The post-grunge, alternative-rock group
from Minneapolis called Halo Minor have released their new EP album,
“Further-Now You're Close.” The record contains six original
tracks for an approximate total listening time approaching half an
hour. It has been proudly published as an independent release without
the involvement of the corporate music industry. Melodic and
orchestral, thrumming and soaring, passionate and a little dark,
“Further-Now You're Close” by Halo Minor mustn't be missed be
fans of alt-rock and the grunge tradition.
Halo Minor cite as chief influences
Queen, the Smashing Pumpkins, Pink Floyd, Failure, Alice in Chains,
Faith No More, Tool, the National, Sia Furler (Crisp), the Cure, and
the Mars Volta.
Some Halo Minor attributes can be
directly traced to these inspirations, yet they bear the creative
twists of HM, themselves. Their towering vocal harmonies recall those
of Alice in Chains but with a surprisingly affirming, choral
character rather than the cynical delivery of Layne Staley and Jerry
Cantrell. The Pumpkins-esque guitars on “Further...” (of which
there seem to be a thousand) come in warm waves and reverberate from
all directions, roaring, rushing, plunging and charging.
Songwriting plays a key role in the
achievement that is “Further-Now You're Close” by Halo Minor,
too, particularly in the instrumental composition of each track.
Ignoring for a moment its exceptional vocals, the EP could easily
give listeners enough to chew on with just its evocative chord
progressions and startling turns of musical phrase. Taken simply as
instrumentals, these songs are highly narrative.
Halo Minor's vocals – an
accomplishment in themselves – supply a large share of HM's
signature sound, though, and their lyrics are satisfyingly deliberate
in an age that often rewards the insipid and punishes the thought
provoking. If the same above experiment were applied to the vocal
tracks on “Further-Now You're Close,” the result would resemble a
haunting yet beautiful choir.
HM's total personality depends on more,
however. Bass lines tell their own story, marrying the guitars to the
drums and often sounding somehow heroic when rising above the din.
Keyboard phrases appear, filling out the sound in ways one wouldn't
think possible and falling back into the music so subtly that the
listener sometimes still hears them after they've gone. The
percussion of Halo Minor represents a wonder of tasteful aggression,
having an almost jazz-like quality in its spaciousness and an
explosiveness in its timekeeping, like a remarkably mindful and
creative combustion engine.
Naturally, the combination of all the
above produces the greatest effect, that of Minnesota's own Halo
Minor.
Halo Minor's current official bio
describes their songs as “sonic descriptors of feelings, people and
places left behind; beautiful living memories and yet, due to time,
sometimes corrupted like a faded photo, beauty in a state of repose
and then reborn from remembrance.”
“Further-Now You're Close” by Halo
Minor is available at over 700 stores online worldwide. Get in early,
fans of alt-rock and grunge. Very, very early.
Halo Minor are Blake Nolan Hanson
(Floozie, Livid Lover) bassist Kerry Dalton Hanson (Black Flood
Diesel, Numm, Atlas Shrugged), keyboard/vocalist Zack Jones, lead
guitarist Danny Gan and drummer Devin Tomczik.
-S. McCauley
Lead Press Release Writer
www.MondoTunes.com
Music here –
Official website –
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