Kalistan

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Kill Your Speaker does just that
Senvias quartet releases Noise Alternative for the New Year
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
January 5, 5561


Kill Your Speaker's debut Deth in Senvias described as Emo Noise

Music production seemed to be on hiatus in the last few years, given the political disruptions in Kalistan.  Noise Alternative has been fairly ubiquitous on Radio 1 for more than a decade, but the lull in recording new Noise bands opened the door to folk musicians like Michelle Inti, and funk-psychedellic rock musicians like Marcus Carrangus Jr., who will be representing Kalistan at FOMAT XXX in Kanjor.

But that didn't stop bands from forming, playing, building followings across the Empire, and getting signed.  And now, after a relatively shortish hiatus, new Noise Alternative comes roaring back with an album that is getting major push at both Radio and in record stores.  The Senvias quartet, Kill Your Speaker, has released their debut album Deth in Senvias on KMI just in time to ring in the New Year in Kaliburg.

And ring is the optimal word.  Bassist and primary song writer Melvin Maltan says this record is designed to give its listeners tinnitus.  "You know that little ringing you have in your ear when you're at a show and you stand too close to the speaker?" said Maltan.  "Well, I mean, its hearing damage sure, but like we wanted to give you a record that simulates that situation for you, especially when you can't go to a show."

Whether it is a good thing to give their fans hearing damage is debatable, but what is clear is that fans are really getting into this record.  "It takes the whole quiet-loud-quiet-loud thing that these Noise Alternative bands do and just gets rid of almost all the quiet part," said Cassie Ostrogov, who listened to the record before buying at Record Hut in Gallo, Kaliburg.  "So yeah, its like quiet-loud-loud-loud-loud."

"I think these guys are kind of emo," said Nathaniel Morning, of Eshar.  "You could say they are Emo Noise.  Or Noiseymo.  Whatever... I mean they are playing super loud music, but always talk about some girl, that I assume they know.  And they talk about pain and like loneliness and like unrequired love.  The music is really pretty in a sort of beautiful disaster sort of way.  But yeah.  Its VERY loud.  I don't even know how they get their guitars up that loud."  Music analysis shows that the record isn't any louder in terms of decibels than other noise alternative records.

"Yeah, I mean we record it really loud, and then hard limited it in post to a -3db mix," said Maltan.  "So, when it was recorded, it was probably like a +6 or +7, but the hard limiting just makes it seem that loud, but its clipped.  If you check out the wave form, you can see how that looks.  It makes the sound seem louder and super crunchy.  Though you know, for these guitars we have like maybe 4 or 5 pedals on it.  I just have a distortion pedal on my bass, I think Mark (Allison, singer and rhythm guitarist) has like a fuzz, distortion and chorus pedal on and maybe like one of those whirlygig pedals, and Jack (Flores, on lead) uses a lot of Chorus and a harmonics pedal, so he can get that kinda metallic guitar feedback effect.  And we compress the sh-- out of the drums.  So it sounds HUGE and really loud.  But its all production and post-.  Its definitely a lot bigger sound than a lot of the other Noise bands have created, and its something that we're pretty proud of."

"Senvias over all," said long time KYS fan Marta Bradley.  "You don't hear a lot of music from Senvias, but if you think about it, we're got that grit from Swede Port and the Noise from Kaliburg, and the punk and metal influences from Sulari and Yoshimi all mixed into this scene.  The last big Senvias Band, Brown Paper Bag was super loud and super melodic too.  We're hella proud that our guys got signed and now the rest of the Empire can enjoy what we've had all this time!"

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMEB4HNNZ2I]
You can check out the Kill Your Speaker's entire debut album Deth in Senvias from KMI right here, and check out the video for "Counting Daisies" right here and on M7.