Last week, I reviewed the 'Urban Lonesome' album (read) by Indian one man act Mixtaped Monk. He seemed so pleased with the review that he offered some free download codes and a new addition to our Songs With Stories series. Apparently, our writer Wagner has been listening to the album too. You can find his review below. (Yes, two reviews, because our communication is just as good as any Belgian company...).
On the bottom of this article you can find a bunch of free download codes. We're not going to turn this into a contest. Just be quick, it's first come first serve...
On the bottom of this article you can find a bunch of free download codes. We're not going to turn this into a contest. Just be quick, it's first come first serve...
Pineapple Thief - That Shore
Pineapple Thief has been one of my favourite progressive rock bands in recent memory. And I couldn't believe my ears when I listened to their latest album "Your Wilderness." I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of experimentation the band had done in the album. "That Shore," for me, is a song that I can describe with just two words; "them feels." It is a fantastic experimental ballad that sends shivers down my spine, and makes me emotional at the same time, every time I listen to it. With its lyrics, its feel and its instrumental arrangement, "That Shore" is a song that can make you imagine a story of your own when you listen to it.
Yndi Halda - Helena
I had been waiting for Yndi Halda to release an album for a long time. And when they finally released "Under Summer," the first thing I did was grab a copy of the album. That night, when I played the record in its entirety, I was left speechless and awe-struck at the absolutely stunning soundscape the band had created in the album. And the song I always go back to from the album is "Helena," maybe because I can relate to it the most on a personal level. The loneliness, the longing and the craving for a shelter in another human being, that the song portrays, through its violin cresendos, beautiful basslines and captivating guitar licks, is something I can very well relate to, having experienced those very feelings myself a number of times in my life. For me, this song is love itself with its various intricacies. In fact, I was listening to this song very frequently while composing my own album, "Urban Lonesome." So, it is quite safe to say that I was influenced quite a bit by this song when I recorded my album.
We Lost The Sea - A Gallant Gentleman
I never liked the sound of We Lost The Sea that much until I listened to their last album "Departure Songs" on a Youtube channel called World Has Post Rock. The very first track in the album, "A Gallant Gentleman," is what hooked me to We Lost The Sea forever. It is such an emotional post-rock/instrumental rock track that a few drops of tears literally dropped from my eyes by the time the song ended. The haunting atmospheres, the epic guitar melodies and the vocal layers towards the end together create a feeling of pain, loss and longing that the listener might not forget in a long time. At least, I cannot.
God Is An Astronaut - Vetus Memoria
God Is An Astronaut is one of my favourite post-rock bands of all time. "Vetus Memoria" from their 2015 album "Helios Erebus" is God Is An Astronaut at their best. It has the vintage emotional aspect from the band's earlier songs such as "Forever Lost" and "Beyond The Dying Light," and also the newer heavy feel with distorted guitar rhythms that they tried to portray in their 2013 album, "Origins." That is why I love this song so much. For me it symbolizes a bridge that connects the old and the new to paint a picture that is as endearing as it is powerful.
Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused To Sing
Steven Wilson has been the greatest influence on my music for as long as I can remember. People consider him to be a progressive rock legend and I am one of them. "The Raven That Refused To Sing" is one of the reasons why. It is a song that is as emotional as it is haunting. It portrays the loneliness experienced when you lose someone to the hand of death and also adds a supernatural element in the mix. Believe it or not, this song was the first song I listened to after my father passed away due to cancer two years ago. And I couldn't help but cry like a baby while standing in the crowd when I witnessed Steven Wilson playing it live last year. It is one song that will always remain in my heart no matter what happens.
Mixtaped Monk – Urban Lonesome (album review by Wagner)
Urban Lonesome, released in May 8, is the latest album by Indian independent electronic music artist Arka Sengupta, under his Mixtaped Monk nom de plume. A very concise album, it has six tracks: The Return, City Of Changes, Lonesome Drifter, Futile Festivities, Beyond Anxiety and Acceptance Bliss. An intensely beautiful record with calmer melodies, Urban Lonesome replicates the kindness of its charm exactly by transmitting the dissident solitude of the city landscape, where everything that juxtaposes the soul of a marvelous sorrowfulness conflagrates into an axis of serenity, overwhelmed by an antagonistic principle of conflicting perceptions.
There is, undoubtedly, a special charm relating to the style of the artist: his music has deeply infused feelings of sensibility and drowsiness, while elements of Indian music are present more subtlety. The little variations in rhythm represent an interesting expansion of the density of his thoughts, exhilaratingly intense and captivating, accurately beautiful and energizing. Creative harmonies will expand through the vicinities of your concentration all the majestic vicissitudes of a realm that will enchant the scope of your feelings. Since the record is thoroughly concise, you can listen two times in a row, or even three, if you realty like the music.
The artist behind the work has creativity, originality and vision. He really creates a different kind of sound chemistry through a more eccentric, but thoroughly efficient style, upon which everything becomes centered in the reclusive space of an infinite and colorful dream. Despite some moments of gray haze of profound melancholy, there is a consistent and vital sense of abundant life emerging from the music, that infatuates the listener with a happiness increasingly preordained in the semantics of one’s soul.
For its abundant qualities, and the integrity precisely inserted in its own fundamental dimension of intrinsic devices, Urban Lonesome can be considered – in its own terms – an excellent album. If you like this genre of music, this awesome record is no wrong choice. You will definitely be rejoiced with its magnanimous and ardently intense appeal.
Wagner
There is, undoubtedly, a special charm relating to the style of the artist: his music has deeply infused feelings of sensibility and drowsiness, while elements of Indian music are present more subtlety. The little variations in rhythm represent an interesting expansion of the density of his thoughts, exhilaratingly intense and captivating, accurately beautiful and energizing. Creative harmonies will expand through the vicinities of your concentration all the majestic vicissitudes of a realm that will enchant the scope of your feelings. Since the record is thoroughly concise, you can listen two times in a row, or even three, if you realty like the music.
The artist behind the work has creativity, originality and vision. He really creates a different kind of sound chemistry through a more eccentric, but thoroughly efficient style, upon which everything becomes centered in the reclusive space of an infinite and colorful dream. Despite some moments of gray haze of profound melancholy, there is a consistent and vital sense of abundant life emerging from the music, that infatuates the listener with a happiness increasingly preordained in the semantics of one’s soul.
For its abundant qualities, and the integrity precisely inserted in its own fundamental dimension of intrinsic devices, Urban Lonesome can be considered – in its own terms – an excellent album. If you like this genre of music, this awesome record is no wrong choice. You will definitely be rejoiced with its magnanimous and ardently intense appeal.
Wagner
Downloadcodes for 'Urban Lonesome'
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Download Link to Redeem the codes:
http://mixtapedmonk.bandcamp.com/yum Download Codes: y76t-6rwg ym32-kll3 y8v5-6jps 2kbg-k6bd dyvn-gk4h stgm-ukj5 k97h-kqnf kyls-g95m utpp-3zng mz9b-czvu |
