HYLI Vol. XCI - Jimmy Montague and Spectral Voice

The HYLI Crew is back with their favorite albums released in February 2024

Hello there HYLI family. How is it going? I started doing yoga since the last time we spoke and boy is hot yoga an insane thing for a person to be doing. It’s 105 degrees in the room! That’s too hot! That being said I kind of love it and have been having a great time sweating more than I ever have in my life? I mentioned this in a group chat that won’t be named and I got roasted for transitioning fully into Being a Dad. I don’t see Andy doing any physical activity of any sort and he’s been a dad much longer than me but such is life (Andy: I have two kids and work in an office I have approx 1hr of free time a day). Hope you have a good one doing yoga or running or sitting on the couch or whatever the fuck else it is you do each and every day. Cheers.

Jimmy Montague - Tomorrow’s Coffee

Patrick: Guess what I like about music? I like production value. I like hearing the layers of a track. I like listening to the products of madmen who feel like they’ve pushed the limits of what the human ear can distinguish within the confines of one song. Jimmy Montague, the “solo” project of James Palko from Perspective, a Lovely Hand to Hold and Taking Meds, is one of the best modern examples of songwriting and production going imo (Andy: his name isn’t Jimmy Montague? wtf). I say solo on quotes because while Jim is the main songwriter and performer, you can tell without looking at Bandcamp that there are a dozen contributors to this thing. All the horns, strings, vocals, etc. Everything just sounds massive and like maximalism taken to the limit and it’s so sick.

I loved JM’s last record, Casual Use, but Tomorrow’s Coffee feels like a huge improvement on the sound. I know Jimmy made this himself but it feels like a filmmaker going from an indie darling picture to making a big-budget studio film and completely landing the plane. “Worst Way Possible” is my favorite track of the year so far. The first half of the track feels like a classic Nilsson by way of Laurel Canyon type beat (Andy: ah yes I was thinking the same thing, what do these words mean) and then midway through the strings kick in with a choir of backing vocals in the second verse and the song fucking lifts off, baby. When the beat picks up to double-time in the second half with the extended coda and trumpet solo, that’s the shit that makes me love this whole music thing.

There’s a ton of great classic rock-inspired tracks here but there are also modern-sounding rockers akin to James’ other projects that are so much fun. The singles, “All the Same” and “Only One for Me,” as well as b-side standout “Here Today (Without You Tomorrow)” are total bops. Between the chords chosen, the performances from the cast of players here, the lyrics and vocals, and the production itself (handled by James as well), it feels like Peak Songwriting. God I love this. Expect to hear me continue to rant about this as the year goes on. Hope You Like It and Hope You Don’t Fuck Him on This One.

Andy: Does Jimmy Montague like Jazz? As a blossoming Jazz-fan, I feel like he probably does. Maybe he can teach me a thing or two about jazz since I literally know nothing.

Simply put, Tomorrow’s Coffee slaps. It is a testament to my growth through this project that this totally worked for me. Patrick has done exceptionally well at molding my musical interests over the last few years (Patrick: thanks). He assumed I’d hate this because he has no appreciation for himself (Patrick: I didn’t say that at all?). He is wrong though. I very much enjoyed it.

I love the horns on “Worst Way Possible.” The solo on “Only One For Me?” Yes, please. Most of the songs have this fun little classic rock / jazz section that I can’t get enough of. The keys and sax in “Here Today (Without You Tomorrow)” are a great example of this. I love those sections. The whole thing is a bop. I’ve been throwing this on when I’d normally throw on a Jazz record so it is definitely scratching that itch for me. Just great vibes.

Very good album that a dumb metalhead / jazz novice enjoys. I Liked It. Thank You for the rec!

Spectral Voice - Sparagmos

Andy: My job every week (Patrick: we switched to every other week please keep up with the format) is to recommend the metal record and, holy shit, do I do a great job at it! Y’all ever listen to Spectral Voice? By reading this you are now contractually obligated to! Lucky for you Sparagmos is good as shit.

This record feels like you’re falling down a 469,488 foot hole, lined with flesh, bones, and viscera, absent of all light (Patrick: why are you like this). Now, obviously, a fall from that height is beyond practical Earth-bound capabilities and would imply falling from the edge of space, where different dynamics, including the thinning of the atmosphere and the warping of space-time would affect the fall (Patrick: did you start doing DMT and not tell me). But that cosmic hypothetical only helps to reinforce my point. Simply put: riffs are big, atmosphere is suffocating, vocals are evil, the sonic vibe is ethereal.

I don’t know if you’ve been informed yet, but “Sinew Censer” is currently the best song of 2024. Absolute behemoth of a track. The whole album feels like that. Only 4 songs! 44 minutes! We are so back. Patrick waxed poetic about the production in the Jimmy Montague record and I second those feelings towards this record. Instead of being cleaned up and organized, it’s dirty and chaotic. Just raw, man.

Might be the best album of 2024 so far (probably is) and definitely on my EOTY watchlist. Hope You Like It!

Patrick: This is much more my tempo than last month’s Vitriol release was, which to be clear, I did still enjoy. But this seems to merge doom, sludge and death metal together with production that’s just weird enough that it seems to have some sprinkles of psychedelic rock in it that I kinda love.

“Red Feasts Condensed into One” has this horns-forward (or at least I think it’s horns?) mid-section that is so, so cool. More experimentation like that in metal thanks! Also, while there are deep and high-pitched vocals mixed throughout, I really like the way they sort of seamlessly merge together on “Sinew Censer.” The moment when that part happens almost halfway through the song has the kind of cavernous production I was mentioning before that, again, is fucking sick brother. There doesn’t feel like a ton is going on instrumentally, perhaps due to the languid pace of the songs coming from the doom-leaning structures, but the production sort of takes the place of the instruments as being the thing to latch onto. My only other complaint is that by the end of a four-track, 44-minute record, I was kind of ready to listen to anything else (Andy: user error). I enjoy this record a lot and have come back to “Sinew Caster” on its own individually a few times but I don’t know how often I’ll come back to the record as a whole, with its lack of clear track delineations. That being said, fun great cool sounding record! I liked it.