Vundabar - Either Light - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

From 2014 to 2017, Vundabar's Brandon Hagen cared for a loved one that had fallen into a debilitating state of mental and physical decline. For four years his sickness and the eventual loss that followed became the focal point of Hagen's life as well as his family's. It was the bell jar under which they lived. Hagen was fractured into two selves; one, largely insular, racked by grief and loss and the other putting it on, touring relentlessly and hoping to be as affable as possible lest he ruin the opportunities at hand. These were the fencings and borders he made for himself and for a time he let them stand. He presented a shell of charisma and withdrew into isolation and despair, convinced he was doing right by the old dogma of stoicism. He didn't tell a soul out of shame and embarrassment; whose he didn't know. Unsurprisingly these two poles couldn't stand for long. The tension bore down on Hagen's skull until it felt something might break. It reared it's ugly head from time to time. He became withdrawn, irritable and inactive and suffered more than one nervous break. It came to a point where he had to deal with it or it was going to deal with him. In reflection Hagen realized the point that had led his loved one to a collapse and subsequent dissolution held parallels to his own. As a child, bereft of stability, he created a larger than life persona to live within. He buried his insecurities and traumas deep and kept them there for most of his adult life, until, unable to maintain the house on stilts he'd built for himself, he collapsed completely. And here Hagen was in the face of this loss, about to repeat the cycle. Hagen wondered was this stoicism, this shame, this impasse even his own or had it been pressed upon him. From the earliest memories of boyhood he could recall one of the most integral attributes of male-ness being an ability to suppress emotion. Conce

For Another Michael, it all boils down to trust. In mid-2017, the critically acclaimed indie three-piece packed their bags and collectively relocated from Albany, NY to a shared house in West Philadelphia. This move signaled not only the start of a new chapter for the trio, but also a deepening of the bonds that would come to define their captivating debut LP, 'New Music and Big Pop.'InchIt's hard for a group of people to get closer than living together,Inch says bassist and producer Nick Sebastiano. InchThe stronger our connection grew, the more it shaped the music we found ourselves making.InchIt should come as little surprise, then, that 'New Music and Big Pop' is Another Michael's most collaborative work yet. Recorded in a small A-frame house-turned-makeshift studio outside Ferndale, NY, the record finds the trio pushing their sound in a dreamier, more folk-influenced direction, building songs around vulnerable, intimate performances using an ethereal palette of breezy guitars, subtle keyboards, and layered harmonies. As on the band's early EPs, singer and songwriter Michael Doherty's mesmerizing voice is front and center here, calling to mind Robin Pecknold or Ben Bridwell in it's reedy, crystalline timbre, but it feels more at home than ever before amidst the album's rich, Technicolor landscape, which the band partnered with producer and fellow housemate Scoops Dardaris to create. The result is a masterfully understated record that belies it's status as a full-length debut, a thoughtful, poetic, collection all about growth and change, hope and faith, endings and beginnings, delivered by a band that's only just begun to scratch the surface of their story. Album Tracks 1. New Music 2. I Know You're Wrong 3. What Gives? 4. My Day 5. Big Pop 6. What the Hell Is Going On? 7. I'm Not Home 8. Row 9. Hone 10. Shaky Cam

When FVNERALS unveiled their debut full-length InchThe LightInch in the summer of 2014, the duo in truth embarked on a journey that would lead them into an ever-growing musical darkness. FVNERALS came into being when singer and bass player Tiffany Ström met guitarist and songwriter Syd Scarlet in the southern English seaside resort Brighton in 2013. Their joining of creative forces resulted in the formation of a dark doom act that also reaches out to and draws from ambient, drone, and a pinch of post-rock to complement what constitutes a particularly sinister and heavy sound. FVNERALS' first sign of life was the self-released EP InchThe HoursInch (2013), which was soon followed by InchThe LightInch. In 2015, FVNERALS returned with the second EP InchThe PathInch and relocated to Glasgow, Scotland where they started working on their sophomore album. When InchWoundsInch hit the scene in 2016, it sparked relentless live activities across Europe in each following year until the pandemic shut everything down. Compared to previous records, FVNERALS have taken an even less optimistic approach to songwriting on their latest masterpiece InchLet the Earth Be SilentInch. This also means that their third album is an artistic gift of beautiful darkness. Album Tracks 1. Oath 2. Vakna 3. Aryd 4. Shine 5. Tiga 6. Closer 7. The Light (Part I) 8. The Light (Part II)