15 albums you've probably already listened to, but just in case you haven't...

RVCA · 08-27-2011, 04:29 PM

Figured it was about time I posted something worthwhile around here. Feeling inspired by a recent resurgence of these type of threads, I think I'll dive right in. I haven't planned this out much and I'm just typing whatever comes to mind, so if it seems like I don't know what I'm talking about... I probably don't.

15. Alcest - Écailles de lune (2010, Shoegaze/Blackgaze/Atmospheric Black Metal/Dream Pop/Post-Rock)

This band has garnered quite the array of genre tags over at rateyourmusic, and I believe that's exactly what initially prompted me to investigate into what Alcest really sounds like... they couldn't possibly be sticking Black Metal and Dream Pop on the same album, could they? For the most part, yes, that's precisely what's going on here. "Écailles de lune, Pt. 1" and "Solar Song" wrap haunting metalgaze around the ethereal black metal of "Écailles de lune, Pt. 2" and "Percées de lumière", two songs that feature some of the most bone-chilling vocal screeching I've yet heard. "Abysses", a short interlude, is perhaps perfectly descriptive of its namesake. The closing component of the album, "Sur l'océan couleur de fer", ties things together with shoegaze so dreamy, it's hard to imagine you're still listening to the same album, and yet it all flows beautifully.

Neige, the vocalist/guitarist/bassist/synthesizer/all-around-badass of Alcest, has some fascinating thoughts swimming around in his head. "I would say that Écailles De Lune is different from Souvenirs (their previous effort) mainly because these albums don't share the same concept. Souvenirs was a description of memories I had as a child about a luminous far away dimension, to summarize it is a musical testimony dealing with an esoteric experience of life in another plane of existence which has nothing to do with the world we know. Écailles De Lune could be seen as a metaphor of how I manage to live with this experience now in my everyday life. As I sometimes feel that nobody really understand and grab what I am speaking about, in some moments it's like if I was a stranger here, and speaking for nothing."

08-27-2011, 04:29 PM	#1 (permalink)
RVCA （￣ー￣） Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 3,270	15 albums you've probably already listened to, but just in case you haven't... Figured it was about time I posted something worthwhile around here. Feeling inspired by a recent resurgence of these type of threads, I think I'll dive right in. I haven't planned this out much and I'm just typing whatever comes to mind, so if it seems like I don't know what I'm talking about... I probably don't. 15. Alcest - Écailles de lune (2010, Shoegaze/Blackgaze/Atmospheric Black Metal/Dream Pop/Post-Rock) This band has garnered quite the array of genre tags over at rateyourmusic, and I believe that's exactly what initially prompted me to investigate into what Alcest really sounds like... they couldn't possibly be sticking Black Metal and Dream Pop on the same album, could they? For the most part, yes, that's precisely what's going on here. "Écailles de lune, Pt. 1" and "Solar Song" wrap haunting metalgaze around the ethereal black metal of "Écailles de lune, Pt. 2" and "Percées de lumière", two songs that feature some of the most bone-chilling vocal screeching I've yet heard. "Abysses", a short interlude, is perhaps perfectly descriptive of its namesake. The closing component of the album, "Sur l'océan couleur de fer", ties things together with shoegaze so dreamy, it's hard to imagine you're still listening to the same album, and yet it all flows beautifully. Neige, the vocalist/guitarist/bassist/synthesizer/all-around-badass of Alcest, has some fascinating thoughts swimming around in his head. "I would say that Écailles De Lune is different from Souvenirs (their previous effort) mainly because these albums don't share the same concept. Souvenirs was a description of memories I had as a child about a luminous far away dimension, to summarize it is a musical testimony dealing with an esoteric experience of life in another plane of existence which has nothing to do with the world we know. Écailles De Lune could be seen as a metaphor of how I manage to live with this experience now in my everyday life. As I sometimes feel that nobody really understand and grab what I am speaking about, in some moments it's like if I was a stranger here, and speaking for nothing."