From Symphonic Guitar Distortion to Ethereal Songs.
We’re offering two CDs as bonuses to new members of the Echoes CD of the Month Club. Either of them could’ve been club selections themselves.
EVERY SILVER LINING HAS A CLOUD
An echo of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” theme with spoken word is a deceptive opening to this deeply immersive album. By the second song, “A Stolen Life” this impressive debut shifts into backwards glockenspiels’ mournful cellos, plaintive acoustic guitar before rising in a slow boil with tremolo guitar riffs that launch into an end of the world paean of sustained guitar, cello and surging percussion.
Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud is French band centered on guitarist Guillaume Pintout and drummer Cyrille Holodiuk. On their eponymous debut, they follow in a post Explosions in the Sky modality. Mostly instrumental, they already have a mature sound. Pintout’s moody guitar melodies dripping distortion waxes and wanes revealing lighter touches including xylophone and the serene cello of Haluka Chimoto that leaven the raging electric guitar crescendos.
Ever Silver Lining favor the tremolo guitar approach of the Japanese band Mono, but have Explosions in the Sky’s sense of dynamic exposition. There is an even more symphonic sound in their arrangements. Sometimes somber, occasionally harrowing, often triumphal, Every Silver Lining is making post-dystopian soundscape that offers hope in the chaos.
JOHANNA & THE DUSTY FLOOR – NORTHERN LIGHTS
I wrote about Johanna & the Dusty Floor a few weeks ago. They are the vehicle for Johanna Crannitch, an Australian born and raised singer-songwriter now living in Brooklyn. 
When I heard her new album, Northern Lights, I was immediately enticed by this singer, who first reminded me of Kate Bush. She even covers Bush’s “Cloudbusting.” But the more I listen, the less I hear Bush and the more I hear an artist with a unique and personal voice, making music full of surprising melodic turns, with idiosyncratic instrumentation that includes zithers, xylophones and Omnichords, and deeply effecting voice. Check out a couple of her videos.
This is a charming, kind of unplugged version of “Heavy Heart.”
Here’s a produced video of “Witch Shoes.”
And you might as well hear her understated take on Kate Bush’s Cloudbusting.”
But as wonderful as these songs are, it’s heart wrenching tracks like the full album version of “Heavy Heart” and “In the Dark” that will leave an indelible mark on you.
New Members of the Echoes CD of the Month Club can pick one of these two beautiful albums as a bonus. And if you sign up in time, you’ll get Patrick O’Hearn’s Transitions as your first CD of the Month Club selection. This offer ends on October 31, 2011.
John Diliberto ((( echoes ))) 
Hear Johanna & the Dusty Floor live on Echoes Monday October 24
Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news.
The Echoes Blog 
Echo Location: Mono
June 4, 2009You can hear an audio version of this blog with Mono’s music.
Most composers would take offense if the orchestra playing their music was wearing ear plugs. That was the case with the Wordless Music Orchestra when they performed with the Japanese band Mono in New York City in May. But Mono founder, Takaakira Goto wasn’t insulted.
Mono is nothing if not loud as Takaakira Goto and Yoda bend down on their low stools, feeding their guitars through a distorted wall of sound. When Taka formed Mono, his conception of an instrumental rock band was born as much from necessity as desire.
Mono isn’t a noise band. Over the last decade, they’ve been performing a minimalist symphonic brand of instrumental guitar rock, with a sound that has electric storms, but also delicate modal reveries. Their latest album, Hymn to the Immortal Wind, was made with Steve Albini who produced Nirvana, The Pixies and Flogging Molly. It’s a soundtrack for a fable-like story that’s scored for a full orchestra. Taka had been listening to classical music, especially the sacred minimalists like Arvo Pärt and Henryck Gorecki.
Strings don’t sound like strings. They sound like…
And he experiences the same choral effect with his guitars.
The name Mono isn’t a nostalgic plea to bring back the Mono audio format. Taka says he chose it for two reasons. One was pronunciation.
But the real reason was for the commitment to a single purpose.
Mono is focused on their aspirations towards a symphonic rock.
Their Hymn to the Immortal Wind is released on Temporary Residence. I’ve got a more extensive interview with Mono next Monday including comments from Steve Albini. This has been an Echo Location.
John Diliberto ((( echoes )))
Share this:
Tags:Echo Location, echoes, John Diliberto, Mono, post-rock
Posted in Reviews & Commentary | 1 Comment »