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| Image © Copyright deMute |
Freelance writer, horror author and geeky reviewer. Some of my stuff is quite graphic/adult, so leave now if that bothers you.
Sunday 29 March 2015
Dark Review - TaoMix
Saturday 28 March 2015
Dark Music Review – Shortwave
Dark Music Review – Shortwave
Written By Casey Douglass
Anything to do with hidden messages and secret codes usually grabs my interest. When that interest mingles with one of my favourite music genres, the effect is more than doubled! Shortwave, a dark ambient album from Metadronos & Ager Sonus has caused one such marrying. The album description:
For decades, all over the world, people have been trying to transport information and vital data over shortwave-radio-frequencies, unbeknownst to the general public. Those unknown parties used a multitude of encryption systems to their advantage. This album invites you to get a feeling for the mystery of... shortwave transmissions.
One
thing that I really really like about Shortwave is the device
of using spoken numbers throughout various portions of the music.
Numbers can be ‘beaty’ things at the best of times, but the
effect of a voice monotonously reading numbers, or repeating one a few times
before moving onto the next, creates a very nice rhythm that manages
to mingle with the dark drones and beeping sounds in a very pleasing
way. Shortwave, the track, is a prime example of this.
Another
track that I particularly liked was Glowlamp Machine. This track
makes great use of strange yet child-like melodies, yet they jostle
uncomfortably with strong tones and the repetitive intoning of
numbers again. The swelling sounds and sweeping droning created an
image for me of a boffin in his or her lab, code running down green
LED fed computer screens. If you have ever seen the film Pi,
you might know what I mean. If you haven’t, seek it out!
Wireless
Intercept Station is also a great track. More orchestral in nature
and featuring ominous bellchimes and strings like unimpressed bees.
Then the distorted and drained-of-life voice of a man begins to
speak. A great track.
What
you get with Shortwave is a dark ambient album that stays on
theme the whole way through, yet each track is varied enough and
different enough to keep giving the repeated theme in fresh ways to
your ears each time. I give Shortwave 4.5/5. It used numbers in
a way I’d not heard before and every time I listened to it, this
fact re-impressed me over and over.
Head
over to the Shortwave Bandcamp page here for more info.
I was given a free
copy of the album to review.
Album Title: Shortwave
Artist: Metadronos &
Ager Sonus
Released : 6th February
2015
Friday 27 March 2015
Dark Film Review - Wild Card
The Stath is in another film. This one is called Wild Card, but is it any good? Read my review here on Amongst Geeks to find out.
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| Image © Copyright Lionsgate |
Thursday 26 March 2015
Dark Review - Cities: Skylines
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| Image © Copyright Paradox Interactive |
Wednesday 25 March 2015
Dark Distractions Anthology Gets Great Review
Unlike some first time authors who rely solely on details of gore and bloody scenarios, Casey Douglass opts instead for story and character progression. And it works so well, you’ll be lost in those characters. Whether it’s a short piece of flash fiction or a medium size tale, you feel as if you’re in the world they are in.
You can read the full review here and read more about my Dark Distractions Anthology Volume One here.
Monday 23 March 2015
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Version 2.0 Now on The Huffington Post UK
Saturday 21 March 2015
Dark Film Review - Run All Night
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| Image © Copyright Warner Bros. Entertainment |
Friday 20 March 2015
Dark Review - Riddick
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| Image © Copyright Universal Pictures |
Wednesday 18 March 2015
Front Page
Tuesday 17 March 2015
Dark Article - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Version 2.0
Article on the Huffington Post
This wouldn't have come about in the manner it did if it wasn't for Barry and Geek Syndicate. Yes I wrote the thing, but if I hadn't been contributing to G.S, I may never have written that article. It was also through G.S that this opportunity arose. It just goes to show, you never know when something you've written might come in handy in the future.
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Monday 16 March 2015
Dark Music Review - Creator, You Destroy Me
Dark Music Review - Creator, You Destroy Me
Written By Casey Douglass
Over the weekend I
finally had some time and mental focus to listen to self-taught
musician Miguel Gomes’ newest album Creator, You Destroy Me.
Going under the pseudonym of Be My Friend in Exile, Miguel makes
ethereal ambient drone music that makes use of amplifier distortion
and drones of varying strengths to create a mood and effect. On to
the tracks:
The Tracks
Archon of the
Demiurge
A dark area opens up,
filled with distortion and guitar strings viciously plucked, their
clanging merging with a background drone. It conjured images to mind
of hurtling down an abandoned subway line, the loud noises the
well-lit stations, the drone the pure inky blackness of the tunnels
proper.
Ultima Linea Rerum
This track starts with
the same rhythm as the previous one, but things are lighter and
higher. If track one was plunging into the bowels of the tube system,
this part is in the open air, maybe fog laden section, cracked and
desolate buildings looking down like giant tombstones.
Fever Dream
A faint tinkling
mechanical whine underpins a light drone with a gently plucked string
melody behind it all. A softer track that might create images of
being alone in thick fog with only the milky impression of a distant
city’s lights ahead of you.
Control Heartbeat
Delete
A clever track that use
looping sounds to create a feeling of motion and ‘stuckness’ at
the same time. Light drones dance around the main sounds, airy and
bursting with energy. It all gets higher and higher, like someones
spirit leaving their body and passing up, up through the ceiling and
away.
Memories of
Childhood, Feelings for the Future
This track starts with
some recognisable ambient sounds: distant church-bells, footsteps and
birdsong, conjuring images of sunny afternoons bathed in golden light
in a city park. Plucked guitar strings join vocal phrases that sound
like they are from a PA system. The music is lulling and relaxing,
yet the bassy plunges and voice effects hint at something not quite
right. It builds into a strong bass rhythm and the pace increases.
More sounds of voices and children playing emerge along with traffic
and church-bells. Guitar reverberates, jarring the listener amongst
knocking echoes and distortion before mellowing a little and becoming
clearer once more. A tone that sounds like a church organ toys with
the ear before a steady drone begins to grow. A catchy guitar rhythm
sounds before things go quiet with just bass notes and tinkling left.
This track conjures to mind the possible experience of a happy child
playing in the sunlight before stumbling across the view to the
churchyard beyond, catching sight and mind of their first real
thoughts of death and what lays before them.
Foundation Pit
A gentle track that
sounds like cymbals or a gong being gently hit, with a drone along
for the ride. Guitar strings echo and clang as everything builds into
another “high” track that elevates rather than pushes you down.
High-pitched sounds floating in a sea of reverb.
Floating Weightless
Back to the Surface, I Imagine Becoming Someone Else
A swelling noise that
sounds like a swarm of purple (why purple?) bees filling the air with
industry and vibration. Maybe the neurons firing in a brain, a crisis
point reached and breached with grit and fury. A harsher drone meets
it before strings of guitar battle against the points of motion, a
manifestation of desire in distortion.
Dzhan
Distortion and a bass
drone plucks at the ear as a swelling undulation pushes through
everything, like a face emerging in the static of a detuned TV
screen. It quietens to a distorted rhythm and quiet guitar.
Thoughts
I
am quite a fan of the guitar/string led side of the dark ambient
genre. Any track using amplifier distortion and plucked melodies
seems to grab my attention far more than some of the more subtle dark
ambient tracks which rely more on ambient noise samples. In Creator,
You Destroy Me, Miguel has created an album that is full of
tracks that share a sound but all sound suitably different. I must
admit that my favourite track by far was Memories
of Childhood, Feelings for the Future. Ironically, it featured the
most recognisable ambient sounds but I just felt it was a great
multi-layered track that was both peaceful and sinister at the same
time.
I
give Creator, You
Destroy Me 4/5, a
riveting listening experience but also something that gives your mind
free-reign to infer what it wants from the sounds you are hearing.
You
can visit Be My Friend in Exile’s Bandcamp page here.
I was given a free
copy of the album to review.
Album Title: Creator,
You Destroy Me
Artist: Be My Friend In
Exile, Additional keys, synths and samples on Track 5 by Tomas
Amoretti
Label: Already Dead
Tapes & Records
Released: 20th
January 2015
Friday 13 March 2015
Dark Film Review - Chappie
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| Image Copyright © Columbia Pictures |
Thursday 12 March 2015
Dark Review - I Am Alive
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| Image Copyright © Ubisoft |
Monday 9 March 2015
Dark Music Review - It Follows Soundtrack
Dark Music Review – It Follows Soundtrack
Written by Casey Douglass
It’s rare for me to
watch a film and feel that the soundtrack was something that really
demanded attention. That’s not to diminish the role of sound in
films, it’s just a way of showing how my mind works. I watched the
brilliant horror film It Follows a few days ago (you can read
my review on Amongst Geeks here) and was immediately struck by the soundtrack. It was
sinister, novel and dark as hell. The musician behind the It
Follows soundtrack is Rich Vreeland aka Disasterpeace, a
knowledgeable and prolific videogame music creator in the chiptune /
8-bit genres.
I have to hold up my
hands and admit that this isn’t a genre of music that I usually
listen to, although I can appreciate the work that goes into it.
Sounds are designed to sound like (or actually are) played through
the retro sound chips of older computers and game consoles, giving
them those nostalgia inducing Mario or Metroid type
pangs that take you back to your childhood. Judging by his Bandcamp
releases at least, It Follows looks like it might be his
darkest work of recent times, which is what piqued my interest. While
the album isn’t classified as dark ambient, I think it certainly
could be.
What you’ll get if
you listen to the soundtrack is the mental equivalent of being
buffeted at sea. A good number of the tracks alternate quieter
booming rumblings and harsh high pitched screeching tones, lulling
you and then jarring you moments later. My hands down favourite track
has to be Title, partly because the main rhythmic tone
arrangement puts me in mind of the famous shower scene music from
Psycho. It also has a hook-laden chorus that rattled around my
head for at least 24 hours after hearing it.
As with all great
albums, there are the lighter, smoother tracks along with the harsh.
Jay is one such track, an almost sunlight infused track that
is slower and, if not outright tranquil, the sinister undertones are
less than other tracks. Detroit is another example of a
quieter track, but even though it is less frantic, it still conveys
feelings of fear and sadness.
One grandstanding track
that features a little of everything is Company. The tone at
the start of this track sounds a little like bagpipes being softly
abused. It goes quiet and hollow echoing thuds emerge, a high-pitched
whining noise grating over the top of them. A deep rumble joins when
the whining ends and everything holds its breath. A warped tone
sounds over everything again, like a kettle boiling but off kilter
and harsh. The deeper distortion behind it sounds a little like
horses galloping. The track fades to a kind of ‘electro agitation’
that seems to charge the air, before a quieter tone suggests itself
in the silence as it leaves. All goes quiet once more before the
quieter tone looms again with a more gentle bass sound. The track
ends violently with very harsh sounds distorting and shrieking for
the last few seconds. Quite an experience.
Being a soundtrack
album, many of the tracks are no more than a couple of minutes long,
some less than one minute. This makes sure that no one track or
soundscape outstays its welcome and as a listener, this keeps you
more alert and interested, even as some of the melody based segments
follow the same general scheme.
Even though it appears
I’m a pretty easy to please reviewer, partly due to only reviewing
stuff that interests me anyway, giving out full marks has only
happened a few times over the last few years. The It Follows
soundtrack can join the handful of albums that have wormed their way
into my mind as I’m giving it 5/5. From a personal
perspective, it’s something a little different to what I usually
listen to but that still manages to take me to that dark place that I
like my more ambient music to take me. The chiptune / 8-bit
underpinnings appeal very much to my geeky videogame playing side
whilst the drones and bass appeal to my dark world creating fiction
side. A complete performance I guess you could say.
If any of what I’ve
said has intrigued you, you can check out Disasterpeace’s website
here and pick the It Follows soundtrack up for not much money
at all. I also urge you to go and see It Follows while its at
the cinema, or buy it when it is released for home viewing.
I was given a free
copy of the album for review.
Album Title: It Follows
Music by: Disasterpeace
Mastered by: Christian
Dwiggins
Artwork by: Midnight
Marauder
Producers: Richard
Glasser, JC Chamboredon & Stefan Karrer
Release date: 10th
March 2015
Thursday 5 March 2015
Dark Film Review - It Follows
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| Image Copyright RADiUS-TWC |
Wednesday 4 March 2015
Dark Book Review - Mogworld
Tuesday 3 March 2015
Three Years On - Progress and Strain
My website is 3 years
old today. Much like last year, I will use it as a measuring stick to
see how far I’ve come, what I might have achieved and how close to
madness I came.
I will start with
looking at my hopes of a year ago and seeing if they were met. I laid
out some very numbers-based goals for number of posts done, Twitter
followers gained and site traffic reached. I met some, failed to
reach others, but I find myself not really caring as they miss the
point. They are just a metric to measure one aspect of what is going
on; they shouldn’t be goals in and of themselves.
The biggest thing for
me from a writing perspective was finally going self-employed as a
freelance writer. The manner in which it came about was incredibly
stressful and my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder damn near killed me in
the trying, but months on, I am slowly getting a handle on things. I
am also getting paid work which is also very helpful but is taking
some getting used to.
Shortly after going
freelance, I got my Dark Distractions Anthology onto the Amazon
Kindle Store, which was another milestone for me. Of course, this
site is no longer called Dark Distractions but I liked the name
enough to keep it for my writing. I wanted my site address to be
relate-able to my own name, especially if people might see some of my
writing and decide to Google me.
I have continued my
writing for Geek Syndicate and enjoyed the various things coming my
way to review. I am heartened to see G.S go from strength to strength
and for Barry and Dave to be rewarded with their BBC iPlayer shows
and interviews. I also want to thank the site for giving me something
to do when other things have seen my mind whirling away in fear and
anxiety; it was a great way to keep writing, which was the most
important thing for me.
Another notable event
was being invited onto BBC Radio 4’s Digital Human show to talk
about how my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder affected my use of
technology. It was a great experience and even though not much of my
interview was used in the end, I appreciated the opportunity to put
into words things that I struggle with on a day to day basis.
One area that has
really taken off is the amount of contact I have with writers and
musicians who would like me to review their work. I have thoroughly
enjoyed writing my dark ambient music album reviews and it is always
a great feeling to have music that I enjoy listening to coming to me
for a change, rather than having to hunt things out for myself. That
probably makes me sound very lazy but I just like to think it’s
having a relaxed attitude to entertainment.
My fiction writing has
continued in fits and starts, partly due to adjusting to more article
and news writing, and partly due to horrendous energy levels and the
anxiety it causes me to embark on a larger piece of work. If writing
flash fiction and short stories is like gently pootling about in a
row-boat just off the beach, writing a novella or novel is like
rowing out to sea and losing sight of land for weeks. It’s
something I will get on top of but as of yet have not taken steps in
that direction.
If the year before
last, someone had told me I would have been a freelancer and have a
book on the Kindle Store by now, I would have said yes please and
taken it gladly. As it is, I’m pleased but it’s hard to feel too
cheerful about it. I know intellectually I have done it, but it feels
like my heart hasn’t accepted it. I won’t fret about what I’m
feeling or not feeling though and will just carry on taking steady
steps towards being the writer I would like to be.
Sunday 1 March 2015
Dark Music Review – September Traveler
Dark Music Review – September Traveler
Written By Casey Douglass
I was very impressed
with Sound Awakener's Hidden when I reviewed it awhile ago.
Nhung Nguyen has a real knack for using moody strings and harsher
sound samples to create compositions that hang in the air like some
strange and dark insect swarm, hypnotising and edgy. I was very
pleased when Nhung Nguyen asked me to review another of her albums,
September Traveler.
September Traveler is a collection of Sound Awakener’s early works in 2011 and 2012 (except "The call is fading"). It is also the soundtrack for Irene Cruz’s exhibition What dreams are made of, which took place in Berlin from 6th to 18th February, 2015. The title September Traveler refers to the journey through moments, total darkness and lost, blurred light. The atmosphere of the music is cold, soft and a little bit dreamy, mostly created by drone elements and field recordings. All sales from this album go directly to support Sound Awakener's recording equipment need. Your purchase is gladly appreciated!
The Tracks:
September Traveler
What sounds like
string-based distortion mingles with a high-pitched tone that puts me
in mind of fairground music slowed down and played backwards. It
sounds like the soundtrack to some strange dream, but a dream that
starts darkly and becomes a little lighter and more hopeful towards
the end.
Learning to Drown
Looping strains of
piano dance and compete with a looming drone in the background. A
muted thudding begins in the distance and pulsates below everything
as the piano fades and comes back. The result is a track that grows
in pace and feels stifling, as if it’s closing around you.
Pale Morning
Chirpy tones tinkle in
a light soundscape that feels cold but not hostile in any way. Maybe
a morning frost glinting in weak sunlight. Something dark does feel
like it is coming closer as the track goes on however.
The shade you’ve
become
Muffled voices and
distorting electro-sound moves from ear to ear. Harsher piano and
string notes add an element of discord as the background sound begins
to take on the guise of an angry bee. It rattles and hums as reversed
and slowed piano pierces the soundscape, giving movement to the shade
mentioned in the track title. The track becomes deeper as it
continues, higher pitched sounds echoing back from unseen walls as
the other notes mingle in the increasingly harsh medley. Space
emerges; strings twang, piano keys sound and thumps punctuate the
void left behind.
The call is fading
Stark piano and a
swelling and dwindling background sound create a feeling of absence
and loss, the notes swallowed by the airy space they float inside.
The track ends very abruptly which was a surprise but very effective
rather than petering out.
Thoughts
September Traveler has a less chaotic sound than Hidden but one
that is no less interesting. Piano is used to great effect, as you
would imagine with Nhung Nguyen being a classically trained pianist.
I also like her use of strings though, especially the deep and
brooding distorted ones she laces her tracks with. All in all,
September Traveler is a fine album that deserves a place in
any dark ambient aficionado’s music collection and I happily rate
it 4/5.
Visit
the September Traveler Bandcamp page here for more
information.
I was given a free
copy of the album to review.
Album Title: September Traveler
Artist: Sound Awakener
Mastered by: Nicky
Bendix
Artwork by: Irene Cruz
Released : 6th February
2015
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