It's around this time of year when people like me (who are sexy, with impressive, manly beards and also happen to write about music on the internet) like to look back on a few albums that have been released earlier in the year and think: "now why the hell did I never bring this any attention?." Such an album has presented itself in Sloum's A Prelude to Monsters...: an album that has probably been heard by fewer people than actually read my posts here.
The style is ambient. Dark-ambient -more specifically- but with a charming and inviting post-rock character. As a result, it's incredibly easy to feel yourself slipping into it's ominous yet warm atmosphere, and within it's twirling piano, rasping horns and field recordings Sloum comes very close to producing gold. He misses, sadly: there's a small issue with pacing and a slight sparsity of ideas, but the album still remains a fine example of his work.
He has a new album out, too, which is why he comes to mind. I haven't listened to it yet but that's just about to change...
Listen on Bandcamp
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I hope you check out the new one :)
ReplyDeleteI think it is the best work I've done in this genre.
Thanks so much for the write-up!
(Also, I totally agree that 'A Prelude to Monsters' is not without it's flaws, but that it is all in all a mostly pleasant listen)