DDay One - Heavy Migration

"The idea of the “perfect beat” may be beyond a doubt unattainable, nevertheless it has and will continue to provide beat-makers with a life long objective. This project came into being through a course of contemplation, growth and reverence, all out of the persistent search for this idea.

Heavy Migration deals with the movement of sound from one medium to another, but beyond that it represents growth. Reminiscent of humans who migrate, sounds retain traits established from their origin (pitch, cultural markers, ambiance of the original recording session, etc). Groundwork began late 2006, when sounds were compiled from various sources including traditional and handmade instruments, older and contemporary data formats but principally vinyl records dealing with ethnomusicology (study of music from a global context). As with previous projects, sounds where sampled, manipulated and meticulously arranged. Recording took place during spring to winter 2007."

Flac

Hell Razah - Renaissance Child

"I almost feel sorry for the Hip Hop kids coming up today, who will never get a chance to witness the ragged glory of the Wu-Tang Clan in its prime; when nearly a dozen emcees - each uniquely talented in his own right - prowled arena stages like urban panthers, spitting street knowledge so dense you couldn't cut it with a samurai sword (just a liquid one). With the passing of ODB, the Wu will undoubtedly never be the same, but recent stellar albums from Ghostface, Method Man and RZA hint at a coming Wu-Tang revival, with a reunion album and tour looking likely sometime in the next year.

Hell Razah represents the second wave of Wu family artists, commonly referred to as the "B team." Hailing from the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, the emcee was previously best-known as a member of late-'90s Wu-Tang spin-off group Sunz of Man, making guest appearances on Ghostface's Supreme Clientele, Method Man's Tical 2000 and Killah Priest's Heavy Mental. In recent years he's been sharpening his lyrical skills underground, re-teaming with Sunz of Man producer 4th Disciple on 2004's Freedom of Speech and joining forces with Killah Priest and Tragedy Khadafi to form the militant group Black Market Militia. Now, though, Hell Razah looks ready to blow up on his own, with a potent debut album that brings much-needed doses of intelligent lyricism and mathematical science back into the game.

The album's third track, the Dev 1-produced "Renaissance," is honestly good enough to warrant a purchase on its own merits, with Hell Razah effectively distilling the last 30 years of Hip Hop history into 3 minutes and 30 seconds of fierce lyrical prowess. "I'm Hip Hop before Sugarhill signed a deal/ before Studio 54 popping pills/ It was real when Kool Herc worked the wheels of steel/ Now we bring the game back into the New York field," he raps on the killer chorus. Then Tragedy Khadafi, Timbo King and R.A. the Rugged Man come along to drop dense rhymes referencing Christopher Wallace, EPMD, Beastie Boys, the 5% Nation, Pac, The Juice Crew, C-Murder, Kool Moe Dee, A Tribe Called Quest, Def Jef , Canibus (before he met Wyclef), Sweetback, Uptown Saturday Night, Black Caesar, Rudy Ray Moore, Dolemite, Richard Pryor, Public Enemy, Grand Wizard Theodore and many, many more. Kids, open your ears and keep your fingers on the rewind button, 'cuz school is most definitely in session.

But Renaissance Child is no mere ol' school throwback: This is some serious next level Hip Hop, with an All-Star production team that includes 4th Disciple, Bronze Nazareth and MF DOOM, and a killer lineup of guest emcees such as Talib Kweli, Killah Priest, The Maccabeez and more. From Biblically-themed opener "Nativity" and the brutally aggressive indictment of the Hip Hop game that is "Buried Alive," to the funky "Project Jazz" and the Ras Kass-featured "Musical Murdah," Hell Razah's debut suggests that, even if the Wu-Tang Clan never makes another album, the group's storied Hip Hop legacy rests in some extremely capable hands."

Pass desert eagles to the last Hebrews
Who got knowledge of the good and evil, we see through the deceiptful
With eyes like a young Ezekiel, a holy people, addicted to a dope needle
The prophecy of a black male as crack sales

Hell Razah and Blue Sky Black Death - Razah's Ladder

“Our father Jacob is having a dream,“ Hell Razah recounts at the outset of the excellent Razah’s Ladder. “And in this dream he sees a ladder that’s set up on the earth, and the top of it reaches into the heaven. He say he can hail the angels of Yahweh, ascending and descending on this ladder, and when he look to the top of it, he saw the creator of the universe: Yahweh. He who is, he who was, and he who shall be.”

Over Blue Sky Black Death’s lonely saxophone, the telling of the Old Testament tale is a perfect intro for the brooding Ladder; right away, Razah establishes himself as the wise seer, tugging at his thick beard as he explains the ways of the world, as he bring us up his ladder one rung at a time.

Samples from the poorly aging Tarantino-lite Boondock Saints are awkward but easy to ignore thanks to Razah’s engaging, often cryptic lyrics, especially his oblique Judaism references. Razah, who came up with the Wu-Tang-affiliated Sunz of Man and has run solo since 2001’s When All Hell Breaks Loose, has, as far as I can tell, no explicit association with Judaism. (He says on 2004’s “What Gangstas Do”: “I injure players like Ray Lewis, vests spray through it/ Get mad cash like I'm half Jewish.”) Repeatedly, he draws an association with Jews and Israel: “I was told by wise men that the blacks was Jews/ So that made me strap up with tools”; “This for the kids outside that's in the military/ No matter black or Israeli, they both want us buried”; “I get chills from the pain every time that I kneel/ Now my head is saying prayer for the rest of Israel”; “I’m about to blow like an ave. in Tel Aviv”; “On Shabbat we give the Most High props through hip-hop.”

That’s one of the intriguing things about hip-hop; it’s a conducive medium for a vocalist to craft a persona. Razah’s enigmatic lyrics hint at a personally cultivated, oddball belief system, and, like the best material from his former mentors in the Wu-Tang Clan, demand repeat listenings for proper deciphering.

Razah summed up the recording process, a full-album collaborative effort with the relatively new San Francisco production duo Blue Sky Black Death, as “Studio equipment, Hennessy bottles, spiritual books, sour diesel, and a box of Dutches.” Kingston and Young God of Blue Sky Black Death explained further that that they provided Razah with more beats than he could use, allowing him to pick and choose the best fits. And it shows: The production makes Razah’s mid-groove flow seem downright effortless. Razah’s Ladder makes me wonder, once again, why more emcee don’t employ the practice of the full-album collaboration.

On “Audiobigoraphy,”  Razah walks us through his sojourning, small-stakes career -- through busted record deals, limited-run seven-inches, flopping LPs -- as much for his own fleeting posterity as for our sake. At one point he brings up a few perceived creative appropriations from his higher-profile one-time boosters -- “Me and 7th did "Livin' in Hell"/ Pressed up it independent, not knowin' if a record would sell/ Rae and Ghost made "Heaven & Hell" while we was hearin' it/ Meanwhile we thinkin' it was all coincidence.” He’s not bitter -- more confused, shruggingly pensive about what might have been.

Of course, the burn of watching dudes he came up with grace magazine covers and cash royalty checks that as far as Razah is concerned might well  have been his will never completely fade. But the emcee has seemingly accepted his fate as a foot soldier in the campaign for quality hip-hop, independent or otherwise. This late-career period  finds Razah at ease -- confident, reflective, singularly focused on his music, free of resentment. As Razah’s Ladder attests, it should be a fertile one."

Heaven or Hell, we all scattered
We all sinners so it don't matter
You're now climbin' up Razah's Ladder
The next level is the hereafter
Or either burn with the backstabbers

Genelec & Memphis Reigns - Scorpion Circles

"While the beats are in most cases pure scorpion poison, the lyrics are sometimes too advanced for their own good, resulting in an antidote, taking away much of the harm. That can be a short summery of Genelec & Memphis Reigns debut "Scorpion Circles". A recording that profits much from the exquisite production work from Genelec, that's behind the lyrical strength of him and Reign. And the musical side of this project is not only executed very well, with inviting a dope DJ to do some scratching when fitting, not only putting much mind into the drums, the samples, as well as the general feel, but throughout the record we also get an Asiatic and oriental feel, that is surprisingly rare in the whole art of rap.

Now the feel's not on all the tracks, but interestingly enough on most of the best ones (that then at the same time are also usually the more calmer songs). So for example on the (more or less) arguably best track on this album "Sunwheel", that opts for a sample previously used by Smif-N-Wessun. The sample is played longer, as well as there's an Indian sitar and drum added, making this beat hard to resist. Lyrically we are asked to "listen to these visions become real", while the sadness is overshadowing the complete feel, as the two confirm: "we're slipping into rhythm and livin' among the ills". But on here it's already obvious that the advanced and skillful flows of the two are at times a hindrance to get the message across. As the double rhymes and stylistic flashiness makes what could be simpler, more strenuous to listen to. The perfectly matched scratching by Gamma Ray then however rounds out this track to be straight up dope.

When the flow isn't as offbeat, then it goes an early nineties way, as on "Sakura", where we seem to be positioned on a comet that passes by our world, with the visions being of science and sometimes +fiction results. The beat is separated into two parts, with the first depending on an orchestration, while the second again welcomes an Asian vibe. At the same time we also get very poetic songs, like "Offerings", that is remotely sad, but confidentially content as well. And lyrically we are listening to some reflections on religious ideologies, what then for a long part doesn't need a chorus to set the verses apart.

At the same time this doesn't fail to include the braggadocios, as well as the saying clever things that no one said before tracks. Hence that can be found on the opening "Firebombz", on "Move" and more blatantly on "Elephantightus". Stylistically tracks like "Organisms" then further include different vibes, and with cuts like "Scorpion Chircles" or "Give & Take" the look back into the early 90s is also musically achieved. On "Chicken Soup" Genelec then manages to pull together a beat that's very much of the Cali-College Rock style, without even getting out the trashing guitars. But there seems a similar root Genelec was digging out when doing dope offering.

So in general there's little to complain about, apart from as mentioned, that this while stylistic excellent, it's maybe too good, resulting in this not being as expressive as it could have been. That however is addressed by Memphis Reign on "Organisms", where he states "my mission does not consist of writing verses on the topic / I don't give a fuck if I'm the only person really jockin' it / I'm confident when I talk the talk you know I walk it / I'm doing it for the love, take a look inside my wallet". What leaves us empty handed with any response, hence we shall take "Scorpion Circles" for what it is, and that is a good record."

FLAC

Ivens - Sounds to Expire to

"Melbourne's Awakenings crew has never made conformist hip-hop. In fact there releases are about as far from the stereotypical Triple J Aussie sound as you can get. My only fear is that the brilliance on this album from Ivens may pass over many heads. Do not let this happen to you.

Ivens has been working hard behind the scenes in Melbourne for some time now. A founding member of the Awakenings crew, he has locked himself away for the past twelve months with production wunderkind Plutonic Lab, Sounds To Expire To is the result.

Each and every time Plutonic Lab steps into a studio he excels himself and blows me away. In a row his work on Pegz album, his own Codes Over Colours and then last years collaboration with Muph called Silence The Sirens have each raised his own personal bar of quality. Here, he has orchestrated hip-hop from middle earth: this is some bizarre futuristic movie soundtrack, haunting and melodic while also dark and moody, it is completely different to anything I have heard before. Completely different to my personal tastes, yet I love it.

On the lyrical tip it is far from cookie cutter throw away lines. Ivens had a diet of hip-hop mixed with hardcore and punk, and this has turned his views of the world slightly darker. His delivery is ridiculously rapid fire, you start to wonder when he is going to take a breath or if in fact one is needed at all. There is also no time for catchy hooks, Ivens plows right through them with the occasional assistance of Murda 1 and Perplex (recently crowned back to back Australian DMC champ) on the cuts. Tracks like The Grudge, The Pulse and Well Oiled Machine brood and attach themselves to your mind state, the latter featuring some of those metal sounds Ivens grew up with. Personal standout for me was Brood Of Five, here Ivens is joined by Fame, 13th Son, Brass and Nick Sweepah, all stepping outside their lyrical comfort zone yet not one sounding forced.

This is definitely a different album, it will probably take more than a few listens to grow on a lot of people, kind of like the first time you listen to MF Doom or Quasimoto. Don't let that hold you back there are many listening rewards here to be reaped."

V2

The Beast - Silence Fiction

Here's the Hippity Hoppity. I won't be able to post any more shit for several months, so yeah....adios for now. (No se when I'm able to either....)

"The only future is the one that nurtures the collective," raps Durham emcee Pierce Freelon at the end of the potent social tirade that comes midway through "Collective," the rollicking, horn-led funk that leads The Beast's strong debut, Silence Fiction. Less than two minutes into the album, Freelon's castigated the cruelties of American history and championed the causes of its valiant rebels, quickly arriving at this, his thesis of unity. As soon as he says it, the music—previously coiled around a relentless beat—sighs, opening into a gentle piano-and-bass trickle. It's as if The Beast is lost in a daydream, fantasizing about the possibilities of us all playing together. And then the moment is gone. This is "revolutionary immunity music," Freelon insists, and there's little time to waste.

Freelon and his bandmates—local jazz standouts pianist Eric Hirsh, drummer Stephen Coffman and bassist Peter Kimosh—live (and, on occasion, suffer) by such inclusion on Silence Fiction. Freelon is a vivid and candid storyteller, pitting the woes of his education against the pride and hope he hears in the voice of his mother, the Grammy-nominated jazz singer Nnenna Freelon. He twists hip-hop, religion, jazz and academia into a complex, personal helix, and he stacks tales of drugs and sex exploits alongside pleas for understanding and communication. Freelon preaches, but never from a pulpit.

Similarly, the band never misses a note or a measure, their refined chops reflected in a resplendent bass tone, effortless but difficult rhythmic shifts and guileless layers of keyboards. But they score a sexy escapade on "Get Gone," dip their toes near Radiohead's OK Computer for "Where is the Light?" and paint Freelon's text with springing beats and melodic slides on "Four Seasons." During "Translation," Orquesta GarDel, Hirsh's big salsa band, joins for a lengthy jam. These musicians aren't above anything.

Of course, beasts are often headstrong, and this one is no different: The quartet's enthusiasm and earnestness, though generally charming, sometimes get the best of them. They chase the funk a bit too hard, or Freelon reaches for a cultural reference that is trite or limp. But how often do you get to criticize a hip-hop record for taking too many chances and sometimes tripping over its own big feet? The Beast, thankfully, doesn't seem to have the patience for your answer."

Oye 

P.S. I won't be able to up the Emo Diaries anytime soon. Sorry yet again, riotart.

Rock Wattage by Toast Machine

"Toast Machine is a drum-and-bass power-duo that hails from the city of Petaluma, California. Bassist Giovanni Bennedetti and drummer Brandon Warner provide funky grooves, face-melting bass riffs and complex songwriting to keep the music interesting. Lacking any vocals or high-pitched instruments, the bass serves both rhythm and lead roles. "

Bass

Survival Unit - Fentanyl Martyrs

Sorry for all the Flacs and those who have little HD space for it. (riotart: I'm sorry, brah)

Hippity Hoppity coming soon after this.

"Survival Unit Fentanyl Martyrs 2-golden-CD box is the latest cultural terror attack coming from cultic non-compromising Swedish postmortem/power electronics project. This time an especially dreadful and relevant theme has been chosen for compromising the declared illusions of human civilisation. Both discs have been dedicated to Chechnya undergoing the total genocide, the total war where neither honour nor rules are acknowledged, except perhaps those of Marquis de Sade, who - bearing in mind the facts of this war - would have never imagined how far the fantasy of brutal people can advance in order to dominate, torture and control those resembling themselves.

Kristian Olsson - or in other words Hieronymus Bosch of the 21st century, living and creating in Sundsvall, North Sweden, where the atmosphere is shaped by hard labour in metallurgical factories and by heroin - has his fantasy and insight reach the apogee in the double album Fentanyl Martyrs. Survival Unit announces that this is the last attempt of this conceptual project, which has been revived after a long break, to put a full stop and spit into the civilisation sinking in lies indeed offensively. Then it comes as no wonder that two discs of Fentanyl Martyrs are extremely grisly. In those horror toys, Kristian Olsson rejects manifests and declarations about those who are right and who are wrong in this conflict obscured by information blockade. He opts for a rather neutral position by relentlessly raising to public the dreary crimes against humanity and declares REALITY with its each element uniquely meaningful. Some play in it a part of the scoundrels, the others that of heroes, while the third embody both roles in one. However, it is obvious that the reality exceeds the fantasy distorted by illusions by all aspects, while both sides fighting in this dreadful meat-chopping feast are merely supernumeraries declaring ruthless terror of reality.

The material in both discs includes a variety of aspects in the Chechen war and genocide of Chechen people: obese lying politicians, shahids dying for the freedom of their nation and especially black widows – young women who lost their families and are dreaming of regaining them in heaven, warlords such as Shamil Basayev and Khattab who demonstrated indescribable courage, the concentration camps of the 21st century, the tragedies of Beslan school and Moscow theatre hostage crises, including fentanyl (produced nowhere else but in Kaunas, the temporary capital of Lithuania) used against the civilians in the latter siege. Traditions of power electronics/postmortem prevail in the records of Survival Unit. No one is celebrated and no one is debased. Or, all are degraded, while VIOLENCE is cynically honoured as a messenger unmasking lies.

All actors of the conflict are presented in Fentanyl and Martyrs at face value: gory scoundrels and sadists fighting for survival. Ichkeria here is the smith of madness and endurance. Survival Unit’s Fentanyl Martyrs contains a number of authentic radio conversations from battlefields, grimy, rule-defying, brutal and poor quality noise and, of course, black humour, that driving force of postmortem/power electronics. "

Offense

Keiji Haino & Yoshida Tatsuya - Uhrfasudhasdd

"A new recording by a legendary duo! Following up on their acclaimed CD New Rap, two of the Tokyo Underground's most extreme artists get together again for another twisted exploration of the outer limits of sound. Performing on voice, guitars, drums, keyboards, samplers, theremin and more, Haino and Yoshida take full advantage of studio techniques and digital editing in creating this bizarre and masterful suite of songs and instrumentals. Ghostly, intense and howlingly funny!"

"Latest instalment in this on-going studio duel between Keiji Haino and Tatsuya Yoshida of Ruins et al. The follow-up to the Hauenfiomiume set on Magaibutsu, this one covers an equal amount of ground, from howling acoustic blues and guttural vocal eviscerations through explosive technicolour drones, angular electro-convulsive prog-inflected face-offs, post-Bailey improvised scrabbles, epic soul-scraping electric guitar elegies and classically stupe garage punkers. Hearing the essence of Haino’s devouring vision compacted into 2-4 minute bombs makes for an intense action-packed outing."

Ya

Keiji Haino with Greg Cohen & Joey Baron - An Unclear Trial: More Than This

"Keiji Haino is a Japanese guitarist of awesome reputation in the arena of blasting electric freeform psychedelic improvisation. Here he turns down the levels and joins ace downtown rhythm section Greg Cohen and Joey Baron in a more introspective set. The hierarchy of lead instrument and accompaniment is obliterated as guitar, bass and percussion embark on an intimate three-way conversation. And do they ever have a lot to say, at first tentatively feeling one another out until they fairly (but quietly) swing on the last two numbers. Central to the success of this disc is the half-hour long third track, "Never Did I Imagine That There Exists an Eight Layered Handicap". Haino, Cohen and Baron circle around one another searchingly, finding common ground and inhabiting it for a while, before slowly extracting themselves from it, looking off in different directions while keeping close watch on each other, before reuniting in yet another groove. An album of supple improvisational skill. Partisans say we may never hear Haino like this again, so take advantage of the opportunity."

Unity

Keiji Haino - Tenshi No Gijinka

"Tenshi No Gijinka is Haino's most dramatic album, a solo recording of unusual hand held percussion, exotic instruments from all over the world, impassioned vocals and his trademark mind-numbing guitar. It's an exciting development from his past work, making extensive use of overdubbing as a compositional tool."

"Tenshi No Gijinka finds Keiji Haino solo and without guitar. Focusing entirely on percussion and vocals, Haino builds a unique, meditative space out of drones, cymbal smacks, rings, and reverberations. Bizarre yet also beautiful, Haino creates a personalized and esoteric ritual that alternately serves as repeated tension release and representation of the inner sounds of existence. The result is a captivating immersion in sustains and overtones."

Untitled

Stephan Mathieu and Taylor Deupree - Transcriptions

'Transcriptions', a collaborative work by Stephan Mathieu and Taylor Deupree, contains 8 tracks of music that is both historic, decayed, angelic and revolving, while also existing in warmth, purity, and transcendence through acoustic instruments, and vintage synthesizer.

Delving deeply into the history of the earliest recording methods through mechanical phonographs, Stephan Mathieu created a method using wax-cylinders, the predecessor of records, as well as 78s, which have a larger frequency range, to create his music through playback of these pieces of musical history. With a setup consisting of playing the cylinders through two portable gramophones, and then sending them directly into the computer by microphone, Mathieu was able to record the sounds, and perform software processing in realtime, rendering a resulting flow of deteriorated angelic elegance, decomposed beauty, and reborn awakenings.

From this result, Taylor Deupree worked with the recordings, adding acoustic instruments and vintage synthesizer; adding-to, while still maintaining the physicality of the 78s, opening the range of the tracks through unalloyed analog contributions. Upon first listening, it might be thought that the contributions of Taylor Deupree were merely additions to original material, but when listening further, once the music has breathed openly, it can be heard actually how much the cylinder recordings of Stephan Mathieu shape the open pathways of Deupree's acoustics, allowing for a breadth of incredible range. Not merely a compliment, but a modern counterpart.

Through nearly 48 minutes of music, self-described as warm and enveloping, these sounds represent the pivotal movements of the unique, the saturated, and the exploratory, all colliding in what may be sometimes a wave of revolving fuzz, swirling melodies of the supernatural and the human, the delicate echoes of single revolutions, and gentle plucks of the guitar. It is both a conversation, and a translation of both sides. Transcription, after all, means notating the unnotated.

The result of the century-apart sources combined with the methodology and talent of these two leading experimentalists creates an immutable, impressing magnetism, while still balancing so gently on the vibrations of the decayed, and the frail humanity of the past."

RPM

Keiji Haino - A Challenge To Fate

"A Challenge to Fate opens with feral anguish, which could be either despair or insight. "First Blackness," with its bloodcurdling a cappella screaming, hunts for the ultimate depths of emotion; that this is a live track makes the raw exploration more intimate, risking both embarrassment and ecstasy, and daring the audience to seek its own depths. "Second Blackness" continues the verbal assault on the void, seeking inside that dualism of anguish or ecstasy. 

"You who will in no way I who can in no way" is more meditative but no less intense, a combination of noise and gentle drones. The challenge to fate is to become light, without ever being sure that darkness is not a step away."

Good Night

Claudio Rocchetti - Another Piece of Teenage Wildlife

"Taking plaintive tones of drone music and early electronic and tape experiments, 3/4hadbeeneliminated former member Claudio Rocchetti has absolutely defined a sound, building a subtle, majestic landscape. Using awide variety of instruments (synth, tone generators, organs, guitar, tape machines) he creates an absorbing sound that is mainly layers of loopsfading in and over each other, ethereal vocals, repetition, melody, noise. An emotional resonance with a tinge of melancholia that permeates every moment and creates a sense of longing and nostalgia."

"Having started out his career in the hardcore scene, Claudio Rocchetti eventually found his way into experimental electroacoustics, having dabbled with noise music and extreme turntablism. Another Piece Of Teenage Wildlife finds Rocchetti assembling a host of tape snippets, loops, old recordings and "ghost electronics" provided by collaborators, sculpting it all into a mixture of wildly different genres and moods. After the opening piano recital 'Wasted Years', the business of sound-melding gets underway with the poignant drones and groans of 'We Got In Touch, We Talked On The Phone', heightening the atmosphere with the dislocated vocal experiments found on 'Auf Gebautem Bauen' and 'It Was Purely Accidental, He Said', which features some electric guitar usage that encroaches on post rock territory, albeit embedded in a swathe of samples and effects processes. An interesting take on the electroacoustic collage, Another Piece Of Teenage Wildlife is an unexpectedly accessible experiment."

Years Wasted

Dieter Schnebel and John Cage - Atlas Eclipticalis - Winter Music - Cartridge Music, Glossolalie I - IV

John Cage and Dieter Schnebel.

Same as previous post.

Tick

:sim:

Vinko Globokar, Luciano Berio, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Carlos Roque Alsina - Discours II, Sequenza V, Solo Fur Melodie-Instrument Mit Ruckkopplung, Consecuenza

Vinko Globokar, Luciano Berio, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Carlos Roque Alsina.
Minimalist classical music.
Get this?

Vinyl

Boris with Ian Astbury - BXI

New Boris EP collaborating with Ian Astbury from The Cult. Track three is a cover of The Cult's Rain while the other three tracks are original, all of which are top notch, I might add.

320

Starving Weirdos - Self-Hypnosis

"There is something so authentically goofball and so completely out to lunch about Starving Weirdos that allows them to pull off the kind of ridiculously OTT psych moves that in lesser hands would come over like mere pastiche. Right from the cover of this double LP set, one of pair of LPs on Weird Forest, the dumb teen on acid vibe is telegraphed in full colour via the painting of a pair of specs staring at the words Self Hypnosis while the black and white record labels spin on the deck. The thing is, they’re serious. Throughout their career their individual combo of enthusiastic naivety – calling an album Harry Smith fer chrissakes – and inspired commitment to higher-minded drone narcosis has allowed them access to the kinda unselfconsciously daffy environs that a bunch of lesser heads could never hope to explore. Starving Weirdos make drone music with a limited historical road map and it’s all the more inspired for it. Self Hypnosis has that massive depth of field/recorded in a warehouse feel that defines the best of the Weirdos’ sides. The production sounds pretty sophisticated, at points recalling the gushing surrealist sound of Nurse With Wound circa Spiral Insana. Like its companion volume, it feels as if they have devoured every speck of counter-cultural information that has come their way, refracting it into jams that are so beautifully ambitious and so unhampered by any notion of artistic self-consciousness whatsoever that they surpass many of their peers working in a similar area, re-birthing drone music by factoring in huge orchestral arrangements, screwed and chopped slow mo electronics and the kind of authentic freak-out styles that only a genuine pair of misfits could ever fully tap into. Self Hypnosis is another heavy instalment from a band who are as daft, fun, serious, psychedelic and unique as any ‘outsider’ artists"

I heard you like noise

C. Spencer Yeh and Wasteland Jazz Unit - Live At Art Damage Lodge

Some noisy "jazz" shit. Emphasis on the noise.

SOUNDS GOOD TO ME :SIM:

Bastard Noise and The Endless Blockade - The Red List

 "20 Buck Spin is proud to release “The Red List”, a split album between two titans of the North American underground, Bastard Noise and The Endless Blockade. This long awaited and much anticipated album was first hatched in idea form on the occasion of a show between both bands in 2007. Finally more than two years later, “The Red List” is ready to be unleashed.

“The Red List” marks a huge turning point for US noise legends Bastard Noise. The harsh noise and power electronics they are well known and revered for here is mixed into a foundation of brutal modern hardcore with progressive tendencies that will cause the mind to wander into worlds yet ventured. Recalling their seminal past ties with Man Is The Bastard, the band turns to a “music-based” direction for the first time under the name Bastard Noise since their inception in 1991. The exemplary bass-playing (“four steel girders”) of Eric Wood certainly recalls MITB in their heyday, with recent addition and master drummer/percussionist Danny Walker (Intronaut/Phobia) providing the perfect foundation for Wood’s brutal technicality. Long-time Bastard Noise/MITB member W.T. Nelson keeps the custom-built electronics sound of the band planted firmly in the present.

Toronto’s The Endless Blockade return following 2008’s 20 Buck Spin released LP Primitive and 2009’s split EP with Agoraphobic Nosebleed (Relapse). Their primary contribution here is the 14+ minute modern power-violence epic “Deuteronomy”, a track that crosses all spectrums of hardcore/true crucial punk madness. Additional unconventional sound elements are utilized, never once pausing their critical attack on the only living species that deserves (and has earned) its own extinction. Fans of the bands Primitive LP will not be disappointed. Additionally two interesting remix tracks from the Primitive sessions are included, the first remix by modern composer Noah Creshevsky, and the second a brutal harsh noise blast by Canadian audial assaulter The Rita.

“The Red List” is now ready to explode the minds of the humanoid “anti-sheep” to its greatest capabilities. Both The Endless Blockade and Bastard Noise have worked closely together to make this “awareness-based” audio-violent offering the sickest it can be."

 Bastard

Seth Nehil - Umbra

"Umbra is one of Seth Nehil's strongest solo efforts and his most immersive since Tracing the Skin of Clouds. It consists of three mid-length tracks that move in and out of each other like three movements of a larger work. For the most part, they are drones of an acoustic nature, although when sounds are massed like they are here, the mind can easily hear things that are not really there. But the main components seem to be acoustic at heart: Tibetan bowls, bowed metal, rubbed resonating objects, and field recordings, both the urban and natural kind, to which Nehil has added the contributions of Bobin Eirth on recorders and reeds and Bethany Wright on voice (Michael Northam also appears, obliquely credited for "assistance"). All these elements (and there are many; each listen seems to bring out new ones) are left untreated -- or so it seems -- but in the denser passages, as in "Situla," the very nature of the drone becomes ambiguous before reverting to its "obviously acoustic" state. This ambiguity is Nehil's strongest asset, along with the fact that the music always sounds so meaningful and natural. The sudden arrival of a synthesizer tone 13 minutes into the third track threatens the architecture of the work, but the composer turns what is first perceived as an intrusion into another enigma, making shimmering harmonics (again, acoustic or not?) grow out of the tone for a gentle finale. That part and the vocal drone in "Mira" are the highlights of this very fine disc."

Clicky

Magik Markers - Boss

"When the Magik Markers first debuted a few years back, theirs was a reputation staked on pure aggression and virulent post-core swagger. Initially a trio known for walking that all-too-fine line between transcendent, in-concert anarchy and nonplussed, detuned live skronk, the Markers left a trail of CD-Rs that documented their raw, off-the-cuff marriage of free rock bluster, noise grit and punk derived thrust.

And while the fury of those early sets and limited edition releases were something to behold, the glass ceiling they had created for themselves in that realm grew more opaque as time passed. But rather than smash endlessly against that enclosure in the vain hopes of breaking free, the Markers took an alternate route towards escape, one that led right back through the song-form and tunefulness that the group initially rejected with the vitriolic screeds that made them famous. 

Pared down to a duo now that founding guitarist Leah Quimby has left the group, the Magik Markers’s Boss (their first widely available compact disc release, thanks to the folks at Ecstatic Peace) evidences an obvious dynamic shift. Instrumentally, the squalls are less threatening; the previous din, it would seem, has been tempered and calmed. Guitarist/vocalist Elisa Ambrogio and drummer Pete Nolan can still whip up a frenzy with which to be reckoned; however, there’s a quiet control that manages to keep even the most outward-bound blasts of fuzz and distortion on opener “Axis Mundi” in line with the track’s pretty basic rock vibe. 

Though it presents a more restrained side of the Markers, the group’s embrace of almost conventional dynamics is actually pretty liberating. Shorn of any obligations to noise as an aesthetic, Boss echoes with the sounds of two people testing out their own limitations while figuring out how the sounds that came before will fit into those that will ultimately follow. Tracks like “Body Rot” revel in the type of punk brio that had always permeated the group’s lengthier improvisations, giving that same vibe a succinct treatment that works surprisingly well. And even when the pair stretch things out a bit, as they do on the excellent “Last of the Lemach Line,” there’s a new narrative focus that gives the track a compelling urgency.

Most surprising here, though, is Nolan and Ambrogio’s wildly successful approach of ballad forms. Hard to tell exactly how a band like this went from unkempt aggression to quiet grandeur so quickly and efficiently, but both “Empty Bottles” and “Bad Dream” mine gauzy melodies and spare accompaniment in ways that seem neither forced nor trite. No small feat, and as the sawing wheeze of “Bad Dream” carries through to completion, all a weepy counterpoint to Ambrogio’s sing-song story and gentle acoustic, one gets a sense of just how monumental this movement really is. 

Though a liberating blast, noise as an aesthetic in and of itself can be a bit of a dead end. Now, as this current generation of No Fun-ites begin to explore life outside the moan and scrape, a whole new form of outsider performance is being birthed, one that approaches extremely conventional modes and sounds with a distinctly anarchic ability to toy with form until it resembles something that the masses would still never recognize. Boss is a shining example of that kind of transformation, and one that showcases a group known for its flux embracing the idea of relative stability and proving it can be a staggering success."

I'm Bossy

Perfume - Game

Let me rant to you a bit before you download.

Sixth attempt in and I still don't get it. I can not for the fucking life of me understand why people seem to go apeshit over this band. What the fuck, mang. Perfume is apparently a band that ANYONE and EVERYONE loves, because they're catchy as fuck, apparently. Catchy? I suppose, but I find it to be incredibly boring. I mean, shit's not Katy Perry bouncy, sing along catchy nor is it Sleigh Bells thumping, bumping club/car bangin'. I'm left clueless and confused as to why people love this shit, and it's not because I'm not a fan of electropop either. So the "it's not your type of music" is bullshit.

Why did I post this? There seems to be a lack of a quality format for this album when I was looking for it. (Blogspot wise anyway, and V0 for those who care)

Whatever. Listen and decide for yourself. A glowing and positive review underneath.

"Much has been made of Perfume's long struggle to "make it" and how sweet it is now that they have, but, really, three sort-of cute girls dancing and singing vapid pop songs aren't anything new to Japan, or any place for that matter. Why they are now so beloved and inescapable all across this country is due to a near-perfect convergence of great marketing, a mysterious image, cute dance moves, some downright weird, yet alluring, video direction, and, well, great songs. The team of svengalis responsible for this work, including songwriter Nakata Yasutaka from Capsule, are to be applauded. Perfume's Game is the most likable pop phenomenon since "Hey Ya!"

The ingredients used in Perfume's super catchy recipe are easily recognizable right from the start of the album in the hit single "Polyrhythm." The first, and most prominent, is the three ladies' chorus of autotuned voices. This could be written off as mere studio trickery meant to cover up their lack of singing ability, but it comes off as more of an aesthetic choice. The warbly, faux-vocoder texture of their voices comes from the same mold as T-Pain's, but is much more palatable in the context of Perfume's dreamy techno-pop than T-Pain's cartoonishly sleazy R&B. In addition, the melodies being sung are deceptively complex, and almost uniformly catchy to the Nth degree, belying their rhythmic simplicity. In fact, the only real melodic failure on Game comes when the vocal rhythm gets too bouncy for it's own good on the verses of "Ceramic Girl." The stark piano-backed verses of "Baby Cruising Love" and the entirety of the monumental slow-jam "Macaroni" show how it should really be done.

Along with the vocals, the backing beats are almost like secondary melodies unto themselves. The grinding bass of title track "Game" makes for a hard-hitting club anthem, while "Butterfly" comes across much more mystically thanks a nonstop flow of tinkling arpeggios. At other times, the insidiously simple way that the beats are interwoven with the group's vocals make the songs great, like on "Take me Take me," which still soars despite five and a half minutes of some seriously inane lyrics. Some of Game's best songs are reminiscent of the futuristic, European synthiness of Daft Punk's Discovery, and others of Deee-Lite's organic, disco grooves, but "Baby Cruising Love" and "Secret Secret" make it known that Perfume isn't just aspiring towards those sorts of influences, but has taken their place alongside them.

In a Matrix-like world filled with ragged independent artists raging against the pop-star machine it takes a group like Perfume to help us realize that that battle has long since become irrelevant (just like the Matrix movies themselves, Hi-OH!). While the indie purist does everything they can to repudiate the plastic and pretense of the pop world, the pop-star embraces trends as if they were a lifesaver that could keep them afloat amongst the ever changing musical currents of our day. Perfume falls into neither category. Instead, they're a three-piece hovercraft, powered by their own sort of pretense fusion, that has risen above the currents of pop music and is obliviously unaffected by them entirely. Game isn't aimed at the seventeen year-old ditz with her skirt hiked up too high, the hipper-than-thou kid with Radiohead plastered on his dorm room wall, nor even the greasy faced Akiba-kei guy on the fourth floor of Mandarake, but all of them are equally likely to enjoy the heck out of it. When it comes to an album with infectious beats and hypnotic melodies like this, we really have no choice but to like it, dance to it, and tell the whole world about it... you just may not know it yet."

TAKE ME TAKE ME TAKE ME

P.S. Hip Hop coming your way....after the noise/power electronics splurge.

Menace II Sobriety by Cross Examination

"Cross Examination is a modern crossover band formed in 2004 from St. Louis, Missouri. Their lyrics consist of partying, crushing posers, and getting ***faced. They have released an EP, a split with Spring Break and this full length during the duration of their existence thus far.

Menace II Sobriety is party crossover in the vein of the now well known Municipal Waste, the band is often compared to them. The one and only thing that separates them from your average crossover band is the vocalist's trademark wail, very odd and screechy to say the least. His style is a very acquired taste and if one thing is going to turn you away from this band it would be that element.

The guitarwork on the album fast and very unrelenting, there isn't a moment on the album where killer riffs aren't pounding you in the face. When a solo breaks through the thrashtastic riffs they are played very clean and go well with the song. The guitar distortion give the riffs a very sharp but crisp feel.

As mentioned before the song structures can be compared to that of Municipal Waste, if there was an instrumental version of this album you would have a hard time convincing someone that this isn't a Municipal Waste record. That being said there are some ridiculously fun moments on the album. "Arson Party Squad" would be one of those moments, possibly the catchiest song on this insanely catchy record. The gang chants are also plentiful throughout the album, not enough to get annoying though, they definitely help in creating the fun upbeat feel the album has as a whole.

The lyrics on Menace II Sobriety are your typical party music lyrics. Some of the lyrics are fun and refreshing though, take for example "Necroponics" which is as one could assume about weed that grows on dead bodies. On the track "Collateral Jam-Age" the group breaks into an alcohol induced rap session and begins to chant "Cross Examination ain't nothin' to fuck with!!" which clearly is a homage to the classic track from the Wu-Tang Clan, moments like these work as good interludes and prevent the album from becoming dull.

It wouldn't hurt the album any if the song lengths were any longer. The longest song on the album is just over 3:30 and oddly enough it's the outro. The short songs don't necessarily take away from the album but it does leave you still wanting more when the album has played through. Menace II Sobriety has great replay value and is just as catchy as your average Municipal Waste song.

Overall this album deserves a solid 3.5 out of 5. It doesn't bring anything particularly new to the table but it succeeds at being what it attempts to be and that is a fun straightforward crossover record. All in all for fans of upbeat crossover this is sure to please, for people who still haven't been convinced that this style has any musical relevance unfortunately Cross Examination does nothing to convince you otherwise. There have been a lot of newer bands trying to recreate the old school thrash bands and many have failed, but through all the shit there are a few gems to be found and Cross Examination is, in fact one of those gems. So join the squad jump in the pit or the arson party squad will burn down your shit!"

Heelll Yeeaaaahhh nigga

I would like to note that I think I'm running out of material to post on this blog... :C

Mental Vortex by Coroner

"Coroner is one of those Thrash Metal bands that got disbanded in the early nineties as a result of the overall decline in the scene. However this similarity with other bands of the genre is probably the only one because no one played like Coroner. Of course, there were other bands labeled as Technical Thrash, but not one of them was as cool as them, especially concerning the technical side itself. When this trio play, nothing is static; the music flows with so many changes that it's impossible to get bored.

Mental Vortex, the band's fourth album, is no exception. The music isn't extremely fast in the thrash meaning of it, but the songs are very catchy, and despite the frequent tempo and time signature changes, the sense of melody is definitely present, and songs sound structured. With Mental Vortex Coroner continued with the complex sound of No More Color and took it to even a more amazing level with superb songwriting. The solos are as always skillfully executed and are greatly written, and therefore fit into the songs just fine, not to mention their originality. Tommy T. Baron is one of the best Metal guitar players, both for his mastery of the guitar and great riffage. He is one of those overlooked guitar heroes that every Thrash fan should know, just like Coroner as a band. Markus Edelmann's grunts fit the music as well and are even classic in a way. The quality of recording as usually could be better, but the dark and a bit blurry production goes well with the vocals and atmospheres and themes of the songs. For instance, the beginning of "Metamorphosis" used to absolutely freak me out with its whale wails. Nevertheless the sound quality did become better overall. Mental Vortex can actually be considered the band's best album, and well-deserved I must say. This review wouldn't be full if I didn't mention the cover of The Beatles song "I Want You (She's so Heavy)." This is one of the two covers in Coroner's discography, both amazing pieces (the other one is a Jimi Hendrix song "Purple Haze"). The only thing I am going to say about it is that it's one of the best covers I've ever heard. Listen and see for yourself.

Mental Vortex is a Thrash classic like every other Coroner album basically is. If you are a Thrash fan, and have read to this point, get this album as soon as you can and share the message with those who haven't heard of Coroner and this album in particular. Hail to the true masters of Thrash!"

get it

Crossover by D.R.I.

"For you youngsters out there who think crap like Hatebreed is hardcore, let me point you in *this* direction. This album has a ballsy title, whether by intent or not, because DRI were one of the first bands to exemplify what we old timers called "crossover" alongside the Cro-Mags and their classic "Age of Quarrel" debut.

From their roots of incredibly short, sharp jolts of electro-shock thrash that often were less than a minute (or even 4 seconds) long that got them tagged the "fastest band in the world" in the early 80s, this is what they matured into as they quickly learned to play tighter and better. And I mean matured in a good way, since this album features a perfect blend of what made DRI special in these days: catchy choruses and riffs, a careful blend of punk attitude (Kurt Brecht's angry ranting and screaming--the man admits he's tone deaf, for Pete's sake!) and old school hardcore fury, and intelligent, socially-aware lyrics combined with metal's heaviness and power and dynamics. Yes, dynamics on a DRI album!

Opener "5-Year Plan" has a classic starting riff that grabs you right away and gets you banging and screaming along with "I lose, you win, I lose you win, I lose, you win, I lose AGAIN!" and the slam pit busts loose around you as the tempo roars into hardcore thrash mania! "But you're on my 5-YEAR PLAN!!!" is all the warning you get, and from then on, it's longhairs out of the pit! Remember, in those days it was a very recent thing that longhairs were trying to learn the art of slamdancing and would more often than not get their asses whipped at a hardcore show!

"Tear It Down" is more punk-like and has a great screamalong chorus for those days you hate everyone and just want everyone to die (also reference "Go Die" for this). "Probation" has a cool slow intro and then zooms into overdrive again with Josh Pappe's fierce, tight bass riff hooking you in like a prize salmon. Again, "Go Die!" is a tune you want to crank at the end of a really bad day. "Decisions" is Kurt basically saying "Look, I can't make all your decisions for you, make up your own mind!", in his inimitable nettled fashion--he is nothing if not straightforward in his lyrics, he leaves little to the imagination. I like him for that, he simply says what's on his mind and leaves it at that.

The production is the best they'd had at the time, with thick guitars and an audible bass with both clarity and low end, loud, crashing drums, and Kurt's yelling riding clearly over it all. He sincerely sounds like a regular guy getting pissed off and losing his temper over the nonsense he sees around him every day, and this is his appeal, unlike the average metalcore vocalist who simply sounds pretentiously overwrought with all the growling and screaming they do. Metalcore these days is far too sluggish and pretentious anyway, it has seriously lost touch with bands like DRI who are the real deal as it concerns itself more with crafting the same old beatdown parts than energy and aggression. Get this and understand what it's all about!"

shit rocks

California by Mr. Bungle

"Four years after Disco Volante, Mr. Bungle returns with California, which immediately distinguishes itself from its predecessors -- it's probably their most heavily orchestrated record to date and their most melodic overall, as well as the least dependent on rock styles. That's certainly not to imply that this is a tame or immediately accessible record, nor that Mr. Bungle has suddenly gone sane. There is a stronger lounge-music orientation to the group's trademark rapid-fire genre-hopping; we hear more pop, swing, rockabilly, country & western, bossa nova, Hawaiian and Middle Eastern music, jazz, Zappa-esque doo wop, arty funk, post-rock, space-age pop, spaghetti-Western music, warped circus melodies, and even dramatic pseudo-new age, plus just a smidgen of heavy metal. Sure, some of those sounds have appeared on Mr. Bungle records past, but the difference this time is the focus with which the band deploys its arsenal. California is their most concise album to date, clocking in at around 45 minutes; plus, while the song structures are far from traditional, they're edging more in that direction and that greatly helps the listener in making sense of the often random-sounding juxtapositions of musical genres (assuming, of course, that you're supposed to even try to make sense of them). As with any Mr. Bungle album, California requires at least a few listens to pull together, but its particular brand of schizophrenia isn't nearly as impenetrable as that of Disco Volante, even if it will still make you marvel at the fact that such a defiantly odd, uncommercial band recorded for Warner Bros. "

Pink Cigarette