Region – Mr. Unknown
Genre: Indie-rock
Bands are either born out of great excitement or great ambition. Rarely do the opening stages of such a project include both those things. Indeed, out of the two, it is the ambition that has the highest likelihood of getting the musicians to start earning enough to pay the rent eventually.
However, ambition happens to make things a lot more interesting. While some indie-rockers start on their quest with dreams of headlining the biggest festivals and getting millions of likes on their Instagram posts, some simply dream about becoming great writers. Witnessing the way in which they construct themselves and acquire their sill is fascinating.
Region’s Mr. Unknown is an indie-rock number of considerable ambition, a dark short story written for the purpose of one day being adapted into a movie, a comic book, or perhaps even a musical. We’d like to think that this is what the British band had in mind with this. From the mysterious narrative to the Brian May-like guitar leads, there’s something here that lets you know that Region aren’t willing to settle and are eyeing big prizes instead.
LohArano – Very
Genre: Pop Punk, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
One of the greatest joys for a music fan about living during these days is the ability to listen to music from all around the world with little cost or effort and at any time one chooses. It is the kind of luxury that old vinyl collectors would have absolutely killed to have back in the day when shipping a record out of certain parts of the world was more difficult than bringing in contraband.
The only problem is that most bands, regardless of where they come from, want to be successful. And most of them have the same idea about how to achieve it. They try and sound, look and act like one of the Anglo-American bands that have achieved the success that they desire. While there is nothing wrong with this, it makes the listener less willing to invest time in discovering the kind of music that they could just as well find at home.
LohArano’s Very is rock music that reflects the Madagascar roots of the band. The place of origin of the artists is novel enough. But, it is the muscular yet tasteful way that they treat their hard rock that really makes their music something worth experiencing. It’s music designed for the big stages, the kinds where modern, inventive hard-rock has an audience that is always on the lookout for something to spark their imagination.
