Glimmer is a beautifully dark eerie composition by polish electroacoustic musician Michael Jacaszek. The ebbs and flows of this recording are very serene with ambient textures closely related to Murcof or Fennesz. what is essentially classical instrumentation such as Harpsichord or my favourite, Bass Clarinet. the digital edits are very emotional and visual. Fans of Kaada will very much love this album.
The extremely interesting sounds found on this recording are completely acoustic except for the occasional Moog or keys, Its sounds like German minimal techno but nothing is sequenced or sampled. Think of it as chamber dance music. It is sharp, surreal and fucking tight. From looking some of their live clips they've been able to get dance music in theatres to seating crowds of oldies. Hmmm? come to think of it. my mum would love this.
This one is a little treat for all. The Beach Boys 67 release Smiley smile has got to be one of my favorite albums they released. Its goofy, psychedelic, and the harmonies is something you don't hear in music these days, Yes the fleet foxes can suck a fuck. Get your boogaloo on!
Third post in one day! Crone is the one man band of Jeff Caxide, bass player for ISIS, Red Sparrows. Endless Midnight is recorded by ISIS drummer Aaron Harris who guest appears along side Cliff Meyer (ISIS, Red Sparrows) and Aaron Turner (ISIS, Old Man Gloom, Mamiffer) who also did the artwork/layout. seems like these guys like to keep it in the family. Endless Midnight is a soundscape of droned out guitars and keys with Jeff's signature bass tone being very apparent. The whole albums swoons upwards into a crescendo somewhat similar to ISIS but is far from the metal side of things.
Eerie dark techno that sounds more like the rotting corpse of clubbers past. Andy Scotts music drudges along at such a slow pitched down pace it makes you skin crawl. Im not one to listen to much dance music anymore, those days are very much past me. but every now and then something will creep up and squeeze out the very last little drop of the little 4x4 stomping monster inside of me. Maybe its because this recording is more down the line of atmospheric electronic doom then strait out techno that i makes me actually enjoy it.
I love it that this band had one true legacy that is goes for 52:08 minutes and contains one extended riff. This is the second release of this piece of music after Dopesmoker which got mixed and mastered totally differently to keep record companies happy. If you want the true experience of this gem, please listen to this version. And also i totally recommend you check out the doco Such Hawks Such Hounds Which is about the history of the underground hard rock, stoner, doom scene in the states.
Oh how new age of me! If your into Philip Glass but have trouble listening to his repetitive compositions, or are into Ravi Shankar but but want something you can grasp onto a little more, Passengers is for you. I discovered this album during the week when i found all i was listening to was grindcore and needed a soothing break, at least over the dinner table.
Newcastle band Conation was one of the most solid live bands i ever got to see during my teens. Sensible political hardcore with a Aussie twist of grind. their first release in 2001 'The Dichotomy Of The Earth And The Human Race' was a stella album but sounds like ass crack, so I've decided to go with 'Troubled Waters And Fortresses' instead. I'm sure I'll post more of these guys in times to come but for now lets just hope they reform once again like they have in the past few years and give us some more of what was so great back in the day. Enjoy!
Haunting dreamscapes of illuminating psychedelic desert drone. If you are into bands such as Grails, and Earth you will totally dig this. This is the ninth release from Barn Owl who have only been together for four years which sounds totally insane to me, and haven't had the chance to go back over their past material to compare this album to but i will surly be doing just that during the week and hopefully get my lazy ass back into gear and post some more shit. Enough about me! I highly recommend Barn Owl and hope their Feedback alchemy will melt you from the inside out.
Pure angry dark glitched out hip hop where its delivery is much more like the most abstract spoken. Featuring Zack Hill, drummer for Hella im sure this is a album that will be popping up in random places over the next few years.
Self Decapitation is one of few amazing albums from New Zealand one man band musician Delaney Davidson. His music is heartfelt, tasteful, and generally figgin beautiful. There is a great cover of In The Pines with special guest Reverend Beat Man. Trust me on this one, if you like dark folk with a twist of rockabilly and humor this album is for you and will become a common sound within your home. Be sure to also keep you eyes out for one of his shows, This guy gets about.
I thought these guys broke up but after doing some quick research I found this unexpected fifth album from swiss band Dead Brothers. Classic sounding dark, poetic, beautiful folk blues with cajan and bluegrass elements. But I personally find this album a slight bit lacking compared to their 2006 realease Wunderkammer which features one of my favourite musicians Delaney Davidson from New Zealand. Which is why I have also featured Wunderkammer on this post as a bonus prize.
One man and his bass saxophone. Tracks on this album according to the liner notes have been recorded in one take with no overdubs or looping with 24 different microphone positions. beautifully organic psychedelic percussive avant-garde jazz. with guests Laurie Anderson and Shara worden. New History Warfare Vol.2: Judges possibly one of the most mind boggling releases of 2011. fucking stunning!
Monument to time end is not your general black metal album. think of it more as the post rock of black metal. There is still your guttural swamp creature vocals but gone are the days of the trebal heavy guitar tones that sound like its been played inside a corrugated water tank. Twilight are a lot more atmospheric soundscape heavy with progressions moving between light and dark throughout. A huge reason for this is because of Aaron Turners (Old Man Gloom, ISIS, Mamiffer) input. Im not a huge fan of black metal but this puts faith in the future.
Kletka Red was a Klezmer, noise, punk band from Berlin who only released a couple of albums, Hijacking was their first. This notable release is a real stab in the guts for traditional klezmer music. Its dirty, broken and generally slightly out of tune.
I know a lot of people will be excited to hear this one. New Secret Chiefs 3 is always good news, and this 7inch is possibly some of their best music yet. sure its only two tracks but you will be super pleased. what else can i say but........it should speak for itself.
It has Arrived! i heard about Fat32 through them touring with Secret chiefs 3 and am totally blown away by this record. released on Trey Spruence's label Web Of Mimicry, Fat32's self titled debut with artwork by Seldon Hunt is a all killer mash up of freaked out strangled 8bit keyboard sounds and drums. Heaps of awesome samples and fucked up time signatures at break neck speeds. I am a true fan of these guys and really hope to see it for real live some day. get it down your gullet!
This incredible Melbourne Duo consisting of Anthony Pateras on Piano, Electronics and Max Kohane from Agents Of Abhorrence on drums. Gravissima is a ground breaking album with the coming together of piano and grind drumming. Its extremely experimental but not to disjointed that art wankers are the only ones who will enjoy it. Play it loud for maximum enjoyment and you will understand why Pivixki stands with some of the best in art grind.
When you have to wake up at 4:30am in Cairns for a flight to Melbourne that turns into a grueling 12 hours in transit, Mamiffer is pretty much the perfect thing to help you get some shut eye on any flight. This duo is made up of Faith Coloccia and husband Aaron Turner (Old Man Gloom, ISIS). Distributed on their own record lable SIGE. Mare Decendrii is a piano based hallowing dark ambient release that easily drifts you off to sleep away from those 2 year old little shit heads that cant keep their mouths shut while in the air.
I missed both of these guys playing a house gig in San Diego by a week which I heard got shut down anyways but Alpinist would possibly be my favorite Crustcore band to date. Sure they decided to name there band after Alps mountain climbers but these German Lads are Extremely Dark, brutal, and melodic in all the right places. The German langage is perfect for all these things. Masakari are pretty similar to Alpinist by delivering super gritty angry hardcore with good old blast beat now and then but once you get to their section of the album it sounds some what lacking after Alpinist.
The first thing that had me look at this album was the artwork by Justin Bartlett, Then after the first listen I was convinced this was exactly what was missing from my collection. The Secret who are strait out of Italy play nothing but flat out Hardcore Crust Grind with epic Doom breakdowns. This album sits on the longer side of 34 minutes but its worth every second.
Tracklist:
1. Cross Builder
2. Death Alive
3. Double Slaughter
4. Where It Ends
5. Antitalian
6. Weathermen
7. Pleasure In Self Destruction
8. Eve Of The Last Day
9. Pursuit Of Discomfort
10. Bell Of Urgency
11. War Desire
12. 1968
Hailing from Olympia Washington. these guys put us up in their house and made killer burritos. when the cops rocked up to the house party we were playing at because of the volume, Hail Seizures finished the night completely acoustic and rocked out more then i've ever seen any acoustic act before. And as a band they travel bloody light with the drum kit consisting of a snare and a kick drum made out of a suit case. much respect!
During my touring in America everyone we were hanging out with wouldn't stop going on about this band. It wasn't until we got to Montreal/Canada that i found one of their CD's on our merch table which was happily supplied by our booker and friends Meow Pow Now. Blackbird Raum play some pretty fucking amazing Anarcho fueled acoustic folk punk made up of Accordion, Banjo, Mandoline, washboard, washtub bass, and singing saw. vocally they have incredible gritty three part harmonies and even pay homage to our own Ned kelly. its perfect music for road tripping and hopefully i'll get to see then once i return to the states.
If you are in the need of some doom/drone but dont want the backing of a wall of distorted guitars and dudes in robes, this album is for you. The Name itself is pretty much exactly what to expect, and If you are wondering what Doomjazz as a genre is? Its pretty much doom played on acoustic instruments. You will find moments of electric guitar and electronics but most of it is traditional jazz instruments under the pressure of studio delays and reverbs This is the first of three albums from TMFDJC but they have also released music under their alias The Kilmanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, it's pretty much the same thing but without the doom/drone aspect.
My Disco's second release Little Joy has spoken to me a lot more then their last releases Paradise. Songs have a little bit more structure and generally have more chords. everything is pretty minimal here but there is some polyrythmic vocal content here as well which splits it up nicely. Little Joy a great album to listen to in a huge dark empty house really loud. I highly recommend.
After a week of listening to math rock and metal I think its time for something a little bit more mellow. For a band that has been together for 12 years and released 12 recordings with another one due in a few months, Grails would have to be one of the hardest working bands around. these guys sound like a musical dedication to psychotic thriller films of the 60's and 70's, with eastern influenced aggressive jams and extended solos. Parts of Deep Politics kinda come off a little bit cheesy at times compared to their much darker Black Tar Prophecies series but but there is a charm which Grails holds true to themselves and that is generally being the bee's knees of psychedelic rock.
Sure! Red Fang have released a new album this year on the ever famous relapse records but every time i put it on i just end up pulling it right off again and cranking their first self titled release instead. This album is a booze fulled head banging dream come true. For a band thats only been around two years and have lyrics about killer space dogs, im convinced! All you have to do is watch their clips to know their story.
Daughters third album Daughters is a massively heavy, bone crushing album which Im more inclined to say this a flat out rock release compared to their last two LP's. sure you'll find disjointed moments of sporadicalness but these are pretty few and far between. blastbeats no more! expect more deep distorted groove driven songs such as Sweet Georgia Bloom which sounds like a twisted rockabilly dance number. clocking in at only 28mins long daughters delivers nothing but slamming noisy chaotic raddness.
So i saw Russian Circles last night after only finding out about them the day before. Without knowing anything about this three piece band i gave their last album Geneva a good listen before heading out. Geneva is a pretty massive sounding Post Metal recording made up of multi layered guitar, keys, strings, and horns making it an extremely lush recording which i was very excited about witnessing it live. The only thing with three piece bands which record albums with a huge array of other instruments is that it cannot be pulled off live to the same degree. their songs ended up sounding a lot less hollow and two dimensional with sections not blending into each other as seamless as the album. sure the wall of sound and shear volume was enough to keep me happy but i personally found their live show a bit of a let down compared to the recording.
Now that i have my hands on the new Hella album Tripper and are already playing it to fucking death, i thought i should share this old time favourite Math Rock album of mine to level things out. Dysrhythmia stem from a sonic based instrumental dirty math rock dreamscape. The general tone of this band reminds me of certain elements once displayed by Shellac but the only difference is their songs are fast, brutal, well executed and will leave you returning to the start of tracks such as Seal/Breaker/Void as soon as its finished. Or at least maybe leave you with a slight taste of blood in your mouth. Yummy!
Four years since their last release Californian math rock band Hella are back as the original two piece they once were. The Two piece onslaught has really been taking off lately with bands such as Lightning bolt, Fat32, Secret Fun Club, and warsawwasraw but not too many do it quite like Hella. Tripper goes from strength to strength as a recording where after a few listings you'll be hearing whole new sections you didn't pick up on before because this is brain music. On one last note, As a drummer myself it boggles my mind to even pretend i know how Zack Hill actually does his single pedal technique. EAT THIS SHIT UP!
The new record from Montreal's Efrim Manuel Menuck (Godspeed You Black Emperor!, A Silver Mt. Zion) Plays "high Gospel" is a deeply emotional album with its spatial guitar sound and harmonious uplifting songcraft that definitely delivers. It swells and soars with beautiful layers of textured field recording, tape manipulations, electronics, organ, piano, and vocal harmonies. the opening track "our lady of parc extension and her munificent sorrows" has the simplicity of a indie folk song. where by track two "a 12-pt. program for keep on keepin' on" you are taken on a schizophrenic soundscape with heavy driven drums and grey noise. Plays "high Gospel" is an album that should not be overlooked and is definitely worth 40 minutes of your time.
Tracklist:
1. our lady of parc extension and her munificent sorrows
2. a 12-pt. program for keep on keepin' on
3. august four, year-of-our-lord blues
4. heavy calls & hospitals blues
5. heaven's engine is a dusty ol' bellows
6. kaddish for chesnutt
7. chikadees' roar pt. 2
8. i am no longer a motherless child
Its the first day of spring so what better way to celebrate other then sitting infront of the computer and create a new blog for everyone to enjoy. I would like to introduce the first of many diverse instalments to come...ACTION!
As their story goes R.U.T.A which stands for "The reactionary Union Terrorystyczno Artystowska" is made up of polish rock and punk musicians playing traditional Polish folk songs written by the working class on traditional instruments. including the hurdy-gurdy, fidelach plock, bitch bilgoraj, sazach traditional barabanach, obreczowych drums, bass and singing saw. Their songs are of class war, slavery, outlaws, renegades and the cry of revolt from the depths of a darkened world. So its time to raise a fist and dig your heels in, R.U.T.A is an unstoppable force of true folk punk for punk folk.
