kidwithacassette

[kidwithacassette]

Molchat Doma - Monument [Review] Monument - 5/5 Cop the physical? - Yes! Favourite Songs? - Otveta Net / Zvezdy

It’s hard to find yourself so wrapped up, intertwined with an album that you lose track of your sense of time, purpose, and can completely manipulate, alter and change your mental state and enter the realms of true musical genius. The first time this happened with me, was Earl Sweatshirts: “I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside” (IDLSIDGO), a project that completely warped my view, sonically of what music could be. Delving into the depths of your mental state, and enhancing the darkness. Earl’s album symbolises the mental walk through a dark cave, searching for hope, for a solution to problems. Monument, ties these similarities between despair, darkness and grit through Belaruse's newest sensation, Molchat Doma. Earl and Molchat’s album despite being completely opposite genres of music, make the viewer feel lost in emotion, however in comparison to Earl’s wandering despair, the Monument effect conveys to us, we are walking through this dark tunnel, but we see a light, a hope, a way.

Glimpses of darkness are thrusted upon the viewer upon immediately started the record, by a ever rising alarm reminiscent of a nuclear countdown intertwined with radioactive reverb. It’s hard to discuss the lyrical content of this project, being born and raised in Australia, and with English being my primary language, only for this review did I finally do the deep dive and translate these lyrics to find the source of what is slapping me across the face. Egor Shkutko’s vocal not only are sprawling with emotion, but Egor discusses how he is going to drown himself after killing his lover. To a casual, blissfuly unaware, English speaking soul you could mistake his homicidal lyrics for him soul bearing. For me, part of the fun of the project is the unknown, every time I hear a song on here, I’m constantly pondering what is being said sometimes I think he’s talking about love, sometimes I think he’s talking about the Soviet lifestyle, which is to me a big reason Molchat is so much larger in the European countries in comparison to their home country. The pure lyrical grit of their content is too much for us to comprehend, and overshadows the instrumentation for natively speaking people who have listened to this project. It’s dark, it’s emotive, it tells a story, a dark one, but over all of these lyrics about heart break and the things Egor has experienced lays the foundation for the western rise of Molchat Doma, the eerily beautiful composition of the instrumentation.

Monument, despite having largely blown up on Tik Tok was my first introduction to Molchat Doma. Upon scrolling through Facebook and being a member of several music groups, I noticed someone posted a video which featured the introduction to Zvezdy. That 15 second video had me hooked so I had to find out who it was, a horribly compressed version was used and I spent the next two hours of my time locating the source of this new phenomenon rushing around my head, I couldn’t stop thinking at the pure genius of the musical composition. I was negating the lyrics, I was on a hunt for who this guitarist was. I found Monument and immediately pressed play. Roman Komogortsev is something I still haven’t found a way to describe. The first time I heard “Otveta Net” I cried. Something within the 40 seconds of the song touched me in a way that hadn’t been since listening to Earl’s project, but even with IDLSIDGO, I had to listen to the album multiple times to comprehend what was happening, what I was hearing and I had to dissect each and every noun, verb, adjective to even remotely understand what he was telling me. Roman did this to me without saying any words, in 40 seconds. While writing this, I have pressed replay on “Otveta Net” 8 times, and every time this song touches me like it’s my first time hearing it. It’s not just the guitar, it’s the build up too the greatest moment I have ever heard on guitar, Egor spilling his guts out, yelling to the world, Pavel Kozlov‘s subtle baselines all intertwined into one of my favourite songs of all time. I can’t express my feelings, my emotions towards this song and the impact it’s created on my soul, my mind and my figure.

[kidwithacassette]

Ouch! EP - Matt Watson [Review]

Ouch! EP - 4.95/5

Release Date - 4/9/2020

Cop the physical? - Yes!

Favourite Songs? - Come Over / Feel This Way / Margie / Nokia

Least Favourite? - Sleep Tight

After getting my hands on the album early, I listened to this project several times to formulate a true and unbiased opinion on the project. Being a fan of Supermega it was difficult to discern between fanboy and genuine enjoyment but here you go!

Matt Watson in an attempt to break away from the stigma of a “YouTube Musician” presents us with a highly polished, well produced project while still maintaining the bedroom pop style of music that’s becoming ever more prevalent in today’s music culture. The DIY nature of this project enforces the main messages of the project of self worth, people around you in your life and love. The songs moods vary from track to track, “Come Over” being the most bouncy, up beat song which sends the listener into a reflection of their life, while still presenting the heartbroken lyrics, Matt manages to portray his wishes and desires in a often comedic way even stating he would “spend a billion at the liquor store”. “Feel Like This” shows Matt mumbling over a beat reminiscent of a Corbin “Mourn” project, discussing his turmoil with his girl and how he doesn’t want to feel broken anymore. “Jello” and “Margie” are significantly different from other songs on the album, taking elements of Pop, Indie and Jazz and meshing them into a great, high production song. “Sleep Tight” was (in my opinion) was not necessary for the project. I don’t believe it was a strong finisher, the track features Matt mumbling in what sounds like a pub with people cheering him on. The beat sounds like some generic, stock elevator song ripped off YouTube. I believe, if it was a lengthier project rather then an EP this would’ve fit nicely as an interlude.

At the end of the day, this would be one of the best Musical debuts I’ve seen from an artist. Matt Watson’s unique blend of genres is truely something fresh and exciting and I’m anticipating the next release. Discussions taking place on Twitter show that Matt is considering releasing physical copies of the project, if these release I will be certainly be obtaining them.