Σtella – “Adagio” review

Here we have the 5th full-length album from Athens, Attica, Greece singer/songwriter Σtella. Introducing herself with an eponymous debut, both it’s follow-ups Works for You & The Break would result in Sub Pop Records signing her and making the Redinho-produced Up & Away a decent debut for the Seattle, Washington indie label. 3 years later, she’s returning by putting out Adagio & the singles teased for it until this point seems like it could shape up to be better than Up & Away or even dethroning The Break for her strongest material.

The title track was a bedroom pop & samba intro asking why she’s being tormented likening herself to a spy with her 400 eyes taking her from A to B whereas “Ta Vimata” sings about the steps bringing her to the narrow path. “Omorfu Mou” finds her wanting her romantic interest when they leave & missing them while she stays just before “Baby Brazil” featuring Las Palabras suggests to let the feeling roll since the individual she has in mind likes control as much as they do.

“Can I Say” asks if she can tell her partner exactly how much she misses them while “80 Days” acoustically sings about going by the rules even if they don’t apply. “Too Poor” groovily explains the way she’s attracted to her lover & after the “Corfu” instrumental cut, the closing track “Caravan” officially wraps up her Sub Pop Records sophomore effort singing about her only real partner in crime at the moment being Father Time itself.

Inspired by an 11-minute boat ride to Anafi roughly 6 years ago, Σtella sounds more at ease & comfortable than she’s ever been on Adagio displaying new approaches to her songwriting. The end result turns out to be a pop LP that feels like a warm blanket due to the way it swaddles its listeners with nylon-string guitars, featherlight percussion, psychedelic keyboards & staccato drums offering a meditation on love, desire, rest & time.

Score: 4/5

Keep up with @legendswill_never_die on Instagram & @LegendsllLiveOn on Twitter for the best music reviews weekly!

Bria Salmena – “Big Dog” review

Toronto, Ontario, Canada singer/songwriter Bria Salmena signing to Sub Pop Records for her official solo debut. Coming up as the guitarist/percussionist & co-vocalist for Dear Sister, they would put out 2 full-lengths until their disbandment & she would go on to become the frontwoman of FRIGS as well as forming the country duo Bria with FRIGS guitarist Duncan Jennings putting out a couple mediocre EPs full of covers. Looking to differentiate herself from her side projects, Sub Pop’s bringing her onto the label roster to cement her Big Dog status.

Drastic” begins with this pop rock intro finding herself at an impasse staring at the runway instead of getting on the plane whereas “Backs of Birds” focuses more on embracing the people in her life who lift her up. “Closer to You” takes a shot at post-punk telling her to either love her gently or leave prior to “Hammer” singing about leaving all her fears to be afraid & resilience in general.

As for “Radisson”, we have Bria exploring the raw energy of anger & the ability it has to transform just before “Twilight” goes for more of a stripped-back vibe kin to traditional country music tackling naivety & surrender. “On the Line” details her living her life taking risks for this specific person she has in mind, but then “Stretch the Struggle” assures you’ll never see her crying.

“Rags” tackles transgressive rage & the catharsis that is possible when it’s given permission to move freely through the body while “See’er” featuring former Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo brings the acoustics back expressing a yearning for being seen. “Peanut” nears the end of her solo debut asking what kind of fool she is & the closer “Water Memory” recalls what it was like for her spending Christmas alone during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in mandatory travel quarantine.

Chronicling a story of transformation, Big Dog becomes this deeply personal exploration of resilience & a declaration of artistic independence forged through collaboration. It takes elements of hypnotic krautrock & shimmery shoegaze, opulent goth, & pulsing darkwave with a smearing of electronic textures for a sophisticated & often uncanny sound placing her potent lyrical imagery in the dead center of it all.

Score: 4/5

Keep up with @legendswill_never_die on Instagram & @LegendsllLiveOn on Twitter for the best music reviews weekly!

clipping. – “Death Channel Sky” review

Los Angeles, California experimental hip hop trio clipping. fronted by Daveed Diggs alongside William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes with their 5th studio LP. Emerging off their midcity mixtape in 2013, they signed Sub Pop Records shortly after & the label gave them a full-length debut the following year. However, I didn’t completely hop on board with these guys until their Deathbomb Arc debut Splendor & Misery in 2016, which is a fantastic sci-fi odyssey. They returned to Sub Pop by dropping their magnum opuses There Existed an Addiction to Blood & Visions of Bodies Being Burned. They’re returning halfway through to put out Death Channel Sky almost a week since former AEW World Champion, AEW World Tag Team Champion, the inaugural shortest-reigning 2-time AEW World Trios Champion, AJPW世界ジュニアヘビー級チャンピオン, DDTエクストリームチャンピオン, KO-D無差別級チャンピオン, 3-time KO-Dタッグチャンピオン, 2-time KO-D6人タッグチャンピオン, AAA Mega Campeon, IWGPヘビー級チャンピオン, IWGPインターコンチネンタルチャンピオン, 2-time IWGPジュニアヘビー級チャンピオン, IWGPジュニアタッグチャンピオン, the inaugural 2-time IWGP USヘビー級チャンピオン, 2-time NEVER無差別級6人タッグチャンピオン, PWG World Champion & TNA World Champion, Kenny Omega ended the current NEVER無差別級チャンピオン竹下幸之介’s reign as AEW International Champion’s at Revolution VI.

The first song “Dominator” after the intro begins by fusing hip house & industrial hip hop together to talk about being 1 of a kind whereas the 3rd single “Change the Change” takes the industrial hip hop, breakbeat hardcore, acid breaks, big beat, power noise, digital hardcore & hardcore breaks route making faces hurt with the waves they’re making. The lead single “Run It” draws inspiration from the Detroit techno scene painting a picture of a drug dealer & addict from the highs of partying to the lows of being caught, arrested or killed.

“Go” strips the drums for a brief experimental hip hop joint talking about running it down & after the “Simple Degradation (Plucks 1-13)” interlude, “Code” explores themes of digital identity along with hacking culture & futuristic survival going for a cyberpunk vibe. “Dodger” goes for a drum & bass direction talking about finding & killing a virus because time is of the essence but after the “Malleus” interlude, “Scams” featuring Tia NoMore finds her & Daveed talking about the beat continuously knocking in the back.

West coast gangsta rap, pop rap, conscious hip hop, acid house, political hip hop & boom bap all mold into 1 for the 2nd single “Keep Moving” suggesting to keep pushing dope everywhere you go while “Mood Organ” after the “From Bright Bodies” interlude bares it’s name after a fictional device in Philip K. Dick’s novels Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? & We Can Build You. “Polaroids” unearths all of these photos hidden tucked neatly in a box & hidden in a sock drawer or underneath the bed just before “Madcap” after the “Simple Degradation (Plucks 14-18)” interlude advises not to get it twisted with a businessman.

“Mirrorshades 2” featuring Cartel Madras continues the renowned cyberpunk anthology edited by Bruce Sterling since it’s a cornerstone of the genre’s aesthetic & themes while “Welcome Home Soldier” featuring Aesop Rock after the “& You Called” interlude was a great nerdcore cut with additional elements of industrial hip hop, abstract hip hop & glitch hop exploring into digital escapism & the allure of virtual worlds. “Ask What Happened” closes the LP by talking about history & future belong to the 1%.

The original “Mirrorshades” starts the deluxe run recapturing the themes of the sequel that we all got hear first earlier this spring while “Forever War” blends industrial hip hop, conscious hip hop, electronic, electro, hardcore hip hop & political hip hop talking about the way war goes. “Hard-Eyes” suggests to keep the family close & the ghosts in the closet with the safe while the final bonus track “Night of Heaven” reminds us all that the government is watching.

In contrast to their last few projects containing record-long concepts like the classic prog rock of old, Dead Channel Sky is more like a mixtape with it’s carefully curated collection of songs in which every track is a love letter to a possible present. Their industrial hip hop production expands in favor of hardcore hip hop, glitch hop, glitch music, acid techno, noise, big beat, electronic dance music, abstract hip hop, nerdcore, west coast hip hop, gangsta rap, pop rap, conscious hip hop, acid house, political hip hop, boom bap, drum & bass, hip house, breakbeat hardcore, acid breaks, power noise, digital hardcore & hardcore breaks texture-mapping the twin histories of hip hop & cyberpunk onto an alternate present.

Score: 4.5/5

Keep up with @legendswill_never_die on Instagram & @LegendsllLiveOn on Twitter for the best music reviews weekly!

Deep Sea Diver – “Billboard Heart” review

Deep Sea Diver are an indie rock band from Seattle, Washington consisting of drummer Peter Mansen, guitarist Elliot Jackson, bassist Garrett Gue & frontwoman Jessica Dobson. Their 2012 debut History Speaks followed by Secrets & Impossible Weight were all solid in their own rights, eventually garnering the interest of the biggest local indie label Sub Pop Records & them fittingly signing the hometown act for their 4th full-length studio album in their discography having the potential to become their most important one ever.

The title track mixes indie rock, dream pop, neo-psychedelia, indie pop, new wave & post-punk revival together singing about welcoming the future by letting go of it whereas the existentially tongue-in-cheek “What Do I Know?” asks why Jessica feels so complicated. “Emergency” turns the punk influences back up warning she doesn’t anyone shit when she really doesn’t while “Shovel” blends new wave, post-punk revival & alternative dance gets at Jessica’s most angular & dualistic.

“Tiny Threads” comes through with a sweeping anthem for anyone trying to hold anything together just before “Loose Change” brings a heavy singer/songwriter vibe to the table with it’s acoustic heavy sound singing about all of us standing up to our mistakes. “Always Waving Goodbye” goes for their signature indie pop/indie rock sound hoping that we all stop hiding one day while “Let Me Go”featuring Madison Cunningham stands out with them giving flowers to PJ Harvey.

To begin the encore of Deep Sea Diver’s official Sub Pop debut, “Be Sweet” calls for everyone to give her more flowers than she can take only for the sole purpose of smelling them in the flesh & promising we’ll survive the bullshit in the past month or so while “See in the Dark” sings about having the ability of having night vision & there being no need for anyone else around her to find another way out. “Happiness Isn’t a Given” concludes the band’s most exciting offering perceiving joy as not being specified.

For a personal breakthrough that prompted an artistic one, Billboard Hearts exemplifies Seattle’s biggest label signing the local act & they hand them a defiant & brilliant exclamation mark at the end of a long period of wandering. They expand the indie rock/indie hybrids they’re known for venturing out in favor of new wave, synthpop, shoegaze, garage rock revival, post-punk revival, singer/songwriter & dream pop peeling back a renewed self of self Jessica has.

Score: 4/5

Keep up with @legendswill_never_die on Instagram & @LegendsllLiveOn on Twitter for the best music reviews weekly!

Father John Misty – “Mahashmashana” review

Father John Misty is a 43 year old musician, singer/songwriter & producer from Rockville, Maryland notable for being the original Fleet Foxes drummer in addition to releasing his first 8 albums Untitled, I Will Return, Long May You Run, J. Tillman, Minor Works, Cancer & Delirium, Vacilando Territory Blues, Year in the Kingdom & Singing Ax under his original moniker J. Tillman until rebranding himself from the Sub Pop Records debut Fear Fun onwards. I Love You, Honeybear was my introduction to him during my senior year of high school with Pure Comedy & God’s Favorite Customer maintaining that high quality. Chloë & the Next 20th Century became his most moderately received work yet in the spring of 2022, looking to redeem himself on his 14th studio LP.

The title track starts with this 9 minute intro assuring all is silent & not having to do the corpse dance until the next universal dawn whereas “She Cleans Up” works in elements of garage rock revival, boogie rock, glam rock & post-punk revival singing about the aggrieved becoming the aggressor & us doing it all again. “Josh Tillman & the Accidental Dose” has a bit of a Bobbie Gentry influence to it cautioning that one may never be whole again while “Mental Health” takes the orchestral pop route suggesting we’re all far too well.

“Screamland” brings singer/songwriter, art pop, neo-psychedelia, noise pop & post-industrial together into 1 advising to stay young on top of getting numb & continue dreaming just before “Being You” reflects on a dissociative state that he was in for 5 years. “I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All” fuses singer/songwriter, boogie, disco, funk rock & funk music pulling inspiration from the book Men of Mathematics by Eric Temple Bell just before “Summer’s Gone” finishes by singing about time being unable to touch him.

Being a fan of Father John Misty for nearly a decade, Mahashmashana is his best since God’s Favorite Customer & lands right behind I Love You, Honeybearfor my favorite in his discography altogether. His production takes cues from the singer/songwriter, chamber pop & baroque pop vibes of his previous material whilst additionally venturing out into art pop, boogie, disco, funk rock, funk, neo-psychedelia, noise pop, post-industrial, orchestral pop, garage rock revival, boogie rock, glam rock & post-punk revival for an experiment in seeing what happens when he erases himself from his work.

Score: 4.5/5

Keep up with @legendswill_never_die on Instagram & @LegendsllLiveOn on Twitter for the best music reviews weekly!

clipping. – “Visions of Bodies Being Burned” review

This is the brand new album from Los Angeles experimental hip hop trio clipping.. Fronted by Daveed Diggs, he joined forces with William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes to drop their midcity mixtape in 2013 & it landed them a contract with Sub Pop Records shortly after. The label granted them a full-length debut the following year but I didn’t completely hop on board with these guys until their Deathbomb Arc debut Splendor & Misery in 2016, which is a fantastic sci-fi odyssey. They returned around this time last year by dropping their magnum opus There Existed an Addiction to Blood & to celebrate it’s 1-year anniversary, Daveed & company are back with a sequel.

The intro talks about how the album will pick up where the last one left off over a dark ambient instrumental whereas the next song “Say the Name” retells the story of Clive Barker’s Candyman over an electro-industrial beat. After the “Wytchboard” interlude, the track “’96 Neve Campbell” with Cam & China pays tribute to the final girl characters in slasher films over a hyphy beat while the song “Something Underneath” talks about a monster lurking over a buzzing beat.

The track “Make Them Dead” talks about murder over a noise instrumental while the song “She Bad” gets flirtatious over a skittering beat. After the “Invocation” interlude, the track “Pain Everyday” gets paranormal over a breakcore instrumental while the song “Check the Lock” is a worthy sequel to the classic Seagram joint “Sleepin in My Nikes” with a deranged beat.

The track “Looking for Meat” with Ho99o9 sees the 2 groups talking about cannibalism over an industrial beat which & after the “Drove” interlude, the song “Eaten Alive” is a homage to the Tobe Hooper film of the same name over a hollow beat. The track “Body for the Pile” talks about murdering 3 cops over a harsh noise instrumental from Slickness & before ending off with the Yoko Ono-inspired “Secret Piece” outro, the final song “Enlacing” gets on the Lovecraftian tip over a cloudy beat.

Much like the new Alla Xul Elu album Mauxuleum that dropped the week before, I think Visions of Bodies Being Burned just goes to show how underappreciated horrorcore is in the hip hop culture. The concepts that Daveed bring to the table throughout have only leveled up in comparison to There Existed an Addiction to Blood & the trio’s production is a lot more darker as well.

Score: 4.5/5

clipping. – “There Existed an Addiction to Blood” review

clipping. is an experimental hip hop trio from Los Angeles, California consisting of Daveed Diggs on the mic as well as William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes both on production. They first came together in 2013 with their midcity mixtape, which eventually landed them a contract with Sub Pop Records & the label granting them a full-length debut the following year. However I didn’t completely hop on board with these guys until their Deathbomb Arc debut Splendor & Misery in 2016, which is a fantastic sci-fi odyssey. 3 years have since passed & the trio are coming back out of the shadows with their 3rd full-length album.

After the intro, we go into the first song “Nothing is Safe”. Where Daveed talks about the cops raiding a drug house over a darksynth beat that later incorporates some rattling hi-hats during the final hook. The track “He Dead” talks about being chased by the cops over a dark ambient instrumental & after the “Haunting” interlude, the song “La Mala Ordina” with Benny the Butcher & Elcamino of all people talks about the glorification of gangs in hip hop over an a dissonant beat.

The track “Club Down” talks about a venue being closed early over a paranormal instrumental & after the “Prophecy” interlude, the song “Run for Your Life” talks about being chased by a psychotic woman with La Chat providing a fantastic closing verse from her perspective over a beat that starts off minimal, but turns into a trunk knocker when La Chat comes in. The Show” paints a vivid picture of this red room that Daveed has found himself in over some electronics that tune in & out like a transmitter but after the “Possession” interlude, “All in Your Head” contains a great pimping/demonic possession metaphor in the lyrics albeit a pretty weak song structure.

The track “Blood of the Fang” speaks on racism over an industrial beat while the song “Story 7” tells the tale of a woman named Cynthia over a glitchy instrumental. The penultimate track “Attunement” provides food for thought over a chaotic instrumental & then the closer “Piano Burning” is literally the sound of a piano being engulfed in flames for 18 minutes.

This is a damn near perfect album just in time for the Halloween season. The interludes are just ok but the storytelling is vivid, the instrumentals are a lot darker & the guests are very well incorporated into the concept. Their best work to date, in my opinion.

Score: 4.5/5