I’ve always been extremely skeptical about any band that tried to live up to the melodic dreampop/shoegaze title even if they weren’t gunning for the number 1 spot. Slowdive had that approach mastered and I’ve considered them to be in a league of their own ever since I started deeply submerging into this sound.
There [...]

Music has always been a cure to ease the feelings that were overwhelming my mind. I’ve been a metalhead for a long time, probably to fight my diffidence through the brutality and dark issues of the metal world. But my musical envies has soon turned to something different: appeasing sounds, a soundtrack to the ups and downs of existence. Since then, I have been in search of one particular feeling in music: melancholy. Victor Hugo described that feeling as “The happiness of being sad”. And soon I realized that my favorite bands and listening s were all linked by that particular feeling. No matter the style, I want melancholic music. And I want it to be a cure.

From the guy that was primarily responsible for the way Anathema’s Alternative 4 record came into being, comes the Ìon album. Patterson named his band after the Gaelic word for ‘pure’, after parting ways with Mick Moss in Antimatter to devote all of his efforts to his own band.
I’d heard about Ion for awhile, [...]

My ears are still ringing from seeing one of the best active post-rock bands today. That band being Japan’s Mono.

I was introduced to Mono by a post Jake made here on darkdose.com back in January 2006. I instantly began digging up what I could on this band and have since crowned them my favorite of this style. Mono is modern post-rock, comparable to others such as Explosions in the Sky or Red Sparowes — compromising of instrumental songs with clean guitars drenched in reverb and delay which shift dynamically from the calm to the chaotic. While I enjoy songs and elements from all of these bands, Mono has clearly stood out as a favorite. Unlike the other two bands mentioned, the indie rock influences are kept to a bare minimum and overall Mono achieves a much darker atmosphere overall.

I previously wrote about Sonores and expressed my newfound fondness for their extremely minimalistic music. They released a self-titled EP in early 2006 which is now available in it’s entirety for free from the wonderful It’s a Trap blog. I highly recommend you give it a listen.

I like Pelican, but something about them irks me just a little bit. Maybe it’s the huge amount of undue credit they get in the media, the number of hipsters who have latched onto them, or how everyone seemed to know who they were overnight. The fact is, I really like them as [...]

Summer is in full swing, highlighted by beautiful weather, hot days and cool nights. I’ve taken several drives out to the country and once again appreciated the Pennsylvania landscape. The fields are in full bloom, and the contrast of green cornstalks to the blue sky and fluffy white clouds is nothing short of [...]

And Jesus Christ, wouldn’t you know it but Andrew at Aversion beat me to post about a new band by several days yet again. Well, fuck it I can never touch what he does, or how well he does it, but this post means a lot to me so here it goes anyway…

Jesse’s excellent post on Sonores got me thinking about post-rock, and its history. Very recently, I read a review of the new Mono album by Stuart Berman for Pitchfork Media and a certain passage jumped out at me as being so very true:

So back to the point of this blog. Dark music. I’ve been wanting to contribute a track from Sweden’s Sonores since Avi (of It’s a Trap fame) informed me of their existence. The man is obsessed with Scandinavian music of all kinds (who isn’t?) and actually released this mp3 EP on his “It’s a Trap” label. Yes, I said “mp3 EP”. Usually when I’ve seen bands offering up entire releases for free, it’s because they suck. I assure you this is not the case with Sonores.