Futurist – Aries // Godspeed the Ministry
I wouldn’t dare claim that there are people rejoicing at the difficult last year, complete with sickness, lockdowns, and economic woes. I will say that it will surely help a lot of horror and disaster movies get more easily greenlit.
Similarly, the artists that have decried the perils of an ever-expanding society, less concerned with the evolution of the species than ever before, will nod their heads and tell you that they were right all along. It pays to be ready.
Futurist has been working on a rock-opera describing the descent of mankind at the hands of its own creations for some time. The planets have aligned, and turbulence aside, 2021 has proven the ideal moment to release Aries // Godspeed the Ministry. Musically the song shares some of the elegance of prog-rock. Lyrically the tune dwells on the philosophical questions regarding man’s search for oblivion—an ambitious, highly melodic single.
CAMP STAG – On The Ropes
Say what you want about the benefits of maturity, but if you really want to find the elixir for eternal youth, your best bet is to listen to debut albums all day long. These sorts of recordings either sound beautifully naive or intensely focused. Either way, they are the work of someone who has never been able to record professionally and who does not know whether the opportunity will ever present itself again.
Debut albums are easy to pick out. If given a chance to listen to unlabeled releases from a group’s discography, you will find it hard to ever mistake their first effort for anything else. The music may not often sound fully formed, but it’s rarely ever boring.
That’s the case with CAMP STAG, a 7-piece group from England. They reveal themselves to the public with On The Ropes, a record that seems sketched with near-perfect communication between band members. For one thing, a 7-piece has rarely been this silent on purpose. For another thing, they are also much more organized than you would expect from a band on their debut. The poetry of the lyrics floats over a musical arrangement that keeps building up like a balloon waiting to pop under the pressure of a post-rock murmur turned into a storm—very powerful proof of concept.
