I wish I had more time to write reviews of new releases, not because anyone really needs them but because it helps ME to unbottle my enthusiasm and to offer public thanks to bands who brighten my days. Reviews may be especially unnecessary in the case of EPs and albums that have already appeared on Bandcamp, as these have, where the sounds are far more meaningful than any words written about them. But I suppose scribbling at least a few words may help guide a few souls to the music streams…

…and so here is some brief scribbling about four recent releases that can now be heard and acquired on Bandcamp. Apart from the quality of these releases and the breadth of the variety in styles they represent, I picked them out of the hundreds of worthy releases I haven’t written about this year because they happened to be the ones I’ve spent time with most recently.

MARTRÖÐ

Thanks to an e-mail from our Norwegian friend eiterorm (and several other friends on Facebook), I learned in August that the band Martröð would finally be releasing their EP, Transmutation of Wounds — on 12″ MLP via Fallen Empire Records and Terratur Possessions. I first heard about this project almost two years ago (and wrote about it here). The band’s eye-catching line-up reportedly consists of: Continue reading »