flea Market,” “Eating Pie”) and if you skew towards mid-tempo power-pop with orchestral flourishes you’ll probably enjoy this.
They definitely took the “quietly become a very consistent band” route. And they're still at it! 2019's Too Old to Die Young was pretty decent as well.
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.
If this is what it took for me to notice that Eric Hall album, so be it - and thanks! Last week was a little light on new releases, but I am trumpeting Bacuri by Boogarins far and wide.