You may watch this cool video made for the first single Holdin’ Me off the EP:

Darin Bennet says the following about his style: “My sound has been compared to a wide variety of artists including Tom Waits, Nick Cave, and Bruce Springsteen, as well pioneers such as Son House, Robert Johnson, Otis Redding, and Sam Cooke.”

And the following regarding the new video: “I’m a singer/songwriter based in Los Angeles who usually plays guitar. However, this video features, slide banjo, guns and a high speed car chase through a mile of the Mojave Desert.”

You may find additional information and purchase links for the EP and previous Darin’s solo works at the ‘Darin Bennet and the Requiem’ official website: www.darinbennett.com.

Photo by Stacey Winget ©2012

More news and announcements could be found on La Coscienza di Zeno official Facebook page.

Track list for Noctourniquet:

The Whip Hand (4:49)
Aegis (5:11)
Dyslexicon (4:22)
Empty Vessels Make The Loudest Sound (6:43)
The Malkin Jewel (4:44)
Lapochka (4:16)
In Absentia (7:26)
Imago (3:58)
Molochwalker (3:33)
Trinkets Pale of Moon (4:25)
Vedamalady (3:54)
Noctourniquet (5:39)
Zed And Two Naughts (5:36)

It’s a kind of a new sound, but still chaotic, weird and excellent!

Independent artists and how they find their platform

Firstly the music is send to the sound engineer to attain finery. Here the songs are examined and fine tuned, some spice is added to the background music if required and then the entire album is send for mass production. This is a common reason why the independent artist needs to license his production in order to wade off piracy, which is too common in the music world. Most artists fall prey to fraudulent activities of cheaters who after assuring a lump sum pay on the former’s creation leave them unpaid.

Independent music productions are widespread, rendering an opportunity for the independent artist. The entire community of independent artists is benefitted with the high end technology used to produce music in the best possible way. Today’s way of music creation differs from the traditional ways used in the past. Such advanced technology helps beautify the background music.

There are many independent artists like you who are aspiring to become a celebrity in the music industry. Music licensing companies are helping them find a platform to attain success. These licensing companies protect your music from piracy. In most cases the compositions made by the independent artist are copyrighted to make way for better use in forthcoming days. The licensing companies ensure that your music is not misused for any reason. They even make way for your music launch.

Being an aspirant it brings you a feel of exhilaration sooner you think of the entire mass getting glued to your music and praising you for such lovely and enthralling performance; your route to stardom is not far. Music is loved by all and some people go on to the extent of identifying their thoughts with musical notes. Music composers are required to create impactful background music in order to attain a far reaching effect. The independent artist needs to work hard and find out what the audience wants from him, so that he creates music that will be appreciated by the greater mass.

Proper marketing of your composition is the most significant aspect that can bring about a change in your budding career. Contacting the right music licensing company helps you find your identity in the industry. They assure you to protect your music from piracy, which is most common these days. After all you would want your background music to be claimed as creation of another person. The licensing company acts as a pillar of support for budding artists.

I’d like to say hi to all readers!

My name is Ilya and my company purchased this blog recently. We’re going to continue developing and popularizing this website, publishing album reviews and news about bands and musicians. I’d like to express my deep respect to the previous owner of MuzikaBlog.com, he’s created a very good online resource about modern music. My musical preferences are quite similar so I hope I’ll be able to keep on blogging in a right manner.

Feel free to contact us by e-mail: contact@muzikablog.com

Good luck and stay in touch!

Fanfarlo are a prime example of a band that got it right but arrived just too late. Their sincere and mathematical indie pop gained a real following as the band began to emerge, but their debut was received with luke warm reactions from much of the music world and many critics.

The band launched their first album Reservoir after a huge number of aspirational bands, and indeed well established artists, had thrown their efforts into creating the melodic and orchestral sound Fanfarlo were pursuing in 2009. It did not work well for them. They were quickly written off as a mimic act, attempting to be the likes of Arcade Fire and the National. While it is true Fanfarlo’s music does seem to draw much “inspiration” from these famous groups, I wouldn’t go so far as to declare this five piece a spin off. I will admit that although some of the tracks have too much of a feel of deja vu to them, like “The Walls are Coming Down” which sounds scarily like Santa Fe native Zach Condon’s efforts in Beirut, others hold a unique charm to them, like Talking Backwards, with powerful and crooning vocals soaring over immaculate layers of piano chords, separate guitar melodies and percussion.

Indeed that is for me the reason the band is so attractive: the songs are meticulously thought through. Each instrument is so carefully layered into the chamber pop blend it is strikingly perfect. However the engineering of the album means Fanfarlo fans loose out when one attempts to interact with the tracks. They do not grow on you as you listen more and more, and nor can you extract any true emotion from them. As the band emerged in the late 2000s on the alternative folk scene more heartfelt acts like Laura Marling seemed to be what the UK public had an appetite for.
That having been said Simon Balthazar, the lead singer, does his best to bring some animation to Reservoir but his crooning still feels rather flat. However the effect is surprisingly not all that bad! The album has a subdued and pensive atmosphere and in fact its seriousness almost plays to its advantage in ensuring the singing chorus of mandolins, brass and violins do not sound sickeningly twee. The result is a lush and mature sound, which I feel plays to the bands advantage in creating something new in a saturated genre of music.

Fanfarlo initially released a series of singles, not featured on their debut, like the catchy track, You are One. They then went on to compile Reservoir in 2009. While I have talked about Fanfarlo’s sound as being a pleasant one, listening to an entire album of their work is rather monotonous. While they prove they can reproduce their style on a variety of melodies, it all gets a little repetitive as the tempo hardly varies and neither does the range of instruments or style of vocals. However I would thoroughly recommend purchasing the album. The individual tracks will provide some excellent listening which will prove a nice surprise on your shuffle once in a while. However I would thoroughly recommend purchasing the album. The individual tracks will provide some excellent listening which will prove a nice surprise on your shuffle once in a while.

Why are Fanfarlo relevant now I hear you asking! Well I have been following their progress since Reservoir and I’m looking forward to seeing what will become of their latest offering released this year, called Rooms Filled With Light. Much as I hope these three years since Fanfarlo’s debut will have given the band a chance to develop their style, I am concerned. The band seems to have taken the criticism of their music to heart and appear to be jumping ship from an orchestral sound to an electric one. Indeed their new single “Replicate” confirms my worries. This is a big mistake. There is still an appetite for acoustic music, and indeed this is what the band’s fans on facebook have been begging for more of. For the group to once again enter a new genre, and again later than rival acts; instead of sticking where they are finally being accepted as a band worth listening too; is a big mistake. If the album is once again declared an imitation piece and nothing unique or special then it may well be the final nail in the coffin for this London crew.

Fanfarlo have proved that they have the potential to create very sophisticated music. Its just a shame they were too late on the London indie scene for widespread recognition, and are too unaware of their fans wishes to go on to achieve the success their talent deserves. The future of this five piece act is hanging in the balance, but I sincerely hope they stick around to show the world what they can do.

Here we are again, and I’m tackling an Australian band from Melbourne. I’m not going to lie, the only thing I know musically from Australia is Nick Cave related. For this, I apologize to all Australians. In any case, NME seem to be rather interested in them, and they’re damn hard to Google, which they say is the point. They’re called Me, and their debut EP, to be released soon, is called Naked. I reviewed an EP of theirs, Another Story High.

This EP certainly harks back to the psychedelic ear of the sixties, especially the Beatles post and during Sergeant Peppers, and it also dips in to it’s rich, baroque, Queen-esque sensibilities, and this mixes well with the heavy power-rock feel in the opening track, Naked. The band is tight and driving, and the riffs are catchy and enjoyable, and the opening number certainly catches the attention. The singer gets to show off his voice pretty early on, and the guitarist pulls his best Brian May impression out of the bag near the end of the track. They really do have the over-the-top orchestration and harmonies of the music-hall and baroque, but I salute that. At least it’s fun and enjoyable to listen to. Insert Voice Here is a quieter, but still a very much ‘for the benefit of Mister Kite’ feel. The vocal melodies are interesting and the harmonies on the voice are, again, baroque. But it’s good, and it has an almost orchestral feel that runs throughout the whole EP. Dutch Medicine slows the pace of the EP down, and the band turn towards a much more laid-back, psychedelic affair. It’s perhaps the most enjoyable tune on the whole of the EP, and it’s occasional space-age beeps and swirls create a thick and heady atmosphere in the track, which builds as the track progresses. It’s certainly the prettiest track to listen to, and it’s a welcome break from the heavy baroque, enjoyable as that is. We’re straight back in on the next track in the EP, Slow Children Run. Interestingly, the track actually, apart from the strong Queen feeling, also has a slightly Danny Elfman taste. It’s got a seaside feel, which is an enjoyable juxtaposition from the sinister lyrics. It’s very childish in that respect, and that works well with the lyrics of burying reality and truth ‘Take these pills/We’ll fly away’. On a vocal note, a very impressive show from the lead singer, reaching dizzying heights with his range. Like A Fox brings the whole ‘opera’ together. It fuses all the sounds present in the EP as a whole, and wraps it up nicely. The band drops in and out of rock and flowing spaces, and the harmonies flow very nicely. There’s even a cheeky guitar solo/break thrown in for good measure. On top of this, the chorus is damn catchy. In any case, it definitely leaves me satisfied. It was an enjoyable, if not mind bending, experience.

Me do manage to fuse the baroque Englishness of prog-rock and later similarly influenced bands such as Queen, with the psychedelic Englishness of late-era Beatles and acts such as Syd Barret-led Pink Floyd and Robyn Hitchcock, and manage to create a mini rock-opera as a result. However, this EP varies the conglomerate of sounds well enough to keep it interesting. The opener is a ear-catching rocker that draws interest, but the band allow themselves to flex their more trippy, softer muscles in Dutch Medicine, and the mix between the two styles is shown very well in Slow Children Run. This band are good at what they do, and they’re also enjoyable to listen to. I won’t heap lavish praise, as it doesn’t send shivers down my spine. But that isn’t the point, I feel like it’s a strong set of tracks, and definitely well made. Rock-opera’s, even mini ones, are rather hard to do. I view it as a successful and interesting Australian addition to a proud British tradition, and for that I give it respect.

ME soundcloud page

This is my second review for this awesome music blog, Hopefully you all enjoyed my first review about Metallica’s Beyond Magnetic EP! Well, in the wake of any larger releases coming our way within the rock world, until the new Van Halen album drops in I thought I’d take the time to spread the word about the all-conquering, world-enslaving, ‘any-woman-within-a-10-mile-radius-is-now-pregnant’ Black Spiders!

These guys have been on the go since 2008, landing a supporting slot with the mighty Airbourne for the latter half of that year, and proceeded to make one HELL of an impact, along with Taking Dawn as one of the best small-scale tours of that year. The mainstream media may be trying their utmost to announce that ‘rock is dead’, but anybody witnessing the birth of the Black Spiders knows very different. Building a fanbase with a slew of 3 EP’s, including songs that would later be reworked for the this full album, as well as a cover of Motorhead’s seminal ‘No Class’, these guys wear their influences proudly. Three years of touring culminated in finally putting out the new ‘Sons of the North’ album to a feverous fanbase eager to lap up any content. What we have is a stellar combination of rock n’ roll’s roots, married with a slightly punk attitude, and some brilliantly bombastic lyrics to put the icing on the already very tasty cake.

Standout tracks include opener ‘Stay Down’, which includes one of the best lyric-guitar solo breaks I’ve heard in a long time! The song takes a half second break before the end of the second chorus only for Pete ‘Spider’ Spiby to yell ‘FUCK YOU AND THIS ONE HORSE TOWN!’ at the top of his lungs, followed swiftly by a brilliantly paced guitar solo that tops this first song off nicely. Starting as they mean to go on the album never lets up, delivering arena-ready anthems one after the other. Some anthems are packed with some of the best lyrics for this sort of over-the-top rock and roll style that are just MADE for crowds. Try telling me that screaming ‘EAT THUNDER!! SHIT LIGHTNING!!’ along with thousands of other people just before ‘What Good’s a Rock Without a Roll?’ kicks in isn’t one of the most euphoric sensations known to man and I’ll show you a decent new Kings of Leon song.

Other standouts among this brilliant debut are ‘Si, El Diablo’ with its fantastic, infectiously stompy groove, and standout 3rd EP-returner ‘Just Like A Woman’. The latter should be one of the first tracks you hear by these guys if you’re gonna check ‘em out, it has everything they do brilliantly all wrapped up in a nice meaty package! A great hard rock song with a sleazy bluesy feel that compliments the lyrics nicely, coupled with a guitar line that swirls through the song bursting into brilliantly melodic passages every minute or so. If you’re cherry picking through youtube, then make this one of your first stops!The only negative I can think of is in terms of carryover from the previous EP’s, song’s like ‘Stay Down’, ‘Just Like a Woman’ and ‘St. Peter’ are from these previous EP’s, but they didn’t include what I thought was one of the best tracks on the original debut disc. ‘I’ll Be The Judge’ from the St. Peter EP is a brilliantly energetic track with a killer riff that sounds like as if Slash’s dirtiest lick had sex with Motorhead’s entire discography. This track is an awesome up-tempo stormer made for starting gigs at 100mph!

A great debut album built on the most solid of foundations with some brilliant EP’s beforehand. Rock never went away, it just went underground. With the likes of the Black Spiders, Airbourne, Taking Dawn, The Answer, Turbowolf and hundreds of others releasing out fantastic albums based on the best foundations of what went before, the world just isn’t ready for the resurrection of mainstream rock just yet…

8/10
Cheers,
S.T \m/

As usual for the guys our lovely editor sends my way, I knew absolutely nothing about East-Ra before I started this review, and perhaps this is for the best. Certainly, it frees any ideas of pretension or previous successes or failures give you a path to listen and concentrate on the music. I’m going to say right now, this album, Substitute 3, is incredible. I’m shocked, with my sort of tastes, that I haven’t heard of these guys. In fact, not very many people have, which is a shock.The fact this is true saddens me. The top indie reviewing sites like Pitchfork should be shouting their names from the rooftops. Anyway, it turns out they’re from Croatia. Who knew!

This album is low-fi noise rock at it’s absolute best. In no particular order, here’s a rundown of a few of the tracks. Your Highness sounds like Nina Simone invented psychedelia ten years earlier then it actually came up, by way of the roots blues music that I absolutely adore. Another one, St. George Went To India, feels like we’re in a weird Berlin-Era Bowie by way of the The Doors. This is as sinister as an early-Cave song, and twice as trippy. The bird calls and the Indian-flavoured guitar screech around you as the chants of the band create a claustrophobic, jungle-filled space. The music is trance-like, strange, and worrying. Shizmu & Hitis is a journey back in to the sonic jungle that the band inhabits, and very faint elements of electro subtly undertone this track. Suddenly the music switches to freaked-out jazz in Apocalypse Party, breaking free of the jungle for a minute or two. The whole album manages to walk the dangerous tightrope of musical similarity, making the sound recognizable enough to blend in to a full, working album, and making it different enough for the music to stay fresh and interesting throughout. However, the most effecting track, for me, was the last.

This track, incidentally the last, deserves a whole paragraph. A welcome and weird ‘relief’ from the rest of the albums relentless experimental journey, Spring In To Relief is eery and ethereal. It’s the Fleet Foxes first album, this Anglophilic folk-psychedelia, with Syd Barrett tacked on. It’s entrancing, it’s almost-indecipherable lyrics leave you floating in the music, with no anchor or haven. As a half-snatched lyric says, ‘Got some time to float in space’. This haziness, voices hitting crescendos and descending again, repeated chants of ‘hazy, hazy’, and ‘shivers’ sum up this song. It’s a space-odyssey, or, to quote David Bowie, a space-oddity, but it’s moving. It connects with something, guttural chants and noises create an almost spiritual feeling, discordance and harmony swell together in a captivating way. Beeps and blips come and go through a wall of reverb and echo. It flowed through me and left me feeling strange and a bit shaken, especially the descent in to overpowering noise at the end. Whatever it is, it’s without a doubt the centre-piece of the album, and perhaps a minor masterpiece too.

It’s clear East-Ra have a mastery over their sound. This album is like a throwback, to use a cliche, to when an album was an album, and crafted so that themes flowed through the music, songs connected and felt interrelated, an overall feeling was achieved through-out. A feeling is definitely achieved here. It’s an unsettling, enthralling and weirdly beautiful affair. It really does feel like a journey through a thick jungle, strange noises and glimpses of ancient ruins permeate the experience. The music infusions and inspirations I think I can feel here are The Doors’ strange psychedelic mysticism, deep-seated root blues music, not to mention jazz. I get Syd Barrett vibes, and a touch of Nick Drake as well. However, this is not to belittle the achievement of sculpting a strange and unique album, but recognizing that East-Ra have managed to incorporate a whole world of music and style and influence and bring them together in a brilliant album, tinged with the benefits of the Balkan and Slavic influences of Croatian folk music. Though I feel like I say this in most of my writing, as I usually take on the very obscure bands here at Muzika, these guys need to be bigger. Not to mention their music is free to download.

East-Ra Substitute 3 album, which was released in 2011. and their previous two albums Sutra (2009) and Cold Summer (2008) can all be downloaded for free from their website http://osa-media.blogspot.com/

 Author’s note: I am aware I have reached new levels of pretension.

Hello and welcome to 2012. Thank you for following this blog; I’d like to make this really simple for you and me. Are you the type of person who doesn’t really bother what music is being played anytime of your life? If yes, most probably you never bought an original music record, let alone looking for new music that fits your brainwaves, or being picky on playing the right music that suites your moods. Then you can be classified as part of Johnny and the generic public; i.e. you are no better than the cattle crowd who is good only at voting for the best celebrity hairstyle, or be the first to know who has been dating Jennifer Aniston. I don’t want to offend you in any way, but the truth hurts. You can stop reading this blog post now and navigate away through the internet to some celebrity gossip blog. It would be a waste of bandwidth and electricity if you continue, and a waste of your time. Well, it’s not that your time is really worth something, is it?

Still reading? Hope it is not out of curiosity but because you are into music. There is a reason why you are the chosen one; because you are the one who can understand what I am talking about in this blog post. Also, The EP I’ll be reviewing in this blog post is not for the masses. At the end of last year, going into this year, I had a great festive and holiday season where (obviously) excessiveness was the rule of the day, especially when it is about alcohol. Touching back reality, you realize how much was wasted over ten or fifteen days of festive season, and being in love with mother earth, you start thinking green in more than usual mode. Being in this green mood and browsing through my email, a specific artist name attracted me; Solar Witcher.

As much as his name is green, so is his music. It puts you in a shade of blue and green world, where nature and ocean meet, and people dance naked. We are talking about electronic lounge-type of music here, music to chillax, and to help you get all philosophical, depending on your surroundings. I am not really the philosophical type of person, but from time to time everyone needs to sit down and think what they are up to. Sometimes even some good or bad experience in life puts you in an all philosophical mood, and so does music. I am sure that when you listen to some specific tracks, they remind you of something, be it good or bad. No need to be shy, from time to time everyone gets a little bit philosophical; just check out what happens at funerals! At each funeral, everyone is as good as an ancient Greek philosopher, philosophising about the life of he or she who passed away. The instrumental music Solar Witcher presents us with in this debut EP ‘Shades of Orange’ is amazing and relaxing; dreamy electronica and ambient gem with bright, yet soothing melodies that infiltrate your brain atoms and excite those electrons which are going round in circles around the atom’s nucleus.

Over the last four years I’ve written well over hundred music reviews, but I couldn’t have explained the music in this ‘Shades of Orange’ debut EP better than Solar Witcher himself. Even though I really enjoyed this EP, I was in a little bit of a dilemma; what should I write? So I sent an email to Solar Witcher and he replied with the following:

“Shades of Orange” EP is centred around one day story. Every track snapshots emotions that emerge as the day unwinds. My favourite movies were a great source of inspiration for me. Some of the tracks were made with absolutely different framework in mind – I wrote a tune about being high on painkillers after surgery and it eventually became “Sleepover”; “Touching Water” image appeared in my head, however, when I was actually swimming in the rain.

Definitely couldn’t have said it any better. Even though the above is coming out of the creator’s own mouth, this is not twentieth century marketing; full of lies, gimmicks and China merch. This is the real thing. Check it out for yourself on Solar Witcher’s own bandcamp page, where you can stream and download the EP for free; such a good man he is! Enjoy it while sitting on the sofa in a room with faded lights, and a glass of Tuscan white wine. If instead you feel like watching a music video, you can also see Solar Witcher’s own work by adapting scenes from the film ‘Lost in Translation’ as a music video for his own track ‘Touching Water’.