With the music of a project called Misery Machines, then let us be among the first to introduce you as a recent album release comes through with a wondrous blend of tones, textures, and genres.
The record takes a heavy-handed post-punk approach, utilizing specific bass and guitar tones that can be affected with reverbs, choruses, and more to really nail that classic underground, mid to late-90s post-punk feel.
This is impressive to me because I grew up in a lot of this kind of stuff and I can tell you right now that there was a lot of thought that went into the creation of this record in terms of the exact sounds and tones that were used to build everything and create an aesthetic that lends a hand to its influences.
The album is released in the form of singles that were dropped as a waterfall Effect one by one, and the deeper into the songs you go, the more you start hearing other influences come into play.
Tracks like 'How We Feel In Control" delve into elements of NewWave, and a little industrial, even. Utilizing these outstanding synth and key textures to deliver something that brings out that vintage tonality so well that it almost feels like it could have been released in the late '80s or mid-90s.
A lot of the time, it's the bass lines that really hit home. A lot went into those because they seem to be a heavy driving point to the songs rhythmically, but also tonally.
The drums and other instruments are recorded and do indeed add those Reverb effects, giving them a distance and classic feel as well.
Songs like this one give you more expansive and vast synth pads that deliver a bigger atmosphere, and it hits perfectly.
Then you have tracks like "The Greys", which breed a more updated feel, including the synth work along with some fresher and more colorful guitars and a bouncier rhythm. These are the kinds of songs that you can hear different influences in as well, and I love the way the record starts to become more and more diverse as it unfolds.
Others like "Beautiful Girl (In An Ugly World)" deliver a bit of a cinematic backbone to me. This is the type of track that feels like it could have been in the scene or end credits of a film of the late '80s, for example.
You can hear a lot of that cinematic attribute and most of the album, to be honest. I enjoyed this because I love movies of that era, and this project really nailed some of the fields and aesthetics that came with those films musically.
Maybe he was influenced by some of that stuff as well.
This is the type of album you listen to all the way through. Listening to one or two tracks may give you an idea of what you could expect from other tracks on the release but does not give you the full spectrum of what the album has to offer.
Listening to this album from beginning to end is like an escape. It puts you in a different world and pulls you away from whatever you're doing and whatever you are, which, to me, is a gift.
The vocals have a very bountiful approach, and those vocals can come through animated at times, but with some great harmonies. The texture of those vocals, in combination with the guitars and electronic elements of the songs, adds a beautiful texture and layer to these.
A lot of the record is danceable. The songs have some outstanding rhythms and grooves that really want to make you move, especially if you grew up in the 80's and 90s.
One of the most mind-boggling aspects of this entire thing is that it's done by one man. Peter L Miller is the mastermind behind this entire thing and, as far as we can tell, crafts, records, rights, and produces all of these songs himself.
This project is his brainchild. To think about how some of these songs or this entire record came to fruition from just a thought or idea is something I can't wrap my head around.
There was obviously a lot of attention to detail during the creation of this record, including the mix, which is super important to hit the kind of aesthetic that Peter was going for with a lot of this stuff.
Listen to this album from beginning to end if you can and do so with headphones on because it's one of the best ways to soak in all of those layers and textures.
Remember where you heard this first.
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