melt exclusive:
PARKE
“It felt like a fresh start, felt like a new era. Same with this music; I didn't put a single out, it was just the album went straight to it because I think I'm just an album person. I think it's more interesting, but it just felt nice and literally like a refresh, like I just showered and just came out.”
Read Above: Parke, the rapper and producer formerly of the name Dominsquis, has broken ground with his new album, Zombie, compounding the dynamic blend of hip-hop, rock, and punk influences that he began exploring under his old alias into a thrilling blend of tracks that not only amp up the sonic pressure from his previous projects but also serve, in a way, as their ultimate fruition,
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Featured Artist Profile:
Star’s Revenge, the budding side project of Emily Green (Geese) and Olive Faber (Sunflower Bean), has served not only as an outlet to but also an additional expression of the expanding creative thatcheries of its founders in the years since its creation, but, now, with their decision to expand the project into a full-band context, it has taken on a markedly different sonic outlook, all while maintaining the central mission of exploration and ongoing creative activity that led to its birth.
Star’s Revenge
MELT Live: Milhouse
Live set recorded with St. Louis DJ Milhouse. Recorded at Overtime Studio STL. A MELT FM Production.
Album Spotlight: Strassen
Across four tracks, Strassen, the long-awaited debut album from Berlin-based DJ Click † Click, wholly transfixes the listener, forcing their focus continually back to the pulsating center of their intimately and carefully constructed industrial soundscapes.
Although the run-time sits at just over 25 minutes, the project feels distinctly like a journey— a long walk through a dark and gnawing alleyway, with walls of sonic steel closing in around the listener.
“Revolution Ecstasy”, the project’s opening track, begins at a blistering pace, with oscillating percussion and a series of sinister, droning layers driving the rhythm forward.
The second track, “Strassen”, takes on a much more minimalistic, slow-building approach. As crunchy bass hits and electronic twitterings expand outward, so does the track’s subtle aggression.
“UFOS at Griessmühle” serves as the project’s climax, utilizing a crowded soundscape and vocal interpolations to bring the Strassen to its most complex stratum.
But “Repeat Function” represents the downturn from this summit— a decaying, disturbing track that returns the listener to the obscurity in which the album’s sonic trek began.
An overall enrapturing affair, Strassen cuts no corners, takes not a single moment for granted. It more than a debut; it is a representation of the years that Click † Click has spent endlessly devoted to his craft.
Artist profiles
Tōth, the solo art-pop project of Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Alex Toth, has reached, in many ways, its culmination with the release of his third LP under the moniker: And the Voice Said. After years of personal and creative turmoil and triumph, Tōth has come to represent a needed outlet for its founder, and, with the arcing rhythms and fresh energies the new project takes on, it seems as though that outlet has found its fruition.
Tōth
Ken Park, the recording project of San Diego-born and New York-based songwriter Liam Creamer, took its first steps into the limelight with the release of Creamer’s debut, self-titled EP on Feb. 26. For a distinctly creative spirit who had truly no other path than music, however, the EP represents more than a debut– it is a massive sigh of relief, heaved from a standpoint of emotional catharsis and passion.
Ken park
Fuzzy teeth
FUZZY TEETH, the interminable indie-pop and experimental rock project fronted by the Netherlands’ Anthony Koenn, has made an undeniable statement with its debut album: one that centers around Koenn’s delicious blend of maximalist sounds and colliding influences.
Blackwater Holylight, the doom metal band formed in Portland, Oregon, has broken new ground with the release of their newest album Not Here Not Gone, commemorating their recent relocation to Los Angeles and crafting a culmination of the years they have spent together as a band with the intentional new sonic direction they have undertaken.
Blackwater Holylight
For San Francisco-based prog rock band Magic Fig, the mission has always been clear: create tantalizing and expansive music heaved from the swirling depths of the British rock of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. But, as the band has continued to evolve, the initial boundaries they set for themselves have been forced to expand. Their newest project, Valerian Tea, serves not only as a representation of their collective vision but as a testament to their melting pot of influences– and their spacious and inclusive take on progressive rock as a genre.
