Tag: Mp3s
Jonas Appelqvist is handling this week's friday post:
Gustaf Kjellvander has been in the music business for quite some time now, being part of Songs of Soil with his brother Christian, fronting the wonderful The Fine Arts Showcase and as a part of indierockers Sideshow Bob. Seeing as he's of current interest due to the release of "The fine arts showcase sings Rough Bunnies", TFAS's 3rd album, I thought that it would be of interest to those of you outside of Sweden to hear some of the early work. Sideshow Bob's "Luge on black pavement" is taken from "Invasive confusion", an album that was released in 1998, and is a great first track on an album that's filled with indierock influenced by Sebadoh and Dinosaur Jr.. Yeah, basically anything Lou Barlow has been involved in. The similarities to early Loosegoats-recordings (the band that brother Christian fronted) are very striking at times, but this here is rawer and with more nerves. And personally, it takes me back to times when the release of an EP with Starmarket or travelling to Emmaboda festival was highly anticipated. Enjoy!
Sideshow Bob - Luge on black pavement
I had really high hopes for the new September single "Can't get over". Her last album "In orbit" was 100% solid from front to back, so I fully expecting that her follow up would be something big, bombastic even. Sadly, I have been left disappointed. It's an okay track, but nowhere near what I consider to be an adequate lead single. The disco mix improves (as posted today in the shortened version) on it a bit by making the beat busier and more driving, but the vocal is on the wrong side of impassioned. She's certainly got it in her to belt out the chorus, but it ain't happening. First impressions are important and I'm just not that impressed.
September - Can't get over (short disco mix)
You want more brain-melting electronics courtesy of Celebrity Lifestyle ala Pistol Disco? Well, better check out their other new release from Kompjotr Eplektrika. I wasn't 100% sold on their first album "RedisetKompjotrAllesklaar-Eplektrika" (try saying that out loud if you can), but the new one "Darrk circuits fadead waves" perfects the formula. At its very base, this is techno, albeit far more twisted and messed up than the usual pop-oriented stuff you're likely to hear at the club. The key word here is damaged 'cuz that's what it sounds like. If Pan Sonic might sometimes resembles the sound of machines falling apart, this is the sound of machines undergoing serious abuse. Everything is blown out and completely fucked up and listening to it on headphones might make your head feel the same way. A good thing? Yessiree.
Kompjotr Eplektrika - Skulldrummantra
Entombed has been releasing album after album of consistently decent material for long enough now that a new one is essentially a non-event. With their latest "Serpent saints - The ten amendments", the story remains unchanged. Maybe they lost a guitarist and changed drummers this time around, but casual listeners will be hard-pressed to notice. Or give a damn. It still sounds like Entombed and that's what matters. LG Petrov is still one of metal's best frontman and his imposing growl remains the band's strongest trademark aside from their ever-present, oft-copied guitar tone. The band's death'n'roll swagger is firmly intact and they've made no foolish attempts to modernize their recordings. Title and opening track "Serpent saints" kicks off perfectly with a short evil acoustic guitar + piano intro before launching straight ahead into the shit. I can't explain how they get away with such lazy metal clichés, but it works perfectly. As the old adage goes, don't fix it if it ain't broke! Entombed: once again proving that death metal can be fun. I dunno about you, but this puts a big smile on my face.
Entombed - Serpent saints
At a cursory glance, Death By Kite seems an awful lot like countrymates Figurines. A hyperactive, lock-step rhythm section; frenetic, jangly guitars; a squeaky, androgynous frontman. That is until the layers of delay start overlapping, turning the guitars into a shimmering beast and then you realize that, hey - those lyrics are quite a bit darker than anything you've heard from those other Danes. "Your love is a scar on my glass marble-eyes / It forces me to always keep you in sight / I cut myself quite severely / Blood and flesh filled the city I live in" and so on. And that's tame compared to some of the other suicidal musings on the record. Death By Kite puts noise catharsis to good use as therapy. Get it out, feel better.
Death By Kite - Himmelfahrtskommando
This is another one of those songs that makes me giggle like an idiot every time I hear it. Aside from the chorus refrain, there's very little about the lyrics that's distinguishable to my ears without the words laid out right there in front of me. Naturally, being The Bear Quartet and seeing as how the lyrics are from bassist Peter Nuottaniemi, there is poetry behind the gibber-gabber though I find the meaning to be inconsequential to the enjoyment of the song. And there's that ridiculous wanky-blues breakdown, too. Genius? Yes, absolutely. Unnecessary? Sure, but it throws you off just enough so that the final chorus can floor you. I was iffy on BQ's new, more electronic and obtuse direction with the unveiling of single "I have an itch" before the release of "Saturday night", but hearing this song sealed the deal. None can compare! All hail!
Extra-credit for the engineering geeks: check out the waveform for this track. It's ridiculous - nothing but boxes of sound, red-lining at 0db. When I was compiling all the tracks from "Reader's companion volume two" I was amazed at how unmusical it looked in comparison to everything else.
The Bear Quartet - Birds are singing deep within the greenery
The one style of music I've really come to appreciate over the last year or two is weirdo, big-haired, semi-obscure goth/post-punk. I like Interpol fine, but the multitude of Johnny-come-latelys are tiring, especially since the majority of them lack any edge whatsoever. It's the old stuff I'm really excited about; new to me, but not to the world. Bands like Kommunity FK, Crispy Ambulance and Nichts, to name a few. In that spirit, the new "Svensk postpunk klassiker" collection is a godsend - two discs full of bands that I've either never heard before or are only vaguely familiar with. I still need more time to fully digest it, but an early standout is Camouflage and their song "Syster sol". This is one of those bands I've heard of, but never really actually heard. After this, I'll definitely be tracking down more.
Camouflage - Syster sol
What better way to celebrate Midsummer than with a brand new netrelease? Regular readers should know by now that I'm a huge fan of noiserock - give me jagged rhythms and so-called "angular" guitars and I'm stoked. Denmark's Imagine I Had Hands, a band I did a mp3 feature on not too long ago, is exactly that and I've been into 'em from the very first moment I heard them. Like many other Danish acts mining similar territory such as Barra Head and Lack, the sound is more harDCore than midwestern nihilism. Think Dischord, not so much Touch & Go/AmRep. When I saw the band was giving their new 4-track EP away on myspace, I jumped at the chance to throw my weight behind 'em too. Good music deserves to be heard. So what are you waiting for? Check out the lead track "Captive" and, if you dig it like you should, go and get the other three.
Imagine I Had Hands - Captive
Man, those Pistol Disco dudes are such sellouts - they've totally gone from no-wave noise to no-wave noise with a beat! A beat you could dance to! Obviously, I'm kidding about the whole sellout accusation, but the duo's new album "Radiation" is far more pop than I would expect. It's pop that could still melt your face and peel the paint off your walls, but yes, pop nonetheless. Behind the caustic wall of distortion lurks slow, deliberate melodies. The clashing sound waves create new, ever-shifting overtones as the chords change. There's a few quieter tracks on the record, but it's the all-out-assault of stuff like opener/title-track "Radiation" that are the best. Put this on at your next dance party and see what happens.
Pistol Disco - Radiation
When a band touted as the world's most mellow stoner rock act releases an acoustic album, you know the experience is gonna be waaaay chill. Elope's "9 distilled dreams" is billed as the dreamier, more folksy companion to last year's more upbeat "3WD", but since I never heard that record, I can't compare. All I know is that this new one is one of the most relaxed, easy-going records I've heard in some time. Thankfully, that's relaxed without being tepid, though it is easy to let the record's 35-minutes slip by with nary a notice. Pleasant and undemanding, but almost to the point of where I have to force myself to pay attention. It's main virtue is also to its detriment. It's cool, but I think I prefer my 70s stoner rock drenched in fuzz.
Elope - Black eyed citizen
"Albino child" is the second single from Isolation Years' most recent album "Sign, sign". It's also an easy pick as my favorite track. The far more upbeat "Landslide" made sense as the first single, but it's "Albino child"'s dark vibe and confusing religious imagery that put it over the top. In a sense, that's the classic Isolation Years formula. There's always been a deep foreboding feeling throughout much of their work, especially the debut "Inland traveller" which was ripe with apocalyptic imagery. The band's psyched-out folkrock sound compliments the words perfectly. It's been quite some time since I was immersed in theology studies, so I won't try to speculate as to what it all means, but the song - the song is excellent regardless of meaning.
Isolation Years - Albino child
"Personality crisis" is my go-to Bear Quartet album for days like today, when I just feel beaten down by the workweek. It's the kind of record I can listen to anytime, even those days I'm so sick of music that nothing seems appealing. Like an old friend, it's always there to prop me up and comfort me. Yep, this is the soundtrack to my Friday night and I'm staying in.
The Bear Quartet - Punks
Frequent contributor Matt Giordano is taking care of this week's Friday post:
Remember when Dennis Lyxzén knew how to rock? It's been a while, and it sure is sorely missed. This song is amongst the older of the Refused catalogue, and I really have no idea if this EP is still in print [ed: it is]. The release this is from, "Everlasting", served as a logical connector between their very early-90s hardcore sounding debut album "This just might be... the truth" and the heavier "Songs to fan the flames of discontent". Mixing the punk of the former and the more driving metal-influenced rhythms of the latter, "Everlasting" might just be the best of the bands' early material.
Refused - Sunflower princess
We live in a world where countless faceless musical acts are all jockeying for the same infinitely small piece of the pie, so it's totally counterintuitive for a band to not promote themselves at all. The duo's new record "Katodivaihe" ("Cathodephase") was released with essentially zero fanfare - I only knew it existed because I saw a couple mailing list postings. Of course, it's gotten a tiny bit of attention here and there recently, but you'd probably only find it if you were seeking it out. Musically, this isn't much of a departure from 2004's massive 4xCD set "Kesto" - you know it's Pan Sonic from the get-go and there are no jarring surprises, only jarring noise. The addition of Hildur Gudnadottir's cello on a number of tracks however, does broaden their melodic range quite a bit. Pan Sonic has never been as rhythmically rigid as, say, Kraftwerk for instance, so the addition of a more "human" element does not feel unnatural. Actually, it's kind of surprising they haven't done something like this sooner. All in good time, I suppose. Like I said, Pan Sonic are not ones to make much of a fuss about anything.
Pan Sonic - Virta 1.
Two albums in under a year? Unheard of! (Ryan Adams excluded) Miss Li quickly rose to prominence on the back of myspace-related hype, got signed to National and hustled out her debut record "Late night heartbroken blues". Despite its flaws, I found it to be a charming debut. A little rough in spots, perhaps a little rushed, but perfectly acceptable. Now, not even six months late, Miss Li's gone and released the follow-up "God put a rainbow in the sky" and surprisingly, I think it's better than the first one. The songwriting is bit more varied and the overall level of quality is far more consistent. The formula isn't that much different: Miss Li is still a saucy little tart and though she might express remorse for stealing your man, you don't believe that she means it. When she says she's sad and follows it with "But life's cruel when you fall for / Someone that don't belong to you" it really doesn't seem all that genuine, y'know? Overall, I think there's still plenty of room for improvement, but keep giving me cheeky little numbers like this and I'll keep paying attention.
Miss Li - I'm sorry, he's mine