Media Meditation #6: Head in the Clouds

Cloudkicker
The Discovery (2008)

Tracklist:
1. Genesis Device (2:10)
2. Dysphoria (4:45)
3. Avalanche (5:15)
4. Everything’s Mirrors (2:02)
5. Viceroy (4:44)
6. segue: (3:00)
7. The Discovery (8:17)
8. Covington (2:31)
9. Triumverate! (1:04)
10. States (6:08)
Free legal download here.

Let me get this out of the way. Go to that link and download this album. Go ahead and download the other two EPs on that site as well; they are just as good as The Discovery, and more so even at points. They are all free, and you can get them both in MP3 format and the lossless audio format FLAC. Cloudkicker is the work of one guy who makes all his music free, as he owns his own recording equipment. It’s free for him to make it, so it should be free for you to listen to it. I cannot possibly recommend downloading this enough.

But enough of that, down to the actual music. Cloudkicker is instrumental metal with a strong progressive and atmospheric tinge to it. Or rather, it is atmosphere with a strong metal feel to it. The songs are mostly average length, with the exception of the eight minute title track, but they carry you places. It is all built with a huge wall of sound in mind, and produced perfectly. There are so many layers to the music that you could listen to each song ten times without noticing everything. The progressive side of the music is also very clear in the complex rhythms in songs like “Dysphoria,” which opens with a guitar riff in 15/4. The guitar usually plays rhythmic riffs, usually in strange, syncopated rhythms doubled by the bass drum. The keyboards are everywhere, and inundate the music with huge, swelling chords and tiny, flitting melodies like fireflies swarming around the music’s lantern. The music’s force lifts you up and washes you away, like a tidal wave. The entire album flows from song to song perfectly, and if you aren’t paying attention it can seem like it is all one song. This is not to say that the album is extremely similar. There are quiet, spacey intervals such as “Everything’s Mirrors” and “segue:”, as well as huge, hard-hitting songs like “Dysphoria” and “Viceroy“. The riffs are very interesting and certainly not like anything I’ve ever heard before, and between that and the immense wall of noise, Cloudkicker has a very strong and original style.

B.M. Sharp, the mastermind behind Cloudkicker, has a bit of solo work that predates Cloudkicker, released under his own name. It’s all for free download, like Cloudkicker, here. It has a more post rockfish feel to it, lacking most of the heaviness of Cloudkicker and being in general more laid back and quiet, content to take an idea and develop it slowly through the song. While in my opinion weaker than his work in Cloudkicker, his previous work is solid and worth a listen if you enjoyed Cloudkicker. A friend of mine has a thorough review of B.M. Sharp’s earlier work, as well as Cloudkicker’s two EPs that I haven’t mentioned in specifics here. All in all, Cloudkicker is truly great music, and with a price like nothing it’s a crime not to get it.