Tag: slowcore

Single Premiere: “Well Understood”

preorder the album on bandcamp

“Well Understood” is the latest single from Superflaw, the side project of Anthony Cunard, lead vocalist of Blanky, collaborating with Edward Madill from the band WYLA and Daniel Ryan, released Today January 25th as the last single from their upcoming album “Fictitious”, to be released this January 29th on Manor Records.

The track is a dirty slow waltz with a heavy bluesy edge, guitars take center stage and keep elbowing even while it’s Anthony’s turn to show up and share with us a cautionary tale of longing for the wrong person, almost as he’s headed into a deliberate car crash and he makes his best effort to keep his eyes open, as he sings in a raw, visceral howl:

and I tried so hard to avoid dependence throughout my childhood.
but I’m here with you now always up to no good.

Anthony delivers the lines in a somewhat drifting fashion, showing little regard for lyrical structure, giving the tune a stream-of-consciousness feel, as if he’s exposing an inner dialogue with us, the listeners:

and I tried so hard to show you that I could be anything you wanted.
but I’m here with you now and it’s well understood that we’ll be more later if were less in the meantime.

Superflaw – fLTR: Anthony Cunnard, Daniel Ryan, Edward Madill

In conclusion, the single is a wicked yet alluring slowcore ballad, the raw emotion overflowing from the murky guitars and vocals have a strange charm in their special, untidy way, and hard as we might try, we cannot help but keep coming back for more of this.

EP Review: “Not What You Want It To Be”

Buy the 7″ EP directly from the artist
download and stream the ep on bandcamp

“Not What You Want It To Be” is the latest release by Kind of Like Paris, a one man musical project of a musician who goes by the name of Nolan in Lansing, MI.

In a sharp contrast with the individual effort in creating the EP, it was issued by a collaboration of different labels:

The EP was recorded using analog equipment, mainly the legendary TASCAM Portastudio 244, the tape hiss, flat sounding drums and fuzzy guitar sound give the record the aura of an unearthed lo-fi and slowcore relic from the early 90’s.

Musically, the EP is very consistent in its simplicity, each song in introduced by a 1-2-3-4 hit from a closed hi-hat or snare, followed with unassuming guitar lines and chords with not a single solo in sight, setting the stage for Nolan’s songs about alienation, despair and apathy.

The opening track, “Coping” provides us a gloomy glimpse of the writer’s mind:

…Rub some dirt on that wound

It doesn’t help my head

I’ll always be in this mood

A constant state of sad…

My Highlight is the 2nd track, “Pardon”, which portrays the writer’s desperate struggle with love-shyness and loneliness.

…It’s so silly to ask

But I just need to know

I’ve been through so much

I need to be told…

The EP is a stark reminder of the painful times many of us go through in our lives, the main thing that I took from this record is the feeling that no matter how low can our lives get, there’s always someone, anywhere in this world, who will listen, and understand.