Cloudkicker
Cloudkicker Is a one-dude project that is classified as progressive/post-metal. Pretty sure it was groverxiii from TNOTB who recommended them to me a few weeks ago and I’ve been trying it out ever since. I’ve been coming across a lot of this type of music lately it seems, and probably at the best time for it, after seeing Isis a few weeks ago. Seeing a band live that i really enjoyed usually launches me into a short obsession with that music style. Progressive being the genre, though in my opinion Cloudkicker is far, far from an Isis clone, despite there being a lot of those Isis type atmospheric elements. There’s a lot more to Cloudkicker than that.
As it’s a beautiful sunny day and Im stretched out lazily on my patio with nowhere to go and nothing to do, the slowly progressing heavy and methodic style of Cloudkicker really appeals to me right now. To me, this is music to reflect to, to stare up into the sky and enjoy being. It’s still heavy as hell, but theres something very peaceful and relaxing about how the music chugs along to irregular beats and in no particular hurry. Some songs start out slow and calm, lead up into a heavy, loud climax, before releasing into some repetitive, interesting riffs, and finally down to a peaceful end. The way the songs are constructed indicate a lot of thought went into the entire songwriting process.
There are no vocals, so as with most instrumental bands in my experience, upon the first run-through of an album the songs blend together between the lulls and and the heavier stuff. One of the reasons I love metal is the ability it has to be beautiful while being loud! And sometimes violent, though I wouldn’t say Cloudkicker is violent by any means, but there are definitely a range of moods attaching themselves to the riffs throughout this album. With instrumentals, I find it easier to attach emotionally to the music without struggling to relate to the lyrical content, which is great in my opinion.
This band is another that has the entire discography for free via their website. If you’re a fan of this kind of stuff, as it seems to be an acquired taste in my experience, it’s worth it to check it out. I think it’s all really awesome, and very thankful it was recommended to me. Another example of the unfortunate nature of elitism and how it may help you to reach a status of know-it-all, but it is ultimately detrimental to your personal enjoyment of music you’ll never know you’d love. Let me know what you think!
Cloudkicker on Myspace
Cloudkicker on last.fm
Entire discography for free download
***this band is not on the metal-archives, as I’m fast discovering they have questionable ideas of what constitutes metal or not!***
I find instrumental music is the best for an emotional day. I don’t know why, but i’ve had times where a shitty day was completely turned around after listening to my STS/AAL/Cloudkicker playlist for about two hours.
This is definitely one of my favorite instrumental artists, and the laid back attitude of Ben Sharp just shows how talented he is.
Good find. Really good find. I’m listening to Dysphoria (yes firefox, dysphoria is a word, fuck off with that squiggly red line) on youtube right now and it’s proper tasty. He states in this interview * that he’s listened to Catch 33 over a hundred times and you can definitely tell. Some words would be nice though. Maybe I’ll scream along to it in the car.
* http://thenumberoftheblog.com/2010/02/28/fucking-metal-interviews-cloudkickers-ben-sharp/
Heh, now that I’ve fully read the interview I can see that he’s a funny guy: “The only good thing about football season is that I pretty much have the city to myself on Saturdays because everyone else it… …participating in this huge collective circle-jerk that is collegiate athletics.”
Glad you liked it… He’s a talented dude and a hell of a songwriter.
As for Metal-Archives, well, fuck them… they won’t consider Keith Merrow as metal because he has no physical releases. And Powerglove isn’t metal because they don’t have any completely original songs. *facepalm*
Yeah, I was pretty happy to have him accept my request for an interview, even if our opinions regarding my beloved Buckeyes differed.
Have you done any other interviews with little known artists? I found this blog through last.fm but I haven’t got around to looking at yours yet. Pimp yo’self.
Yeah, we’ve done a bunch of reviews with smaller artists… dudes like Steve from Iron Thrones, Tre Watson, Keith Merrow, plus we just did an interview with Richard Christy. And we have all sorts of other cheeky shenanigans.
A very talented guy. His music is thoughtful and heavy. I came across Cloudkicker on Bandcamp and being an ISIS fan and a guitarist who plays a little prog, i was curious. Words cannot describe my pleasure for this music and the fact it’s maker is serving it up for free. Cloudkicker is something i mention to everyone i know who might like it. He desreves every bit of the advocacy.
excellent article as always, thanks for sharing, will get your RSS feed soon when my browser will stop crashing…arghhh firefox is a little annoying since the last update.