Forum Member Album Reviews

[Key]

Yorke, im giving your album a listen tomorrow. Expect a review to come shortly after.

[YorkeDaddy]

Originally Posted by Ki

Yorke, im giving your album a listen tomorrow. Expect a review to come shortly after.

I just got hard

[Key]

Daydream Society - Daze End

This review is one that I've been eager to do for a couple weeks, but haven't had the chance to sit down and finally do it. This album is made by YorkeDaddy, and my god, just wait until you hear what I have to say about it. I don't do my albums track by track, so I apologize if that's the format you were looking for.

This album is fantastic. When I started listening to it, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, as the first track Obsolescence left a weird feeling in my stomach, but it wasn't bad in any way. As the album continued to play, I became more and more fond of the sound I was hearing. It's got a really gentle and relaxing feel to it, while also adding in the occasional electric riff to set the bar even higher than the album has reached on it's own. I saw Mondo mention that this album has some drone elements in it, and although i'm not too familiar with drone as a genre, I can see where he was going with that. It's definitely got the mixture of drone, and easy listening all wrapped into 13 separate tracks. I mention that it has 13 tracks mostly because I wish the album was longer. I can see myself listening to this album when i'm reading a book, or doing something that doesn't require me to really focus my mind on anything, because not only is the music good, it sets an atmosphere that allows your mind to feel comfortable but still have that attention span to do something else while the music plays in the background.

I think I enjoy this music more than most other member albums i've listening to because I'm a pretty huge fan of post-rock in general, and I feel that this album uses that formula quite nicely. I apologize if labeling this as post-rock is offensive, but I don't mean it in an offensive way. It just has that feel surrounding it that I like to hear when I listen to a post-rock album.

Track wise, each one is better than the last one, and with albums that you hear from people that aren't in a label, you'd expect each track to feel like it's on it's own and doesn't have any sort of direction. This album however (along with a lot of the albums made my members here) has really captured that ability to make each track flow into the next very naturally while at the same time, making each track it's own. The album doesn't feel overwhelming and the track lengths of each are perfect. You don't feel like you're pushing yourself to listen to each track. I was listening to the album, and before I knew it, the album was over. And of course, I had to listen to it again. I mean that in the sense that I didn't feel the need to skip any tracks, and it was just a nice natural listening experience that not a lot of music can bring these days.

The production quality of this album is also worth mentioning, because my god, it's fantastic. You can hear each instrument clearly, and nothing sounds grainy or too loud or over the top, everything fits together nicely to create a unique yet somewhat familiar sound that really compliments itself. I don't need to say much more on it.

I do want to mention that some of the songs do remind me of the Terraria soundtrack. I don't know if you've ever heard that before, but it's something I noticed right away. And it's definitely not a bad thing as that soundtrack is fantastic.

My final verdict for this album is that it is absolutely fantastic. I've never listened to Daydream Society before, but now I know what i'm going to listen to when new music is released, because this is undoubtedly a great find, and one I may even move into my mp3 player to listen to more.

[YorkeDaddy]

<3<3<3 im so happy you loved it Ki. If you want more in a similar style I've got several other Daydream Society albums you'd enjoy. Fervor, Avulsion, For Now, and Deconstruct are all ones I think you'd really like as well

[Frownland]

Daydream Society - Daze End

It's alright.

[YorkeDaddy]

Originally Posted by Frownland

Daydream Society - Daze End

It's alright.

You listened to it?

@ Plainview: Glad you liked it so much! I agree with your sentiments at the end about adding a wider array of sounds. Definitely something I'll continue to work on. I'll be getting to your album sometime tomorrow, can't wait to review it!

[Frownland]

Originally Posted by YorkeDaddy

You listened to it?

@ Plainview: Glad you liked it so much! I agree with your sentiments at the end about adding a wider array of sounds. Definitely something I'll continue to work on. I'll be getting to your album sometime tomorrow, can't wait to review it!

I'll try again.

On Obsolescence, total improvement so far.

[Plainview]

Daze End

As you know, I’m a fan of your stuff thus far, so this is exciting.


The first track has a real Brian Eno vibe to my ear, with that crunchy distorted synth and plodding melody. Could fit on Another Green World pretty happily. Quite hopeful sounding mixed with melancholy. I like that rising pad that takes over midway. The whole track manages to be experimental and slightly unsettling whilst still sound upbeat, which isn’t an easy thing to achieve. Damn, this is really cool. It all sounds fractured, like it’s about to fall apart any minute. The cracked melodies make me think of Arthur Russell.


Another upbeat start to track 2. I like the fact you seem to have embraced percussion more, I think it adds another layer to this stuff, but you fit it into the ambient framework. The melody gets a little more dissonant and then resolves, and we get the guitar sounding strings coming in, which are neat. Nice production, like the layers coming in and tickling the eardrums, quite calming. I feel like this is an electronic equivalent of Post Rock track. I kind of wish that string sound was real guitar though. Great stereo effect towards the end as the synths bounce around.


Oooh, and a bit of sound collage, also dig this kind of stuff. The voice sounds familiar but can’t place it. Ah, Steven Fry, right? Nice manipulation, interesting stuff. Love the electronic sound here, like a wave rolling along. Great job balancing calmness, and the wild, untamed sound of the synth at this part. Then everything slows down and our boy Stevie drifts back in. Soothing but depressing in equal measure, nice juxtaposition


Ataxia starts with another sweet sounding synth. Sounds good with the arpeggio, and those rising and falling chords compliment it well


Love that distorted choppy guitar in Happy Madman, very refreshing change of pace to the earlier stuff. That’s really nice, could last longer imo


More distortedness mixed with a xylophone sounding instrument, and more spoken word parts. This is hypnotic honestly, very lovely and profound. A bit like Dead Flag Blues by Godspeed, but slightly more cheery if that’s the right word (it’s not). Then some killer sea of distortion drowning out the track


And some piano! Well I never, what a treat. Things then turn wild, all those conflicting melodies overlapping into one big mass. Sort of like Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew, but electro


Brink has a bit of a trance sound to it, a little bit of a House fuelled sound. That rhythm guitar part underneath really fleshes things out and gives the track some punch and momentum.


If We Could Levitate definitely has a Shoegaze vibe, although to be fair a lot of the album does. Shoegaze with synths instead of guitars though. Definitely an ethereal quality to this one, in keeping with the name


The spoken word stuff in Saviour Signals is hella dark. Captivating though. This stuff adds real narrative and ties everything together, great device and fitting with your music. Great guitar-esque sound spazzing out in this, I can dig that


And this piano in Fixated is cool as ****. Lot of resonance to it. Is that you playing? It’s awesome either way. Emotional but not cheesy. A bit like that Aphex track on Syro with the piano (I forget its name). Again, the realness of the instrumentation here is a welcome change of pace and sound. Nice palette throughout the whole album actually. And that distortion is pretty gut-punching! But warm and smooth at the same time. The way everything soars as it reaches a crescendo is bliss. Man this might be my favourite


The synth in Rising Time sounds a bit like a Harpsichord (which is good, underrated instrument). I can imagine this on a game soundtrack actually, which again is a compliment, upbeat and stimulating, great music to listen to while engaged in some work or creative writing, I reckon


And the final track! Starts with a baroque style string sound to it, great layering as usual. Lovely sizzle to that high end synth part. This is a pretty sensory experience, though that can be said to the whole album. There’s something a bit new age about it a bit… but in a good way. I think I could meditate to this. And the guy quoted Shakespeare, holy **** that’s cool. This is a lovely ending, tranquil as ****. Love the backing parts here, great end to the journey. Man this ending is just spot on really


So… as you can probably tell, I really really liked it. Definitely your best album so far. The use of spoken word pieces really brings out a lot of emotion and narrative structure, which arguably your albums were lacking before. Really does feel like a journey. I may well actually meditate to this album soon, I’ll let you know how that goes. I think your mastery of balance, musically and emotionally, and your integration of upbeat, light sounds, and darker melodies and distortion, is really utilised well here. The little percussive and rhythmic elements were a step in the right direction too. I enjoyed it immensely dude.


A couple of notes, because you probably want a bit of constructiveness too, so I’ll say this:
A lot of the tracks accentuate the high end, as in, everything really sizzles with those swathes of synth and distorted guitar; and while that sounds very cool and pretty, I think your missing out in some of the dynamic range of the song. It’s not easy to pull off with ambient stuff, but there are whole registers of sound that you’re missing out. Trying using lower sounds and bass instruments, perhaps, to give the music more scope. Could add a lot to some of the tracks.


Overall, though, this was a very strong release and I’m happy to have heard it. Definitely going to listen to it some more. Ace/10

[Tristan_Geoff]

****, keep forgetting. Really sorry dude, I'll try my hardest to remember for tomorrow.

[Frownland]

Ja mate, I'd definitely say it's the first album of yours I dig a lot. Mega improvement brother.