The Rural Alberta Advantage – Departing

For Toronto-based band The Rural Alberta Advantage, music has always been a work in progress. Perhaps it’s been something that they’ve worked through – starting off humbly and being selected as one of eMusic’s top rising bands before signing to Saddle Creek in 2009. The trio that consists of singer Nils Edenloff and musicians Amy Cole and Paul Banwatt released Hometowns to a small audience and since that time have realized more and more fans comimg aboard. It’s now a few years later and with Departing their music sounds progressively on pace for great things as they’ve aptly adapted their sound in a way that it sounds fresh, inviting and often, invigorating. So while the latter features a conventional look at the inception that brought them together, Departing is a swift second album that combines the band’s best aspects with the growth and maturity they’ve developed as a full touring band.

Edenloff’s voice is still the central piece that either bridges the music together or destroys it entirely, depending on the listener. Personally, his projection comes off as a natural display of his singing ability and there’s not much to complain about, really. On songs like “Coldest Days,” Edenloff’s voice is a triumphant pairing to the music’s subtle piano line and acoustic guitar. Banwatt’s drums play a forceful role in that they are the band’s heartbeat through it all. The songs swell with rhythmic patterns that are played either on a basic tom drum (as done on the aforementioned song) or through a carefully portrayed drum set. But while each member ensures that their respective parts comes to life, the trio’s chemistry is what really bounds Departing into something both great and sonically visceral. Where Hometowns lacked in overall production and steam it made up for in heart but on Departing, everything seems to come into focus at the right time.

For The Rural Alberta Advantage, a compelling sound has always been at the mainstay of their music. Often blending between the rock The Decemberists create, and of course, there’s the comparison to Neutral Milk Hotel, their brand of music is a tight-knit one that is catapulted by a strong companionship. On “Tornado” the band showcases a magnificent trait in being able to create a whirlwind of sound that depicts the title with grand impression. Edenloff sings about hearts breaking and the chilly aftermath but with music that simply breathes life – brisk, striking and vigorous – the moments seem to pass much more earnestly.

The band’s lyrical wordplay continues to encircle the cold winters that happen through relationships and how love can be equally moving and devastating. The opening song, “Two Lovers,” embraces the joyous partnership lovers can share and how getting stuck together can be such a beautiful thing. With a wistful guitar and stomping drums, the music sways with a fluid style in that everything is pieced together by discerning hands. In fitting fashion, the following song is “The Breakup” and immediately, it’s upbeat and not nearly as pleasant as the opening sweetness of “Two Lovers.” Dissimilar styles – while both still heavily wrapped in the folk-rock that the band loves – they each convey a confident and strong band at the helm. The latter is intensified with Banwatt’s intrepid drumming and although Edenloff is singing about the end, the music’s toe-tapping skill makes for a compelling listen.

As expected, Cole appears just briefly to offer vocals on a few songs and she gently contributes some of the best on “Good Night”’s closing sentiments. Departing is obviously about moving from one space to another but more so, it’s also about embracing the opportunities around us and improving on them. There’s no denying that Departing is miles ahead of where the band was a year ago and while die-hards will love Hometowns for a long time to come, Departing is absolutely the band’s strongest work to date.

Saddle Creek

Monster Machismo – Aye Aye Porcupine

“You can’t judge a book by its cover”? I totally disagree with that statement, at least in the context of this review. YouTube and boredom can definitely lead you down some interesting paths. Therefore, I decided to do an experiment of sorts. I type into the search bar “best indie bands” and I am immediately hit with hundreds if not thousands of results. So I decide to narrow my search to “best math rock bands” I was hit with only a few results – maybe a dozen or so.  I click the fourth one from the top and I discover maybe one of the strangest combinations of sounds I have encountered in my nearly quarter century of existence. Behold, Monster Machismo self described as, “experimental/ indie/ nu jazz”. To be honest I cannot argue with them over how they characterize their sound. To try and pigeonhole them in any sort of genre is futile, as their sound influence is always changing. Instead of categorizing them I will do the next best thing, list their musical neighbors: Algernon Cadwallader and Duck Little Brother Duck! maybe even a dash of The Number 12 Looks like You.

Tourette guitars, turret drumming, “Hey Arnold” references, absurdist lyrics, and the occasional acoustic guitar solo; so are you still interested?  If so this may be the band you are looking for. Aye Aye Porcupine is the musical equivalent of children who color outside of the lines – sure you can be neat, tidy, and uniformed but what is the fun in that? The word schizophrenic does not even begin to describe the frequent and constant mutability of each song. There is a conspicuous math rock feel to the music. Each arrangement manages to throw in several twists such as acoustic guitar solos, instrumental segments that feel like entirely different songs, and just an overall busyness that never manages to overwhelm the listener. The guitars can range from spacey to spastic as they are accompanied by the often fitful drumming. If one thing can be said about the five songs on this album it is this, each of the songs sounds completely unique and different from one another.  The songs that stand out are, “Kiss Kiss Pessimist,” “Time Portal Fiasco,” and “Moonlight Mashbomb”. The lyrics are absurdist in the philosophical sense. There is a general feeling of disillusionment throughout the album’s duration, and the lyrics manage to convey this in a playful and cryptic manner. The vocals are a little bit on the ska punk side, as they manage to be throaty and guttural at the same time.

Monster Machismo will throw you a curveball, explanation never takes the place of experience and these guys have to be heard.  As strange as Monster Machismo is I would recommend these guys to everyone I know. Why? Well, in many ways for the same reasons I would recommend X Ray Press, for stepping out of a comfort zone and having a good time while doing so. At the same time I feel like these guys have a broad appeal to them and the music is not so technical that it becomes a chore to listen to. It’s great to be able to say the music is toe-tapping, air guitar solo, drunk karaoke fun.

Monster Machismo

Artists-On-Albums: AOA#19 (Eleventh Dream Day’s Rick Rizzo on Signals, Calls, And Marches)

Eleventh Dream Day’s Rick Rizzo on…

Mission of Burma’s Signals, Calls, And Marches (Ace Of Hearts Records, 1981)

Thumbing through my LPs, which have grown to ball and chain proportions (the Eleventh Dream Day song “Life On A String” chronicles how I once carried “all my records packed in the trunk” of my car), I thought about how many dozens of times I’ve played so many of them and how many have been so influential. None has been played more than Quadrophenia; Zuma made an imprint on my early guitar style; and Radio Ethiopia was a gateway to literature and art. London Calling, Blood On The Tracks, Loaded, and Marquee Moon were all extremely important to me too.  Each of those albums is attached to my college years between 1975 and 1979, where my life was more music fandom than studies. One record though, defines the time that bridges the gap between my college youth and forming Eleventh Dream Day – an EP that to me defines the birth of the American indie scene that has had such a lasting imprint on today’s music. That record is Signals, Calls, And Marches by Mission of Burma.

It was 1981, a year I spent in solitude. 1980 had been crazy. It started with my first band, The Pods playing on New Year’s Eve in Lexington, Kentucky, and took me to South Florida chasing a girl I thought I loved, and ended with me finally getting a real job back in Chicago.  After training for my job as a marketing researcher, I got assigned to upstate New York.  I didn’t know a soul and spent most of my free time reading or listening to music.  I was teaching myself to play guitar (I was a bass player in my punk band) and writing my first songs. I was lonely though and I started losing my mind – 23 years old is not a good time to be without friends. So, I started taking drives down to New York City.  On my first trip I stumbled upon The Clash who was miraculously doing an added show to their run at Bonds. That year I also saw Gang of Four and The Cure at The Ritz. Each time into the city I would go to Bleeker Bobs to pick up another big batch of records. And I bought Signals. I’ll never forget that first listen when I finally made it back to my stereo in Ithaca. The prominence of the bass was the first thing that struck me. At the time I’d have to say I was a total anglophile, and the bass playing of Jah Wobble in P.I.L., Dave Allen of Gang of Four, and Peter Hook of Joy Division was what had drawn me in. I got the feeling that Clint Conley probably liked that stuff too as I listened to the opening of “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver.” This was the post-punk that I was immersed in, but American. The guitar was jagged, Peter Prescott’s drums were powerful, the bass melodic – but once the chorus kicked in I knew I was listening to something that would change me. It wasn’t so much the lyric, powerful as it was; it was more the way the whole band sung it. Part of the greatness of Burma is the democracy of the vocals. Everybody (except Martin Swope behind the board and the loops) sings and everybody sings with passion.

I didn’t know as much what to make of the second track, “Outlaw.” It definitely had the jagged edges of the British post-punk I was familiar with, but there were a lot of moving parts (an inadvertent pun – Moving Parts was Roger Miller and Conley’s first band together).  At the time, I wasn’t hip to Pere Ubu, and Miller’s dada-influenced lyrics even seemed to translate to the song structure.  Still, the shouted lyric, “Now I am an outlaw,” resonated.

“Fame And Fortune” is the third track.  Sing-song rhyme and a driving beat give way to the great three vocal chorus. It’s the break that does it for me though. Roger’s feedback is different to the Pete Townshend feedback I grew up with. This was more like the Patti Smith Group Radio Ethiopia feedback that channeled a different beast. The bass comes in – I’m a sucker for building a song in layers. Then the vocal chant – “The beginning at the ending” and “One goes up, one goes down” joins the fray. The last verse gives way to repeating, “Fame and fortune is a stupid game and fame and fortune is the game I play.” And then the “ohs” carry it out – genius.

“This Is Not A Photograph” has a Gang of Four feel to it for me; Roger shows why he is one of the greatest guitar players ever. Short and immediate – a thrill ride.

“Red” is the song where you notice the looping of Martin Swope that made him a unique member of the band, who didn’t appear on stage.  The way the vocals are used instrumentally is brilliant mixed with the guitars, drums and bass.

The instrumental, “All World Cowboy Romance,” closes the record. The repetition and build-up of energy reminds me a lot of Joy Division – you can imagine Ian Curtis singing at some point.

I lived in an apartment in Ithaca above a store on the part of State Street that was closed to traffic.  I used to put my speakers close to the open windows and play this record really loud just hoping somebody would walk by and think to themselves, “wow, somebody very hip lives up there – wonder if they want to party,” but, alas, I finished my half-year there without ever meeting anybody and eventually made my way back to Chicago.

I saw Burma in 1982 in Chicago at a little club called C.O.D. – a cramped little basement with crappy sound. The opening band had some equipment problems and pushed M.O.B.’s headlining set until way past one in the morning.  They were louder than god.  I love live music for the sheer physical force of it, and standing directly in front of the stage was an amazing experience.  My head was blown off.  I had a new favorite band. I walked home in a daze.

The next time through Chicago, Roger Miller was wearing protective earphones and it was no surprise. The group disbanded after that tour (a lot of The Horrible Truth About Burma was recorded that night) because of Roger’s tinnitus.

Signals, Calls, And Marches was considered post-punk, but it was instrumental in kicking-off the American indie scene.  I don’t think Ace of Hearts Records put out much (The Lyres were great too!), but soon thereafter SST, Down There, and Twin Tone would be ramping up.  Mission of Burma is back now making music and sounding as good as ever. And they’re still loud as fuck.

Notes On The Artist:

Since 1983, Chicago-dweller Rick Rizzo has been the lead singer, freewheeling guitarist and main songwriter of Eleventh Dream Day, a band whose pioneering sonic evolution, life-affirming democratic energy and strong survivalist streak should be recognized with the same love and respect given to still-functioning contemporaries such as Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo.

With Eleventh Dream Day having switched to a part-time existence in the mid-‘90s – to allow more time for parenthood, day-job career changes, vocalist/drummer Janet Beveridge Bean’s key role in Freakwater and bassist Doug McCombs’ paternalistic position in the Tortoise family tree – Rizzo has generously lent his intuitive and adaptable talents to the recordings of Edith Frost, Smog, Steve Wynn, Califone, Boxhead Ensemble and Plush.

Additionally, Rizzo has built and sustained a long-distance collaborative relationship with Antietam’s Tara Key, which has yielded two indispensible instrumental albums from the twosome; 2000’s diverse Dark Edson Tiger and this year’s divine Double Star.

After another half-decade or so on hiatus from the studio – aside from a truly exceptional contribution to Thrill Jockey’s 15th birthday 7″ boxset in 2007 – Eleventh Dream Day’s rambunctious and alluring new album, Riot Now!, is out also now on the same label.

Eleventh Dream Day – “Satellite”

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Rick Rizzo and Tara Key – “Hungry”

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Radiohead – The King of Limbs

It’s always been Radiohead‘s way of doing things. Even when they were travelling through strong guitar rock and creating long-play albums with a substantial amount of music, they were always going against the grain, on their distinctive path. It’s that trail-blazing approach that has always made them far more engrossing, far more innovative and far more rewarding to all of their fans. And building such a diverse discography, with continuing methods in not just marketing but of course, their new dynamic forays into music, has left everyone always stunned and amazed with whatever they create next. The King of Limbs is still, everything you could possibly expect from a Radiohead album made in the 21st century: brilliantly composed with magnificent styles and sounds, the kind of music that demands attention and care, and an album that is, like all other Radiohead albums, essential.

I guess it’s wrong in this day and age to flower something so much; I’m sure all superlatives for Radiohead have been well spent. But it’s interesting to note some of the critics’ knee-jerk reaction to the music on The King of Limbs. Surely the way the album was recorded, in contrast to In Rainbows, had a lasting effect on the album’s overall recording. Eight albums in, with eight songs and just over 37 minutes long, this is Radiohead’s shortest album. Also, the songs on In Rainbows lived with the band prior to being recorded and thus, many of the songs were formed and aligned through their touring schedule. So while both albums are obviously different, they are albums of their respective times. Thom Yorke has always made it well known that going into a studio is one of the least favorites tasks to partake in so we must’ve known we weren’t getting In Rainbows Part Two right? And with all the hints the band drops, I think it’s safe to say that everything always seems to fall into place.

So yes, at first and simply because it’s still been less than a week, sure, the album is still a lot to take in. Someone said that it was a ‘hard album to review’ but I’m not sure what that’s really supposed to mean. There’s nothing to wonder about with something as electronically-glittered as “Feral” and its spellbinding rhythms, while a song like “Give up the Ghost,” showcases the band’s influences and neatly places a focus on them. Raw and sounding like it was recorded in a wide open space, Neil Young is easily the most distinguished nod and Yorke’s vocals stretch a wide range. Buried deep towards the end, it’s definitely the album’s most daring move and probably why it’s so downright memorable. Yorke’s voice has always been the star – to be cliché: the voice of the band – and once again, things are no different here.

There’s also nothing entirely gloomy about The King of Limbs either. Working with longtime collaborator, Stanley Donwood, the artwork depicts scenes from the woods which are neither gloomy nor uplifting. Donwood took inspiration from old English tales and how they all had similar settings and became fascinated with the idea. And so while the album is probably named after the old oak tree in Savernake Forest, the album is equally dense and filled with amazing sounds. Opening with a jazz polyrhythm, “Bloom” shines with a traverse beat and an opening line (“Open your mouth wide”) that is by far, a superbly fitting way to open The King of Limbs. And to end everything, there’s the space-y, ethereal feel of “Separator,” as Yorke poignantly sings “If you think this is over…then you’re wrong.”

Like every other album, there are the trademarks we’ve all come to grow and love from the band and by the end of this, all of the most loving adjectives one could shower on an album will be spread all over The King of Limbs. It’s definitely an album you can sink your teeth into and as time passes, with more passing listens and as more guided ears catch on, there’ll be no denying its place in the band’s prestigious canon. The beauty of the album is deeply rooted in creating significantly gorgeous music with impeccable results and so in the end, it’s still just like we thought it would be: Radiohead coming up pure rainbows.

TBD Records

Bardo Pond – S/T

When a band has been making LPs for over two decades and release an album after a gap of five years between full-lengths, comparisons to past efforts are assuredly unavoidable. But not here. Somehow Bardo Pond releases have managed to elude my ears all these years, so this review comes to you unencumbered by expectation.

This self-titled LP is purported to be a distillation of the Philadelphia psych-rock band’s cauldron of drugged-out space jams. It’s steeped in 70′s space-rock and favors heavy, free-form muscle chords over structured songwriting, while maintaining psychedelic underpinnings.

Opening tracks “Just Once” and “Don’t Know About You” parallel the musical explorations of Acid Mothers Temple with wailing, screeching guitar solos on top of chugging, fuzzed-out guitar chords amid walls of distortion and feedback. “Sleeping” follows with a less frenetic pace, employing eerie synth washes and spacey guitars, but it never quite takes off and sounds more like something a hard rock band would use as a cool intro. “Undone” is an unstructured piece featuring wiry guitar solos with plenty of wah-wah and fuzz. “Cracker Wrist” is a long, two-part rocker that starts with ghostly, Radiohead-sounding guitars and electronic noodlings that transforms into an acid-rock jam with a swirling mix of turbulent guitars, thundering bass and hammering drums and cymbal crashes. Closer “Wayne’s Tune” is the album’s best track. It’s spacey, undulating rhythms conjure feelings of floating on a calm sea at night after the passing of a raging storm. Yet the calm sea is shrouded in fog as you drift by mysterious islands inhabited by alien ghosts.

Tempering the frenzied atmospherics are the powerful vocals of Isobel Sollenberger. Sometimes sounding like a drunken Sheryl Crow, but mostly like a stoner Goddess and often functioning as a calming influence, the vocals provide a focus that the music sometimes lacks.

Music pioneer Brian Eno once said, “Avant-garde music is sort of research music. You’re glad someone’s done it but you don’t necessarily want to listen to it”. Bardo Pond is not necessarily Avant-garde, but neither is it easy listening. It does however, defy categorization and perhaps with a little less unguided frenzy and a little more tempered structure would allow this reviewer to recommend it.

Fire Records

Total Fucking Destruction – Hater

From the moment of their creation as the 21st Century began Total Fucking Destruction has been striving to experiment with sound and noise, in the process making their grindcore sound imaginative and intriguing. They now return with their third full length album Hater carrying the same aim and newer bolts of furious, titanic, stabs of power. How to define Total Fucking Destruction – they cross, fuse and take things from all areas metal and beyond, adding their own creative talents and emerge with something original, the only way to know is to listen and I certainly recommend that.

Bulging at 27 songs Hater is a ride of attitude and defiance, and full of tracks where any written descriptions of them here would probably last longer. Tracks range from seconds to less than two minutes on average, the punk premise in full use, ‘why over indulge when you can get it all in and hit hard and perfectly in just over the minute mark.’ Tracks like “Crypto Apoptosis” and “I Not Pose”, an epic at over 3 minutes, burst and growl over addictive hooks, and throughout this release delicious grooves support the measured chaos wonderfully. These are songs of at times musical genius and at others flares of unique invention. Imagine splashes of Ministry, Lard and Napalm Death thrown into a maelstrom of raw angry metal and you get an idea of the great sound on Hater, an idea but it is much, much more than anything you are imagining.

Vocalist/drummer and the founder of Total Fucking Destruction, Rich Hoak, snarls and spits out each track but can sing with great control when needed and is a great contrast to the at times jazz groove riffs like in “A Cold And Lonely Place”, roaring with the thrash, metal, punk, hardcore attack, the closing “Human Is The Bastard” the perfect example. Tracks like “Love grinder”, “Meat Without Feet”, the popular favourite with most “Time Theft” and the one for me that stands out above the rest “Repeat Repeatedly”, with a hint of Dillinger Escape Plan, leap into the ear and throw punches whilst one smiles and asks for more. Some of the songs stand out over others but there is not a weakness on the album, it flows with a consistency rarely found on the majority of other releases. Total Fucking Destruction make no apologies for making sounds that stand in your face and scream, and I make no apologies in raving about this album and telling anyone that loves their metal raw, hard and unrelenting to check it out.

Translation Loss Records

New Album from Emily Arin

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With a plaintive, delicate voice, Montour Falls, New York’s, Emily Arin weaves tales concerned with the heavy graces of being human. Working with noted producers, Brian McTear (Matt Pond PA, Sharon Van Etten) and Greg Weeks (Espers), Arin has crafted songs with a wide-ranging mix of influences, from Hank Williams and Memphis Minnie to Nick Drake, Caetano Veloso, Tom Waits, Sybille Baier and Gillian Welch on her debut studio album, Patch of Land, available February 8th, 2011.

In recent years, Arin’s songs have captured the attention of radio luminary, Vin Scelsa (“Idiot’s Delight,” WFUV), who said “‘When You Knew Me When’ (

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) just blows me away. Makes me cry every time. The album is beautiful. A total success. It is like a warm embrace.” The track is the album’s first single and also features Arin’s beautiful electric guitar work.

In her lyrics, Arin explores experiences where shadows and light converge and transformation is offered as a possibility. Whether autobiographical songs of love and longing, or third person waltzes and ballads (as in Patch of Land’s “Sweetly Breathe”), Arin’s inventiveness with language and melody hold court. “Songwriting for me is a process of distillation,” she says. “My aim is to repeatedly filter an idea and emotion to form an honest vehicle for sharing life’s poignancy, playfulness and mystery.”

MySpace Site: http://www.myspace.com/emilyarin

Q&A with Randy Torres

Burzum – “Jeg Faller” (“I Am Falling”)

Varg Vikernes is back with a brand new Burzum album titled Fallen, set for release on March 7, 2011. Just one year after Belus it seemed that this style is, and always will be, there in all its glory. Yet with Fallen a new and interesting sound has risen. Obviously different than Burzum’s first offering which Vikernes set out making with the intention of an “anti-production” aesthetic. Using headphones as a mic and the smallest, worst sounding amp to create the most influential album in the Black Metal scene, even though Vikernes despises the term having any relevance to Burzum. Track two off of Fallen is titled “Jeg Faller” (“I Am Falling”). With “Jeg Faller”, we’re introduced to a thinker sound and a more aggressive vocal delivery from Vikernes – something that could be confused with Tim Curry’s character Darkness in Legend or an antagonist puppet from Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal.

This is quite an explosive moment for fans of Burzum. With his ninth release, Vikernes keeps us on the edge, making music worthy of the utmost respect.With operatic harmonies, “Jeg Faller” is track two, yet all seven tracks off of Fallen should be looked at as a whole. I said this back in March of 2010 when I reviewed “Glemselens Elv” off of Belus. Fallen will be categorised as a Black Metal release, yet it will ultimately defy categorization. Burzum belongs in the same arena as The Melvins. Although both can be slated as metal bands, no two releases are alike. When you visit a record shop and see these bands in rock, you have to wonder about it. I will conclude with this, Fallen is Varg Vikernes at his finest. Bands release garbage all the time and a lot of bands are simply garbage. Since 1991, even while incarcerated, Vikernes has kept our pulses pumping with each track off of each release. Something as simple as that is such a rarity these days. We must commend him for that, all the while biting out nails for the release of album number ten in 2012.

snowing – I Could Do Whatever I Wanted If I Wanted

How would I characterize snowing’s first full length I Could Do Whatever I Wanted If I Wanted? Well, imagine if all the alternative bands of the 90’s collided with one another and merged. The result of this tragic catastrophic collision would more than likely sound something like snowing. Take the nasally vocals from your favorite punk and pop-punk bands, add a dash of emo inspired lyrics, throw in post hardcore/math rock inspired noodly chord progressions and riffs , and the eccentric and complex time signatures of any experimental/noise rock bands and… Voila! Through all of this we arrive at the furiously ironic and original sound of snowing.

snowing is best described as the strange and estranged offspring of NOFX , U.S. Maple, and a little bit of Cap’n Jazz. Their new LP I Could do Whatever I Wanted if I Wanted helps cement them as a rare hybrid that will catch most by surprise. In all honesty they are often labeled emo but they have more in common with their punk brethren, except for the more inwardly focused lyrics, and their sometimes math influenced play style. I Could Do… is a bit different from their EP Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit, in that the math rock elements are downplayed in favor of a more straight forward, post hardcore styled sound. This is interesting in that the math element was what initially attracted me to snowing. So, what you should expect is a more infectious feel to the songs as they are slightly more poppy, and not in the pejorative sense. Suffice to say I was a bit skeptical as to whether they could pull off a more cohesive sound and still keep their charm, but they managed to pass with flying colors easily surpassing the sound of Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit.

Each track is easily accessible, containing the complex interweaving guitar lines and the raw meandering instrumentation we have come to expect from snowing. The drumming is on point and manages to be felt, more than heard, at times. The sound is more focused and polished and this is a result of the production values, but it also comes from the fact that snowing is maturing and coming together more as a band. Standout tracks are the somewhat somber “Damp Feathers”, the somewhat humorous and introspective “Mark Z Danielewski”, and the upbeat “KJ Jammin”. The vocals are, as one would expect, quite nasally; to me it works simply because at the end of the day this is a staple of most punk and punk influenced bands. With that being said, the witty titles, the tongue in cheek wordplay, and humorous anecdotes are still there. This is what we have come to expect from them and, basically, snowing is still about making good music and not taking themselves too seriously.

Will snowing win over new fans with this release? It is definitely possible, snowing has not abandoned their original sound, they just slightly tweaked it. So, do not expect a totally different auditory experience or you will be disappointed.Would I recommend this album for snowing fans? Absolutely. There seems to be a divide in music now and it is this, people assume music has to either be deep and complex or fun and popcorn-y. There is no happy medium; however, snowing proves this myth to be wrong. They have balanced complexity with upbeat humor, and have done so without sacrificing their artistic integrity or becoming self indulgent.

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