01/22/12: Diagrams - Black Light (2012)

01/22/12: Diagrams - Black Light (2012)

1. Ghost Lit
2. Tall Buildings
3. Night All Night
4. Appetite
5. Mills
6. Antelope
7. Black Light
8. Animals
9. Peninsula 9b. Secret Track

     This is the first full-length by Diagrams. If you would like a little more information on Diagrams see my previous review of their debut  E.P. Their sound is more sharply produced and layered on Black Light. There are a couple songs that are also on the EP but the new and shorter version of Night All Night became one of my favorite tracks on the full length after not really caring for it on the EP. The songs drum beats and general rhythm have the feel of a Tunng song but the guitars are generally less folky and more distorted. There were a couple tracks that had a more poppy electronic dance feel that were kinda meh... but the majority of the album was really enjoyable. The final track was a highlight Peninsula is one of the best songs and has huge build up that is capped off by swells of strings until it dies back down and fades out. That is followed by roughly 16 minutes of silence and a secret track that would have fit as a quality conclusion to the main album. It starts very soft and almost ghostly and builds to one of the most rocking moments on the album that ended 20 minutes prior.... Good band, but less enthusiastic than after the slightly more stripped down EP. I still highly recommend this to all fans of Tunng. (022)

01/21/12: Diagrams - EP (2011)

01/21/12: Diagrams - EP (2011)

1. Night All Night
2. Antelope
3. Hill
4. Working
5. Icebreakers

     So this was kind of a good and bad discovery as far as music goes. This is the first EP from the former frontman of Tunng Sam Genders. The bad new is that word former. It seems Tunng may be finished which is kind of a huge bummer. The good news is that his new band Diagrams is really freaking good. Their first full-length has also come out and will be my next review, but lets start with this EP.
     It's incredibly easy to compare this to Tunng since Genders has such a distinct voice. He wrote all the music for Diagrams himself but the albums sound like a full band. This music has lost the folk of Tunng and kept the electronic parts. This EP has a very solid 5 songs that feel a bit more up-beat than what I'm used to from Genders. His live band has grown to 9 people and its easy to understand why. Many of the songs have strings, horns, and very choral backing vocals. I am a sucker for all these elements. I wish I knew what genre to put this in. I'll call it awesome. I love his voice and this is yet another band of his I can get behind. Definitely check it out. (021)