Tag: death magic
New Album Review: HEALTH- Death Magic
Danny Baraz
August 14, 2015
Los Angeles’s own, HEALTH and their new album, Death Magic released by Loma Vista on August 7th might very well be my top record of 2015, thus far. Even with a more polished, less noise influenced battery of songs, HEALTH manage to keep that dark edge that mixes beauty with taboo concepts of the human condition and is delivered to fans in their familiar package of abstract messaging. There seems to be a formula developing in the nebulous vacuum that was once the music industry. It’s really not all that different than what existed previously. The previewing of new singles in the months leading up to an album release isn’t an original concept. There is just a greater volume of them, which has allowed fans to hear more of an album before it’s official release. That is, if there isn’t a strategy to “leak” the album. There was a very calculated build up to the release of Death Magic and a real attempt to control the message of music critics, which is a departure from the typical, laissez faire vibe of HEALTH. Death Magic successfully manages to cut the chord in the eternal association between HEALTH and Crystal Castles, not just
Read More
HEALTH at The Echo: First L.A. Show in 3 Years Delivers
Danny Baraz
July 23, 2015
By Danny Baraz HEALTH is the most original sounding bands in music today. Dissonant chords fed through filters and stomp box effects. Galloping tribal rhythms so succinct and steady that you could set a watch to them. Reverberated falsetto vocals that create a layer of tenderness through the violent rhythms. Piercing sound designs that wash over the listener in a rebirth of the senses. The dichotomy of sound that Los Angeles band HEALTH creates is extraordinary. It all amounts to a New Wave, Gothic, Punk stew of noise and melancholy melody that we have been deprived of for far too long. On Wednesday, July 22nd, the HEALTH hiatus in Los Angeles ended at The Echo with the first of three sold out shows, carefully crafted to promote their new album Death Magic. There has been a steady build up since April of this year to tease new songs from the new album. The video for the song “New Coke” was premiered on YouTube in April and has racked up over 180k views in the few months that it’s been live. Not bad for an indie band. Between the imagery of Alice Glass and Pictureplane partying in the first minute to
Read More