These Nights Are Ours

  Cloud Highway by Tonebox   Duality - the existence of two entities that are fated to be joined together for all eternity.  Light and dark, life and death, silence and sound - without one the other would not exist.  This paradox is ever present in nature and civilization, and it is truly a fascinating phenomenon to ponder.   Duality also exists within music.  Be it two contrasting styles or tendencies that compliment each other while still remaining completely different in their execution.  It is this very paradox that exists within Tonebox’s album Cloud Highway.   There are two sides to Cloud highwavy: the first offers a very satisfying, yet entirely typical rendition of synthwave.  The second however is where this album differentiates itself from many of its contemporaries.  Tonebox has added darksynth into the core of their sound with excellent results. The bass on this album is immense, powerful and used in exactly the right amount.  The opener - Run -  consists of a simple back

  Rain No Longer Softens by Bruised Skies   Sitting alone in a high rise gazing eastwardly awaiting the rising sun.  Below there are indistinct shapes moving around serving little more than a pleasant distraction from our anticipation.  The city slowly defines its form and wakes from its slumber as the moment approaches.   Listening to Rain No Longer Softens brings to mind a scene as described above.  The audio paints a vision of dawn while in the midst of an urban setting.  Transforming itself from this dark formless void into a warm yet tainted vision.   The opening tracks have a strong ambient focus, featuring a central tone or soundscape.  However in the background there are little oddities. Sometimes I swear I hear different songs playing deep in the depths.  It's like a car passing by, playing a few sparse notes for a moment, then nothing. While listening to Rain No Longer Softens - especially with headphones - I will often hear small little tidbits of other music or sounds

    #2 by HIROTA ENO   Another album I came upon by pure chance.  I know nothing of this artist, only that the cover stood out to me when I was searching randomly on Bandcamp. What Hirota Eno has created with #2 is four diverse takes on the drone ambient genre.  Four different looping samples that transport the listener into very different places. Each one is nearly the perfect length, and while repetitive they do not overstay their welcome.  They offer a type of hypnotic effect that allows me to lose myself in its tones.  This is one of the primary reasons I enjoy ambient music so much. Hibari offers the listener a guiding light in a sea of fog.  Komorebi overwhelms the senses with its saturated loops.  Kioku lulls the listener into a gentle trance with its repeating melodies and tones.  Rakujitsu closes out the short EP with a distant piano loop that has a dangerously hypnotic sway to it. The entirety of the EP is over before it even begins, providing a brief but welcome time spent

  NEOZEN by R∞   In the mid 70’s a band named Queen released an album named A Night at the Opera. I did not hear the album in its entirety until nearly 30 years after its release.  After I did though it quickly became the gold standard for me on how to approach diverse song writing within the context of an album.   What Queen did there was explore multiple genres throughout the runtime of the album, yet throughout you can still tell that it is the same band.  The songs ebb and flow, weave and bend and remain unpredictable.  Yet through it all the musicianship and quality of the songs remains consistently high.  NeoZen is R∞'s Night at the Opera. The first two tracks are very much the continuation and refinement of the sound that R∞ has been honing over the past few albums.  A cyberpunk interpretation of vaporwave/dreampunk that took on its own form and became instantly recognizable as his work.  It is after this however where the album truly begins to bloom. Shadow of Heart, the