Have a Nice Life - Sea of Worry

Sea of Worry is by a mile HANL's stalest, least imaginative album yet.

Have a Nice Life - "Dan and Tim, Reunited by Fate"

This new track from Connecticut experimental rock duo Have a Nice Life is epic, but in the sort of abject way you might expect from the outfit after their monumental, crushing 2008 LP Deathconsciousness. As the title of the song might suggest, frontmen Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga are reunited and neither of them is skipping a beat. The first half of the song is a gloomy dirge of whirring guitar and industrial electronics that backdrops the duo's purposefully distant, echoing vocals and that gives way to a protracted coda of yet more industrial textures.

For the evocative vocals and for managing to come across as a sort of self-contained story, "Dan and Tim, Reunited by Fate" has me brimming with excitement for the twosome's upcoming sophomore LP The Unnatural World, due out February 4 via The Flenser. For the time being, it is available to stream in full here via Pitchfork Advance.

Have A Nice Life - "Burial Society"

I just told you Have A Nice Life has a new album on the way? Are you listening to me? If not, listen now to this new track that just dropped from the duo's forthcoming album, The Unnatural World. It's coming February 4th.

While "Burial Society" isn't as outwardly aggressive as "Defenestration Song," its atmosphere just swallows the song whole. There's an unnerving dissonance to roaring phantom bass notes that obscure the vocals, guitar, and especially the drums. It's like listening to an incredibly haunting ballad being performed at the bottom of a well. I'm stuck here above ground, peering into a darkness I can't see beyond.

Dramatic, right?

Giles Corey - Hinterkaifeck

Giles Corey is a the mysterious and atmospheric singer-songwriter project of Connecticut multi-instrumentalist and Enemies List owner Dan Barrett.

Y'all may remember me loving his debut outing under this particular pseudonym, but I've been a fan of Dan's unpredictable work flow for a long time through other projects like Have A Nice Life and Nahvalr.

So, Giles is just a continuation of my love for the lo-fi production, melancholy, and atmosphere Dan typically brings to the table. Those characteristics appear once again on this new EP under the Corey name, Hinterkaifeck. It's a short, 3-track affair, and features some sharply depressing tracks. Enjoy!

Giles Corey- Deconstructionist

If you ask me, Giles Corey/Have A Nice Life mastermind Dan Barrett is one of the most talented and enigmatic songwriters out there right now. I was blown away by his last full length, 2011's Giles Corey, so of course I was going to be excited for whatever he put out next. As it turns out, Giles Corey's new EP is much different than anything he has done with the project before, although it is still alluring in the same dark, mysterious way that the full length was. Despite being classified as an EP, Deconstructionist is over an hour and a half of music, most of which is instrumental and all of which is dark, moody, and evocative. In the album's description, Barrett describes it as "Not a 'record,' but a philosophical tool." The purpose of the album, according to the lengthy PDF file that accompanies the digital release, is to "[induce] trance states, an attempt to expand the consciousness enough to include an egoless universe in a manner similar to meditation and ceremonial possession." Basically, it's some very deep, very cerebral stuff.

Listen if you dare. The album is available to purchase on bandcamp for $5.

New Have A Nice Life Demo

We had a new Giles Corey album from Connecticut singer-songwriter Dan Barrett earlier this year. Awesome! Now, I guess we've got ourselves a new demo from the project that pushed this guy into the spotlight he's currently in: Have A Nice Life. In true Barrett fashion, this track is dark, overblown, and massive.

Giles Corey- Giles Corey

Dan Barrett's latest project, a full-length album and book, is both a personal and fictional exploration of death, suicide, depression, and the afterlife. Because of that, this video takes a look at both the music and the book that comes with this package. If anything makes the tracks on this CD stand out, it's the atmosphere. Dan Barrett has a somewhat messy production style, but like any Mount Eerie album, it lends this project an interesting sound you're not gonna hear anywhere else.

With one track after another being slathered in reverb, there are moments on here that remind me of Grizzly Bear's 2007 album Yellow House. However, there's a disturbing aura surrounding this album, which the book empowers.

Though there are some standout songs on this release, I like to take it as more of an experience--not just an assembly of tracks. Because to me, this album stirs up the same emotions any great piece of horror or science fiction would. Those emotions are filtered through a singer-songwriter lens, and it somehow works.

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