Tag: Reviews
The Skull Defekts
Open the gates of Mimer
AA/Nosordo
The Skull Defekts seem to have one goal in mind: pound you into submission in one never ending blow. Honestly, this is amazingly efficient in doing so. In a sort of drone that is very minimalist but at the same time uses mostly analog instruments and very little electronics, they sound like a softer, more contemplative Sunn 0))) and a more active Pulse Emitter, but just as disturbing. Very interesting stuff, but not exactly the type of thing you want to be listening at work, believe me.
- Simon Thibaudeau
Pascal
Förbi fabriken
Novoton
I should really like this, you know – I should like it a lot –it's super charming, energetic, it has Swedish lyrics, attitude, and a dirty and raw sound that makes me blush and think of Jesus & the Mary Chain. I've tried and tried to like it, but I've come to the conclusion that Pascal are to me another band where style overshadows any real substance, "Förbi fabriken" lacks a key ingredient – good songs. I feel a bit sorry for Pascal, they've got their heart in the right place, but I can't help to think of them as way too puerile and – in places - plain embarrassing. They're the embodiment of the band that you go and see when you're a kid at the local youth club that put on a great show and who all the girls fall in love with, but then they never go anywhere and they'll loose the girls' attention, since their songs are all crap. Call me posh if you like, but I'm going to stick with Mattias Alkberg BD and pass on this one.
- Simon Tagestam
Most Valuable Players
You in honey
Friendly Noise
Ha! I bought this album solely on the track "Stockholm doesn't belong to me" – big mistake! It's not that it's a rubbish album, it's just that none of the other songs sound at all like that excellent and catchy track. Ho hum! I don't want to slag this album off too much, since I'm not really the right person to judge it and normally I would never go close to something as electronic and dull as this, but now when I paid hard earned money for this piece of ...plastic, I think I got the right to warn anyone who heard and liked "Stockholm..." – please check out some other songs on this album before you waste any cash on it!
- Simon Tagestam
The Lancaster Orchestra
With help from absent friends
Nonofon
Every week I seem to listen to a new Scandinavian "alt-country" (or whatever you'd like to call this type of music) band (usually of pretty high standard and most often Swedish) that I'm meant to review for It's a trap. Involuntarily I've become something of an expert on this type of music from those northern shores, which is quite cool, but to be honest, I'm getting a bit bored! Bored of good music? How can that be? Well, it's a bit like eating vanilla ice cream week in and week out. Not that exciting, huh? I love American alt-country, but my absolute favourite artists of this genre are people like Will Oldham, Robbie Fulks, and Silver Jews, artists who are subversive one way or another (usually lyrically). What I'm trying to say is that I need some edge, please! You can still be rock'n'roll even though you're playing slow and beautiful music (look at Gram Parsons). When bands follow the standard template (The Lancaster Orchestra's album has "smokey" photos, and song titles like "Bad horse" and "Easy lover" – yawn!). Sure, The Lancaster Orchestra got some pretty fine songs (e.g. "Closingtime will you walk me home"), and they do a cool cover version of The Smiths' "Please please please let me get what I want", but if you're not in a sitting-by-the-fireside-drinking-whiskey mood it can be so booooring that it takes a "fucking" in the lyrics to ("Newfound friends") to wake me up.
- Simon Tagestam
Blake
Planetizer
WolfGang Records
Blake simply rock, a lot. Somewhere along the lines of Entombed's death n' roll and more traditional stoner rock (think Nebula), Blake rely on a strong bass line and build around it. The build is one of heavy guitars, catchy leads and vocal lines, and steady drums. They might sound a bit too polished for their own good, while their songwriting, on the other hand, fits perfectly what they are trying to accomplish. Nice.
- Simon Thibaudeau
Blah Blah Statement
Too well behaved EP
Pupkin Records
I'm guessing that Sweden's Blah Blah Statement (the duo of Dan Hafstrom and Jesper Mott) are fans of famed director Martin Scorsese. They named their label 'Pupkin' presumably after Rupert Pupkin, the deluded protagonist of "The King of Comedy," and a song on this 5-track EP is titled "Harvey Keitel," one of the actors Scorsese has worked with several times. Too bad the edginess in most of Scorsese's films is missing from this band's ordinary music. The production is pretty decent, but I hear little that's particularly captivating in Hafstrom's low vocals, or in the songs themselves. The sonic clarity of the opening title cut doesn't lead to a payoff, the reggae-flavored "Oh those eyes" is bland and the sorta pretty "Dolphin song" is without porpoise..., sorry, PURPOSE. Guys, your sincerity is obvious, but creatively you're indeed "too well behaved." Next time, stir up a little shit, what d'ya say?
- Kevin Renick
Aerial
Black rain from the bombing
Nomethod
I never cared for the term "post-rock," and I can't believe such an unimaginative phrase is used as a designation for so much great stuff. But okay, that's the banner under which Swedish rockers Aerial will find themselves placed, as they play long, rousing, atmospheric, guitar-based songs with minimal vocals. They're damn good, too, and there's a whirlwind of aural activity blowing through each of the four tunes on this CD. Think Sonic Youth meets Motorpsycho, or something like that. "A limbless stare" has a punk sort of fury to it (lyrics really aren't important, and you can't decipher most of them anyway, as they're mixed low), and the creatively titled "Yet recalls nothing save that it once had a message to convey" is 13 minutes of blazing, densely textured guitar angst. One major complaint: you can barely hear the bass on most of this record; what's up with that, guys? It seriously diminishes the power of the first two tracks, particularly. This music screams for a more balanced rhythm section. But I dig the epic scope of Aerial's sound, and they seem like the kind of band that are only gonna grow more and more exciting over time.
- Kevin Renick
Closer
Tokpela EP
Closersounds
Avi likes these Swedes a lot. To be completely honest, this time at least, he is right. Closer combine a few different influences in a melting pot that ends up being better than what their influences have churned out in recent years. There is a bit of Tool, QotSA and a more melodic aspect that reminds me of a few melodic-metal bands of the mid-nineties (Only Living Witness and Chum for example.) Probably not conscious but I find that they resemble 1995-98 Anathema in mood and arrangements while being significantly more up tempo. This EP has me wanting more, can't beat that.
- Simon Thibaudeau
Magnus Eliassen
Second grace
Monomegamy Music
Lovers of the world, listen up. Norway's romantic troubadour, Magnus Eliassen, has just made a singer/songwriter opus that's about as filled with sweet, melodic, achingly lovely odes to matters of the heart as any record you've ever heard. And I'm not gonna suddenly get cynical or poke fun at it, either. The 11 tracks on this debut CD comprise a truly poignant, haunting song cycle that should connect emotionally with anyone who has ever been in love (or fearful of losing it). With a gentle voice that recalls Sondre Lerche (and occasionally Even Johansen/Magnet, minus the latter's weariness) and a singularly romantic aesthetic, Eliassen offers warm, folksy guitar strumming and touches of poppy electronics here and there over which he delivers one sparkling tribute/confession of love after another. "I wanna fight for you/But I don't wanna win/If I'm not the right for you/And if I am I always spin/I can't lose you," goes a verse in the largely acoustic "Grace." Eliassen's falsetto on "Falling in love" is exquisite, and sentiments like "You're so beautiful, I go crazy" that would come across as cliched or sappy in the hands of a lesser artist resonate with emotional purity here. "Write back," the paradoxically bouncy "Weakness," the closing "Until we meet again" with its intimate half-whispered vocal: they're all beautiful songs. In the melodic, jaunty number "Follow me," Eliassen repeatedly sings "Are you with me?/Will you come follow me?" You bet we will, Magnus, my friend--as long as you keep making exceptionally pretty, heartfelt recordings like this.
- Kevin Renick
I Love You Baby!
Mondegreen
Trewetha Records
I Love You Baby! is one of these projects that is just impossible to define, there is so many styles of electronica in there that you can't really categorize anywhere. There is IDM, Industrial, Hardcore-Techno to minimalism and each done very efficiently. The common thread is that it all sounds like it was produced in the early eighties by members of Skinny Puppy, and, to me, that's a good thing. A bit like Foetus challenged any categorization, ILYB! do it within the span of an album.
- Simon Thibaudeau
God Damn Trio
God damn promo EP
self-released
This is two of the dudes from female-fronted pop-rock act Kordon doing something a tad more hard-edged than what they'd get away with in their other band. It's still very pop-oriented, but with more distortion and a bit more kick. When vocalist Thomas Hellgren starts to croon, I start to cringe because it's a little too close to Alice in Chains for my tastes, but the overall musicianship of the group is unfuckwithable. They're so tight, they're waterproof. The drumming is especially laudable - Calle Bäckström is an absolute monster behind the kit. His playing is incredible without being overly showy, a trait similarly shown in Kim Wennerström's guitarwork. Song-wise, I have to say they're only so-so, but I'd still go see 'em live just to watch Calle.
- Avi Roig
Nils Petter Molvaer
ER
EmArcy
I hate this. I have seen this band live twice and just can't figure out their name. To make the story short, the Montreal International Jazz festival has tons of free outdoor shows and one of the bands that has done such shows in the past is an acoustic house-jazz band that was actually very good at what they do. The combination of house music and jazz isn't such a stretch as house artist have been grabbing samples out of classic jazz albums for years. Well Nils Petter Molvaer does something very similar with some Miles Davis inspired solos backed by house and downbeat rhythms. The result is some very easy listening that would find a place in your favorite $12-martini yuppie place. Nonetheless, the music is intelligently structured and could very well help you succeed with your next schmooze operation.
- Simon Thibaudeau
September
In orbit
Catchy Tunes/Family Tree Music
Anything reminding me of Paul Oakenfold this morning is certainly not my idea of a nice wake up call. I'll admit that September don't go the trance route, but have enough of the house staples to lose me in a second. Back when I had friends dragging me to dance clubs I was hearing this crap all the time. Despite the fact that September actually has a singer that has a nice melodic sensibility, the music is about as much fun as a root canal done by an Abu Grahib guard. Not my idea of a good time.
- Simon Thibaudeau
Shoot the Breeze
Rock out with your cock out
self-released
I'm pretty sure these dudes sent me a older CDR demo a long time ago and if I remember correctly, it was fairly unremarkable. Not bad, but nothing special either - exactly the kind of thing that reviewers dread writing about. However, this new one is quite good. The recording is still obviously demo quality, but the songwriting has come a long way. Most bands playing similar 80s arena-style hard-rock tend to play up the dumber aspects of the genre (sex! drugs! rock'n'roll!), but Shoot the Breeze is surprisingly refreshing in that they take themselves seriously enough to do it well. Think about the sort of stuff that made old Def Leppard great (don't argue!) - tasty riffs, triumphant melodies and huge hooks. StB still needs to work on their vocal arrangements before they attempt a real recording, but overall I say good job.
- Avi Roig