Ana Never – Long Turning

Music is one of the greatest lullabies of the soul. Not just any music, great music. Which is going to bring post-rock lovers to the album, Long Turning, by Ana Never.

Long Turning is a work of art. It is not just about the tracks, but the feelings and memories this album emanates. It produces a certain ambience resembling a palliative atmosphere of love and passion. Though only having five songs in the album, the band still reassured its fans of the best forty three minutes of the best kept secrets in post-rock genre. Their first track, named “Tomorrow is the Livelong Day” is a six minute piece creates a relaxation mood as the near silent guitars are joined by the drum’s kicks and snares which slowly build up as the track continues. This track gives the album’s ambient nature as the snares slowly bring the track to a finish. It is surely enjoyable when in a relaxed nature.

The second track in the album, is very captivating such that Ana Never decided to make it the title of the album. “Long Turning”, composed by Goran Grubišić, the main drummer of the band is a ten minute track which enchants the listener right from the beginning with the bass starting out with the guitar to create that postrock feeling. The slow beats of the snares give out its tempo and harmonizes with the guitar then all the other instruments join in very nicely to the end. One can tell that this song is really special after listening to it the first time. The third track brings back the ambience and relaxation mood as violin and piano harmonize to a soothing tune. Named by the band as “I Saw You Today”, this five minute track starts off with a slow tempo which carries on to the end, and drifts off the listener into peaceful thoughts and it also gives the ambience nature of the album.

The fourth track, “Martha” is the longest track of the album, about seventeen and a half minutes long. At the start, the guitar alone is experienced, creating a gentle tempo then later joined by the piano and others. It continues the album’s ambient nature. Upon listening to this track, one can see that it has its special moments especially towards the end when the tempo comes to a rising innuendo. The last track named “Tomorrow is the Livelong Day 2” is merely a partner to the first track of the album, only more emotional. This four and a half minute track slightly differentiates from the first track of the album mainly because of its beats and tempo. The kicks and snares give it a rather funedge and a faster tempo. It is surely an excellent way to finish off the album with.

Ana Never has never disappointed its fans. “Long Turning” which comes after band’s critically acclaimed 2012 album “Small Years”, gets Ana Never’s music land on new surfaces to give new tastes.

Edo Ghost – Yurei

Yurei is the debut Ep from "Edo Ghost," a Japanese-British musician hailing from London UK. The EP consists of one 12 minute epic track which is very much in the post rock genre, however, on a deeper listen, you can hear the subtle Japanese elements within the music, reminiscent of Yoko Kanno and Vangelis, combined this with the "heavy drone riff" guitars, obviously influenced by bands like Smashing Pumpkins and God Speed You! Black Emperor, results in a cinematic experience, conjuring up images of a dark Tokyo dystopia. This is EP sounds like an audible translation of the end of the world!

HeklAa – Songs in F

HeklAa is a post-rock solo project of the French composer Sébastien Touraton from France.

"All the memories and feelings that I gathered during my two trips in the breathtaking Iceland became my musical raw material for this EP. “Songs in F” tells how Iceland has become my home, my mental refuge. " says heklAa.

Iceland is made of mountains, lakes, volcanos, of green and dark oceans. This is where the world was born and where it will die when thousands of comets will fall down on earth. The last tune that will remain will be the deep voice of steindor Andersen. But before that, he will go back to jokulsarlon and live there for the rest of his life.

Songs in F is the album where you can find his inner landscapes. Besides the scenery, post-rock, first of all through the brilliant – and of course Icelandic- band “Sigur Ros”, as well as movie music and new classical artists impacted a lot on the composing and shaping of the four tracks. The EP fluctuates between warm and cold, shadow and light, serenity and threat, just like the island.

Fragile Balance – Candlelight Sessions

Blending the diverse styles of instrumental music, Fragile Balance treads diverse artistic terrain to create a cohesive sound marked by both its meditational and passionate aspects. Formed in 2010 in by El Paso natives Nico Antuna Cooper and Cruz Barajas Lujan, the duo combines disparate genres to style their music on both steel-string and Spanish guitar.

In many ways the spiritual successors of Windham Hill new age artists like Will Ackerman, Fragile Balance fuses this relaxing and introspective sound with the techniques of modern fingerstyle players like Andy McKee and Sergio Altamura. At the same time, the band draws equal inspiration from the dynamics and emotion of fellow regional West Texas post-rock bands like Explosions in the Sky and Balmorhea. It is in the unique manner in which these styles compliment and diverge from each other that gives Fragile Balance their unique sound. The final output is a sound at home as much in reflective self-meditation as it is in a lively gathering.

Expressing honest emotions through music has always been part of Fragile Balance’s mantra, but it is on their latest record, Candlelight Sessions, that this vision has truly become a reality. Recorded live in an empty art gallery in El Paso, Texas surrounded by hundreds of candles, the ambiance of the recording location reflects the ambience of the music. The pieces tread the ground between meditative atmosphere and passionate leads, while maintaining an air of sophistication and balance, beginning with the fingerstyle-meets-post-rock crescendo of “Let Me Go” and culminating with a classical guitar arrangement of Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi’s “I Giorni”.

Elara – In the Depths of Time, in an Ocean Made of Stars

One of the best post-rock bands from Italy, Elara creates epic post-rock pieces. Opening with 19 minutes 43 seconds breathtaking piece "Tell Me Your Theme and I’ll Show You the World" this release will provide you sweet sour listening experience.

In the Depths of Time, in an Ocean Made of Stars is Elara's second studio album. This is a record that they love to define as 'intimate' because it has been created slowly, in home sessions. During these sessions every member of the band suggested melodies and ideas that have then created the whole: a surge of melodies that create an actual concept. A concept that came together almost by chance, taking inspiration from one of Tolkien's masterpieces, The Silmarillion, in which the English writer succeeds in describing the creation of his imaginary world through a 'musical battle' between divine creatures. With the same spirit they tried to compose a coherent sequence of movements and melodies that would run one after the other, create expectation, suspension
and sudden explosions.

All these effects were created to lead the listener through the whole 30 minutes recording to the final definition of a perfect universe: everlasting and covered by infinity of stars, bright remaining of the battle that just ended.

Code I – A Deep Red

Code I's soundscapes, intertwining harmonies and gentle guitar melodies take you on a journey through sound. They let your mind wander to new plateaus and bask in the audible sunshine, only to be interrupted by the eviscerating blows of desperate guitars and drums, transporting you to new worlds, a complete contrast to the ones you left behind. Code I’s innovative post rock - which forces you from one extreme to the other - connects hints of metal, hardcore and heavy rock, complete with intermingling segues of ambient and even orchestral. Code I has entered the post rock world, and kicked into its teeth a new, edgy niche, one which may be young but has the strength of all that came before, and adds to the genre a vitally fresh aesthetic of depth and introspection.

Code I has always combined elegant ambient sequences within his work; creating beautiful soundscapes and cerebral melodies that are only halted by the barrage of his rock and metal roots. ‘A Deep Red‘, is no exception.

Within this record, Code I’s home grown metal and rock roots flourish, these are most noticeable on the tracks ‘Broken Down’ and ‘Mesmerize’. This is not to say that Code I’s dark tonal elements have been made redundant, not at all. ‘A Deep Red’ takes you on a journey of slow burning guitar melodies, delicate sonic trade-offs and hard hitting guitars make this album an expedition of emotional and heart soothing proportions.

We Deserve This – Pacific

We Deserve This is a one man project formed in the year 2010 by Jan-Dirk Platek. The music can find itself a place in the post-rock, post-metal area in the genres palette.

Jan was born in 1976 in Germany and he is a multi-instrumentalist who plays all the instruments on the record. He thinks that the biggest influence was his grandfather in his musical journey. The grandfather was a music teacher and helped him to learn to play various instruments pretty fast. Also he works as a sound and light technician in a theatre in Germany. He says that this playing with sounds and lights has helped him to look at the things in different angles which also influences the way he makes music.

Pacific is a very dark record with lots of post-metal influences. Heavy riffs combined with melancholic melodies are creating a massive wall-of-sound. Jan says "We Deserve This has a lot of different influences but Pacific is the darkest record in my mind-blowing discography." If you need a dark, heavy record with catchy riffs than this is exactly what you need. You can chill to these record but also bang your head as hard as you can - both aspects are included.

Patient, Patient – Of Illusions and the Way to Find

Patient, Patient is a post-rock band based in a small town in Germany. With their evolution from indie-rock to post-rock Patient, Patient finally finished their first album “Of Illusions and the Way to Find”. Influenced by various post-rock and shoegaze artists they design an enormous soundscape out of synthesizers and modulated guitars. Those, mixed with possessive vocals and heavy drums create a very unique, melancholic atmosphere.

“Of Illusions and the Way to Find” is about the urge to find something in life. However, we often make our way more complicated than it is. We lend ourselves to illusions which disguise our sight, which veil the truth, which knock us off course. This is what Patient, Patient manifest in their album with poetic lyrics and uncommon harmonies. Also Markus Siegenhort of Lantlôs who produced the album gave some inspirations to create an even wider sound. Anyway, those nine very distinct tracks invite to dream. To dream about endless widths.

April Rain – One Is Glad To Be Of Service

The 85th release of Fluttery Records is a reissue of April Rain's One Is Glad To Be Of Service.

April Rain began in 2012 as a one-man band in Krasnodon, Ukraine and its first tunes were composed under the influence of Sigur Ros. In 2013, the first album “Waiting For Sunrise” was released. At that time, April Rain was still a one-man band. In 2014, however, the group went through major changes and three more musicians became its vital part, playing on various gigs in Lugansk. Due to the civil war in Ukraine, Valeriy, one of the band members moved to Russia, where the group’s second album and “Songs For Someone” EP were recorded and released. At this time April Rain is 4-piece band situated in Saint-Petersburg. Music of April Rain is pain converted to sounds.

To pursue a horizon that is forever receding, that is the destiny of every human being. What unites humanity as a species is not the way we look, think, or act, but it’s simply the fact that we experience a continuous pain, a sexual drive that leads us to want more. With One Is Glad To Be Of Service, April Rain comprehends this universal pain; a pain that lies within us, which we find in nature and which makes us feel a yearning that unites us all in our humanity.

One Is Glad To Be Of Service is a conscious record. It draws from the depths of human experience; ancient history, contemporary culture, natural phenomena, and mathematics. It finds the human condition to be glorious and sad at the same time. It offers melancholia, without losing touch with that one spark of hope that is the future.

April Rain continuously contemplates the human condition and switches back and forth in a metamodern oscillation between acceptance and rejection. One Is Glad To Be Of Service shows April Rain to be a perfect children of this age. In combining the atmosphere of Mono with the lively energy of Tides From Nebula, he gratefully tips his hat to great instrumental rock acts, yet April Rain constitutes more than the sum of its influences. With One Is Glad To Be Of Service, April Rain feels the heart of our times, and it aches, badly.

Summer Effect – Nothing But Hope

Summer Effect is a post-rock band from Indonesia which was formed in early 2012. Ibo (drums, keys) is the founder. At the end of 2011, he met Aroel (guitar, keys), and since then they have been playing as an instrumental band which blends shoe-gaze, ambient and post-rock.

The band started as a wish to create new atmosphere; reflecting their tastes in music and other forms of art. They create their compositions with simple chord progression bars, wrapped with a pounding drum beats, harmonized guitar tones, a bit of distortion. Then the songs get slowly begin to evolve to shoe-gaze, ambient and post-rock to produce certain vibrations of atmosphere. Their label debut “Starting Over” was released in September 2014 and band got its name out of their country. Soon after they started on their next recording.

The new album “Nothing But Hope” has interesting, unique and colorful nuance in each of its song. It has a comfortable sound between instrumental, rock, post-rock, alternative, experimental. Ibo says “We maintain the minimalism and dynamic of our musical nuance. It has more acoustic elements combined with electric guitar harmonies, distortion, keyboard, as well as several other instruments.”

These instruments sometimes get deeper as in the song “Nothing’s Ever Good Enough For You” and sometime they follow more energetic approach. It seems that band members can’t wait to release their new work. Again let’s wait for the response from the fans.

Track List

Ana Never - Long Turning

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Track List

Edo Ghost - Yurei

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Track List

HeklAa - Songs in F

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Fragile Balance - Candlelight Sessions

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Track List

Elara - In The Depths Of Time, In An Ocean Made Of Stars

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Track List

Code I - A Deep Red

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Track List

We Deserve This - Pacific

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Track List

Patient, Patient - Of Illusions and the Way to Find

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Track List

April Rain - One Is Glad To Be Of Service

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Track List

Summer Effect - Nothing But Hope

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