Music – Page 5 – David Peach

No Hard Feelings by Hante

Listening to No Hard Feelings by Hante makes me feel a lot more cultured than I am.

Hante is a hugely talented Electronic / Synthwave / Darkwave artist hailing from Paris, France. Her music is darkly melancholic that completely envelopes you when you listen.

I always imagine myself sat in some smokey underground Parisian nightclub when I hear it.

The E.P. has five songs and each one is golden. The first one I heard was actually the second song, “À Contrecoeur”, which Google tells me is French for “Unwillingly”. Everything about this song oozes cool. The opening twangy lick on what I think is an electric guitar; The main awesome synth attack melody that comes in at about the thirty one second mark; Hante’s haunting vocals mixed with the awesome wall of sound that she has created. The song, and indeed the entire E.P., is an amazingly powerful, dark electronic experience.

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

“Une Nuit Avec Mon Ennemi”, the third song, has yet more catchy, dark heavy synth melodies arranged with her ghostly delivery. This is how dark synth should be – dark but not depressing.

In “Quiet Violence” Hante seems to push herself further with her vocals. She sounds bigger; more commanding in the delivery and the song is one of the E.P.’s biggest-sounding as a result.

On the whole this music is some of the most interesting I’ve heard in a long while. While I love all the music I write about, “No Hard Feelings” by Hante is in a small collection of exceptional recordings that are completely fresh to my ears.

Anybody looking to broaden their own musical tastes and need a tip on where to look – look no further than Hante.

Please head over to Hante’s Bandcamp page and buy her music.

HANA E.P. by HANA

Hana Pestle, stage name HANA, is from the same musical camp as artists like Grimes, in that she writes, records, produces and performs all her own music. This makes her music undeniably her own, with its own distinct sound.

Her E.P., eponymously-titled, stands as a testament to her abilities as a complete recording artist and a bloody good one.

The songs on this E.P. are ethereal in sound and feeling, but her powerful, commanding voice gives the songs some real weight. There are lots of cool audio sample effects and loops throughout the twenty two minutes of the HANA e.p. too. I don’t think she’d had much production experience under her belt when making this E.P. but her experimentation and persistence really paid off to give us one of the best E.P.s of the year.

Like my father and my mother
I will love you for forever
Hold my hand and dive now sister
Breathe with me underwater
Underwater by HANA

HANA is someone that truly has that “special something” that you can’t quite put your finger on. I mean, yes she knows the ins and outs of her craft; and yes, she has a tremendous vocal and songwriting talent, but there’s also something that is greater than the sum of the parts.

As an aside, if you ever get a chance to see her perform live you should. I saw her earlier this year both supporting Grimes as well as performing in her band with her. From that performance alone, it’s obvious that she isn’t just a performer of this great music – she is it’s creator and its master. She weaves the music to her will for a truly captivating show that you just have to experience.

For me, HANA is on the same footing as artists like Lorde, Lana Del Rey and Tove Lo. It’s no surprise that many of her contemporaries too are big fans. Take one listen and you will be too.

You can buy HANA e.p. from iTunes.

Lady Wood by Tove Lo

Tove Lo is an artist unafraid to use sexuality in her work. Whether that be in her lyrics; album title; or the album’s accompanying short film, “Fairy Dust”. That sexuality isn’t used for shock or as an empty attempt to gain followers, but is instead part of the deep rooted feelings behind her music.

“Lady Wood” came across to me as Tove Lo’s most consistent piece of work to date. Don’t get me wrong – I love “Queen of the Clouds” – but something about her latest release seemed more consistent; more conceptual. These songs are tied together really well, with every single one of them being an absolute killer that grow with every listen.

A confident, more focused, second album

With the lighting of a single candle, experimental effects and a beautiful-sounding synth, “Fairy Dust (Chapter 1)” ushers us into the world of Tove Lo’s “Lady Wood”. It’s definitely one of my favourite intros to an album this year, and leads really well into the first full-length song, “Influence”.

“Influence” is an infectious steady build for the album and peaks brilliantly at it’s chorus’ awesome deep bass line. I remember the synthesizer’s sound in particular stood out to me, and fit in perfectly with my recent obsession with synthwave music.

Following “Influence” comes the album’s titular song “Lady Wood”, which is also a favourite of mine. Another steady build up with soft, minimal percussion lead to one of my favourite lyrics from the whole album:

I know what people say about you
They say the same about me
I don’t care if it’s all true
I want you hanging with me
Lady Wood by Tove Lo

“Lady Wood”, the song, also comes across as a slightly reined-in club dance hit, which is a nice breather before the absolute belter that comes next, in the shape of “True Disaster”.

As I mentioned earlier there is an accompanying short film to this album called “Fairy Dust”. One of the stand out parts of that film was in the performance of “True Disaster” – all in one continuous take by the look of it. It was seeing that performance that made this song in particular stand out the more as being one of my favourites. Like many of the songs here, it builds up really well and peaks with an absolutely banging chorus.

Featured Artists

“Lady Wood” includes some interesting featured artists across a couple of the songs, none of which I’d heard of before. In particular the album’s mid-way song, “Vibes”, features a chap called Joe Janiak and has one of the most interesting chorus deliveries of the album. “Vibes” almost comes out of left field, in that its opening is performed on an acoustic finger-picked guitar. It gives the album a stylistic change to the music contained up till this point.

No, let’s not put a label on it
Let’s keep it fun
We don’t put a label on it
So we can run free, yeah
I wanna be free like you
Cool Girl by Tove Lo

The rest of the album’s second half follows suit by blasting out great song after great song. There is a great use of electronic samples and synthesizers throughout this album that just serve to increase my addiction to it.

Not one of the songs made me want to skip forward – if you’re going to listen to this album, then you will listen to it. Just listen through the first minute of “Keep it Simple” and tell me the synth drop doesn’t kick ass.

A Sprinkling of Fairy Dust

As well as listening to “Lady Wood”, I also strongly urge you to take half an hour to watch Tove’s film “Fairy Dust” – and probably not at work either. Watching this film really gave me an extra depth when listening to the album after. I’m not going to pretend I understood the story 100% or that I got all the metaphors etc, but as a piece of art and an album accompaniment, it’s first class. Just watch Tove Lo’s performance in the opening scene and you’re sure to be pulled in immediately.

You can buy Tove Lo’s “Lady Wood” on Amazon today.

Border Lord by Kris Kristofferson

Border Lord by Kris Kristofferson was my first taste of country music. In fact I think when I bought this album it was the first time I had stepped out of my musical bubble of that time. It has a slightly darker flavour than what I thought country was till then.

As I remember it I was on my way home from my early shift in a local warehouse when I passed by a charity shop in the town. In the window I saw a bunch of albums and Border Lord was one of them. I think it was the cover that initially drew me to it and at only about £1.50, how could I say no?

When I first listened to this album I was immediately drawn in – I hadn’t heard anything like it before. I had been brought up on a healthy diet of Fleetwood Mac, Meat Loaf and Supertramp; so it was a refreshing addition to my music range. In retrospect I think this was the album that made me start actively searching out different types of music.

Border Lord

The album opens with the song “Josie” which, as best as I can work out from the lyrics, is a song about a man finding himself experiencing his first love with a woman of the night. When I say “as best as I can work out”, I just mean that most of the album’s lyrics are open to interpretation. I tend to see the literal meanings first, as opposed to any metaphor attached. I think it speaks volumes for the album that I can hear it ten years later and still find new things within it.

The next song, “Burden of Freedom”, is a song directed to God by the singer, about either adjusting to life outside of a prison and what it has done to him, or about him taking his own life. This, along with the third song, “Stagger Mountain Tragedy”, are brilliant examples of the fully formed worlds within Kris’ songs that are expertly crafted with these sometimes-cryptic lyrics.

I was born on Stagger Mountain in the sunshine and the snow.
And leavin’ was the first mistake I made;
But I hungered for the shadows in the valley down below.
And the girl that danced the tune the devil played.
Her smile was like the blindin’ light of sunshine on the snow
And the flashin’ of her hair was black as sin.
And her body set the smokes of hell a-boilin’ in my skull.
When the fiddle of the devil made her spin.
opening lyrics from “Stagger Mountain Tragedy”

The rest of the song takes a dark turn that I will let you discover for yourself.

The stand-out song on “Border Lord” for me, is the start of the album’s second half, “Little Girl Lost”. This, like some previous songs, comes across as being from a darker side of love. The song also has one of my favourite tempo changes I’ve ever heard.

“Smokey put the sweat on me” is a great driving song and gives “Border Lord” greater variety. Not that the album gets boring at all, it just gives it a breeze of cool air. It sounds like it would be a great live concert closer too. If you can listen to this song through without either bobbing your head or your feet, or both, then you’re in much more control of your body than I am.

I have shook Kris Kristofferson’s hand

Every album of Kris Kristofferson’s I’ve heard since “Border Lord” I’ve loved. I think my favourite is actually his eponymous debut, but this will always have a special place on my shelf.

Also, on the strength of this album, I travelled up to Edinburgh, from Birmingham, to see him live. He still knows how to command a stage, twang them strings and I even got to shake his hand.

You Know What It’s Like by Carla dal Forno

Since I first heard the song “Fast Moving Cars“, the album “You Know What It’s Like” by Carla Dal Forno has been on my radar ever since. When the album was released on October 15th, it both was and wasn’t what I was expecting.

It was, insofar as it being rooted in a consistent feeling of ambience that I came to expect from “Fast Moving Cars”, and the second single “What You Gonna Do Now”.

It wasn’t, in that I had half-expected the album to be samey throughout. However I am happy to say that the album had enough variety within, without becoming disjointed.

One thing is certain; with “You Know What It’s Like” you will be taken on a journey around some of the darker reaches of music.

You can buy “You Know What It’s Like” from Bandcamp.

Carla walks us into the void

Carla brings an eeriness to music that for me, has many distant echos back to albums like “The Marble Index” by Nico.

The opening song, an instrumental called “Italian Cinema” is possibly the strangest album intro I’ve heard in a long time. The title “Italian Cinema” is apt, being that it made me conjure up images of old Italian Giallo films. It starts with a strange warbling effect and merges into what I could only imagine as a demonic playground melody.

Following “Italian Cinema” was the now-familiar crack of thunder, ushering in one of my favourite songs of the year, “Fast Moving Cars”. The song doesn’t seem to really go anywhere as such. It’s almost like a Wican chant set to a repeated base tone and minimal synthesizer. But that is precisely what I love about Carla Dal Forno’s music – her ethereal, often haunting, aesthetics.

“DB Rip” steps in as the third song on the album and brings a slightly more aggressive edge. With its punchier beat and sharper synths, it will either shake you free from the album’s trace-inducing charm, or take you deeper. I was taken deeper, so it was only fitting that the next song’s lyrics opened with the following:

What you gonna do now,
that the night’s come and it surrounds you?
What you gonna do now,
that the night’s come and it surrounds you?
You could wait for the day,
Though I don’t think it’ll make a difference
What you gonna do now by Carla Dal Forno

Seduced by the darkness

This album has a darkness to it that is inviting, not off-putting. I can only liken it to the feelings I got during the end of this years film “The Witch”. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it, but let me just say it involves an inevitable pull into the comforting arms of darkness.

Out of the album’s eight songs, the division of instrumental and vocal-led songs is evenly spilt. At first seeing that the album clocked in at only 29 minutes, I can’t pretend that I wasn’t disappointed. However, now that I have listened to “You Know What It’s Like” a few times, this now actually seems like a perfect length. And the fact that half of the album is instrumental – and experimentally so – gives the album a diversity that stops you getting bored from it’s surreal soundscapes.

This is an album I will be listening to either in bed or on the train when I want to zone out for my morning commute.