Very cool and eccentric sounding album Nights on Earth by Bolt42 from Wellington.
The release starts off with Voodoo Thursday with brass instruments and random atmospheric sounds, with cool sounding guitar riffs and vocals that remind me of Beck and Pluto. The beat holds the song together. This would sound awesome live.
Interesting drums and percussion on Eelerz, guitars with reverb and delay but the Moog baseline takes over with a deep dark baseline and experimental vocals with freestyle rapping. This song is extraordinary, I'm liking this one. great mix, every song on this album has immense atmospheric sounds going on in the background, brilliant bird chirping outro.
Kunst Lappa (Instrumental) is a nice dance track. An MC could easily add some rhymes to this track. Funky guitar strumming, groovy baseline and the drumbeat sounds like a 808 with a clap sound or 90s hip hop snare. Very tight sounds.
Downtown starts off with eerie sounds and an offbeat drumbeat. The baseline holds the song together with a nice gritty sine wave baseline. The atmospheric sound reminds of something Rob Zombie would make with reverse sound effect, sounding really cool and experimental.
Diamonds Cry is a future dark reggae dub which sounds dark but interesting, I also like this sound. This would sound really good live. Lots of delay and reverb on the guitars and the dominant baseline. Nice vocals, this song works really well with all the different sounds going on. There's an underlying blueprint of which this song is leading to.
Bless The Moon starts off with soft keys followed by some percussion and a bass. Reminds me of something from Kid A, Radiohead, the chords and key signature reminds me of Mars Volta. Funky beat and baseline with brilliant guitars. Massive atmospheric over dub experimentations. A wall of intricate sounds, layers of selected sample manipulation. Lots of delay and experimental vocals, very unique.
Pass Ahead starts with a car alarm and a very eccentric sounding arrangement which is very different sounding. it fades with the same sample into Step Off The Bus. I Love the drumbeat in this track - it's a very strong beat with awesome keys and synths. A bold baseline with loads of chorus and a pitch shifter synthesiser. A very likeable track with a great mix of sound variations. The vocals sound humorous but sound cool, free style vocals at times.
Jetlag starts off sounding nice and chilled with a good flow and steady beat. Nice synth sounds with lots of delay, rim shots and baseline. Then the song tightens up on the keys, the guitars and drumbeat make you drift away to a happy place. Could also be a dancing track. Out of all the songs on the album this one makes complete sense to me. This track is an outstanding production.
Murkism sounds eerie, very distorted bass or guitar, lots of intense atmospheric sounds. A drumbeat creeps out of the mix and disappears and fades back in. Lots of heavy bass and completely random sounds. Must admit, this song would have been a lot of fun to make. A strong tribal percussion beat comes in about halfway through the song. Extreme experimental.
Nights on Earth by Bolt42 is a very unique and experimental 10 track album. Mastermind of complex sounds, I tried to categorise it as Future experimental alternative dub but its hard to put a finger on exactly what genre this is? It definitely has an awesome live feel, a star is born out of chaos.
The tracks are produced from numerous jam sessions in Eel Valley, and feature many good kunts... including DJ Mu (Fat Freddy's Drop), Tehi (Fat Freddy's Drop) Barnaby Weir (Fly My Pretties, The Black Seeds, Flash Harry, Country Dew (oops, that's TV's first band)), MC Dro, Beast (Kuntorian Recliner), Riki Gooch (Cave Circles), DPS (Premature Autopsy) & the Nutsak Allstars...