Total Violet is an electronic music outfit from the minds of Eric Duorts and Krris Violet. What started out as an idea to pair smooth beats with underground Witchhouse sounds, soon evolved into a quest in search of extreme basses and large sonic-rooms. Krris and Eric hope you join them on their adventure in search of the perfect sonic atmosphere.
This has got to be one of the most genre-defying music I’ve ever heard. It’s very unique, too dynamic to be considered minimalism; too heady to be sad-core, yet the gentle soothing passages throughout are far too ambient to be considered noise. This is beautiful music. If you’re expecting some excruciating lo-fi garage-band trash, look elsewhere. Total Violet is refreshing in the sense that it’s arty, ambient, and tasteful.
Total Violet music requires patience, because it does take a good few listens to really sink in. There are no catchy riffs, choruses, or radio-like anthems to be found here. This is cerebral music. Total Violet is an amazing group, as the sounds and feelings they conjure up belong to some other dimension. It’s hard for contemporary music to do this without ever sounding artificial or mechanical. But it may take you a while to realize this.
On first listen, most of Total Violet tracks will sound both repetitive and haphazardly arranged, but after having heard the tracks a number of times, you’ll develop an appreciation for its subtleties, and then discover that there’s a whole level of structure to the songs you had no idea was there the first time you heard them.
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The more experimental tracks naturally take time to grow on you, but even the simpler tunes have hidden structural nuances that take some time to pick up on. Once you notice them, though, you develop a whole new appreciation for the songs, and this isn’t the kind of appreciation that one might have for cleverly arranged atonal music, it actually sounds better once you pick up on the subtleties. You’ll find yourself utterly unable to stop grooving to the basslines and percussion. But like I said, this appreciation takes some time to cultivate. This is not MTV music, remember?
Songs like “Wet”, “Come Back To Me” and “Let Hex=Hex” are absolutely minimalistic in instrumentation and sound. The impact of the songs rely almost totally on the aural atmosphere, and more on what you can’t hear, than on what you can hear. I know this sound’s odd and may not make sense, but just trust me and listen. Total Violet broods, hums, whispers and quietly expands between light and dark.
“Tooth Fairly” and “Roll Tha Nickels” blur the lines between calm and chaos, as Total Violet crunch up the synths somewhat, but this sounds more like an exception than a rule in their musical style. Though it’s difficult to pick out songs in the Total Violet collection, my favorite for the moment is, “The Blue”.
Listening to Total Violet may make you feel completely insignificant and completely depressed. Theirs is not supermarket music and not easy listening for the average person (whatever that may be?), but it is completely great for anyone who wants to, and is able to experience sadness, tears, meditation, spiritualism and love through music. In a word their music is…emotional!
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OFFICIAL LINKS & WEBSITES:
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