Swell Album: Jordan Ruiz - The Mountain [indie folk / singer-songwriter]

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Screenshot from Jordan Ruiz's live video for "The Mountain" on YouTube

I get music entries from time to time here at holaOLA, but the music usually doesn't fit into what I like to write about on the blog or I don't really dig it in the first place. That's why Los Angeles singer-songwriter Jordan Ruiz has caught me completely off guard. He sends me a link to his new album The Mountain and after clicking 'play', as I would do with any entry, I am actually impressed by the opening bars; in this case, it's the artful acoustic guitar picking of the opening title track. Shortly after, his soothing voice floats in, taking on a loose resemblance to Iron & Wine, but before long, the song picks up into something genuinely beautiful, something that makes me think of Bon Iver. Horns come flying in with a pitter-patter drumbeat that escalates into an explosive chorus of uplifting heys, aahs and oohs (yes, in that order) to leave me truly inspired (...to hike up a mountain, maybe?). The only problem is that the song hardly makes it past two and a half minutes. Luckily for me, the remaining 35 minutes of the record help me maintain my newfound state of elation with nine more beautifully crafted ambient folk tunes that have so much heart that they also deserve comparisons to singer-songwriters James Vincent McMorrow and Ben Howard.

After listening, I'm left with the baffling question: With a voice this outstanding and an expertly-produced record, how hasn't Jordan Ruiz blown up yet? Well, I guess that's the nature of self-released albums on the Internet; we just have to give it time. In the meantime, take a listen to Jordan Ruiz's The Mountain below, share it with your friends, and buy a copy!

NoiseTrade is offering The Mountain and its five-song predecessor Sundial Heart, which is also great by the way, on a tip-what-you-think-it-deserves basis, or you can get the former on Jordan Ruiz's BandCamp page.

Artist Making Waves: LOW ROAR [dream folk / electronic / ambient pop] ***UPDATED (album stream added)***

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I've been listening to LOW ROAR's new singles a lot in the past few months and it's taken me this long to look deep enough into the band to find out that the man behind it all, Ryan Karazija, was the frontman of Oakland, CA's now defunct indie rock band Audrye Sessions. I saw them about 5 years ago in St. Petersburg, FL opening up for Manchester Orchestra with then-overlooked Fun and was really impressed by the band's eerie explosiveness, Ryan Karazija's soaring falsetto, and the way he played the guitar with a cello bow. While Audrye Sessions reminded me of Radiohead's energetic rock songs, LOW ROAR seems to derive influence from their slower, more expansive tracks, creating a dreamy brand of ambient electronic music with orchestral and post-rock elements.

I suppose when I saw that LOW ROAR was a band from Reykjavík, Iceland I simply deduced that its members must also be Icelandic, which was partly correct. Apart from California-native Karazija (pictured above in the center), there are two members from Iceland, and listed as a member on their Facebook page, but not pictured above, is American Grammy-winning producer Andrew Scheps, who contributed keys and programming on LOW ROAR's 2011 self-titled debut album, so it's safe to say he plays a similar role on their upcoming sophomore release entitled 0 (yes, that's a zero).

Moving to Iceland after the dissolution of his previous band, Karazija hoped to find inspiration similar to that of which most Icelandic musicians seem to feed off on the majestic Nordic island, and I'd say he's found it. Its awe-inspiring landscapes have made their way into LOW ROAR's vastly beautiful arrangements enough to have comparisons be drawn to Icelandic post-rock giants, Sigur Rós. Apparently, you don't have to be from Iceland to sound like you're from Iceland; you just have to live there.

Enjoy three dreamy tracks from LOW ROAR's sophomore release 0 below Stream LOW ROAR's new album 0 below, stream the debut album here, and be sure to pick up your own copy of 0 on July 8th.

Just Rolled In: iamforest - "Structures" and "Versions" [electronic / chillwave / ambient pop]

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Although most artists who have been pigeonholed as "chillwave" by music critics or fans have been trying to avoid and rid themselves of that title due to the ever-growing negative stigma it gained shortly after its birth a few years back, Vancouver's twenty-something producer Luke Hartie, who records as iamforest, proudly dubs his beat-driven ambient electronic project as just that, "chillwave". If you're not aware of what chillwave is, some of the leading pioneers include Neon Indian, Toro Y Moi, and Washed Out.

I wondered why Hartie didn't care to throw his project into that cringe-worthy (to some) genre so easily until I thought, "Maybe it's because he knows that chillwave is only really a dismissed genre title because of the gigantic wave of wannabe laptop musicians that flooded the interwebs with cookie cutter beach-ready, fuzzed out, and sample-driven tracks when the aforementioned artists met success." Luke Hartie is different from these "artists" and he knows it. His idea of chillwave is obviously, and thankfully, and bit unconventional.

While still very "chill", Hartie's music as iamforest isn't typically sample-or-fuzz-heavy, has more hard-hitting beats, incorporates his own airy vocals and smooth guitar work, and he has over ten years' experience making music with a degree in sound engineering to top it off, so unlike most of his chillwave counterparts, he knows what he's doing. If this is what chillwave has become, I won't be too quick to drop the word from my lexicon.

Listen to his outstanding single "Structures" and a song from his recent Driven Out EP, "Versions", below and buy all his music on a pay-what-you-want basis over at his Bandcamp page.