RESEÑAS "MY DEAR FREAKS II"
RESEÑAS "DONDE HABITE EL OLVIDO"
HEATHEN HARVEST
Spain have produced a lot of great artists in the Dark Folk, Medieval, Neo Classical and Post Industrial genre so why not gather a bunch together on a collage of magical songs and visions of another world? Said and done My Dear Freaks 2 is the ascendant of the first, namely My Dear Freaks, in the collection of great and inspiring music from the land down south. On for the ride is also Kutna Hora of Argentina and The Joy of Nature of Portugal, all together it is a wild rush through magical forests and shady cafes.
Starting out on the album is a track that I assume is created by the people behind the record label Le Defuncion, or at least that’s the only logical explanation I have for the name. It is basically a rhythmical song with a buzz of horns added to it along with some weird almost chanting of a female and some screams at the end. It is a good intro I guess although to short to really say anything. It gets followed up with Eyes of the Lost by Der Blaue Reiter, a song that reminds me a lot of martial projects such as Dernière Volonté or maybe Rome although with that charming Spanish accent to the English vocals. The third track by Persona is quite different with its ambience in the beginning leaning more and more over into a silent chorus of flutes and enchanting female vocals, it is really a soothing and lovely track filled with exotic visions of magic long lost. The fourth track by Eldar is another martial industrial track with a chanting male voice speaking in the background, quite majestic in its essence. The fifth track by Silent Love of Death really appeals to me with its minimal ambient landscape and its mysterious almost ritual vocals and static slow drumming, like a slowly draining nightmare. The sixth track by The Joy of Natura is slowly instrumental folkloric song played by flute, strings and the gentle sound of pouring water. It then changes mood into a more bizarre instrumental twist like that of Devil Doll, redeeming but still its intro is the strong part. Next up is Ô Paradis with a folkish song that adds some bizarre choirs mixed into the more rural and quite parts.
Number eight by Kuu is just weird, some Arabic sounding background to a steady bass and some guy who apparently hate our neighbours. Kutna Hora delivers a song with a mix of both pop and neo folk, its quite good but the message makes me wanna puke. Fayrierie is ye olde Spanish neo folk with strings and a lamenting make vocal, I cant really complain but not my piece of music. Narsilion is splendid as always with their fae-inspired music that actually breaks through even my harsh surface, I have a true genuine love for this band and all their spinoff project including Trobar de Morte and Der Blau Reiter. The music of this retinue is dreamy, enchanting and inspiring and it is no mystery that all three appear on this very album. It would be a great buy just for the three acts alone so consider the rest a big bonus. Since I have already mentioned Trobar de Morte number thirteen is Las Gueta La Runa with a quite basic, neofolkish and catchy song, however the mix is somewhat bad and the buzz tend to go through my speaker when the female vocals peaks. No big downside but still its notable. The last song called outro is performed by, ehm, Caustic Records and is a dreamy and quite interesting mix of ambience, vocals and martial drums. Interesting..
This is a great collection of artists and I would be a fool not to recommend it for the sole purpose of enlightening people around the world of the rich and great material that Spain do contribute with to the underground scene. Get it for the sake of finding a new a ripe group of artists to devote a portion of your economy to or just indulge in those that you have yet to hear..
GOTHIC PARADISE
After the first stellar release of this compilation series, we're presented with a great follow-up presenting some great bands from Spain and a couple of others that have been adopted into this scene. This album is presented in a nice looking tri-fold digi-pack with minimal information about the bands presented and tracklisting. The music is packed in on fourteen unique and captivating pieces.
With the first release of this series, we were first introduced to a few of these excellent bands that are now a solid part of Gothic Paradise, such as Trobar de Morte and Narsilion. Now we have some others that are new at least to me and others that are still very much recognized in the dark music scene such as Der Blaue Reiter, Kutna Hora and Fayrierie. The disc begins with an "Intro" from my good friends at La Defuncion putting together the sounds and spoken word which provides an excellent segue to the militaristic fantasy music of Der Blaue Reiter with a favorite selection "Eyes of the Lost" from their album Silencis. As unique as this band and their style is, it fits remarkably well with what's presented on the rest of this compilation. There are a couple of somewhat experimental pieces, with many delving into the dark ambient recesses of the genre with selections from Eldar, Silent Love Of Death and The Joy Of Nature providing a trio of dark, dreamy and atmospheric pieces. These are all pieces that fans of the dark, brooding nature of ghost ambient and dark ambient music will love with deep, heavy or whispered vocals.
The rest of the album is fairly cohesive and stays on track with the beautiful ethereal, medieval and fantasy music of Narsilion and Trobar de Morte. This style remains a favorite of mine on this disc with Der Blaue Reiter also included with their somewhat crossover sound. Some of the dark folk styles are a nice addition with Kutna Hora and Fayrierie including pieces in the middle of the disk. These are all favorites, not only on this compilation, but overall in these genres and so the inclusion of each artist named above makes this a great collector's item. There are also two new artists I wasn't previously familiar with that make it into my list of favorites at least from this disc. First off the beautiful compositions and vocals from Persona with their piece "Eyes of the Lost" is another great addition to the somber, but beautiful ethereal genres. And right along with the other previously mentioned artists, I believe La Gueta La Runa also fits well with their dreamy selection "Painfullove".
The only reason why I don't give this a perfect rating is for two things. First, the inclusion of Kuu's piece "Why do I hate you, Finland?" which is not that great to begin with, quite experimental and not structured well, though the music does have potential. But on top of that, the quality of the track submission is fuzzy, as if it were a badly recorded CD-R or corrupt or low-quality mp3, plus the track isn't cut well with the first second of another song included at the end. I think if you got rid of that piece, this would be a perfect compilation, which is extremely rare. To finalize the disc, we get another instrumental ending from Caustic Records that is well composed and is a perfect ending for another real gem for any dark music lover's collection.