Friday, December 15, 2017

Music Review: Ariel Levine "Let The Machine Get It" (Bleeding Gold Records)


In the time that I've reviewed music, I've compared something like 1/3 of the music I've heard with Nine Inch Nails.   It's not a bad thing-- it's just that if you have this certain industrial/synth sound it's where I'm going to go where as others more into that genre of rock (I had a friend in high school who really loved Front 242).    Right away, Ariel Levine reminds me of Trent Reznor, but not in a Nine Inch Nails way.   That industrial synth sound isn't there, it's more of a rock n roll sound, but his voice brings out Reznor.    At first, it's almost as if Reznor were to front a band like STP or Soundgarden.

That all changes by the third song.   "Until The Morning Light" brings about this rock sound in a way that I want to relate with someone like Muse.   I feel like there is a band that sounds like this and I listened to them once in a movie or on the radio by accident but I don't remember because I have enough of my "weirdo/outsider music" to keep track of these days.    Even into the next song, "We Fall In Line", there is this straight forward rock n roll sound like The Damn Personals, yet at the same time, I can hear the vocals also sounding a bit like in the first two songs. 

Other sounds which come out could include Blue October but ultimately these songs are comprised of various forms of rock n roll which have been blended into something which will become unique and true only to Ariel Levine when the history books are all written (And I intend to be one of those who writes them)   It's refreshing to hear something which seems to have taken the ideas of music past and turned them into a sound all their own rather than how most bands these days are just a combination of Band A + Band B. 

When I woke up this morning it was 9 degrees outside.   I have only recently moved into my new place and was hoping that once the stress and pressure of trying to find somewhere new to live was over, once the burden of having to move all of my belongings had passed, that life would get better.    Instead, I struggle just to find the nerve to get out of bed and when I am awake it is a constant fight to stay that way.

Last night I thought the bathtub wasn't going to drain because when I had pushed the lever down it seemed to do nothing.   I sat there, for hours, frustrated with it, trying everything I could to get it to work and thinking about all of the guilt I've taken upon myself this past year.    After a while of not messing with it, I realized that the bathtub was in fact draining, it was just doing it really, really slowly and had I just left it and walked away it would have eventually worked itself out.   Is that true of life as well?  I don't know. 

What I do know is that the only thing that gets me through these times is music.   Sometimes I feel like I consume music the way an alcoholic consumes the drink of their choice: I simply cannot get enough of it, good or bad, because when that good stuff hits, oh boy does it hit.   People say music is their life but they've likely never had to choose between dying or a song.    Music like this being delivered to me via email is what makes life worth living.   It's why I get out of bed in the morning despite everything else.    If you've ever listened to what was once on the radio called "alternative rock" (So, the radio in the 1990's), then you will find something to treasure in these songs even if not as much as I do. 



$9.99 to Download //
https://bleedinggoldrecords.bandcamp.com/album/bg117-let-the-machine-get-it

$18 for LP //
http://bleedinggoldrecords.bigcartel.com/product/ariel-levine-let-the-machine-get-it

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