Take Not My Real Life, for example: mixing jazz and electronics with an Alt-J-inspired guitar riff yields a brilliant opening riff and movement that kicks off the song into a high-energy territory, despite the fact that almost all of the band’s competitors have veered off into lazy lethargy at this point.

It’s also a great comparison back to Radiohead: this is clearly a rock track, imbued with all sorts of other genres and surprising in influences that take the song in unusual directions.

If the rest of the alt-electronic, contemporary R&B genre is becoming a glorified echo chamber, Polyenso is a fresh take on it. The vocal work throughout is stupendous, but unlike their competitors, Polyenso never get stuck in a rut and focus on the vocals exclusively. They always serve the songs.

It’s this sort of exploration that litters the album. /// (A Pool Worth Diving In) has all the hallmarks of the prototypical contemporary R&B song, but it’s secondary influences — like jazz and trip hop — elevate the song to a new level that’s beyond what one might typically associate with the genre.

I’ll circle it back to Radiohead one last time, because /// (A Pool Worth Diving In) captures exactly what made Kid A so great in its bridge: Polyenso uses vocals as another instrument, hitting each note quickly with the force of staccato, repeating them until the singer is nearly breathless. It’s a beautiful moment that, at least for me, serves as the high point of the song.

As a sophomore album, Pure in the Plastic is anything but a slump. It’s clearly the band’s superior record; they’ve come into their own. But it’s also significant for the genre. It’s rare that it feels like there’s space for another band in a well-established, typical genre, but Polyenso has earned themselves a seat at the table. I hope everybody else takes notice. From my understanding, the lead single is I.W.W.I.T.I.W.

The post Polyenso: Pure in the Plastic appeared first on Unsung Sundays.

The results are oddly memorable, and perhaps one of the year’s strongest efforts yet from any artist in any genre. It’s only five tracks long, but it’s around fifty minutes. The group takes their time exploring ideas.

And exploration is certainly want the album is about. Rather than giving each track a name, Nisennenmondai simply give them a number. A part of me wonders if a number would have given away too much about their intentions, because each track is remarkably dense and refuses to easily give away meaning. The loops are long and intricate — not unlike The Field. Nisennenmondai, though, are more interested in the slow deconstruction of the loop.

I will note that I have a particular interest in the way #N/A uses drum tracks. The album pulses with them. High hats are in almost constant motion, and the album sounds jazz-like as a result. The first time you hear it, in #1, it catches you off guard.

These drums are consistent throughout stylistically, and are more important than the loop itself. As the trio takes apart each loop and breaks it down into a minimalistic arrangement, everything except the drums are largely open to experimentation. But each rhythm remains a constant.

On #5, as the final loops are breaking down, there’s a sound that reminds me of a broken guitar string being amplified through an old Marshall amp. It’s the complete des truncation of instrumentation, but it’s not unpleasant. If anything, it’s intoxicating. I’ve seen some comparisons to Giorgio Moroder, but I’m not sure you could compare #N/A to anything. It’s a dense wall of electronic rhythm and soundscapes, and it doesn’t offer any answers beyond itself. It’s the year’s most involved electronic soundscape, and perhaps one of its best.

The post Nisennenmondai: #N/A appeared first on Unsung Sundays.

The way that The Heavy tells it, Miss California used to be a pretty girl — but now she’s a zombie who has become terribly difficult to kill! And frankly, whether it’s a metaphor or not doesn’t matter to me: the song’s clever upending of my own expectation represents Hurt & the Merciless as an album perfectly.

In case it wasn’t already clear, The Heavy have found a wonderfully unique sound here. Soul-inspired retro throwback rock to a time when the bass guitar line was as important was the main riff, and rock music was a staple of high school dances. The Heavy are steeped in this culture without ever feeling like a throwback the same way that, say, Leon Bridges does.

Listen to Since You Been Gone, the album’s opener: a massive, joyful main riff and a great soul backing makes the song leap off the record and come alive. And the drums carry the chorus almost entirely on their own. Clearly the band is filled with skilled instrumentalists.

And What Happened to the Love? sounds like a mix of White Stripes and The Strokes, with a verse and a chorus that both waste no time in assaulting the listener with vintage power chord riffs and a storming drum line that feels like it rolls through the chorus.

Hurt & the Merciless is The Heavy’s best record yet. The fourth time is apparently the charm: at this point, it’s evident that The Heavy are going to do what they’re going to do, modern fashion and sensibilities be darned. They want to surprise you, they want to give you something of substance, and they want to entertain. With Hurt & the Merciless, they manage to do all three.

The post The Heavy: Hurt & the Merciless appeared first on Unsung Sundays.

Antonio Sanchez’s work builds on a single, looming tension, escalating until it breaks and a lack of sanity is revealed. And therein lies the rub of the film as well: you are listening to the slow de-tangling of a man.

Unlike Whiplash, its sister jazzy film from 2014’s Awards season, Birdman is not about feats of jazz strength, or virtuosity. It is about the act of performance. At times cool and suave, and at times suddenly broken, Birdman never sits still.

More interesting still is the way the soundtrack experiments with sound placement and timbre, matching the way the film does it. This may have been out of necessity, since the sounds and music in the movie often follow the movement of the camera, but in isolation, this is an especially interesting diversion from regularity.

And that’s what the whole soundtrack is about, really: it’s a diversion from the norm of film soundtracks. It doesn’t have an orchestra of any kind, electing instead to be more about the focus of a solo single instrument. It matches the film’s intensity, particularly because the drums can be both lively and under-stated in a single track.

People who haven’t seen Birdman may not get as much out of its soundtrack as those who have, but folks who appreciate subtle jazz experimentation will find a lot to enjoy here. Those who are more interested in flash and sizzle will quickly lose interest.

The post Antonio Sanchez: Birdman (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) appeared first on Unsung Sundays.

Tell me about how you ended up where you are now. It started about nine years ago — very simple, very slowly. I was seventeen and had recently come back from being in Europe for a year. After being exposed to so much culture in Europe in my conservatory there, I realized that music was something I was passionate for. I was terrible, especially compared to the people there, but I thought I was pretty good.

When I came back, I got really into this artist called Owl City, who nobody was listening to yet at the time. I started dabbling with a lot of the programs he was experimenting with, and stopped doing homework. I was in grade eleven. I don’t recommend not doing homework in grade eleven. I spent that time staying up until 2 or 2:30 every morning just writing songs, just like an outlet for my emotions and all that fluffy stuff.

One of the things I wish I knew then that I know now was about consistency in producing things, and releasing things, and with album art and stuff. I just went with it. I played little tiny shows — you know, coffee houses at school, stuff like that. I kept that up and ended up having to choose between going to school for music, or going to university. Knowing how competitive it was, I decided to go to university.

I know I’ll get flak for this, but I really like the new Justin Bieber album.

In university, music really slipped under the radar for me. At one point, a year and a half had gone by in between writing a song. I wanted to quit school and do music full time, but I wasn’t going to have any of the support I needed financially. So I just kept going until I was done school, and then I could focus on Discover Atlantic again. And that was a couple years ago.

Discover Atlantic has taken a lot of forms. There’s been synth-pop, acoustic music, some heavier rock, and piano ballads. The new record has electronic pop, EDM or whatever, and some heavier songs. I like the artists that make different things all the time. Staying true to yourself is super important. If you pick up a guitar and something feels raw and organic, and you bang out the song on six things and a wooden frame, that’s the way it’s gonna come out. That’s the way it’s gotta be. Making it something else isn’t true to what it was supposed to be, at least originally. I like organic music.

One of the challenges is labelling Discover Atlantic. I don’t know how to label it. To make it “easy,” I’ll throw four terms in there: “acoustic pop rock indie.” I don’t know. That sorta creates an idea.

Now, I’m trying to be a little more consistent and professional about releases. Unfortunately, music is a business. Nobody has overnight fame. You’ve gotta put in the effort. The way things are, the last Discover Atlantic record came out in 2012. The goal is definitely to put out music more consistently than I previously have been.

I really want people to connect with the music. At a show a couple weeks ago, this kid came up to me and told me he had one of my songs on his iPhone, and it carried him through his relationship. That was surreal. That made the rest of my week.

So cool. Tell me about the new record a little bit. When’s that coming out? I think I started writing it at least three years ago. It was supposed to come out in 2013! Didn’t happen, clearly. The first record was all about how I was changing as a person as a young man moving into my twenties, how my life was changing and how I was seeing things differently.

In this new record, it finishes off that line of thought and grabs a new theme about choices, just the big choices you make in your twenties. It’s a natural evolution. The newest song is the first song I’ve collaborated with my live bandmates on, which is great.

It’s going to be out this winter, which is what I said, but we’re definitely in winter now, and maybe it’ll be a bit later. Depends on how production goes.

Do you think the album reflects some of the choices you’ve made as a musician? I would say so, yeah, primarily the choice I made not to pursue music full time. My goal was to give myself something that, if music completely failed for me, then I had something. I think some of the new music speaks to that choice.

Do you regret not doing music full-time? That’s a really hard question. I’ve been thinking about it a lot the past month, and it’s always on my mind, especially since I’m in the studio so often.

I don’t think I regret it, but I’ve definitely gone through times when this topic has depressed me. I mean, there’s always the “what if?”, right? I think there’s always going to be that thought process that people go through. So I think about it, but I also think it pushes me to be better as a musician.

With your first record, you’re not really looking to make a profit. You just want to get your music out there.

So you’re more stoked about having that extra time in school to hone your skills? Yeah, totally — and that’s the thing: it’s not that I stopped music. I was always producing, working on sound design. I knew there’d be a time I could do this more, and I didn’t want to be dabbling with how to make it sound good at that point. Writing and recording is a lot of work, and I really wanted that recording and mixing part to be, at least to an extent, ready so I could focus on putting the music out.

The last time you put out your record, I remember getting it on disc. Now you’ve got streaming options galore, in addition to iTunes and all that, and most people aren’t buying discs. In this climate, what’s your barometer for success? Well, I think with your first record, you’re not really looking to make a profit. You just want to get your music out there. You sell them at gigs, to your friends and family, whatever, just people who knew me and met me would buy it.

But while we’re talking about it, iTunes still dominates. iTunes and Apple Music are, I think, both totally critical to a successful career. This time around, as much as I loved holding my first record in my hands, I think the tendency is to go digital. Spotify, Apple Music, even Soundcloud.

Soundcloud is huge, I love it. I think the fact that you can super easily connect with people, comment on tracks, share what you’re working on and get feedback, it’s so amazing.

It’s the best place to find underground musicians in any genre. I one hundred percent agree — I wish I started using it earlier! But yeah, the plan is to go digital for sure. If a lot of people ask for physical copies, then I think that’s fine, but looking at the numbers, I’m pretty sure digital is more and more the norm. It’s so accessible, it’s readily available anytime, and thanks to smartphones, it’s all right there.

You don’t want to lose your roots. They’re like dress shoes. New dress shoes are awesome, but they don’t replace those ratty sneakers you wear to the punk show. You love those sneakers.

So with the shift to a culture of constant consumption, do you feel like there’s a shift in music culture? Not just in the way we listen, but in the way we make it? That’s really hard to say. I mean, some of the new stuff, the new digital instruments coming out, they blow my mind. I saw a digital keyboard the other day that didn’t have keys! It had some sort of theremin built in. Just amazing.

I don’t know how music is going to look in a year or two, let alone five. The act of music creation is changing into something outrageous we’ve never seen before. I don’t think it’s going to be a thing that happens right away. I think it’ll happen slowly and gradually with these new instruments and computer tools.

But it also seems things are going the opposite way too. We’ve got all these synth pop bands, but then you get things like Kendrick’s last record, where it’s very clearly a live band and very organic. And I think that’s very important too! Just like anything else, you don’t want to lose your roots. They’re like dress shoes. New dress shoes are awesome, but they don’t replace those ratty sneakers you wear to the punk show. You love those sneakers. And I think it’s possible to be interested in both sides as a musician too. At the core of me, I’m defined by a guitar. You’ve gotta remember that. Once you forget that, you forget who you are as a musician.

Let’s change gears a bit. Who are you listening to these days? What’s inspiring you? Oh man. A lot of dance music. EDM. House. Future Bass. Future Bass adds all these upbeat happy things. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s been really inspiring. But there’s nothing I love more than a song with just the right guitar chords plucked. When that’s done right, there’s nothing more special.

After this new record comes out, what’s the next thing for you? Faster record releases, right? (Both laughing.) That’s the plan! I actually have a folder on my computer of projects, and there are probably twenty or thirty different clips in there for song ideas. I really want to go back and turn these clips into something. Just songs I started and never finished — you know, just, what am I doing, right? Now that I’m faster at production, I gotta get back into it.

There’s a side project that I’m going to be releasing some stuff for too, and… I think I’m dabbling a lot in different areas now. I was asked to score music for a short film! So I’ve started experimenting with orchestral arrangements. That might come next. Dabbling with other genres keeps you fresh, keeps you on your feet.

Have you been listening to any new genres? Oh, so much. More hip hop. Trap. EDM. There’s a guy called Icy Twat. Can I say that?

Sure, it’s the Internet. Say whatever you want. Well, I wish he wasn’t called Icy Twat, but Icy Twat. And, um, kind of, I know I’ll get flak for this, but I really like the new Justin Bieber album. I couldn’t stand him before, but his new album’s got some good messages and he sounds like a musician, not just a teenage pop star. Did you know he writes a lot of his own music? I don’t know if many pop stars do that.

I think a lot of pop music is going the wrong way, though. I don’t like the way they sing about sexuality. It’s backwards. And money. I love money, but can’t we find something else to sing about?

Last question, and you have to keep it short, because that’s part of the challenge here: what was your favourite record last year? Oeuf. (mutters slightly under his breath) Definitely gotta be Bring Me the Horizon’s newest record. They took a completely different direction. This is a good place to end, because it ties back to the beginning of our interview. You’ve got to be true to yourself, but still give the fans what they want, and I think that’s exactly what they did.

The post An Interview with Adam Jasim appeared first on Unsung Sundays.

Most loops repeat well for a couple minutes before another loop is revealed. DJs make career of this: one sample slowly bleeds into the next. The Field does things differently: a loop will easily fill an entire eight-minute track, with minor permutations and changes in beat affecting everything surrounding it. It’s atmospheric electronic music, less subtly called techno, at its absolute best and most coherent.

That’s not to say that The Field is resting on his laurels: Willner has made these tracks his most muscular yet. Monte Veritá is a great example: a swirling bass line in its middle occupies the centrepiece of the song, despite almost sounding like an electronic version of a discordant and polyrhythmic Meshuggah riff. It’s not a breakdown, and it isn’t a drop — in fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find any real drops on the record — but it’s s feeling of disarray and of muscular motion.

As the loop repeats, it slowly gains its footing against a backing track that begins to catch up to its rhythm, and by the end of the track, the dance has continued unabated as multiple other electronic parts have entered the fray before suddenly leaving it, or joining the rest of the cacophonous layering and madness.

And so it goes.

For fans of Axel Willner, not much of this is going to sound new. In fact, there are no new boundaries broken here. For a man who could arguably change the way we see music with just a few tweaks of some digital knobs, Willner is playing it remarkably safe.

But for newcomers to his music, he has made a strong, powerful statement about his breadth and depth as an artist. This is the most provocative Field album yet, one that’s rich in detail and requires close listening with a good pair of headphones to fully understand.

Will it change the world? Not this time around. Instead, it feels like Willner is gathering our attention and reminding us what he’s capable of doing. The Follower is an impeccable record, and one that inspires hope in Willner: maybe next time, he’ll surprise us with re-invention. For now, he’s got a commanding grip on the genre.

The post The Field: Follower appeared first on Unsung Sundays.