consistencyfail

Animal Collective is a strange beast, with a variable geometry in its lineup and sound. Depending on who's in it, the proportions of poppy ambient, schizophrenic structures, psychedelia and intense yet minimal drumming vary, probably reaching perfection on this record, Strawberry Jam (sorry, Merriweather fans - have you heard Discreet Music by Brian Eno? He's really good at ambient too).

    This is pretty objectively a partitioned record - tracks stand out more than others, mostly based on the presence/absence of beats. The latter dominate, making the primer stand out even more in their nonsensical genius. Maybe the atmospheric tracks are intended to rest you from the insanity of the others, as you sure will want to take a deep breath or two to recover form the yelling.

    Yelling, which is probably the most randomly efficient heard in pop music (rivaling Helter Skelter, except the riffs are replaced by… more yelling/singing?), brings Animal Collective's voices to be their undeniable strong point. Over the shoddy, poor, yet strangely functioning instrumentation of their songs, it just took a lot of courage and voicepower to make the whole recipe work, creating one of the most enjoyable-cathartic musical experiences in a while.

    Yet, it would appear that this band is sadly inseparable from its status as art-student favorites. There's a varied and numerous catalog of sounds in their repertoire - try to ignore what your friends think and figure out if you actually like anything. If you do, great, you win a plaid flannel star. If you don't forget, this band until they come out with another record (or movie), and repeat.

Professor P.P. P-pants and the mean cafeteria ladies from outer space

ACDC - If You Want Blood (You've Got It) - Live

    A perfect synthesis of their first albums, with songs from High Voltage to Let There Be Rock. From the bloody coverart to their bloody genius, AC/DC is here presented in all the primal stupidity that makes their strength.

    Being able to write good songs with old tricks - namely the pentatonic scale - is indeed a strength. If you've never liked AC/DC, chances are it isn't a quality you're interested in, but if you even have a minor appreciation for a good riff, don't let Bon Scott's disturbing stare/roar combination unsettle you.

    Indeed, this album has something any other official live album from the Australians probably won't have: Bon Scott, the original singer, tearing Satan's ears apart. The Young brothers, in their guitaristic and riff-producing prime. The classic Rudd/Cliff rhythm section at the upmost of its neanderthalian efficiency.

    Before someone starts thinking "how is that different from Let There Be Rock…?", If You Want Blood has one last quality: its sound. Studio production, even when as minimal as the one usually employed by early AC/DC, polishes the inherent gnarlyness of the music to a radio friendly "let's attract hair metal fans" level. None of this here. Guitars slam in your face like the tusks of a thousand mammoths, and the rhythm section drives you to heavyblues heaven like a 1920s locomotive: it's dirty, reasonably quick, fascinating, and people make miniatures of them in their living room.

    By sticking to their methed-up Berry-esque blues about liquor and women, AC/DC always avoided a sabbathian doominess they could have very well veered into (like fellow Australians Buffalo) - same with Zeppelin-like mysticism. None of that here, just pure, amped up, SG straight in Marshall upping 4/4 beats with a drunkard merryman imposting as the street version of a comedia del'arte cantor. No fuss. Just give the kids what they want - here, it's blood, and it's served on a silver platter.

Review Grab Bag #2

As promised. exploring the "would rather rant on a bunch of things for a line than rant on a thing for a bunch of lines" world. Don't worry though, reviews are lined up:

AC/DC: if you want blood...

Animal Collective: strawberry jam

for the 15th and Feb. first respectively

-----

Best Coast: Crazy For You
Fucking Depressing. Used to sound fun, now just one long whine.

Stereolab: Not Music
Naming your last album "Not Music" is probably the only way Stereolab could become any more badass

Tame Impala: Innerspeaker
Australia, Rock'n'Roll's eternal underdog

Thee Oh Sees: Warm Slime
Best record of the year for its type, but remember that garage is only one letter away from garbage

Titus Andronicus: The Monitor
I'm not a big fan of New Jersey, except when I see records like this come out of it. Ignore the lyrics, these kids reconvened Arcade Fire-esque melodies with punk.

Tobacco: Mystic Thickness (CD-R)
More of the same. YES PLEASE

Torche: Songs For Singles
Doompopsterstothemax

Vampire Weekend: Contra
Nowhere near as good as the first, still pretty damn enjoyable

Ventura: We Recruit
Where do I sign up?

Watain: Lawless Darkness
to do #293: listen to more black metal or death metal. Whichever it is.

Wavves: King Of The Beach
cf. Best Coast, except this time you don't wonder "who's the long haired asian on the side of the picture?"

White Hills: S/T
I knew I wasn't the only one who wanted to sound like Hawkwind

Yamon Yamon: This Wilderness
Foresty Neu!. Get your beverage of choice, something to stare at and anything to lie on for a bit.

Beach House: Teen Dream
I still am only barely able to remember more than the first song off that album.

Brian Jonestown Massacre: anything by them ever
In the category of 60's revivalism for its own sake, these guys win the palm. Plus, Anton Newcombe is a blast to hear about - Dig! is probably the best music documentary since Spinal Tap, except this time, it's real.

Broken Social Scene: Forgiveness Rock Record
Forget the record, go get a ticket. WORTH IT

Do the android dream of electric sheep and why would I care?

Nebula: Atomic Ritual (2003, Liquor & Poker)

    Second album of Nebula's psychedelic tryptic (preceded by To The Center and followed by Apollo), Atomic Ritual is an album that not only assumes the fact that it'll please sci-fi fans, but transcends it, makes fun of it, and does it well all simultaneously.

    Let's go over the mild parts first, because they will be meaninglessly stomped by the qualities of this record. The cover is a a cheesy graphic design piece that would be barely good enough for the 12th re-edition of a weird Lovecraft meets Moorcock meets Asimov and Nostradamus' bastard child fanfic space opera (which 13 year old boys might appreciate nonetheless). The lyrics/titles (when payed attention to more than as an added melodic line, which they're not intended for) are not much more than an uninspired rip-off of the previous authors, mixed in with a bit of californian epicurism. Finally, Eddy Glass' voice strangely oscillates between an upper-register Ozzy and a growly Mark Arm, which might bother some.

    If you're willing to put all those aspects behind you, the music equivalent of a winter wonderland will be opened to you - imagine a soundscape, covered in riffs. Like a prayer to Mudhoney, The Stooges, Hawkwind and Black Sabbath, Atomic Ritual is referential without ever stagnant, hyperactive without ever reaching the Mars Volta, and varied. Songs, which range from 3:00 to 9:42, might go from an upbeat psychoblues jam to a downtempo atmospheric in seconds, or develop a riff for the whole song Dopesmoker style.

    The first wave to hit you are the guitars, provided by the ex-Manchu Glass, building layers & layers of glorious tone(they did go a bit haywire on the overdubs, sometimes with simultaneous solos, multiple rhythm parts and the like). With the classic stoner rig (SG, fuzz, phaser, wah, Marshall stack), he delivers all of the headbanging knowledge he left Fu Manchu with, but this time drenched in psyche-rock juice (noises, self-oscillations and is that a wonky filtered organ I hear in the background?).

    Even if the guitars are more than reason enough to try this record, it shouldn't take to long to notice that the rhythm section is at least as worthy as melodyman Eddy. Providing a more than necessary backdrop and low end to the record (the guitar has typical boosted treble bite), they fuel the cosmic journey that is this record, going from exploratory tempos (that leave an opportunity for guitar excursions of the epic level) to a quick let's flee this hostile alien planet speed, all in a crash of cymbals, and with a touch of Spike (Cowboy Bebop) level class .

    Atomic Ritual, produced by legend Chris Goss, with its memorable artwork, heavy-yet-melodic riffs, and balanced spaciousness/richness, is the '00's Space Ritual. Beyond the obvious title reference, it is, like Hawkwind's early 70's masterpiece, a collage of pop melodies (acoustic guitars, piano), drug hazed atmospheres (DikMik, wherever you are, this record is a straight up tribute to your bleeps'n'swooshes), and fuzzpower. Dave Brock should be proud, Lemmy should be pissed (but isn't he always), and Ozzy should wish he bought a phaser for Tony for the '73 christmas. I'll certainly be enjoying this record many more times.

As I said, mixes every week (!!), reviews every 1st and 15th of the month. I probably won't have time to post anything on Jan. 1st, so you can count the "shortgoodquestionnable" mix and this review as a first installment.

JNCT

....

Review Grab Bag - Happy Holidays!

To all reading this blog: Merry holidays. May 2011 be full of fun and productivity for all of you

Here's a bunch of records I listened to this year, and my opinion, resumed in one line. This idea is shamelessly ripped off the Thundercurrent Express, maintained by my good fellow David Axel Kurtz. Please publish his novels.

FORMAT:

[band name]: [album name]
[short sometime offensive comment]

------------

Angel Eyes: Midwestern
like Isis or Neurosis, but enjoyable. Maybe I should give Oceanic another try.

Arc Of Ascent: Circle of The Sun
a good stoner rock record from New Zealand. Just in: copying Kyuss still works.

Belle And Sebastian: Write About Love
You'll love this if you wear flannel and leggings.

Black Diamond Heavies: Alive As Fuck
White Stripes - guitar + Organ x Lemmy = fun and a headache

Caribou: Odessa
Water pop - tasteless, but enjoyable from time to time. Keep some around

Jack White: anything he made this year
enjoy your revenge on hype

Dreamend: So I Ate Myself, Bite By Bite
Black Moth Super Rainbow goes acoustic not really - awesomeo

Dum Dum Girls: I Will Be
Enjoyment follows a logarithmic curve with time

High On Fire: Snake for the Divine
"I'll take the usual please. Wait - make that a double."

LCD Soundsystem:
Made for clubs. I don't go to clubs.

MTV: Lost Boy
Self production sounding like a load of fun.

Mogwai: Special Moves
Post Rock for dummies

Mono: Holy Ground
Goddamnit. Japanese rockers are the craziest.

Moonhearts: S/T
What does it take to sound honest these days? 29 minutes, apparently

Mountain Man: Made The Harbor
Vermont: good cheese, good music. Bonus points for recording a folk record in an old ice cream truck

No Joy
The single sounded so much more memorable than the album…

Pet Milk: Demo
What does it take to sound good these days? : 17 minutes, apparently

Rien: 3
Only the French could use post rock yet sound innovative and miles above the national musical average

Sleigh Bells: Treats
Proving that Lo-Fi sounds better unfinished

Sloath: S/T
Bonecrushingly relaxing

Soft Pack: S/T
Incredibly close to being perfect

------------

More to come. Expect an obnoxious end of the first year of the decade favorites list, as well as a short mix as soon as its uploaded.

MERRY WHATEVER. I love you all.

JNCT

...

Throwback! 3 - The Emperor Strikes Back... I know, that's episode 2. Qu'est-ce qu'il se passe quand on lance de l'ail contre un mur?

My dad doesn't have a vinyl collection. His CD shelf is basically a mix of classical music him and my mother got when I was born (Mozart makes kids smarter, anyone?) and a collection of what's been in the top 40 of whatever country he was in pretty much since CDs became available commercially.

After numerous siftings through this nevertheless exhaustive collection, the only two albums I've taken to the relative safety of my room are Eric Clapton's Unplugged and Soundgarden's Superunknown. The first he got because it has a song that mentions my sister's name a number of times (I'll let you guess what that is), the latter he described as "a mistake I only got because it was number 1 somehow. I've never listened to it entirely". For a long time, he described my music with the expression that my great-uncle uses to talk about old-style rock'n'roll: de la musique de peaux-rouge. Which happens to be mildly offensive, so I'm not translating that.

So no vivid vinyl memories for me. No passing on of buried treasure, no shared tastes. Sure, I had a vague backstreet boys moment around 9, as well as other momentary radio crushes, but they always felt tasteless - going with the easy option, what was readily available.

So what changed that? Well, I didn't write this lenghty useless introduction for nothing. If you're still reading this, it means you have some nerve, and must be really interested. I'll skip the Linkin' Park and Good Charlotte episodes and the Blink 182 covers (although I have to say Travis Barker is still a sick drummer), and finally get to my point:

DIGIMON

That's right. I would probably be a very different person if it wasn't for that fairly catastrophic child's pokemon ripoff cartoon. More specifically, the movie that spawned from its success, and very precisely, the sequence with Smashmouth's song All Star. To this day, I still haven't thought too much as too what the song is exactly about, nor do the lyrics make any sense in my head (I was still learning English back then). It's been about 10 years since I first listened to this song, and I finally got around to actually reading the lyrics. 

Verdict: song's pretty bad. But it made me get Smashmouth's 2001 self titled album: 

Beneath the horrible cover was the first CD I had really asked for. As mentioned before, and like for Flavio, I was learning English at that time, which made me able to consider the lyrics more as sounds then anything with a message (let's be honest, the words to most of these songs are fairly horrendous).

However this record shaped my tastes: I liked the coolness of the first track, the relative "violence" of the second track (qualified by my dad as sounding like a drum carnage), the violin synths of the 3rd track pretty much made me want to vomit... 

So why would I ever talk about an album that is important to me only it was a random starting point? 

First of all, this was Flavio's idea, and I just went with it. Read his own blog too, it's awesome.

Second, it's obvious that this record has little musical interest. Sister Psychic still sounds like an ok song to me, and memories of Shrek and Digimon are woken up by listening to All Star. The Monkees' I'm a Believer is also covered on this record, and that reminds me of The Spy Who Shagged Me, which is probably the movie that turned me on dumb absurd comedies. The harmonica solo in that one song is kinda cool, that gnarly synth in Force Field makes me understand why I like Tobacco today, Shoes'n'hats is a bro version of AC/DC (which remains one of my favorite bands). You could even say that Smashmouth's only feat is that they take a number of influences/characteristic sounds (ranging from hip hop to metal and going by 60's pop and lounge) and making it sound like a cohesive blend pop record. 

In short, it was a pretty awesome introduction to modern music for a 9 year old kid. Your young cousing/familly member is coming over for Christmas and you don't know what to get him? This blog just provided the longest most inconvenient and specific gift advice of all times. Enjoy.

Quand on lance une gousse d'ail contre le mur, elle rebondit. C'est le retour du jet d'ail.

This one's for you, Arthur.

...

Should You Fear Satan?

Kingpins of a kind of rock that came after rock (What was that? Oh you mean that makes no sense? no, it doesn't. Whatever, I'm over it), Mogwai cultivate an image of being mildly unfriendly Scottishmen who have been studying the balance between power and melody in music, and the very special place where both meet.

Rest assured, this isn't the intro (yet) to a book I'm writing that would be titled "Mogwai: a decade-long study of dynamics in popular music", just to an article about their latest record, which also happens to be a live recording. Their first, I believe:

Mogwai, Special Moves

Rock Action, 2010 

You'll find many reviews for this album. Most of them will describe the intensity of the songs, how Mogwai has been constantly innovating in their own fairly specific subgenre, and managed to maintain cohesiveness. They should then move on to describe the setlist choices, how each song is live rather than in studio, etc... They might mention some lack of direction, but will reassure right away with something like "most bands who sound like that do that" so if you like Post Rock, you should like this, hipster (offended? email me, hipster!)

It would be worthless to repeat this here. I understand lazy people, so I'll even put the link to two such reviews so you can get your usual info there:

Allmusic

Pitchyforky (that's right, I just called it that)

So what's left to say? Well, here's a few thoughts for you to munch on: 

• Mogwai is one of the very few bands who knows how to use a vocoder. Well done guys.
• THIS IS A GREAT RECORD. GIVE IT A SHOT.
• How much time will the cheap trick of playing softly then bashing power chords for an entire show will go on? Long, I hope.
• Buy the record. You get a dvd (which is supposed to be awesome, but that I never got around to see) and 6 bonus tracks. It's all good. Really good.
• The packaging is gloriously minimalist. Black and white pixelated security cam with all caps text inside and one horizontal line of lightning blue as the only colored element. Should make the graphic designer inside of you (if any) shiver.
• This is a comprehensive guide to Mogwai so far.
• Recorded in Williamsburg. Keep it local, hippie.

That's all I got for now. Go enjoy it rather than read my nonsense. You better come back here though. I'll be watching you.

JNCT

///...///...

The Valvewizard

It's been way too long since I last posted something up here. No one complained, which is kind of sad in its own way, but I wasn't expecting to have more than 7 readers anyways.

So for you 7(+/-5) faithful friends, here's your latest dose of Elephant Space Snowstorm. It's a triple feature, because that's how much I love you and all that internet shit.

PART I:

The Elephant Space Snowstorm's Been Busy As Fuck Mix - Volume I: 

1. Boxcar by Jawbreaker 
2. Transcendental Evisceration by Capricorns
3. Queen For A Day by The Jesus Lizard
4. Winder by Hum
5. Forest Of Fountains by Solar Bears
6. Melee by Russian Circles
7. Fuck Addict by Torche
8. Catastrophe And The Cure by Explosions In The Sky, Remixed by Four Tet
9. You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told) by The White Stripes
10. We Stood Transfixed in Blank Devotion as Our Leader Spoke to Us, Looking Down on Our Mute Faces with a Great, Raging, and Unseeing Eye by Red Sparrows
11. St. James Infirmary by The Gutter Twins
12. Rise / Set by Tjutjuna
13. Nice One by Jackie-O-Motherfucker

PART II: 

REVIEWS (FUCK YEAH)

Ok, I admit it, I was on Altered Zones a bit too much this summer. "Pitchfork ruling over indie blogs, blabla, boohoohoo, rabble rabble rabble"? Maybe, but I'm not going to complain, because they found some awesome shit on the internet and are sharing it with me. So thanks. 

First up on this list of Awesome Shit, Tjutjuna's self titled LP:

With seven songs and 35 minutes of synthesized space-inyourface-punk, these Colorado dudes have a debut album that sounds like Lemmy took over Hawkwind and made everyone take speed while dressing up as pirate-bikers. It's not just your usual synthyhawkyspacerocky ripoff (coughLitmuscoughcough), here Robert/James/Adam/Brian not only have mostly British names but also find the sought after balance between synth lines/drones, echofuzzed guitars and rhythms that could bring you to Mars and back. Effortlessly moving from keyboard riffing to full on guitars to noise section to laidback progressions, back into noise and the pleasures of analog delays, Tjutjuna has managed to make an album that's about as insanely awesome as the cover they came up for it. 

Second is Solar Bears' She Was Coloured In double LP: 

If Tjutjuna is the crazy aspect of Hawkwind, Solar Bears is its laid back, cool as hell equivalent. Warm sounds building immense soundscapes, always changing and evolving yet cohesive and driving from start to end, Solar Bears inscribes itself in a tradition of Irish electronic musicians who decided that U2 shouldn't be their country's main musical export (saying just export doesn't work because Guiness trumps all).

Building songs like some people make cakes (as in layer by layer, not from a pre-made mix), Solar Bears not only sport 2010's coolest band name but manage to evocate decades of electronic music history without sounding blatantly ambient or nostalgic - just epic. Sinoia Caves' The Enchanter Persuaded, although wonderful, had a "tribute" aspect that made it not quite as good as it could've been, especially if you're into a Tangerine Dream/Klaus Schulze/Cluster phase at the same time. That's not the case here - Solar Bears do a wonderful job of being evocative, but their references are numerous enough that you'll be thinking of a Guy Ritchie movie one second and of Boards of Canada the next. Of course, Berlin school electronic music inspirations come back more often than Age Of Empires soundtrack references, but ultimately all of it is relaxed/interesting enough that She Was Coloured In is an incredibly smooth, driving record (think of the gliding feeling you have when you listen to Kraftwerk's Autobahn. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're in for a treat). 

Not afraid to mix different techniques (tape editing techniques/loops, samples, acoustic instruments, synthesizers, or a combination of those), this Dublin duo makes songs that will make rest you, make you want to headbang and be more efficient at working, simultaneously.

I know, that sounds confusing. Just listen to the goddamn record, it's awesome and you'll get what I mean. 

Until next time (and god knows when that'll be), enjoy. And again, call your mom. She deserves it (probably).

JNCT

...

Faire Beacoup Avec Rien

If you talked to me last week, it would have been hard to convince me that there is anything beyond Air, a few Noir Desir songs, Laetitia Sadier and something like 10 electro tracks worth listening to in recent French pop music. The Rita Mitsouko were never my thing, Daft Punk got old really quickly, Telephone ends up being a family classic (and that just ruins it - plus they've been inactive for at least a decade), and I believe I've made my point.

But this week, my hopes are a bit higher for contemporary French rock music (or just French music in general). That's because of a band called Rien, which means literally nothing (haha - sorry...).

Why do you need to like this band (or at least listen to it)?

Because knowing cool French bands other than Phoenix, Air and Daft Punk will make you successful with the ladies abroad.

More seriously (because it won't), Rien is a band from Grenoble, a medium sized French city like many others near the Mediterranean and the Alps. Useless info, you might say, but I like settings for stories.

In that city of Grenoble is an association called l'Amicale Underground (translatable as Underground Friends Union, or something like that, feel free to suggest better), which also serves as record label for Rien. First reason why you need to take a look at this is the Amicale's website in its lo-fi awesomeness:

The second reason: everything that comes out on the aforementioned label is FREE TO DOWNLOAD. I really appreciate that and I don't see why anyone wouldn't give this a try after such a move.

The third reason: if you buy one of the 500 copies of Rien's EP "3" (for 10 €, shipping included, which is a very fair price compared to what some people do), not only do you get a collectible item, you get A VERY FREAKIN' NICE collectible piece of art you can look at for a while. Designed by fellow Grenoble design firm PNTS, here's a few pictures courtesy of their website:

Seriously worth buying if you like the music (that, again, you can get for free - it's like they guilt trip you in buying the best CD package of the year! And did I mention the CD is the most epic slab of black plastic ever?), PNST also did a flabbergasting packaging for Rien's previous LP, Il Ne Peut Y Avoir De Prédiction Sans Avenir (loving the elongated titles à la Godspeed You! Black Emperor - but IN FRENCH). Pictures still courtesy of the PNTS website - awesome people, I'm telling you!):

Unfortunately, this record is out of print. Still good though, and still freely downloadable on the label's website - consider donating (shameless advertisement for other people, yes - least I can do after getting all their records and borrowing pictures).

The fourth reason, and the most important one: "3" contains pretty damn good sounds. It's not at all your usual post-rock record - these people are willing to experiment with sounds as much as motorik-ly repeating one with minimalist style.  On this EP, Rien plays with layers, which, if they sometimes seem conflicting or clashing with the foundation of the song at first, are completely integrated and natural by the end of it. You will come to damn these people, because this record, at 25 minutes and 18 seconds, is about a third of what it should be. Then you will remember what you read on the label's website: 3 is the first of three records, that will come out until 2014, when the band Rien will end (in Japan, apparently?).

What I'm wondering is: How the hell am I going to wait?

JNCT



...

PS: bonus reason: you can make so many puns with this band's name. It's like the fun never stops.

edit: reading my own post makes me feel like I wrote an ad for that record. I tried changing a few things to make this purely subjective post seem more nuanced, but I did really love "3". Considering you can listen to it for free, you shouldn't read any of my nonsense and go directly to the label's website to make you own opinion.

Hexagon Sun Collective, Mud Season, Deeply Fried Schnitzel

another pretty nice cover, don't you think?

Sloath by Sloath

Riot Season records, 2010 

Doom usually is a straining listen. The point is to go on and on, in a Terry Riley on downtuned fuzz sort of way. As many other genres with a philosophy, you see how many ways this could go wrong. To make someone actually listen to same riff, usually a thick groove-laden sludgy slab of fuzz guitar,  played over and over again at often excessive volumes, the compositions need to be clever in their minimalism and smart in their choice of sparse ornamentations.

Earth did it by getting the meanest riffs out there, and assembling them in a way that made sense, that willfully made you want to listen to the same 3 (ok, maybe 5, tops) riffs for the 32 minutes that Extra-Capsular Extraction went. When that weird anvil-being-hit sound came, followed by the longest note in rock history, creepy vocals & weird noise, well that was just the black cherry on top of the dark chocolate cake of doom.

Today, Sloath does it by mixing early style Earth riffing (maybe a tad dirtier) with a gloomy version of Hendrix feedback and vocals reminiscent of the ones mentioned above (i.e. echoed yells from far away, think flute from Hawkwind's Space Ritual era). This record should satisfy your most primary needs for monolithic 4/4 riffs played at 40 bpms, and in style.

"Black Hole", "Cane", and "Please Maintain" are the names of the 3 divisions in this creamy guitar and cymbal crash 44 minutes epic. Divisions are superfluous though, as Sloath manages to make these 3 tracks feel like just one very well orchestrated song, with interludes of feedback and the physical necessity of flipping the record. After the first half, the opening of B-side behemoth "Please Maintain" sounds surprisingly mellow. Rest assured, it's not a reassuring or nice instrumental in an Explosions In The Sky sort of way. The occasionally discordant guitar work maintains the unsettling atmosphere, which (by lack of accurate verbal description) is perfectly encapsulated in the cover of Black Sabbath's first LP:

You're thinking: "what is this?.. What's going to happen?.. Why are all the colors weird?.. And who is that person?.. " after 7 minutes, it's obvious you won't escape the sludge, and by the 10 minutes mark, the only thing you want is the sludge. An apocalypse made of over-the-top guitars. Which they give you.

I'm not sure you can call what happens at this point a solo, but a guitar adds a high pitched echoed maelstrom of notes to the general chaos. Reminiscent once again of a Hendrix or a Manuel Gottsching, but on horse tranquilizers.

I'm also not going to write what happens in the last ten minutes, you should discover it yourself. Let me just tell you how you feel after it ends: incredibly calm. If you weren't lying down while listening, you will probably want to, just for a second, and listen to the surrounding noise. It should be at a much more common volume. Birds chirping away. People talking. Maybe take a deep breath...

So what's the fuss with new age records? If there's one way to do yoga with music, it's probably with a doom record. Until better comes along, it'll be Sloath's self-titled for me, please.

Myspace

Riot Season (cool people)

Angry Chairs post about Sloath by Tim

I thought I'd add a little disclaimer about how all the record reviews signed JNCT are written: late at night, with said record on repeat. If I feel like I don't know the record well enough, I review another one.

JNCT

...

and thanks to Sandra for the title inspiration

Moutain Man: Made The Harbor / Lightning Reviews, Part III

Who threw a really heavy hula-hoop in the water? Who?

Made The Harbor by Mountain Man

Partisan Records (for the US), 2010

Three girls from Bennington, Vermont. Playing three-part harmonies with a guitar. Can't be half bad, can it? 

Well, there's a number of way it could, but Mountain Man definitely didn't chose from those. 

Going from ballads to playful tunes with a melody so beautifully catchy you'll end up singing at the supermarket, even if you never sing (watch out for "Buffalo" and "How'm I Doin'" in particular).

Describing their influences as" train engines mothers Redwoods Pines Oaks kale vegetables dogs breasts mountains ocean (seaweed) Wild West Colorado date orange scones Cora" there certainly is a timeless quality to their music that makes pointing out references unnecessary. It draws from a number of things, none of which I could accurately name, but I think that actually helps appreciate the record. Stopping the thinking, listening to the pastoral melodies, and letting them bring you this sense of calm, accepting friendliness.

There is some amount of old-style hum on this record, which probably has to do with the fact that they recorded Made The Harbor in an early 20th century ice cream truck (dixit Allmusic). Amidst the arpeggiated harmonies, this hardly noticeable roughness helps this record be more genuine. And even though these compositions are relatively silent, those artifacts become unnoticeable as soon as the song actually starts, because even though sparse, these composition command all your attention. In fact it's pretty hard to listen to it at the same time as writing about it. So excuse me, I'll go get my headphones and put it on repeat album for a while. 

please make the record a littletinybit longer next time!

Myspace (2 songs)

Partisan Records Moutain Man page
Serious Fucking Business Post (in french)

JNCT (human)

...

Neurotic to the bone, no doubt about it - Lightning Review, Pt. II

You read that right. It's a line from Green Day's Basket Case, off of 1994's Dookie (Reprise Records):

And that's the album being reviewed here.

To those of you in the back already making disgusted faces, don't worry, it'll be quick.

Imagine a time where the 80's were still the recent past, where Gulf Wars were being dealt with by Bush Sr. and where Green Day actually made stuff that made you smile (in happiness). That stuff is Dookie.

I'll admit I was 3 when this record came out, but that's barely the point. Listening to the almost-40 minutes of California Sun encapsulated on this slab of polycarbonate and aluminum makes you imagine another time, when you thought you didn't give a shit and all you wanted was hang out with your buddies. Listening to Dookie.

Because Dookie is a record where melody works with energy, where bass breaks fit perfectly with power chord riffs, all in a joyful tongue-in-cheek atmosphere. It's nothing hard, nothing complicated, the lyrics probably aren't even that clever. But it's hard to beat the 4/4 head noodling joy these people used to make in this bright summer. Green Day never looked like they really hanged out in the sun (more likely some basement, padded with egg boxes, beer crates piled in the corner and instruments instead of couches), but their records sure were better when they sounded like it.

Welcome To Paradise.

JNCT

...

Upside Down Clouds - Lightning Review, Part 1

 please stand in awe in front of this glorious, beautiful cover

Fang Island by Fang Island

Sargent House, 2010

Fang Island's debut is like a sandwich.

Start with a delicate slice of airy bread. Bite through some lettuce and juicy tomato, both tasty and refreshing. Then comes the meat and cheese. This analogy doesn't work with vegan subs, no, here the cheesiness / meatiness are of the utmost importance. Every song is a bite of this progressive pop metal sandwich, where animal guitars roar, childish synths oscillate, voices yell senseless hymns and the drums cheerily guide the whole procession. Dense, thick and rich passages veer down into glorious breaks/outros, in a mix of AC/DC bravado, Muse keyboard work and Amon Düül II nonsense.

The problem with eating a really good sandwich (and boy is this a delicious record) is that even if it's massive, you'll eat it fast (in 31:27, actually), and you'll end up wanting a second one.

This is where the sandwich comparison ends: if you'd have to buy another sandwich, the repeat button is free. Don't you wish we could eat music?

myspace 

Sargent House 

Fang Island Store 

JNCT

...

Do! Make! Say! Think! Yes Brain, but don't you think we should check the gas tank first? + List #2

After a "Fuck Postrock I'm listening to Torche" phase, it seems to be that I cannot get away from long instrumental tracks by bands with overthought names. Some of them are just so good...

 why do I like record sleeves so much??? I'd put it even bigger if I could

 Do Make Say Think 

"Other Truths"

CST062 - Constellation Records, 2009

On their 2009 (and I guess latest) installment for Montreal's Constellation Records, Do Make Say Think have assembled four tracks, intelligently titled, let me surprise you... : 

1. Do
2. Make
3. Say
4. Think

Were they lacking inspiration? Or is this a statement that after more than a decade after 1998's self titled LP, DMST has redefined itself, reaffirming their position as one of Canada's prime export (after Salmon, wonderful accents, really really good smoked meat, and Broken Social Scene).

Do opens the album with soft, fast paced arpeggios and a mood that's not quite belligerent, but definitely victorious. Comforting you in this feeling after a few seconds of intro are the second guitar, bass and drums. These two are then given a break of restrained epicness, kicking in the stomach any of those Muse fuzz bass+drums breaks I used to drool over in high school and sending them in the stratosphere, ass first. Dynamics is the main focus in this song (or just of "postrock" in general), in a progression that's ultimately resolved by silence. Start smooth, add layers (is that a choir I hear on the way?) give it it's distinctive Canadian touch by adding strings and brass instruments, then return to silence like you're going down the other side of the musical mountain you've just conquered. 

That should give you and idea of what Make, Say & Think are: 10 minutes and longer tracks, conveying emotions through sound (psychoacoustics is a mess of a field), going from warm to epic in more than 5 minutes (and not 0 to 60 lightyears/millisecond in less than 6 mississippis like most things today). Compared to the majority of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Grails, Explosions In The Sky and their own other albums, DMST's Other Truths incorporates people singing. That doesn't seem like such novelty, but let me tell you, in this context, it is. Albeit scarce & ambient, vocal contributions from other Canadian artists are notable and surprising, giving additional depth to this "pastoral" record (dixit Pitchfork).

In conclusion, why should you listen to this record? Two possibilities: 

a) you like a similar band. In that case, you don't really need a reason. DMST are at least as good as EitS, GY!BE, SMZ and a bunch of other bands with long or short names.

b) you've never heard anything quite like it before. In that case, I suggest you take a seat, maybe lie down, maybe get a book, and let yourself listen to it. If you like it, there's a lot more where it came from, if not, you'll have a fancy band to mention to a hipster next time you want a pbr. It's a win/win situation.

...

Back to Macro. Instrumental rock music seems to have taken a number of different paths, one of which is epitomized (what a word) by this record. Rather than writing long pompous explanations as to what I mean, here are a few top 5 for these different interpretations of making rock music without vocals.

Will you be able to figure out what logic there was in the order of said records?

Instrumental Rock, Version 1 - Top 5

Explosions In The Sky "How Strange Innocence"
Tortoise "Millions Now Living Will Never Die"
Pelican "What We All Come To Need"
Do Make Say Think "Other Truths" 
Mogwai "Mr Beast"

Instrumental Rock, Version 2 - Top 5

Agitation Free "Live At The Cliffs Of The River Rhine"
Earthless "Live At The Roadburn Festival"
Yawning Man "Rock Formations"
Colour Haze "All"
Neu! S/T

Ok, "All" isn't completely instrumental, but like DMST's record, vocals are more ambient than anything else

Instrumental Rock, Version 3 - Top 5 

Popol Vuh "In Den Garten Pharaos"
Tangerine Dream "Ricochet"
Klaus Schulze "Moondawn"
Ash Ra Tempel S/T
Cosmic Jokers S/T 

Instrumental... well it's not really rock anymore but that doesn't matter, Version 4 - Top 5

Boards Of Canada "The Campfire Headphase"

Manuel Gottsching "E2-E4"
Fuck Buttons "Tarot Sport"
Subway "Subway II"
Beak> S/T

wasn't getting rid of vocals a good idea?

JNCT

...

Surprise, it's an album review! not expecting that, were you? From the murks of the Bucolic Tundra...

Well, making compilations sure is fun. You do it for other people, you do it for yourself, it's all great.
And this stays true to the original goal of this website: make people who care maybe discover music that they'll like as much I did. 
However, thinking about this like I do about many other futile things (i.e. way to much) as I was writing this made me think of two inherent flaws to mixes: first of all, they take the song completely out of its context (an album), and second (possibly a consequence of the first), they induce a sort of musical A.D.D. that can be fun but maybe ends up being exhausting and not always very satisfying (I've always found it worth it to get an entire album rather than download "that one track you like on the radio" off the internet). 
Of course, my other option, album reviews, have their own flaws, but I do enjoy writing them as much as I appreciate reading other people's. Hence, after SEVEN mixes in almost 2 months, here is an album review. Hopefully, we'll be able to better balance the blog in the future. 

And remember to buy the music you like (but only that one).

Tobacco

Maniac Meat

Anticon, 25th May 2010

This stuff blew my mind. What I don't understand is how critics seem to appreciate this album and give it almost good reviews but never really find it that great. Well, whatever.

Lets start with a little story. Tom Fec , also known as (A.K.A A.K.A.) Tobacco, is Black Moth Super Rainbow's (apparently) main evil genius (also from BMSR, check out the Seven Fields Of Aphelion, a synth lady picking the bucolic almost soothing ambient road out of paranoid pop). If you listen to BMSR (and I recommend you do try), you'll recognize him as the  author of the  beautifully creepy trademark vocodized vocals you can hear on number of tracks. The Fec is thought to live somewhere in Pennsylvannia, where he roams the forest of Penn wearing nothing but underwear, pulling a chariot containing his recording studio and a generator, until he finds a suitable spot to enter a hiphop beat trance and compose his music (the last sentense is mildly offensive lie, apologies to the concerned).

Without any more confusing attempts at joking, this album has many particularities that give it personality. First of all, its cover. I'm still not sure if I think it's awesome or it's just ugly (both?), but it sure is strange borderline creepy: hair? chicken? muscles?

Second, titles: Maniac Meat? Constellation Dirtbike Head (track 1)? New Juices From the Hot Tub Freaks (track 10)? Nuclear Waste Aerobics (track 16)? I usually think great names are very good indicator of great music, and Maniac Meat sure does follow that rule.

Because behind all the crazy visuals, the inventive horror of the names and really just Tobacco's pure wackiness, there is an album of varied, percussive, original and more-than-well-thought sonic collages that form the third and most important aspect of Tobacco's work. I'll call Maniac Meat a collage because it builds its songs like... well... a collage.  As represented by the following poorly designed visual: 

The occasional vocodized vocal Tobacco came up with for BMSR's albums. Creepy, evocative, lovable

(in this album, Beck provides weird vocals for a couple of wonderful tracks)

 ---------

 one or more of the following: dreamy/harsh/chopped up synth melodies. Those will melt through your skull right into your brain

 ---------

Funky as hell, thick, heavy but sparse yet trance-inducing bass lines

---------

Gnarly, Fucked Up Awesome Harsh Hip Hop Beat, like if Run DMC's rhythm tracks were made by a zombie Galifianakis purposefully taking the blue acid to have bad trips and taking ecsatsy to fix the problem

detail: -------- means that the element over is added on top of the element under

A thought that came to my mind while listening to this record (over and over again) was that Tobacco might have followed the following method: take a bunch of beats from the 80's, complete with questionable amounts of reverb and an uncomfortable tendency to be used for disco tracks, and make something interesting out of them. I'm quite glad he's found enough to make 16 tracks.

One of the reviews for Tobacco's previous LP, Fucked Up Friends, said that it was the stoner album of the year, except traditional guitars had been replaced by drum machines, loops, synths and effects. This is even more so for Maniac Meat. Psychedelic is one of the first words to come to mind when listening to this album, which makes great use of harsh sounds, heavy driving rhythms, and spaced out vocals/synths. Here is another feat from Tobacco: being able to make a maniac psychedelic record, with an edge about as sharp as Hawkwind's Space Ritual, with which it shares a tendency for bliss through sonic agressivity and being, as uncle Barney says it so well, Awesome.

To me, it's one of the best electronica records in a very long time, up there with Boards of Canada's Campfire Headphase. In fact, one could almost argue that Maniac Meat is Headphase's evil nemesis. Both psychedelic in their own right, Board Of Canada's record is soothing, resting, with a weird sense of calm depth to it, and, as Bibio says, an underlying mystery - like a place in the country (...) with barely any humans but a breathtaking view. Maybe a glacier or two, and definitely no clouds. On the other side, Tobacco went all out with his appreciation of beats and harsh but melodic electronica, taking BMSR's unsettling/uncomfortable pop magic to a new extreme. Like being trapped in the darkest jungle, unable to stop running, barely able to disctinct shadows of creatures making the strangest sound you've heard yet. And I like that.


I hope you do to!

" hmmmm..."

http://www.myspace.com/tobacco

JNCT

...

IF YOU WANT EPIC (YOU'VE GOT IT)

I know I use this word too much, but seriously. It's been a long time since something has hit my brain so violently, and I already forgot how I ended up finding this. Whoever posted this on the internets, many thanks.

"This" is Torche's self titled from 2005.

The cover is glorious, and is beautifully appropriate for their psychy flowerpowered apocalypse of sound.

Finding their myspace, you notice they play Rock/Rock/Rock (arguably my favorite combination) and describe themselves as "total hipsters!". If you've been reading this blog, you probably know us personaly and are aware of our mild obsession with hipsterdom. Hence, this band is getting better by the minute.

To top the "trivia" section off, not only do they have great taste in eye/headware, but they also baptized their genre of music as "thunder pop" (dixit Allmusic), which is, as my grandma would say, "the fucking shit".

But wait, what exactly do they play? From what I've told you already, it's violently epic thunder pop rock/rock/rock psychy flowerpowered apocalypse, and that's kind of nonsense. But to be honest, the first comparisons that came to my mind were a "doom version of Titus Andronicus", "Om with a guitar and a recent fascination for psychedelic pop" or an "Isis that I can actually listen to because the singer doesn't sound like a dying panda"... They dared mixing down tuned heavy riffing with melody instead of the usual difficult to digest barrage of aggression, giving "doom" a whole new dimension: one where the epic can not only be achieved through bone-crushing grooves and a pounding rhythm section, but also through soaring harmonics, the two of which blend in a surprisingly enjoyable fashion. Clocking in at 6 seconds above the half hour, this is a short record, with most songs under 2:30 (yet another feat from Torche: being able to condense the epicness in the super-effective punk/early 60's pop format).

You want epic? Forget Mogwai, Isis, Pelican, Godspeed You Black Emperor and other moody post-rockers. No, more than that, Torche any memory you might have of them and enjoy the fact that some bands still actually try things that sound pretty dumb (beach boys with pelican? what?) and manage to blow your mind with it. To quote my friend from the bay, this stuff is hellaheavy. It's also hellacatchy: the perfect spring album.

Torche

Self Titled (2005), Robotic Empire Records

Just so you know, their 2009 follow up is titled Meanderthal.

...

There might be a few things wrong with this record. First of all, the production isn't perfect (it's not bad either), and if you listen to this on decent headphones, there is some mildly enjoyable Jesus & Mary Chain bacon frying style distortion - some people like it, I on one hand like my heavy loud and clear (probably purposefully overdriven - meh).

Second, the songs will probably get old quite quickly. Only time will tell. What I can be certain of though, is that this is going to be a Torche week, and that you should give this album a try.

JNCT

...

We Are Motorhead. And We Play Rock & Roll!

3.5 hours before a local epic morning event based on egghunts, but with an extra k (that's right), I am terrified to realize I haven't written much on this blog lately. I could say I've been working a lot, but that would be lying to everyone, myself included.

In order to fix this, here's a healthy slab of Rock & Fucking Roll.

Motörhead

Better Motorhead Than Dead - Live At Hammersmith

2007, Steamhammer Records

When thinking of badass people in Rock & Roll, few names stand a real chance. Lemmy is undeniably one. After being a roadie for Hendrix and a guitar stint in little known band Sam Gopal, he's hired by fellow Londonian spacers Hawkwind to replace their bass player. Finding the Rickenbacker bass model that would accompany him for the rest of his carreer in an abandonned van, Lemmy (a nickname supposedly acquired because of his tendency to ask "Len'me a quid' 'til Monday") Kilmister (his real last name - I said badass) took the job. And bloody 'hell did he do it well. 1973's Space Ritual, mentioned before on this blog, is pretty much the musical equivalent to Isaac Asimov's Foundation: epic, extended, fucking awesome. Some people advertised it as "88 minutes of brain damage": sounds like 88 minutes of pure bliss to me, even after 4 years of regular listening. And it's mostly driven by Lemmy's dirty, extremely recognizable trebly-overdriven bass sound that he still uses today.

Today, you ask? But 1973 was 37 long years ago...

No. He's still going. 

After being kicked out from Hawkwind for prefering speed to acid, Lemmy took two songs he written for them (Motorhead and Lost Johnny) and decided he'd form his own band. One he wouldn't be kicked out of (it seems to have been a trend in his early days).

Teaming up with members from the Deviants and the Pink Fairies (which you should also check out), he decided his band was going to be called Bastards. Of course, one might imagine the lack of motivation from record companies to sign a band called Bastards. Agreeing to change the name to Motörhead (american slang for speed-inclined characters), Lemmy stabilized the lineup to Philthy Animal Taylor, Fast Eddie Clark and himself. From 1979 to 1982, this trio would come up with one of the main reasons why the eighties maybe weren't that bad (musically). This reason comes in five parts. Five record parts...

- Bomber, 1979

- Overkill, 1979

- On Parole, 1979

- Ace Of Spades, 1980

- Iron Fist, 1981

(which you should all listen to)

Of course, since 1981, Motörhead has issued album at a rate of one every two years minimum. They've had some mild moments, like most mid/late 80's rock bands, where reverb just seemed to take over the entire drum kit and make the band sound like it was playing in an aluminum bathroom, and they've had some more modern successes. After issuing Inferno in 2004, Motörhead went on their regular worldwide tour, passing through Hammersmith in Lemmy's native England. There, someone had the brilliant idea to record their set (and even a little bit of Zappa's Dirty Love signifying people had to leave at the very end), which included a healthy selection of old songs, new songs, and stuff from the middle, all revamped to their current sound (i.e. massive/without reverb on drums i.e. better).

I've read somewhere that Motörhead only really plays one song, with different lyrics/tempo/variations. I guess that's where taste comes in, because myself and a cohort of fans (random mildly related fact: Lars Ulrich is the head of US Motörheadbangers, their official fan club) will agree to say it doesn't matter. Consistency is as impressive as originality, and it doesn't get much more consistent than Motörhead. They'll occasionally blow your mind with something completely different (like Inferno's "Whorehouse Blues", a two acoustic guitars/harmonica/voice piece), however as stated earlier Lemmy is badass: this involves some amount of ridicule/awesomeness, as in chosing to do the same song for 35 years +, and not planning on stopping anytime soon. For Lemmy, it also involves still drinking JD/coke at any point spent awake, chain smoking, and being unable to receive blood because his organism got used to having blood with a massive amount of impurities in it that it wouldn't function without them. Oh, and getting a ridiculous amount of girls.

Better Motörhead Than Dead?

Yes.

You Know I'm Born To Lose

And Gambling's For Fools

But That's The Way I Like It Baby

I Ain't Gonna Live Forever!

(Ace Of Spades, 1980)

JNCT

...

Deathfest!

Death " ... For The Whole World To See"

Drag City, 2009 (originally issued in 1974)

'Tis a tale o' three brave lads from the merry town of Detroit: David, Bobby, and Dannis Hackney. The three boys, courageous as can be, decided to form a band of the most glorious persuasion, reinterpreting what their elders (by a few years) of the MC5 or the Stooges had presented to the world to express their rage and frustration.

Don Davis was pleased with what he heard, and decided that a band such as Death should not be left unrecorded. After an adventure, United Studios were made the band's headquarters', and songs now regrouped on ... For The Whole World To See were recorded. A few LPs were issued, then the record slowly fell in the abysses of commercial oblivion. 

Skip forward 35 years: the few copies of this record have attained a legendary status, collectors asking for prices ridiculously high for a circular slab of plastic. Drag City, sensing the commercial opportunity (or actually considering the disk musically worth reissuing ?) decides to re-edit the LP in 2009, making this album enjoyable by all willing to give it a shot. 

And you should.

Death's obvious affiliations to the bands mentioned above should be enough to interest any appreciator of fast and raucous rock'n'roll. However, their main feat is the ability to transcend the then developing punk format: of course, their album is only twenty-six minutes and nineteen seconds long, with most of the album being played with the metronome around what seems to be 130 bpm. "Politicians In My Eyes" is obvious in its engaged statements, and what would later become classic punk beats and hooks are present here. But throw in a drum solo here, a little melody there, slow the tempo a couple of times, give this riff a little groove, and all this "proto-punk" stuff hits you in the face ten times harder than the Sex Pistols ever did. One might even add that not only does this album makes the connoisseur's delight, it also serves as a rockin' introduction to the one that stumbles upon the treasures of seventies Detroit music. Which you've heard here before: I'm definitely trying to introduce varied subscenes of musical history through this blog.

Of course, the formula has been exhausted to death (...) by more recent bands. Green Day, Blink 182 and other Offspings have sucked the life out of rock-inflicted punk and turned it into this questionnable enterprise (that I'll sometimes enjoy, for middle school nostalgia's sake). Rest assured, honorable reader of this scarcely visited website,  that Death were close to the first, and if calling them the best is a matter of personnal opinion, then I'll call them the artistically honest: they refused to change their name, losing them a deal with Columbia, and accepted to wait 35 years to see their record decently released. 

Probably their best move: the fact that this record comes out only today is like a big, smiling, ironic middle finger to all the people who make music without any soul or integrity today: "Here's how you're supposed to do it, you dumbnut". Hopefully they'll understand. 

Allmusic Review (4.5/5, AMG Album Pick)

Pitchfork Review (7.1/10)

Rolling Stone review (3/5)

Dusted Magazine review 

Uncut Magazine review

Rising Storm review

Dan's (Ongakubaka) thoughts & links on this record

Order the album, and check out Drag City records

Death's Official Blogspot

Hey, look, the cover art is killer!

Death... killer artwork... get it?

Sorry.

JNCT

...