Monday, 6 May 2019

Recollection - Jesper Johansson Jungermark (Young Mountain/Nathan Aeli/Raft)

This is the first instalment of my "Recollection" series for 2019. For those of you who aren't familiar with this feature, I started it a year or so ago by asking if friends in bands would like to contribute their top-ten album list for inclusion on the blog. This one comes from Jesper Johansson Jungermark, who plays guitar and provides vocals in Swedish post-hardcore band Young Mountain (amongst others). I hope you enjoy checking this out and thanks to Jesper for submitting it:


Artist: Björk
Album name: Vespertine

Judging from previous releases by Björk i find this album to be one of her more ”complete albums”, by that i mean that from when the first track sets the mood and scenery, and to where the last track finishes it all, i feel like there’s been a pure course of flow. The whole album just keeps on pushing towards the end, ties it all together in the same musical landscape. I listen to almost all her albums, but sometimes she hits really high and she hits really low. An example for this in my opinion is for instance the difference between songs like ”Big Time Sensuality” and ”Venus As A Boy”. I find Björk peaking when she explores the more raw emotions of separation/loss/heartache as she seams to do on this album. ”Vespertine” is a little bit more arctic and fragile than her other works, ethereal vocal melodies and frosty clings sound through all of the tracks. Imagine being locked in a icy cave watching how the universe gives birth to the world, you’re content with being locked in and you’re amazed by this form of creation. I know i wouldn’t want to leave. 

Favourite songs: Hidden Place, It’s Not Up To You, Pagan Poetry & Aurora.


Artist: Massive Attack 
Album: Mezzanine 

Electro avant-garde legends, they sat a new bar for all electro-related music once mezzanine came to be. The ambience, the beats, this mystic soundscape in a whole gives me the impression of something futuristic yet occult at the same time. The craftsmanship and delivery of each track is astonishing, they know just when to lay back and when to demolish your forehead with a giant wall of progressive sound. 

Favourite songs: Angel, Inertia Creeps, Black Milk & Mezzanine


Artist: Converge 
Album: When Forever Comes Crashing

Despite the production and critique the album has gotten over the years i still cherish this album. Converge where so early with everything and basically laid out tunes that weren’t thought of in sense of style and to this day almost every album is timeless. Countless bands still gets influences from these monoliths, and the riff god from God City. This album could’ve easily been released on Zegema Beach Records or Middle Man Records this year, that’s still how relevant these songs are. 

Favourite songs: My Unsaid Everything, The High Cost of Playing God, Towing Jehovah & Year Of The Swine


Artist: Cult Leader 
Album: A Patient Man

Crush me with a bulldozer and boil my remains. That’s how i feel on the opening track. The course of this album is so violent and horribly gloomy that i would’nt want to be left alone with it for more than one listen a day. This album haunts my very soul with it’s presence. I have not, until now, heard an album more thick and destructive than this. The soundscape brings a rich tone and such a great variety of drum patterns that you’ll feel like you’ve been eating lard your whole life only to realise that there’s something even more thicker to stuff your mouth with. Not to mention, the vocals will straight up drag you to hell and have it’s way with you and a deeply sharpened switchblade. 

Favourite songs: I Am Healed, Isolation In The Land of Milk And Honey, to: Achlys & Craft of Mourning


Artist: Underoath 
Album: Define The Great Line 

Channelling my inner emo energy, this is peak performance of emo/post-hardcore. I have nothing more to say regarding this release. 

Favourite songs: In Regards to Myself, You’re Ever So Inviting, Moving For The Sake of Motion & Writing On The Walls. 


Artist: David Bowie 
Album: "Heroes" 

Experimental and catchy is how a lot of these tunes go on, it might not be the most well put together album I’ve heard but i enjoy the whole vibe. David Bowie was, and is still, one of my biggest influences in terms of change. It’s so impressive how he could walk between all these different stage persona's and musical styles and still be considered as singular artist in the eye of the public. 

The production, in consideration of the year it was released, is on-point and charming. If you listen to each song and just consider them separate works then i’d say that they shine the most, but as a whole i’d say that the album is divided in two parts like a theatre play. The first act captivates your interest and the second act is more for relaxing expect for the end track. 

Favourite songs: The Beauty And The Beast, Joe The Lion, Heroes & Sense Of Doubt.


Artist: Amia Venera Landscape 
Album: The Long Procession 

Post-metal with ambience at it’s best. This whole album reeks of wonderful melodies, the songwriting is fantastic and you never know where it’ll take you. The only thing that could’ve done this album better would’ve been if the vocalist had a bigger range. It sometimes can get a bit monotone, but the again, it allows the instruments to take more room and shine. So I’m abit divided on this thought. How the chords shift between hard-hitting metal, mathy equations and lush screamo/skramz just get me every time. 

Favourite songs: Empire, A New Aurora, My Hands Will Burn First & Nicholas.


Artist: Intohimo 
Album: Failures, Failures, Failures & Hope 

This album might be the reason why i got involved in screamo/hardcore. To this day i have never encountered a more honest and raw collection of songs. I still know them all by heart. All the riffs and melodies just run away in a catch-and-release formation, it’s like your being chased but no one really catches you. You just keep running from your paranoia of being followed but when you turn your head there’s really nothing there, it’s just you. 

Favourite songs: Dear Lisa, This Winter, The End Of Everything, Too Many Failures & The Difference Between...


Artist: Mac Miller 
Album: Watching Movies With The Sound Off

This is one of the first rap-related albums I got into when i was younger. Even though I can’t stand for all the edgy lyrics today i can still really enjoy the beat works and some of the songs really touch me. The album as a whole questions reality/death/love and friendships, how fast people can disappear and how fast people can enter your life. I feel like alot of rappers don’t go that personal, they usually just work around the money/hustle/sex image and whenever a rapper goes to long in that sector it can easily get boring in my opinion. Mac Miller sometimes dwell in that stuff as well, but when he goes outside of that box the tunes really shine. 

Favourite songs: I’m Not Real, I Am Who Am, Objects In The Mirror, Red Dot Music, Someone Like You & Youforia 


Artist: Lana Del Rey 
Album: Born To Die 

One of the biggest persona's in the current mainstream game, ever since this album came out I’ve been looking forward for another album in the same style, sadly she only went on to create more smooth/jazzy sounds, not bad at all, but that’s not what i loved most in her music. This album has it all, love/anxiety/childhood memories/happiness and crippling darkness. For such a big pop act to release an album which circles round death as a theme, and to get so much critical acclaim, I’m really glad that reached the light of day. 

Favourite songs: Off To The Races, Diet Mountain Dew, Dark Paradise, This Is What Makes Us Girls & Lolita

Honourable mentions: 

Mitski - Puberty 2
Bon Iver - 22, a million 
Night Lovell - Concept Vague
Frank Ocean - Channel Orange 
Suffocate For Fuck Sake - Blazing Fires...
Sore Eyelids - For Now 
The National - Sleep Well Beast 
St. Vincent - Masseduction 

Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

Check out Jesper's bands below:-

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