It has always been hard for me to appreciate female vocals. I like broken voices, fragile ones, voices which can express a large
palette of emotions. And it seems I often found this in the voice of male singers. Female vocals are too often polished, sterilized on the altar of technical mastery. And what I consider being essential often disappears because of this. However, there is a few exceptions in my record collection. And Shannon Wright is probably my favorite one.

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.