Your mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open. ~ Frank Zappa
SEE ALL SOUND THROUGH YOUR MIND'S EYE
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Strangefireblog@yahoo.com
Twitter:@Strangefires
Im a musician from Denver
Music should never be about what is trendy.
Music should be about what is INSPIRED and ARTFUL.
I urge you to broaden your horizons
and find beauty in something you might not be used to..
Love, Doran
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Torches ☂ Sky Blue & Ivory
~Challenging the sun~
When I got this track in my email yesterday I just sat back in my chair and basked in the warm glow that is Torches. But the words “warm” and “glow” are truly an understatement, from the very instant you click play “Sky Blue & Ivory” burns as bright as a blazing sun and equally as triumphant.
A while ago, I posed the question if someone were to write some guitar based on a 1/2 step dubstep rhythmic pattern, whether or not it would sound good or not.
That is EXACTLY what “Sky Blue & Ivory” does and wow does it go hard.
Fist pumping drum energy similar to Hooray For Earth’s “True Loves” but with a lot more pop fury. The vocals remind me of Wild Beast’s Tom Fleming and his booming baritone voice especially in the chorus. The guitar has this wonderful noisy jangle in the verses and some sort of backwards tremolo effect during the intro and chorus.
Its pretty simple structure-wise but in essence its a heavy pop song so it doesnt need much to really hook you.
Torches is definitely a band to watch and Im sure you will be hearing a lot more from the band in the near future.
Go follow the band’s soundcloud and Like their Facebook and preorder their 7”
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Izalith ☗ Wilhelm
~Cathedrals Drown in Poison Ivy~ 
Listen to this album while watching the dream sequences from The Cell and you might have an orgasm, just saying.
Izalith is a Seattle band that recently relocated to Denver.
A few weeks ago I was introduced to their music after meeting their primary vocalist Colleen at a goth club known as Deathwish.
The band creates a lush primal sound; breaking down walls and barriers of ancient monoliths with pounding rhythms, ritualistic drones, beautiful worldly vocalisations, industrial-esque ambient soundscapes and the occasional earth shaking guitar riff. This track entitled ”Wilhelm” sounds like a rusty steam powered machine overgrown with plants and weeds, struggling to pull itself free from it’s earthly tethers and about 3/4 of the way through the song the machine succeeds;
triumphantly stomping through lush forests with a spiraling dark melody of pure teeth bearing redemption. The songs on this album flow well together and are all fairly different from eachother, here’s another example of the majesty of Izalith’s sound.
A common theme with this album is a climactic final portion of the songs, and “Chiaroscuro” is probably the finest example of that on the album. Chiaroscuro by lien.m
Listening to their album entitled Gnomon was truly a delightful surprise and I strongly advise you to listen to it in it’s entirety for yourselves.
Go buy the album on the Izalith bandcamp for a price of your choosing as well as give their Facebook a ‘Like”.
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Xodie ☂ Alluring Place From My Dream
~Watching a monsoon from the bottom of a swimming pool~
I have been wanting to post a track by a true blue modern Trip-Hop/Down-Tempo producer for a long long time now.. And now I finally get to do just that.
Xodie(most likely pronounced ‘z’odie or ‘jh’odie) is Roman Shmyryov from Krasnoyarsk, Russia. This guy has got a handful of online accounts and virtually no online notoriety, but hopefully if you’re listening and reading this that all changes as of right now.
The artistry that is Xodie is nothing short of a stunningly beautiful hybrid of
Trip-Hop, Down Tempo, IDM and Psychedelic Ambient sound.
He only has 4 songs released and with them Xodie has filled my ears with bittersweet stormclouds and liquid gloom.
Reminiscent of artists like Microbunny, Inertia, Blue Daisy, The Third Eye Foundation or The Killimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble.
It was so hard to choose which track to use I literally had to flip a coin on which to post and which to embed.
“Alluring Place” takes a minute to really kick in but once it does you get this unbelievable aquatic trip-hop rush into the mental womb that is sleep and dreams themselves. Great programmed drum grooves, bright processed acoustic guitar and wet synthetic little insect-like sounds that splash around throughout the song.
“August Exhalation” is a lot slower, gloomier and a whole lot less aquatic. The scenery and vibe changes to a stormy yet dry sonic aesthetic, in short; its just as good.
Definitely listen to both, trust me they do not disappoint.
August exhalation by Xodie
If you dig the sounds of acts like Massive Attack, Portishead or even Bjork this shouldnt be a stretch for you. Xodie deserves a serious amount of praise and acclaim for what he has created thus far. Show him by FOLLOWING his soundcloud and LIKING his Facebook (Dude has about 11 ‘Likes’ right now and that is totally unacceptable)
ALSO, here is a link to download his EP free of charge <3
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Selva Oscura ☂ Taste Water, Glow Blue
~Dreams of a coral planet~
Another late post because this guy is still sick and needs his bedrest so DEAL WITH IT. This track is about 3 weeks old and I’ve been dying to post it but I have a visual aesthetic to sync up and I HATE deleting imagery so sometimes I cant post what I want right away. Anyway, this is the most recent track released by Texas/Chicago ambient beatmaker prodigy Selva Oscura.
This man is easily one of my top 3 favorites from this whole niche of electronic music, he is pure bliss diving drunkenly into a pool on a hot summer night and exploding back to the surface with a gasp of euphoric life.
This track is pretty laid back and mellow but for what it lacks in energy it makes up for in amazing aquatic atmosphere, there is definitely some retro videogame water level score influence here and believe me Selva takes that torch and really runs with it.. Or swims with it if you will. Its a beautiful track and I recommend listening with a beverage.
Selva Oscura should have a brand new album anytime now so keep tabs on him on soundcloud and bandcamp
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BL▲CK † CEILING ☂ WVFFLIFE
~These are the rituals of the Cough Syrup Cult~
Evening post because I’ve been in bed sick all day watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer because I’m awesome. I’ve been grooving on this album for a few weeks now and I’ve decided despite it’s release being in January that it was still worth sharing since quality Witch House acts are few and far between these days.
Normally I dont go for the whole down pitched/chopped&screwed/dirty south hip-hop style’d Witch House but Black Ceiling has a great ear for melody and dynamics and that totally makes up for it in a big way.
This druggy roller coaster whips you around its corners at just the right speed(slowww) to really pull you in and keep you there.
You can argue the whole “Witch House is dead” spiel but as far as Im concerned quality material is quality material and after ingesting as much cold medicine as I have in the last 24 hours this is sounding just…about…right to me.
Download this album for free from the Aural Sects records bandcamp
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HIVELORDS ✸ II:Diving Goliath Astragals
~I awoke in the arms of the obsidian dreamcatcher~
A wicked piece of Black Metal for you today by HIVELORDS from Philadelphia.
I was turned onto this act by Ethan McCarthy from Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire, another viciously amazing US metal act. Generally if Ethan digs on a band I’d be a bit of a dipshit not to go have a listen at the very least.
HIVELORDS have a devastatingly raw(but not lo-fi) subterranean black metal sound with a lot of doom metal influence as well. The band themselves refer to their music as “Black Smoke Doom Metal” with a lot of emphasis on themes involving ancient manmade structures such as catacombs, cromlechs, and tomb mazes.
It goes without saying that the band’s style can bring your neck hairs to attention.
The cavernous serrated vocal wails, dirging drum grooves that roll into infinite blast beats and ugly yet catchy guitar lines that turn to sludgy cinematic monoliths before it all ends and you start the whole experience over again.
Go buy this 2 track album entitled Grand Cromlech for a price of your choosing from the HIVELORDS bandcamp
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Boletes ☂ Khaki
~Headlights aimed at the carsick horizon~
If you didnt know(I didnt) a Bolete is a general species of mushroom.
Boletes aka Roy Gornall is a unique human being from Edinburgh, Scotland who makes a particularly odd brand of atmospheric folk or “freak folk”(haven’t heard that term in a while).
Admittedly “Khaki” is a slight departure from his other material but I’ve been listening to a lot of Mascis and Barlow related garage/folk stuff over the weekend so this track seemed the most fitting for me to post.
I love how sullen and downtrodden it feels; like you gulped down a fistful of pills for the walk home, washed it down with some whiskey but never made it past the trailing blurry hinterlands your mind created somewhere along the way.
Heartfelt glum chord progressions, trudging drums and strange but very inventive experimental vocal takes in this song make “Khaki” the crowning jewel of Boletes’ debut album “FLAWS” for me.
The album shows a lot of heart but for me can falls short at times.. Which generally I would find fault with but in Boletes’ case and the aptly titled album “FLAWS” makes these little imperfections oddly poetic. It makes me think that Roy Garnall might be one of those musicians who fearlessly leaps into action without being phased by whatever second guesses might be buzzing around in his head.
He definitely seems to be one of those musicians who shows improvement every album he makes by correcting many(if not all) his previous short comings and flaws in previous attempts.
In this day and age these are the types of musicians that learn to persevere and continue to grow as artists as opposed to just fizzle out creatively after their first clash with the infamous “buzz”.
Here’s one more of the stellar tracks from FLAWS entitled “Creature”
Boletes - FLAWS - 02 Creature by boletes
It’s kind of an odd mix but it seems that you can catch Boletes opening for Unicorn Kid in June. For details follow the Boletes tumblr, and check out his bandcamp and soundcloud
