Delta Will – It All Glows EP

Delta Will’s four-track EP, It All Glows, is a spacey, artful narrative with a bluesy, folksy soundscape of vocal overlays and subtle atmospheric synth washes. It chronicles the alien Delta Will’s exploration of humanity and earthly life through the eyes of the human Charles Tilden. Lyrically, it is a welcome reprieve from the mundane songwriter-centric direction of much of music across every genre.

It All Glows is lush and warm with an unassumingly whimsical tone reminiscent of Miniature Tigers’ sophomore album, Fortress. Tilden’s melismatic vocals are honey-smooth as he maneuvers through registers and dynamics, carrying the melodies confidently, but never becoming overbearing or contrived. The pleasant energy of the title track lends it a nostalgic sweetness that brings to mind Weezer’s “Island in the Sun” and ambient bird chirps and conversational mutterings at the conclusion of the instrumental track, “Space Throws”, conjure imagery of crisp sunlight and green foliage. “Holy Ghost”, the most understated song on the EP, features Fleet Foxes-esque arpeggiation and spacious vocal reverberation. The album’s buoyant attitude juxtaposes the somewhat morbid lyrical content in a way that is evocative of the Tralfamadorians’ observations of the universe in Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five; Delta Will acknowledges the peculiarity and transience of existence without being overly mournful or sentimental.

It All Glows is imaginative while remaining cohesive through textural instrumentation, artistic assuredness, and high production value. The title track is the highlight of the album, and while the energy does die down as the album progresses, none of the songs overstay their welcome. After two EPs, Tilden seems to have a firm grasp on his creative vision, and hopefully he will continue to pursue the musical direction demonstrated in this album.

You can listen to two of the tracks from It All Glows on Bandcamp or Soundcloud, and both physical and digital copies of the album are available for purchase through Bandcamp and iTunes.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Martha Meredith’s project, For Esmé, commands attention with creative lyrics, powerful vocals, and dynamic instrumentation.

The singer-songwriter genre can be fairly predictable; but Meredith’s new project, For Esmé is different, choosing to deviate from the norm with elements of contrast and surprise. The album’s opening track, “302”, begins with an uncomfortable 25 seconds of silence before giving way to echoing synth. It’s just one of many instances that Meredith plays with the friction of opposition. The entire album hinges itself on a constant tension, pushing and pulling between polar opposites. Meredith’s vocals sway between sweet and sultry, while the accompanying band provides an equal amount of drama with eloquent strings and pulsing rhythms.

Lyrically, the themes are intelligent and refreshingly honest. Meredith explores a range of topics, particularly diving headfirst into the longing of hopes and dreams, as well as exploring the effects of fear and pain. These polarities are not only present from track to track, but also within each song. There is noticeable attention paid to the fact that at any given moment life can be simultaneously good and bad. “Alice” is a track that epitomizes this with Meredith’s hauntingly beautiful line: “I’m gonna harness that hurt and make it work for me.”

This complexity and reflection is what makes For Esmé so unique. There are definitely a few fun and whimsical moments, but by and large the album is a sophisticated one. This maturity can partially be attributed to some of Meredith’s influences – Fiona Apple, Regina Spektor, and Emily Haines. The same spunk and emotion can easily be heard in Meredith’s voice in each track, and fans of those artists can easily appreciate her vocal and lyrical style. Overall, For Esmé is a strong debut that commands attention from the very start. Martha Meredith breathes new life into the saturated singer-songwriter market with creative lyrics, powerful vocals, and dynamic instrumentation that’s sure to surprise.

You can stream the album in its entirety on Bandcamp. For Esmé is also available for purchase on iTunes and Bandcamp in both digital and vinyl format.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

This month might’ve had the widest variety of music we’ve seen come our way here at The Indie Mine. Genres like electronica made a big showing and really allowed me to expand the horizons of what I’m accustomed to listening to. Put aside your biases and preconceptions and give these talented musicians a chance as we unveil some of the music we discovered in April.

Jeffrey Philip Nelson - This Riders Song

Fans of acoustic folk music should have a listen to the latest album from singer/songwriter Jeffrey Philip Nelson. This Riders Song features ten tracks of soulful, acoustic rock that tiptoe the line between folk and country. It’s a little bit of easy listening at its finest.

Weekend Riot Club –  “Things Are Looking Up Again” single

The Canadian trio Weekend Riot Club are hard at work producing their debut album Psychotropia, due out in late spring. In the meantime, they’ve released their second single “Things Are Looking Up Again” along with an accompanying music video. WRC counts passion as the root of their music, and their songs tell the tale of romantic discovery between lead vocalist Melissa Marchese and guitarist Mike Chetcuti. Like most of the songs planned for the album, the track below focuses on a message of love and hope.

Kiki - Cross

Even though I’ve never really considered myself a fan of electronica, I have to admit I enjoyed the bass and rhythm of tracks like “Marilyn Monroe” below. It’s just one of 12 songs from Croatian musician Kiki on the album Cross. The full album can be listened to on Kiki’s official SoundCloud page.

Ozoh – Lightest Pollution

Up next is another album of electronica, Lightest Pollution from Otso “Ozoh” Haavisto. Whereas Cross above was a darker form of the genre, the 11-track Lightest Pollution is of the more upbeat variety. Maybe it’s just my background with gaming, but I couldn’t help but feel like the album would make the perfect soundtrack for a video game, particularly tracks like “Upstate” or “Downshift”. I found myself pleasantly surprised at wanting to hear more after each and every song. The whole album – written and produced by Ozoh himself – is available for listening to below.

Colaars – “Black Fox” single

I absolutely love finding bands from new places around the world, so I was happy when the indie/dance-rock band Colaars contacted me. The Kiev-based group recently released a music video to accompany their single “Black Fox”. Although the instrumentation tends to overshadow the vocals, I enjoyed everything about the track, particularly the guitar elements. Have a listen for yourself.

Air Marshal Landing – “Little Town” single

The brotherly trio – but not really brothers – of Air Marshal Landing are readying their debut album You Used To Be Me for a June 4th release date. To drum up some attention, the Toronto-based band released the single “Little Town”, a catchy number with a fun, driving bass line. A music video for the track has also been released. Check out the song below, and take advantage of the free download which runs until the album’s release.

Finding something you’ve never thought of listening to or even heard of is one of the great joys of music. I’m already looking forward to May and what it will bring. In the meantime, let us know about any new bands you’ve discovered or if you have any favorites from the list above by leaving a comment.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

In Pixel, players are challenged on each level to make it from the starting position to an end gate as fast as possible. In order to reach that destination, the platforms and columns around the player must be manipulated using a multi-purpose gun. Shooting some columns with your standard gun ability will cause those cubes to temporarily slide in one direction, giving the player a new path to travel down. Some paths are constantly moving,  but can be slowed down using a special gun attachment. Other areas serve as launch pads that send the player flying through the air towards doom or glory. Certain platforms will only start moving once the player connects two nodes using yet another gun attachment. There’s a lot of variety to what the player can accomplish using their Swiss Army gun, and the game does a great job in terms of pacing when doling out new abilities or platform types. Each of these is introduced just as the previous one has been fully explored. In all, there are a couple dozen levels with the latter ones requiring players to use more than one of the abilities at their disposal.

While playing Pixel I was reminded of my experiences playing T.E.C. 3001 during last year’s Indie Games Uprising even,t or the various titles in the Super Monkey Ball franchise. Even though they are games with completely different themes, all of them challenge players to find the quickest path to the end of the stage. While racing the clock, the urge to keep plowing forward has the ability to lure the player into a bad situation. Sometimes when trying to be fast, the best thing a person can do is slow down and get a better view of what he or she is speeding into. That being said, there’s nothing quite so exhilarating within a platformer as just squeaking past a moving obstacle or nailing an impromptu leap all at breakneck speed. A smart decision by the developer was making sure everyone can get right back into the action when dying by dropping the player back at the start of the level without the need to acknowledge a retry prompt.

Sadly, there are a number of issues that rear their ugly heads throughout the game. Jumping a gap will often look like it’s going to succeed only for you to clip through a column or seemingly bounce off to the side of your intended landing spot. Sometimes firing your cannon at a cube beside you will send you careening off to your death, while performing the same action on an identical formation elsewhere won’t have that undesired effect. Pixel ends up being as much a guessing game as it is a platformer. For players with the patience of a saint, some of the hiccups can be worked around once they’re learned. This repeated trial and error of working through the game’s bugginess isn’t a big deal on the shorter levels. There are a few levels, though, where painstakingly creeping towards the goal only to be undone by one of these issues will likely result in a steady stream of profanities. I know it did for me. It’s a shame because when it does work, it’s actually a really fun game.

The other issue with the game is the camera. The first-person view just doesn’t feel right. Other reviewers have complained about the gun taking up too much of the screen real estate, but my biggest beef with the camera is that it’s just too close to the action. Navigating on small ledges and around tight corners causes undue grief with the camera zoomed in. It’s much harder to tell where the player is going to land when jumping, and that problem is only compounded by the aforementioned clipping issues. I understand that pulling the view out into 3rd-person would make the shooting aspect more difficult, but there has to be some kind of happy medium.

Players may find the first-person camera too close for comfort when navigating levels

It’s a shame that the execution fell through on Pixel, because there were a number of things that were done right. The cel-shaded art style is simplistic, but it fits. Using the gun to trigger changes in the levels is fun to play with, though I wish it had been taken further. The bugs can’t be overlooked, however, because even though this game combines multiple genre elements, it’s platforming that dominates. While changing the camera at this point might be too radical of a change, going forward I would hope that at least the clipping issues get fixed. That would certainly go a long way towards restoring the joy that is supposed to go hand-in-hand with playing a game. Unfortunately, Pixel as it exists right now is an unsatisfying platforming experience for the two to four hours it’ll likely take most players to complete it.

Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

Additional Pixel coverage:

Review on Clearance Bin Review

Review on theXBLIG.com

Review on Indie Gamer Chick

© 2012 – 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.