Meresha : Artist. Singer. Songwriter. DJ. Producer. Multi instrumentalist

Meresha : Artist. Singer. Songwriter. DJ. Producer. Multi instrumentalist from Poland via Florida. Since 2014 she has been recording and posting to social media.

Meresha reached out to me in October 2016 but I didn't see that DM until I started researching this piece in July 2020 due to the bot that manages my Twitter follower requests. Hemy did the same two years earlier and I didn't see his message until late last year. This hasn't gotten in Meresha's way, as she has grown prolifically in that 3 1⁄2 year space with more than 50 tracks available across BandCamp, SoundCloud, YouTube, Deezer, Spotify, and anywhere else you can imagine. Some of her work is only on one platform while some is accessible almost everywhere. It all reflects an amazing and exponential growth in popularity, creativity, depth, and breadth over that very short time. 

So it is only natural that we start at the very beginning to follow her work through the years. You can track her musical, artistic, and technological development through the different platforms that culminate on a YouTube channel that includes a fan video of one of her crowd favourites. 

Her very first track, Fool Don’t Be, uploaded to her BandCamp in June 2014, shows a remarkable maturity and incredible funkiness! Over the next five years, until April 2020 at least, the acid-house drum/bass Acid Bass mix of New Revolution, the heart-felt realisation that My Love Has Come, the trancy Enter the Dreamland, the dance floor-anthemic Violet Night, and the electro-pop Game of Video were put here in various iterations with other tracks that don't appear anywhere else. This is all Meresha: all the music, all the words, all the instrumentation. The only variation is the producers or engineers for the remixes of songs. 

Turning to her SoundCloud page, and her earliest post check check, a demo/jam featuring self- harmonies over a honky-tonk piano-effect, is followed by Infinitenergy1111. These tracks give the impression that perhaps this was the more experimental channel for her musings. But we then reach Fool Don't Be and August which are anything but experimental; the latter being very similar to where Amanda Easton has been recently. We see more appearances by Violet Night, My Love Has Come, Enter The Dreamland, initial appearances from Lemonade City, Jungle Potion, and Thinkin’ About You, and SoundCloud-only tracks that include hya, beach day vibez, and mor than. 

It's here, also, that we learn of her first two EP releases: 2015's "new revolution" and 2017's "Enter The Dreamland". Artfully illustrated with the lady bedazzled by disco glitter between the back and front panels of her keyboard, lemonade city opens her debut EP with a slow, saltry salute to summer in the city which is all forgotten at the night-club under the doov-doov of new revolution. One of the boys in lemonade city meets the girl from new revolution and their meeting is celebrated in you, while the Summer is celebrated once again in the closer august. “Enter The Dreamland” is another summer soundtrack with august recreated both by the seaside cabins on the cover and the mood of Stardust as the opening track. Jungle Potion dials it right back, as steamily as one would expect conditions in a jungle, but with added brass and, of course, those jungle drums. My stand-out so far. Violet Night makes a reprise, while the set is wrapped aptly by Lights Out, swapping tempos midstream to emulate what happens when the lights are turned off after all this steam! 

But it's on her YouTube channel that Meresha really shines. Not only do we see different versions of earlier releases on the other platforms, we are introduced to Meresha in full flight with the various bands around the world, including Lights Out live in Berlin. There's a mixtape in there as well as Led Zeppelin, Alicia Keys, Queen, Sam Smith, and Paramore covers accompanying audio-only and lyric videos of now-favourites Enter the Dreamland, My Love Has Come, Stardust, and Game of Video among many, many others. 

How, in such a relatively short time, such an artist has blossomed, astounds me. I am only sorry I missed that message 3-1⁄2 years ago to be able to witness all of this as it unfolded. Meresha is my pandemic surprise-package discovery and I only hope to be there when she reaches out again, hopefully to be a part of her next release in one form or another.

Unveil - 2004-2020

What is it about the northern climes that inspires this style of music? Since May, I have been listening to, and loving, Carmilla, but next on my list is Unveil, a few blocks closer to town but on the same side as The Beast.

Unveil describe themselves as "Somewhere between Evanescence, Halestorm and Birthday Massacre". They comprise Alain on guitars and vocals, Mr. Lee on bass and vocals, Pom on drums, and, since 2011, folk-rock singer and front-person, Jow. Their debut EP, "Codex Noctem", was released in 2013 to critical acclaim, followed five years later by the full-length "The Deep Sleep", all independently created and distributed.

So, with Evanescence already well and truly scrubbed from my mind by Carmilla, let's have a look at Unveil and their "Oblik Sessions" on YouTube. This is the band in full flight as they prefer it to be: live, no overdubs; you can compare the result here to the BandCamp version of the same songs, and even buy them through BandCamp or at the low-low prices as determined by the band on their website.

There is a certain, je ne sais quoi, about this four-piece. Their standard rock'n'blues set ups (a Telecaster, a drop-tuned J-bass, five-piece drum kit, and some added keyboard for depth as part of the effects suite, three capable vocalists, and well-established look and feel) belies the metal tag. They are similar in musical presentation to but somewhat cleaner than Carmilla in their influence by the darker side of the afterlife: as their bio suggests; probably a little more accessible, more rock-oriented than metal but retaining a heavy edge, and definitely "seasoned", having been around the traps since 2004!

The band's YouTube channel goes on to offer more versions of what appear to be favourite songs from the repertoire, including Camera, Winter, and Empty, all of which show that whatever has been created in the studio is masterfully recreated in any setting. And the band doesn't appear to have a set stage profile either, with many configurations being shown on each of these videos.

Unfortunately the only music we have from Unveil is the three releases. I say unfortunately, because a band that has been performing since 2004 would be expected to have a litany of releases. But quantity doesn't equate to quality, as their 2013 debut "Codex Noctem" can attest. I am in awe from the Eastern-influenced opening track Hide, through Camera, Why featuring another vocal for the first time (Alain and Mr. Lee are credited as other-vocalists in the bio), Empty (with the Evanescence-styled intro), The Fall, to the closer Winter, with all the feel of its namesake season; something with which these Quebecois would be more than familiar.

The word "accomplished" in no way does justice to what this group has achieved on this record. A depth and colour is achieved with a limit of instruments and effects as opposed to other bands in the genre that use banks and banks of guitars, effects, and technicians to create a pallet that emulates the sounds of their compatriots. That Jow comes from a folk background is the biggest surprise and we look forward to exploring the rest of the back catalogue to see where the band goes from here.

When a band is between releases, or even during the promotion of a new release, their tours include invitations to local radio stations, and to bring a guitar with them to demonstrate how versatile they can be by converting their full-production to a voice or two with acoustic accompaniment. The term versatile doesn’t do justice for Jow and Alain’s performances during three appearances and performances on Sherbrooke community radio station CFLX and Sherbrooke University radio station CFAK. Brings back memories of my own of hosting both acoustic and full-band appearances and performances on community radio in the 1990s!

One of the tracks on their SoundCloud page is Sarah’s Theme which links to the trailer on their YouTube channel for The Story of Sarah. Both productions hint at more mystery and darkness, but is it a darkness we want to know about? They have certainly tapped a gothic horror vein with their work and have extended that to their other creations! And now that they have announced the commencement of work on their next album, can we expect more of the same, or can we expect growth and change after the isolation and lockdown that has stopped the world? Time will tell, but hopefully there won’t be too much time to wait!

But in the meantime "The Deep Sleep" is as big a misnomer as any in popular music. Sleep won't come to anyone putting this record on- I could even hear myself turning it up beyond 11 and entertaining the whole suburb as I go about my business, regardless of the time of day. Burn opens the account with more Evanescence than anything thus far with an industrial intro and outro, followed by straight-ahead rock in Deceiver and more of that drop-tuned bass in Dare To Live.

The title of Captain's Flesh immediately suggested to me an Ahabesque tribute, which was confirmed by the sounds of the sea under the intro. The pace slows for a heart-felt lament from the sole survivor of a ocean-bourne tragedy; conversely, Calling To The Night follows with as pop as these guys get but still with the steady beat that we've come to know and love.

A chunky riff with some tempo-play keeps you guessing through Listen To Yourself, complete with screaming solo, and Infinity brings out the Lesley/Hammond organ, more chunk, and double-kick work from Pom to suggest that someone in the band had been listening to Deep Purple during the lead-up to this record!

Leaving starts winding the album down but instead presents an opus as varied as any metal/prog outfit. Changes in pace, mood, and signature not only taps a vein already traced through Deceiver and Dare, but a subtle hint of the Jon Lord keys from Infinity maintains that classic metal feel. The stereo won't go up high enough! Addicted To Lies rounds the album out with this punter wanting more with an all-too-familiar hook the brings us full-circle to the "Oblik Sessions" that lured us here initially!

Lock-down has hit these guys' creativity hard but they swear in a recent website update that the juices are well and truly flowing and we won't have to wait too long for another album.

Good! Bring It! And soon!

PG (Jacky) Gleeson
3 July 2020

Carmilla - Blood Of Fire single released 11 May 2020

I was going through the Carmilla YouTube channel to get to know who they are and what they're about, when I'm asked to help promote their upcoming single. 

Blood of Fire is Carmilla at their most brutal to date!

The “gentle” intro is shattered by the shuddering stabs of the combined guitars, drums and bass, and backing/overdubbed screams hint at things to come. 

I get Richard Z. Kruspe/Paul Landers chugga-chunk guitars supporting Nathalie’s vocals in the main body of the song but, those dirty black vocals keep coming back to remind us that these guys really mean business. 

The videos are an excellent sample of where Carmilla have been since the very start of 2017 but all that is overshadowed by this new release. 

Get it into your ears while it’s still fresh!

Carmilla Blood Of Fire - astounding!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

PG (Jacky) Gleeson

4 May 2020

Information management

The current uni course is on Information Management and the embedded video was recommended by eine Mitstudentin. The following description was also added - 

I thought I would share this with you all. It is the oldest system using metadata that I know.
The Mumbai Dabbahwallahs are basically a courier service delivering lunches around Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) in India. They collect lunches from the office workers’ homes in the suburbs and take it into the city to be delivered in time. They deliver around 200,000 lunches each day and they make less than one mistake per six million deliveries.
The whole system is also paperless, as most of the couriers are illiterate. They rely on colours, numbers and some letters. This system is over a century old and is nothing short of brilliant.
I am attaching a youtube video by National Geographic which shows you how they work. The Dabbahwallahs come into the video at about 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I am also adding a Wikipedia entry about Dabbahwallahs for those interested in more details.

Simply mazing!

peterg