Of Montreal - Snare Lustrous Doomings - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

'A golden despondency' is how Kevin Barnes translates the meaning behind Aureate Gloom, the title he gave Of Montreal's thirteenth full-length album. The oxymoron is one Barnes says best describes the overall state of his life and mental outlook while working on the record - penning lyrics so personal they sound like entries ripped from a journal that should be permanently kept under lock and key. 'I was going through a very stormy period in my life and felt like I was just completely trashed,' reveals Barnes. 'I might be guilty of sharing or exposing too much of my private life, but to me the best albums are those that help people connect with an artist on a deep, human level and that do so without too much artifice or evasiveness.' Aureate Gloom was recorded directly to tape with musicians Kevin Barnes (guitar, vocals), Clayton Rychlik (drums), Bob Parins (bass), Bennett Lewis (guitar), and JoJo Glide well (keys), plus the help of engineer Drew Vandenberg. The strength of the members' musical rapport was instantly apparent. The group completed nearly a song a day and even wrote a brand new track on the spot, 'Apollyon Of Blue Room,' whose title references a supposedly haunted bedroom in a hacienda on the studio grounds. With Aureate Gloom, Of Montreal have created one of the most unflinching, confessional and starkly emotional albums in their career.

One of Canada's hottest industrial acts is Encephalon from Ottawa. The project featuring Matt Gifford, Sam Mainer (programming, production) and keyboard player Alis Keller (keyboards, visuals, multimedia) is now finally rounding up to present the much anticipated successor to their debut album InchThe Transhuman ConditionInch released by Dependent in 2011. Since then, the band has performed at various festivals in Canada and the US, fortifying their Inchup and comingInch status with energy-bursting live shows. Three years in the making, Encephalon's second album InchPsychogenesisInch possesses a far darker outlook towards the future than it's optimistic counterpart InchThe Transhuman ConditionInch. The new album is focusing on how the luxuries of technology could ultimately weaken the human experience, on nano-phobia, and the grim possibilities that may await those who would attempt to attain immortality at all costs. A soundscape of thunderous orchestras merging with searing electronics weave a vision of organic and mechanical lifeforms colliding as vocalist Matt Gifford's ominous yet versatile narrations let the tracks become chapters in a larger story continuing throughout the album.

Aethermead, the newest offering and 20th full-length album from Of Montreal, finds the band revisiting sounds from their early years, while still pushing artistic boundaries with their iconic style of pop & indie rock. Celebrated for their unique and prolific output, frontperson and primary songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Kevin Barnes recorded the album at Brooklyn's Honey Jar studios with audio engineer, Drew Vandenberg (Faye Webster, Toro y Moi), with basic tracking done live to a 16-track tape machine with Barnes' longtime live band. InchI wanted to capture a quick moment together and to make on-the-fly, spontaneous creative decisions,Inch says Barnes. InchIt felt very liberating and exhilarating to have to start and finish an album in a month's time.Inch The result shimmers with indie pop elements of their 2004 , Satanic Panic in the Attic, as well as the raw, live energy of 2013's Lousy With Sylvianbriar. Inspired partly from a recent move to Brooklyn, NY and a yearning for community, the album marks a shift in Barnes' daily routines, with the album's title referencing a section of Prospect Park called the Nethermead, where Barnes walks their dog every day. InchI started a meditation practice soon after moving to help me self-regulate,Inch says Barnes. InchI began to imagine I was sending all my destructive and useless thoughts/energies into the ether.Inch Barnes' beautiful and melodic chord progressions are on full display with tracks like InchAlready Dreaming,Inch as well as the straight-up rock & roll banger InchTake The Form.Inch Other highlights include the loungey InchMy Zhe Zhe,Inch as well as the bluntly sexual lead single, InchWhen.Inch From the breakthrough brilliance of 2007's Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? to a steady run of boundary-pushing releases, Of Montreal have remained fearless sonic shapeshifters-equally at home crafting hook-laden