Tag: Codeine (band)

The Stark Minimalism of Torre di Fine’s Post-Rock Mood Piece “Kenopsia” is a Musical Embodiment of Urban Decay

Torre di Fine, photo courtesy the artists

The enigmatic, melodic bass at the beginning of “Kenopsia” by Torre di Fine creates an expectation of stark moodiness ahead. And the song delivers on that early promise as the vocals come in a near whisper while a background drone suggests an overhanging menace. Then a second voice, one that sounds more feminine, joins the first voice and then becomes the lead near the halfway point and adding another layer of emotional resonance that truly embodies the meaning of the title of the song which refers to, according to Collins Dictionary online, “the eerie atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with people but now abandoned.” And the song does sound like the kind of music that would be appropriate to an environment of urban decay and neglect. Like a song inspired by ruins and more recently observing the world during the period of lockdown for various countries including the band’s home country of Italy. Fans of brooding, stark minimalism the likes of which one might hear on a The For Carnation record or one of Codeine’s more stripped down moments will find something to appreciate about this song’s near skeletal composition. Listen to “Kenopsia” on YouTube and follow Italy’s Torre di Fine on Spotify.

Bondo’s Slowcore Post-Rock Song “New Brain” is a Contemplative Exploration of a Yearning for a Psychological Reset

Bondo, photo courtesy the artists

Bondo’s contemplative yet uneasy “New Brain” brings us in with a lonely, spare, borderline atonal guitar line with drums like something born out a creative cauldron in which its players dropped Slint, Codeine, Unwound and Sonic Youth to produce a something melancholic and yearning. Toward the last fourth of the song the once tranquil musical elements come together in a clashing passage of heightened emotional intensity before easing back into impressionistic guitar work and rhythms. The minimal vocals are like neo-Beat poetry, the guitar progressions are like a call and response answer to self in an informal structure like a free jazz piece aiming to take on the quality of water with the tones resonating like droplets creating lingering waves creating interference patterns with one another that somehow resolve into evocative intersections. Its an apt dynamic for a song seemingly about wanting to have a new brain and reset one’s life, one’s habits and one’s possible future trajectory and having to come to terms with that not being a realistic outcome even if it would make everything easier. Listen to “New Brain” on Spotify and follow Bondo on Instagram.