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Monday, January 28, 2008

LOL @ Protestants who think Scientology and Mormonism are weird

LOL
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Thursday, January 17, 2008

2007 Honorable Mentions, part deux

Lifelover - Erotik

Oddly, of the two albums this band has done, the one called Erotik is the one without the naked woman covered in red paint on the front. Lifelover is Swedish black metal dudes gone gothy. If you can get past the occasional rough patches of bad vocal crooning (which do not dominate the record), you will be treated to one of the better recent twists on black metal. Not that this is a black metal record--it isn't--but that's one of the primary wells it's sprung from. It's jangly and dark at the same time, and there is some b.m.-style howling here and there. I keep hearing people say Joy Division as a comparison, but Erotik is much more upbeat musically. Double LP, Euro press, 500 copies, no US distribution, and I got mine in trade for...an Aghast LP? WTF!

Wold - Screech Owl

Black metal meets Whitehouse. Crumbling, noisy, buzzing, repetitive riffs. Guitar in there somewhere. Not drums, a pulse. No one else is doing anything like this that I've heard. I actually prefer their first album, L.O.T.M.P., for it's inclusion of melodic ambience, a quality you will not find on the thoroughly abrasive Screech Owl. I feel stupid for having not listened to either album on anything but my crappy computer speakers. I'm sure I'm missing a lot. Both are CD-only releases for now, and I've been, perhaps wrongheadedly, holding out for vinyl.

Blood of the Black Owl - Svart Ugle

Yeah, another owl record. Thought this was an eponymous recording, but it loaded into my iTunes as Svart Ugle, so there you have it. Muddy and dirgey minimalist plodding from the guy who brought you the pagan/ambient/whatever project Ruhr Hunter, which I've heard and was honestly not impressed by. But this album is good stuff. Very repetitive but with lots of little changes that keep you interested. I haven't listened to this in months, it's due for another spin. But not just now, because I am listening toooo.....

The Austrasian Goat - s/t

Somehow the Aghast email account started getting updates from a French label called Solitude Records that I had never heard of. I played a clip of this recored contained in one of said updates and was impressed. I wrote and asked whether any US distros would be getting copies and was told no. I forgot about it for a while and then stumbled across it in a distro at Yellow Dog Fest. Totally worth it. Black doom very reminiscent of the non-ambient parts of Nortt but with a healthy sludge metal influence (they cover Grief). If I hadn't forgotten about this record until today, it may very well have worked its way into my top 10. Highly recommended.

A COUPLE KILLER HARDCORE REISSUES

Mob 47 - Karnvapen Attack EP
Larm - Straight on View/Campaign for Musical Destruction LP

Both bands helped nudge 80s hardcore in a faster direction - Larm with straight-ahead thrash and Mob 47 with raw d-beat. I wish these bands had been staples in my younger days, but I didn't get around to checking them out until fairly recently. My loss.

COOLEST OLDER RECORDING I DISCOVERED THIS YEAR

Henning Christiansen - Symphony Natura op.170 (1985)

Manipulated field recordings from the zoo in Rome. Animal calls are slowed down imperceptibly at first, and then suddenly you realize you're not in Kansas any more (uh, cause you're in Rome). There are also some identifiable instruments mixed in at the beginning and end of the recording (bells, saxophone). This was released in a super-limited vinyl pressing a year or two ago by the Dutch label Slowscan. I got my copy from the Hanson Records distro. Frigging expensive, but totally worth it. If you have time to listen to most or all of it in one sitting, you may do so for free here.
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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

To hold you over: 2007 Honorable Mentions, part 1

The Top 10 has finally been whittled down (I think), but I still need to write about all the albums and download a few of them so I can upload them for you all. But in the meantime, here are some pretty darn good albums from the last year that I would encourage you to check out if you have not already done so. You're gonna have to track them down yourself or borrow them from me though, no downloads in this batch.

Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury

I am well aware that this album came out in 2006, but the fact of the matter is I slept on it then and ended up spending the first half of 2007 listening to it over and over and over. So incredibly good. If I had been on top of it a year ago, it would have been #3 or 4 on my last top 10.

Burial - Untrue

When I heard there was a new Burial album coming out, I assumed it would end up nestled somewhere in my top 5. Not so, as you can see. Untrue is a little too dance-oriented for me. It lacks the creepiness of its predecessor (#3 on last year's list), and I'm not too into all the vocals this time around. Nonetheless, it's good, and it will get more listens around these parts. I would like to take this opportunity to vent about Hyperdub's decision to alter the vinyl editions of the Burial albums from the CD versions. The LP's are targeted at dj's, so the tracks are resequenced and the more ambient/beatless tracks are cut out. That sucks for those of us who would rather listen to Burial in our bedrooms than in some club, and it's kept me from (so far) purchasing Untrue.

El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead

Fantastic Damage was for hip-hop fans with double-jointed brains. I'll Sleep When You're Dead is more accessible, but I think critics who said that makes it a more "mature" record are privileging cohesiveness of sound over ambition of lyrical and musical ideas. I'll Sleep... has three or four excellent songs, but most of my favorite El-P tracks and lyrics come from FanDam.

Iron Lung - Sexless//No Sex

This is as close as any punk/hardcore record is getting to my top 10 this year. (Last year Kylesa was the lone representative unless you still consider Isis primarily a hardcore band, which is a stretch at this point.) These guys are head and shoulders above most contemporary fastcore/powerviolence. More heaviness and less goofiness is the key here. Completely in the vein of all their previous output (they're accreting an intimidating discography), but a notch above. Nice dudes as well. Check out guitarist Jon's noise/drone project Pig Heart Transplant if you're into that sort of thing.

Venetian Snares - My Downfall (Original Soundtrack)
Just spinning this for the second time right now. It's a return to the form of 2005's brilliant Rossz Csillag Alatt Szuletett: dark orchestral parts peppered with signature drill-n-bass. I can't imagine any of his work topping that album, but I do love the vibe he created there and it's present again here. Recommended.
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Friday, January 04, 2008

A Blast From the Past

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Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Slower than a baby with no legs and no driver's license

Being busy as hell the past couple weeks, coupled with a year of musical releases that aren't exactly jostling for the top spots on my 10-best list, has kept me from creating said list. Sorry. It's coming. There's a lot I liked this year, but more in kind of an honorable-mention sort of way. Stay down-tuned...