Monday 28 February 2011

February Music



Here are some tracks from the bands that made me
jump up and down this month.

666 MPH - Bong-Ra (Dub step)
Black Blood - APE! (Stoner hardcore)
Black Lightning - The Bellrays (Detroit type rock/soul)
Creation - UK Subs (if I need to describe their sound,
you are on the wrong blog!)
Ghost - Tephra (Post-metal)
Space - Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corp (Dark Ambient Jazz)
The Lost Army - Sherman to the Fucking Sea (Post-metal hardcore)
A Tale of Tales - Rabbits (Post-metal)
Crossing Over - Dying Sun (Heavy post-rock)
The Artifical Genius - Father Divine (Heavy Mars Volta)
In The Shadows - Talons (Mathy post-rock)
Blind Again - Monotonix ( Punked up garage)
Whore of Babylon - Abandoned (Fast abrasive punk)

Friday 25 February 2011

Brother/Ghost - Black Ice (2009)



This short album starts and ends with epic anthems
that build up with gentle drones and swells of
noise.

Acoustic guitar vie with xylophone melodies over
an almost spoken vocal before distorted guitars
kick in and things go kinda post-hardcore.

Although post-rock is the obvious tag, there is a
lot more jarring influences at work here.

All the tracks flow into each other really well,
encouraging you to listen all the way through.

A work of delicate beauty that builds into
something much more sinister as it progresses.

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Annihilation Time - This One's for You, God (2002)


Frantic punk/hardcore in the same breath as
Zeke or Suicidal Tendencies.

With a speedy delivery of songs and old school
vocals, this is a quick blast of tuneful aggression.

Plenty of Greg Ginn worship here - nothing wrong
with that - but also with something that Black Flag
had and sometimes gets overlooked - they rock like
a bastard!

Throw in lots of Thin Lizzy type guitar licks and
lightning quick soloing and you have an album that
never fails to put a smile on my face.

Monday 21 February 2011

Killing Joke - S/T (1980)



This came out and blew me away. Post-punk/
industrial/metal war dance - whatever you want
to call it, it stayed on my record player for a year!

Fat dance bass grooves, stabbing keyboards, wall
of sound guitar that had tunes as well as power,
tribal drumming and of course vocals by Jaz C.

In a year when a lot of new bands were emerging
from the States to make me jump up and down,
the first Killing Joke album was top of my list of
things to play when I wanted to break things!

DJ Shadow - In Tune and on Time (2004)



A live set from 2004, this really needs to be
played as a whole.

Get your groove on as big beat/trip-hop all
gets mangles up with samples from motown,
old surf riffs, film scores and narration among
his own tracks as he seamlessly takes you on
a 120 minutes journey through sound.

Friday 18 February 2011

Sherman to the Fucking Sea - The Lost Army (2011)



Lots of ferocious hardcore is let loose on this
album.

Muscular guitar riffs set the tone of things to
come with an almost sludgy feel and heaviness
to the songs.

A pounding rhythm section never lets go of the
intensity which throbs with post-metal power.

The vocals remind me a bit of "La Dispute" -
barked out vents of aggression but never so
mangled that you cannot understand them.

They also have the confidence to drop in an
instrumental rockabilly type song that fits in
really well.

Give them a go if you are into hardcore with a
metal edge - think Cancer Bats or early Architects.


You can name your price on Bandcamp, see band info
and other recordings -Here.

Thank to Mike for letting me post this.

Wednesday 16 February 2011

Judas Priest - Stained Class (1978)



Always had a soft spot for the Priest.

The vocal wailings and twin guitar monster riffs
created on this classic metal album seemed to
come out of nowhere.

The previous stuff was good but this just seemed
to be on a different level.

It was 1978 and some of my mates thought that as
we were 100% punk, this sort of music was not to
be listened to - idiots!

With careful planning (and living in London), you
could see Priest, The Clash, The Damned, Nugent
and the Ramones all in the space of a couple of weeks.

Happy Daze!

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Monotonix - Not Yet (2011)



Israeli Garage Rock produced by Steve Albini.

They have a raw sound that hurtles from song
to song with gritty vocals overlaying the manic
guitar riffs that race along with the relentless
drumming.

There is more than a hint of the Jesus Lizard
in the arrangements but tempered with a real
garage vibe, it is more like filthy punk rock'n'
roll attitude with chaotic results.

Monday 14 February 2011

Sihr - Beneath The Twelve Mile Zone (2009)



Heavy sludgy fuzzed out doom with post-metal
elements. Brilliant rumbling tracks that thunder
from the speakers with High in Fire type guitar
soloing, despairing vocals and a bass heavy rhythm
section that pound along.

Neurosis meets the heavier material of Orange
Goblin, this is a very intense album.

Friday 11 February 2011

Royal Thunder - S/T (2010)


Scene: A living room somewhere in Georgia, USA.

Camera P.O.V shot, tracks left to right showing
generic actors playing Father, Mother and Teenager.

Son: "Mom - Pop, I'm gonna form a band!"

Dad: "You don't know how long I have waited
for you to do this, Georgia has a long and proud
tradition of producing kiss-ass music"

Mum: "This is the proudest day of my life - will it
sound like Baroness?"

Son: "Er, not quite - I was thinking more of Dub-step
with a trip-hop vibe"

Dad: "Sounding like Kylesa?"

Son: "I wanted to try something without guitars"

Mum: "Sounding like Mastodon?"

Son: "NO! Not like Blacktusk either. Just because
we live in Georgia does not mean I have to sound
bone-crushingly heavy!"

Mom: "This is the saddest day of my life"

Dad: "Get out of my house. From this day on, I
have no son. You have brought shame to our
family. You are dead to me"!

Camera fades to black - cue credits.

Royal Thunder are from ........ guess where? .....
Georgia and have produced a 6 track EP of rumbling
stoner doom. More Kyuss than Kylesa, this band have
a great doom vibe with stunning female vocals but veer
more into the stoner side of things rather than the sludge
of any of the afore mentioned artists.

This is just their 1st release - when the album comes out
it should be a stonker.

Thursday 10 February 2011

Miles Davis - Guitar Tracks



Just a compilation with some great guitar
work playing with Miles.

They go from Funky to Ambient to just a
bit abstract noodles.

Tracklist:
Fat Time - The Man with the Horn
Intro - Aura
Come Get It - Star People
Orange - Aura
Speak - Star People
Violet - Aura
Tatu (Part 1)- Dark Magus
Star People - Star People

Wednesday 9 February 2011

Part Chimp - Chart Pimp (2003)



Some brilliant post-punk noise rock.

Lots of distortion, with a thick sludgy sound that
batters you. Subtle it is not - these songs attack
with changing riffs, yelped vocals and you always
get the feeling that everything was recorded with
the needles in the red!

None of the tracks outstay their welcome and
the songs have enough variation to make you
keep on playing this again and again.

If you like Jesus Lizard, give this a go.

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Kowloon Walled City - Gambling On The Richter Scale (2009)




















Last of the Re-posts lost by rapidshare.

I know a lot of people had been
wetting themselves over the
new Dillinger Escape Plan album
but to my ears it does not touch
Kowloon Walled City's sludgy,
bare-knuckled destruction.

Huge monster riffs, thunderous
hardcore vocals make this
crushingly good.

You can download this album and
other stuff for free at their website:
http://inthewalledcity.com.music

Camel - Gods of Light ('73-'75)



English Prog rock from England.

They never reached the heights of Yes, Genesis etc
but produced sometimes ambient, sometimes space
rock guitar workouts over many albums.

Soaring clean solos with keyboards and flute and
the odd vocal passage, these live selections give
a good indication of their sound.

After 1976, I find them a bit bland and soft sounding
but this has five extended tracks with some magical
guitar work.

Monday 7 February 2011

Pixies - Doolittle (1989)



If Man is five
And the Devil is six
Than God is SEVEN.

Sun blissed backing vocals over frenzied singing
and shouting. Surf-punk tunes tumbling into
pop singalongs which burst into hardcore riffs.

Debaser, Wave of Mutilation, Monkey Gone to
Heaven, There Goes My Gun, Gouge Away - a lot
of bands would be pleased to have these songs
over a career, let alone from one album.

I missed out on the "Surfer Rosa" and "Come On
Pilgrim" albums and like a lot of people only
became aware of the Pixies when I first heard "Monkey".

I played it over and over again - not a duff song on it
and the whole thing played as a perfect set.

And yes, it was good seeing them play it all live
last year.

Friday 4 February 2011

uSSSy - Oko (2010)



In the same vein as Lightning Bolt, these Russian
guys are playing some fucked up instrumental
noise rock.

A bit more tuneful perhaps but still a dense wall
of sound that assaults the senses with feedback
guitar, heavy bass and pounding drums.

The more I play it, the more I doubt my ears -
am I hearing subtle riffs behind the background
chaos or is the sheer fuzziness and distortion
that is confusing me?

There are also elements of eastern scales and
some sort of ethnic stringed instrument that drifts
in and out that sounds like snippets from the
soundtrack of "Doctor Zhivago"

Thursday 3 February 2011

At The Drive In - Live (2000)



I got this a while ago from Symphony of Ghosts,
a very cool blog which has loads of live recordings -
check it out and say hi.

This has At The Drive In attacking the senses with
virtually the whole of "Relationship of Command"
being played live.

The volume needs to be cranked up a bit but it is
an excellent recording, really clear and powerful
and shows why at that time they gained the reputation
of being a fantastic live band.

Wednesday 2 February 2011

The Ghost of a Thousand - New Hopes, New Demonstrations (2009)



I thought I had put this up ages ago.

Along with Blackhole, Goes Cube and Disappearer,
all these bands have released brilliant albums of
hardcore / punk that I could not stop playing.

If you liked recent stuff by Phantom Glue, Git Some
and even some Coliseum, give this a go.

Tuesday 1 February 2011

Siouxsie & The Banshees - The Scream (1978)


Debut album from The Banshees.

Bootlegs from some John Peel sessions had been
doing the rounds to keep us going until someone
put out their proper release.

Post-punk song arrangements topped with the
icy voice of Siouxsie, VU type minimal drum
patterns, saxaphone riffs, picked and strummed
minor guitar chords did the trick nicely.

This still remains an album that holds up pretty
well today.