Cheap Thrills - April 2022
This month: techno, dream pop, thrash metal, and more!
Another month brings yet another installment of Cheap Thrills, my monthly column dedicated to "name your price" releases on Bandcamp. If you enjoy anything that you hear, please consider spending a few dollars to support the artists!
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Our first entry for April comes from the prolific electronic artist Andre Maximillion, who has released dozens of albums and EPs under the name Haircuts for Men. While I do enjoy that project's chill downtempo style, it was Maximillion's other musical endeavor, Forbidden Cremme, that really grabbed me. it's very hard for me, but i'm learning is the latest release from this particular nom de guerre, sporting a dark techno sound that would feel equally appropriate for a warehouse rave or a well-choreographed action sequence—or perhaps an action sequence during a warehouse rave.
I'll be the first to admit that this sort of music isn't typically in my wheelhouse, but even found it hard to resist these propulsive electronic beats. Not only that—the album boasts a surprising amount of variety despite the fairly steady tempo throughout. Maximillion skillfully weaves together percussion, synths, and samples of all tones and timbres, and each track becomes its own musical odyssey with multiple movements and motifs. I didn't think that a 54 minute techno album would hold my attention for its entire run time, but Forbidden Cremme has thankfully proven me wrong with this one!
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Up next is another artist that took me completely by surprise. Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Romero has become my new guilty pleasure as of late. Turn it On! is their first album, but you wouldn't know it from how confidently the band plays their dangerously catchy brand of power pop. It's time to turn up your car stereo and roll down the windows; we're going for a ride.
Romero's sound is a tightly crafted nostalgia bomb that combines old school pop rock with a healthy dose of punk swagger. Imagine The Go-Go's cranked up to 11 and you'll be on the right track. The band members sound like they're having the time of their lives, and their enthusiasm quickly becomes infectious. Vocalist Allana Oliver belts out hook after delightful hook to make nearly every track memorable (she reminds me of a young Gwen Stefani, but that is thankfully the only similarity between Romero and No Doubt). Meanwhile, the rest of the band provides the perfect accompaniment with their upbeat riffs, tasteful licks and fills, and even some cowbell. Romero isn't reinventing the wheel with Turn it On!. but when they're having this much fun, who cares?
Don’t wait wait wait on a memory
You’ll be wait wait waiting forever
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Last month's entry featured a solo bedroom musician called Parannoul, whose hyper-distorted take on emo and shoegaze had me positively buzzing with enthusiasm...or maybe that was just my entire desk shaking. In any case, some combination of internet algorithms brought another Korean solo artist to my attention, one by the name of Della Zyr. Her debut album, Vitamins and Apprehension, wraps listeners in lush, dreamy layers of guitar and vocals, and while it may share some lyrical themes in common with the aforementioned Parranoul, it is a much more subdued affair, telling the story of "a young boy who finds it difficult to accept that he loves watching the sun rise."
Perhaps this is the recency bias talking, but I'll say it anyway: Vitamins and Apprehension contains some of the most beautiful musical passages I have heard all year. Della's greatest strength as a composer is her ability to explore the many shades of melancholy with a delicate, thoughtful touch. Take the album's centerpiece, the 11-minute "Dream II", for instance. The track cycles between lo-fi bedroom folk, fuzzed out Dinosaur Jr.-esque alt rock, blissful dream pop, and even some Midwest emo for good measure. There are moment of emotional and sonic heaviness to be sure, but rather than wallowing in self-pity, Vitamins' protagonist sounds like each he's ready to face the sunset knowing that it doesn't mark the end of his story.
So for now, I'll just start with one step forward
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Now for something completely different! If you want to fight the power but are lacking the appropriate soundtrack, Surra is a self-described thrashpunk band that really knows how to bring the ruckus. Google Translate tells me that the group's name is Portuguese for "spanking", and that is a pretty good name for a Brazilian band that kicks this much ass.
With their 2019 full-length Escorrendo Pelo Ralo, Surra sits in the sweet spot between metal and punk, making expert use of chunky palm-muted thrash riffage, doubletime grind sections powered by frenetic blast beats, and huge, pit-churning breakdowns. The Portuguese lyrics, delivered with speed and gusto, take aim at your typical targets: oligarchy, state-run media, the military and/or prison-industrial complex, etc. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to start a pit, wage class warfare, or tear up a local skate park.
Desconsideram o papel do povo, que é o motor da história
They disregard the role of the people, which is the engine of history
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While on the topic of punk-adjacent music....Hello sir or ma'am. Do you have a moment to talk about metalcore?
I'll preface this by saying that it's impossible to hold an earnest discussion about metalcore without it turning into a genre-snob debate (in which I would be more than willing to participate). The problem is that metalcore is one of those cases where there is a vast gulf between what a style of music was and what it became, similar to the long, embattled history of "emo". I don't go around calling Rites of Spring "emotive hardcore", so I guess it would be kind of ridiculous to use "metallic hardcore" to describe the wave of thrash and death metal inspired hardcore bands that started cropping up in the mid to late 90's.
Now, I wasn't listening to much heavy music at the time (on account of being in grade school) but when I caught the next big wave about a decade ago thanks to bands like Trap Them, Baptists, and Black Breath, I was immediately hooked. What could be more wholesome than the sound of a bunch of punks bonding over their shared love of Entombed and Discharge? Unfortunately, the wave seemed to crest around 2016 or so, but I have a lot of fun memories from the handful of shows that I fortunate enough to attend. One guy offered to serve as a human shield between me and the pit behind us, a duty that he performed valiantly before giving me a thumbs up, remarking "you've got this!", and then wading headfirst into the fracas. Another show left my ears ringing for several days and eventually gave me minor tinnitus. And in an instance of being at the right place at the right time, a photographer snapped a really neat picture of me shouting at Ryan McKenney.
There haven't been many metalcore acts in recent memory that have scratched the same itch as the aforementioned bands; that is, not until Quebec's own Dark Circles popped up in my recommendations and jolted me awake with a welcome hit of crusty hardcore goodness. It was love at first listen, but don't think that this is just the nostalgia talking. Frantic Death rips and tears with singular focus—the opening seconds tell you all you need to know.
In stark contrast to my previous ravings, I'll keep this short. Frantic Death is an ugly album for an ugly world, containing eight tracks of supremely pissed-off punk prepared just the way I like it. There are relatively few frills to be found, but that's fine by me—Dark Circles hits like freight train and pulls no punches. Everything sound louder than everything else, to the point where it becomes clear that the mix itself is just another bludgeon in the band's arsenal. What's that old saying? When life gives you lemons, everything's a nail?
Pathetic struggle, systemic doom
Nothing matters, born for the tomb
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Our final album for this month is brought to you by Majesty of the Crimson Moon, an enigmatic black metal act from Quebec (imagine that - two Quebecois bands in one month!). There's not much information out there about them, but based on the fact that it's a raw black metal album on Bandcamp, there's a good chance that this probably the work of a solo musician. Maybe I'm wrong. In any case, The Whispering of the Fullmoon is the project's debut album, composed of two lengthy tracks that convey both majesty and mystery. The surprising star of the show is the synth work, which is not a sentence that I have thought, said aloud, or written about any metal album. I think that qualifies as "high praise" in my book.
This ain't my first black metal rodeo, and I've listened to enough of the genre to know I can be fairly hot and cold with synthesizers depending on their implementation. I can appreciate the ambience provided by some well placed keyboards, but there is an upper limit of how much I can tolerate until I start wondering if I'm still listening to a metal album (I'm looking at you, Summoning). Thankfully, the interplay between the tremulous synth organ and winding, tremolo-picked guitar riffs on this album is fantastic, creating eerie pockets of dissonance and counterpoint. The end result is a uniquely haunting atmosphere that perfectly suits the albums gothic/vampiric/lycanthropic themes.
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That's all for April! Join me next month for more rad tunes. Remember to support the artists if you can - "name your price" is a beautiful thing!
Cheers.