Review: CMX - Talvikuningas

Album

I'm going to take another break from the Bandcamp series for an overdue review of one of my Christmas presents.

Allow me to provide a little perspective: someone you know wants to give you a gift. This person knows you really like music, and may even recognize a particular genre you're into. Clearly, an album of such a genre would be an excellent gift.

In many cases, it'll be a friend who knows you like, say, 1990s alternative, but doesn't know anything about it. So they rely on web searches or the suggestion of the wannabe hipster at Sam Goody (does that store even still exist?). In all likelihood, they end up giving you something you already have, like Siamese Dream. Or worse, anything by Phish. The thought was there, so you thank them and try to figure out if you can exchange the thing somewhere (unless it was Phish, in which case you'd almost rather listen to it than be seen in public with it, and you're probably seriously reconsidering the whole "friends" thing).

Now imagine that instead of a friend, it's your significant other who's been living with you and your music collection for some years. She has unique interests in other areas (say, foreign languages) that might randomly lead to them finding reference to a band or album that you've never heard of and probably never would have. So on Christmas Day, you end up with a Finnish, progressive-metal, sci-fi concept album that's next to impossible to find in the US. Cool! I love you, honey!

*BC Series* Review: Cloudkicker - Beacons

Blog
Album

Back to the Bandcamp releases. This was the album that made me aware of the site, having been recommended by some site that I found in a random search for free music. Clearly, I was impressed enough to take great interest in the site, so it would seem I owe a lot to this album.

Cloudkicker is a one-man, instrumental progressive rock/metal project out of Columbus, Ohio. While my preferences in prog-rock are typically based on high-quality instrumentation, I generally lean toward acts with talented vocalists and interesting lyrical themes. It's a genre in which instrumental projects are usually very pretentious, and often boring. Cloudkicker doesn't come off that way to me.

Upcoming Release: Dragonfly Lingo - Flux

I don't intend to make a habit of coming back to an artist after only one other review, but with the release of Dragonfly Lingo's highly anticipated EP Flux just around the corner (scheduled to drop on Valentine's Day), I think I've waited long enough.

*BC series* New Release: Dragonfly Lingo - Offscreen

Blog/Website
Album

I'm starting off my series of Bandcamp reviews with what is so far my favorite work amongst the electronic stuff I've checked out.

Having designed sound for stage productions and at least one piece for an independent film (which unfortunately didn't make the final cut) gives Dragonfly Lingo's Mitia Wexler a bit of an edge in implementing the concept for his debut album, Offscreen.

Website: Bandcamp

Every now and then, a music-oriented website comes to my attention and really impresses me. MySpace started out as a nifty idea for the independent artist, but the potential for abuse and shift in direction was obvious from the get-go. When I first found mp3.com over a decade ago, it was a fantastic site for discovering lesser-known artists, but they whored themselves out pretty quickly.

I finally found the perfect spiritual successor to mp3.com, and it looks like they've implemented a solid model with great potential. It's the perfect example for the direction the music industry should be taking in the age of the Internet. The name of the site is Bandcamp, and when I first discovered it about two months ago, I decided right away that it should be the subject of my first website review. After giving it some time and thought, here are my observations.