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)

Listen

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.

Listen

Band Info

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.

Listen

Band Info

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!

Listen

Band Info

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.

Listen

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.

Listen

You can name your price on Bandcamp, see band info

and other recordings -Here.

Thank to Mike for letting me post this.

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!

Listen

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.

Listen

Buy

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.

Listen

Band Info

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.

Listen

Band Info

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

Listen

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.

Listen

Band Info

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.

Listen

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.

Listen

Band Info

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.

Listen

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"

Listen

Band Info

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.

Listen

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.

Listen

Band Info

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.

Listen

Band Info