LOSS OF A CHILD

i think this was the most worthless [&*!#] i've ever heard in my entire life. and what i read above in two other reviews look like a copy of my own description for my music which delivers what the words promise, if you wanna get expectations, as i did here. loss of a child sounded like a tired and messy/lazy musicians performing something really useless from some sad idiot must have written, but it sounded like quality instruments were used so there must have been a will to achieve great results, which in reality only can be done if the instrument is handled with great skill and feeling. it was not the case with this album the little time i could even handle listen to it, i knew after pretty few seconds that it was all meaningless bullcrap so who are those two guys above that praised this nebulous music in a way i would describe my own music if i was free to feel proud and loud about it. listen to my album instead if you want something more like what those two reviews above talk about. search for Skillna Den on spotify.

'Adam & Eve' - Loss Of A Child (5/10)

While always showing flashes of brilliance in their work, Loss Of A Child has never been a band that's really astounded me with their music. I have always found them to be too uniform in their style, and fail to have a sense of real dynamic in their music. While there's definately intelligence in some of the complex guitar layers they write, the band seems to be trying too hard at giving an 'epic' sound to their music; failing to go anywhere really profound. With 'Adam & Eve,' the band still suffers from a lack of variety and depth to their music, but it is the best executed piece of music the band has done up until the point of this album's follow-up, 'Carry Me Home.'

The two albums before this one had witnessed a gradual development in the band's sound. 'The Future Symphony,' while having the most variety and emotional appeal, had horrible production and an execution that left a little to be desired. 'Caught & Lost' solidified their style, but was far worse in terms of quality. With this album, the production still hasn't improved much, but it feels like the band is able to express themselves much better with this. The ride is still very bumpy in parts (some of the track transitions are very jagged and ill-fitting) but things feel alot more professional here. With alot of the previous work, things were mixed too heavily on the piano work; whereas here it is much more of a guitar-based journey.

There is far too little melody here, which might be the biggest flaw with Loss Of A Child's style. There is always alot of different things going on, but they seem to be pulling out the same tricks each time; very rarely throwing something new into the mix. With that in mind, Loss Of A Child is a group to check out if you are a sincere fan of post-rock music, but then again, there is plenty of better music in the genre to listen to. 'Adam & Eve' may be a wall of dense sound throughout, but it is a well-composed wall of dense sound.

'Caught & Lost' - Loss Of A Child (2/10)

When it comes time for a band to release their second album, it's generally expected that the new music will be better developed and executed than before. With the experience and procedure of making music already under the belt, it seems natural for a sophomore release to generally sound 'better' than it's predecessor. Unfortunately, with British post rock act Loss Of A Child, this is not the case.

With their first effort 'The Future Symphony,' this young act proved that while flawed, they could fashion some beautiful soundscapes and a general vibe of 'epic' that permeated throughout the album. Despite not being excellent by any stretch, things were looking promising. With that in mind, imagine the dissapointment with a second album that not only does not improve on the band's form, but is without a doubt, a far weaker production than it's predecessor.

As one might guess from the album artwork, 'Caught & Lost' is meant to be a companion work to 'The Future Symphony.' The musical style is virtually identical to the first one; driving lo-fi post rock with a heavy focus on piano leads. The difference here however, is that there is much less that really grabs the attention, as well as a lack of inherent flow that is supposed to be included in Loss Of A Child's self-proclaimed 'album length suites.'

For the most part, the sound here (while still well executed for an indie production) is garbled, and there is little to no variety throughout the course of the album. Throughout almost all of 'Caught & Lost,' things revolve around one or two musical ideas and fail to offer much else. There are a few sections of respite in which things get more ambient and guitar-centered, but the majority is still based on tired piano melodies overtop a garbled mess of post rock noise.

On a positive note, this is the only Loss Of A Child album that holds this little value with me; the rest trump 'Caught & Lost' by leaps and bounds. This is an album that basks in it's flaws, and it is made all the more dissapointing by the fact that the band has the potential to make some really powerful music.

'Carry Me Home' - Loss Of A Child (6/10)

Continuing their saga of symphonic post rock with this 2009 endeavour, 'Carry Me Home' only develops on a theme the band has been working with since the dawn of their career. Loss Of A Child have developed a small but loyal fanbase due to their focus on album-long musical journies; taking rock instruments and more classically inclined instruments (such as the piano and violin) and melding them together in an atmospheric, dense soundscape. This latest installment certainly improves on the overall production and tightness of the band. However, it feels as if it is missing some of the really memorable, beautiful and stunning moments that were so prevalent on the less developed albums.

As I have said, Loss Of A Child concentrates on making 'a long suite' when making an album; a running piece of music that lasts the entire disc. Compared to their earlier work, the cohesion and flow between songs is a bit off, although the whole work begins and ends with the same beautiful piano theme. Although it definately looks like the band tried to tie the songs in together, it feels more like a 'copy n' paste' effort than anything else, and no track really compliments another in a meaningful way.

As is with much post rock, alot of catchiness and pop appeal is shed to make way for atmosphere and dense soundscapes. While there are many melodies and musical ideas that recur throughout the piece, there are very few parts that are memorable and ring a bell after listening. However, that does not evade the fact that during the listen itself, the collage of sounds itself is beautiful, especially with the band's improved use of string sections and a more moderated use of piano to give dynamic to the music.

The unquestioned highlight of this work is the heart churning masterpiece 'All The While.' This is a track that begged to be played on repeat; everything from the build-up to the beautiful guitar riffage over perfectly chosen chords proves that Loss Of A Child is indeed, a talented and unique act in a crowded music genre.

This band has certainly impressed me more with some of the earlier work, but this stands as arguably being the best the band has sounded from a technical standpoint. With a little more dynamic and structure to the challenging sound of this great UK band, I have no doubt that Loss Of A Child will be able to craft a real classic in the scene that will finally get them noticed for their efforts.

'Hundred Million Angels' - Loss Of A Child (7/10)

If you're like me, you will look at the track length and think to yourself almost immediately; "Oh, a post-rock version of 'A Change of Seasons' or 'Supper's Ready?' No, not quite. While the term 'epic' can certainly be used to describe this composition, it does not act as the sort of epic length prog track we're used to by now. 'Hundred Million Angels' is essentially a running barrage of very dense post rock atmospherics. There a plenty of brilliant riffs, but no single idea goes on long enough to really make the piece feel like a full-fledged composition.

From the start onwards, the listener is being exposed to two or three different counterpointing melodies at the same time for the most part; and this can get a bit hectic. However, while I've passed this off as being twenty minutes of chaotic noise, there really is alot of beauty to hear, even if it might be a bit hard to discern any single melody out of it. The density of the piece might have actually worked wonders though, had it not been for the relatively lo-fi sound quality and production. With a not-so-clean production job, alot of the sounds can blend in with each other robbing it of alot of the magic that is locked inside the performance.

The sheer amount of effort it must have taken these guys to write such a dense piece of music is staggering. This is challenging to really love as far as post-rock goes, but each listen only grows the appreciation. This twenty minute piece has more to it than most full-length albums, and could have been so much more with a little more polish.

'The Future Symphony' - Loss Of A Child (6/10)

The first release of this UK-based band, the realm of post-rock is explored in fair detail. If you have listened to post-rock much in the past, add some extra symphonic sounds and you can have a fair idea of what their sound is all about. 'The Future Symphony' is a running piece of music; that is, something that could be considered one single, epic-length song broken down into song-sized pieces. This gives a good sense of cohesion and album-appeal to the work, although it means you're not going to get any typical well-written single songs in the conventional sense. There are plenty of sections here that have a good sense of beauty about them, but after almost an hour of what ends up sounding like the same idea going over and over again, it can get tedious, more or less...

One of Loss Of A Child's greatest strengths is their ability to integrate heavy classical overtones into a post-rock soundscape. However, the purely classical 'symphonic' passages really don't end up working, seeing as there is a very artificial sound to the string sections. It ends up sounding like someone is messing with the different instrument settings on a keyboard in a music store. A big reason for the sameness throughout is that the same instrument combinations are used basically the whole time. The guitars make the expected sort of guitar textures and atmospherics they normally do in the genre, drums gently play in the background and most pronounced is the classical piano playing overtop everything. The piano can be a nice touch in places, but it loses its power when it's played doing the same thing most of the time.

The production is not superb, but solid for a debut. The musicians show alot of talent and potential with their writing on this album. There are definate changes that should be made further down the line, but a convincing blend of aesthetic beauty and haunting atmosphere makes for an enjoyable experience that has alot to offer if one is willing to overlook the flaws.

All right, I can already anticipate getting some flack for this five star review. But hear me out. Loss of a Child is, without a doubt, one of the most talented acts in terms of songwriting I've ever been graced to hear. The combination of orchestral composition and post-rock melodies, strings juxtaposed with rock instrumentation, is absolutely stunning and brilliant. All of Loss of a Child's albums are worth listening to, but the album that really struck me the most was Adam and Eve. The only way I can describe this album is "sublime." This piece (really, this album is just one forty minute song) above all others by Loss of a Child is perfectly written and performed. It leaves me wanting to weep at the end. This album is sheer musical perfection from my point of view, and I highly recommend it to everyone. Additionally, all Loss of a Child albums are free, which strikes me as one of the greatest musical gifts I've ever received.

LOSS OF A CHILD: The Future Symphony is my favourite discovery in post rock so far.

This album is balancing between a meditative concept and clever architecture: LOSS OF A CHILD is undoubtedly a post rock child, utilising slow and meditative textures and ambiences, slowly building up. But, they're also incorporating other elements into their own story, making it twice as pleasant. There are some heavy moments - I won't dare to call them metal - but a significant role of a texturizer is given to the distorted guitar, and it works well. Keyboards are awesome; aside of obligatory piano, there are symphonic (yes, symphonic as in symphonic progressive rock) moments, where keyboards are emulating string timbres (violins, cellos); they don't sound 100% authentic, because the digital origin of the sound is evident, but they're doing really lovely job. And it's not only because of particular timbre(s) they resemble symphony; it's the overall attitude incorporated into the development of the songs. I'm not sure what was the overall intention of the band with this one, but it certainly sounds coherent. Plus, the title itself is "The Future Symphony", so you're free to interpret it as you like. I'm enjoying those pseudo-classical passages.

I already said this album is balancing between the two musical poles: meditation and architecture. They're actually not diametrically opposite, as one may found Bach's cold architecture very meditative, but almost as a rule, I consider artist that can not make up their own minds a point or two weaker then focused ones. Let me explain. If you're making diverse and complex music, a casual listener will appreciate complexity and meandering of the musical ideas. If you are doing a meditative piece, presumably it would be more simple, repetitive and transcendental. Of course, these definitions are disputable, but it seems they work for me quite often. In the most cases, if the art form is "uncertain" which direction to go, it weakens it.

That is not the case with this one. It's homogenic. It's solid. It is not like a musical piece knitted by a magic, combining two threads on the opposite side of a spectrum; it's more like using two ingredients, silver and gold, and melting them both; then mixing them together in a melting pot. That's the main reason why I like this album. Plus, when you are taking a look at the final product that is not liquid anymore, you will see all the little curves and shapes made of two precious colours. They are melodies.

It's available for FREE, you can DOWNLOAD it here: http://www.archive.org/details/lost_children

It's recommended for every prog fan, regardless of your favourite subgenre. A jewel, really. Give it a try!

Loss of a Child for me is neither a Post-Rock band nor what one would normally consider a Prog-Rock band, yet they do push boundaries and play instrumental music. Adam and Eve certainly isn't a simple or easy listen first off, it revels in noise and layers which take many listens before you distinguish the beauty lying underneath. The melodies of the many instruments blend together, the music constantly moves forward ignoring simple repetition which plague most post- and prog-rock bands and can often dissuade listeners who want a simple, instant musical experience to play in the background whilst performing some other activity. Put Adam and Eve on loudly and concentrate on the music, headphones if you want the clarity of every instrument. Listen to one guitarist play in 3/4 time whilst another plays in 5/4 and the pianist and drummer play in 4/4, allowing the instruments to create off-beat melodic passages which continually move - time changes rarely seen outside the mathcore scene and even those bands rarely layer instruments in different time signatures.

Adam and Eve is a completely original release if giving time and, along with the latest releases from 65daysofstatic, Russian Circles and Dillinger Escape Plan, shows that music is moving forward and showing that there can be depth and emotion within music. This is one of my favourite releases and has rarely left my stereo since I was recommended it. And I'm still discovering new segments every time. The only reason it doesn't get 5 stars is because I think Loss of a Child will produce even better in the future.

Adam and Eve is this English instrumental post-rock's best release to date. The sound and production quality have not improved at all - in fact, at times, it seems as if it has worsened (though not by much). The silly electronic drums are still present, the fake emotional passionate delivery is as daunting as ever, and the impeding distorted guitars still annoy me. The piano lines are improved, though, and still as high and emotional as ever. The homemade feel has not left the production, but there's one thing different about this album than the previous two. Some of the deceitful, misleading emotion that has always felt strained in the past has a more sincere feel at times here, which makes the experience listenable. Hopefully this is the start of something: hopefully Loss of a Child have begun to truly find their feet. Though there's still a lacking of a lot of experimenting, originality, uniqueness, et cetera, I think this underground group is beginning to improve.