Review Grab Bag 'doble uno', Mix #20

This is the very last article I'll post here. It is a completely visceral reaction to a childish (but very appreciated) provocation from the cavedweller known as Daxelkurtz (which you can read here http://warspite.wordpress.com/2011/12/24/review-grab-bag-11-musics/), and contains completely partial, subjective and immature comments on some elements of modern music, all of which will have been issued in the past year. You can thank him for making this blog have one quiver before it dies out completely.


In ESS tradition, it includes an eleven-song mix.

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2011 was a fucking amazing year for music. Apparently people having real problems makes them be really good musicians, who would have thought. Unlike my literary brethren mentioned above, which I can now proudly, obnoxiously and ironically call my alma matter, I don't really remember what I was doing precisely enough to match it to the music I was listening to. Which isn't a problem, because honestly, would you care? I didn't think so. Here's a few things I thought were worth mentioning, let me know if I missed anything:

*Alcest "Le Secret" EP - rerecording: Fucking amazing. Blast beats, walls of guitar, melody, intensity and, occasionally, cheese. An acquired taste, but this flies miles above the usual French bullshit rock.

*Altar Of Plagues "Mammal" LP: The tortured, Irish, brutal and not any less amazing compliment to the above recording. Tasteful playings with the black metal genre, bringing it to the realms of destroying post-rock or gloomy ambient, and, even more magnificent, making the music pretty damn universal.

*Bon Iver "For Emma Forever Ago": I remember trying to listen to this record.

*Bon Iver "Bon Iver": I remember trying to listen to the first 30 second of the first song.

*The Antlers "Burst Apart"LP: If this isn't accessible music everyone can agree on, I don't know if there will ever be anything to agree on.

*Ash Borer "Ash Borer" LP: More amazing thrashing. blast beats, shredded vocals, buzzing guitars. Another one of this years beautifully agressive records.

*Barn Owl "Lost In The Glare" LP: laid back drone psychedelia. soothes your soul one second, transports it the next. Could be amazing, lasts a little too long

*Bibio "Mind Bokeh" LP: logical continuation of his work on "Ambivalence Avenue" the Boards of Canada tribute evolves into a folky choppy beat-sample behemoth. Solid.

*Black Cobra "Invernal" LP: It seems that since they've signed or Southern Lord, they don't really need to try anymore. "Bestial" remains, and probably for a while, the thrashy duo reference album.

*Bosse De Nage "II" LP: this record is supposed to gnarly, filthy, brutal. I find it amazing relaxing, strangely beautiful and extremely interesting. On the level of Altar of Plagues and Ash Borer, mentioned earlier.

*Caspian "Tertia" LP: a landmark in melodic yet powerful music. Doing better and still being as post-rock as this record is going to be really hard for anyone not willing to mix in different genres.

*Cold Body Radiation "Deer Twilight" LP: I've never managed to listen to this at a time where I wasn't thoroughly exhausted, but it was worth it each time.

*Coma Cinema "Blue Suicide" LP: How good I think this is might actually offend a few people, so that's all I'll say.

*Craft Spells "Idle Labor" LP: making the 80's sound like a decent idea. Well done.

*Crock "Grok" LP: What the fuck. seriously guys, how am I supposed to write anything about this. "This is a good record." ?

*Deafheaven "Roads To Judah" LP: another blast-beat pleaser, worth it even just for "Unrequited", one of the four 10-min long pieces. Live videos look disappointing though.

*The Dodos "No Color" LP: Enjoyed this one way more than I should have. Not "Visiter" but, how could you top that?

*Explosions In The Sky "Take Care" LP: Enjoyed this one way less that I should have. Not "The Earth..." but I can't hear why?

*Fleet Foxes "Helplessness Blues" LP: folk prog, wooptidoo.

*Grails "Deep Politics" LP: see EitS entry

*The Horrors "Skying" LP: Doing better than "Primary Colors" was near impossible. they didn't, so that makes sense, but they were close.

*Jack Buck "Ugly" 7": Best packaging ever. Good tunes too.

*Liturgy "Aesthetica" LP : over intellectualizing black metal works too!

*Male Bonding "Endless Now" LP: oh cool that band is still here.

*Megafaun: S/T LP: What went through Bon Iver's head as he left this band is the only gossip I'm curious to hear.

*Mikal Cronin S/T LP: WHY WON'T YOU MAKE A RECORD AS GOOD AS THE MOONHEART'S SELF TITLED. It's alright though this is still really good.

*Mogwai "Earth Division" EP: constrained Mogwai is an extremely interesting exercice

*Mogwai "Hardcore..." LP: see Grails. PS: Still better, in my mind, than every sonic youth record combined.

*Punch "How Nothing Lasts" 7" Never thought I'd like hardcore so much. Seven songs for almost ten minutes of brutal, intense, rapidly changing riffs. The "Dopethrone" of punk? Is that even a thing?

*Real Estate "Days"LP: the musical equivalent of Star Wars, episode 4-6? An amazing debut, a turnaround centered around duality - can't wait for the dancing ewoks.

*Reigns "Widow Blades" LP: and, for todays invented genre, postrocktronicambientfolk!

*Russian Circles "Empros" LP: More metal, more bass, why not more awesome? No Sé...

*Slow Loris "Routine Glow" LP: "Is that a drum machine?" is the only question for this perfect pop record.

*Sonny And The Sunsets "Hit After Hit" LP: too cool for school.

*Talkdemonic "Ruins" LP: I'm looking for a cello player and drummer for a Talkdemonic inspired band. Black metal and nuggets interests a plus. please email ejt08@hampshire.edu

*Thou "The Archer And The Owle" EP: wins sludgy record of the year award, probably will next year too.

*Tune Yards: "whokill" LP: sure why not.

*Ty Seagall "Goodbye Bread" LP: see Mikal Cronin

*Washed Out "Within and Without" LP: title and artwork not really to my tastes, but achieves what Craft Spells do with higher standards.

*Widowspeak S/T LP: still a fresh listen, but a solid set of songs. What pavement would sound like if they were fronted by a woman, listened to a lot more Ventures and actually bothered.

*Wolves In The Throne Room "Celestial Lineage" LP: How good was this year for metal? Pretty fucking amazing. What do I even say about this one.

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The Elephant will now go die. It has done many things, some of which I will look back on to laugh at, but has always stayed true to its ideals, and for that, it will die in peace. Thanks to all who ever read anything on this!


PS: if you actually miss it, you know how to find me.


JNCT. 

Minimalist article

Top Childhood Underdog albums:

eels - daisies of the galaxy
secret machines - ten silver drops
firebird - hot wings
nebula - apollo
acdc - powerage
buffalo - volcanic rock
chet atkins - guitar man
langhorns - s/t
karma to burn - almost heathen
lynyrd skynyrd - nuthin fancy
offspring - best of
scott h biram - dirty ol one man band
sun dial - acid yantra
system of a down - mezmerize

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.

Winter Mix I

Better late then never. Here's part I of II winter mixes. These seasonal things seem to be a tradition.

tracklist:

蘑菇 - Carsick Cars
Hybrid Moments - The Misfits
If I Had A Chance - Lost Boy
Bad Scene, Everyone's Fault - Jawbreaker
Bad Mouth - Fugazi
Permanent Vacation - Pet Milk
Rage In The Plague Age - Les Savy Fav
Don't Look Back Into The Sun (Mick Jones Version) - The Libertines
Drop Dead Baby - Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin
I Hate Myself - Moonhearts
UFO - Torche

11 songs, 28:43, 53.6 Mo

enjoy

JNCT

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Winter Mix II

Part II of the Winter Mix. Subtitle: love using the search bar.

Hope you like it.

Battlegrounds - Altar Eagle
The Canadian Brought Us Snow - Piano Magic
Wild Wind - Black Mountain
Snow & Lights - Explosions In The Sky
Sunflower - Low
Snow Days - Real Estate
Peace Of Mind - Blue Cheer
Snowstorm - Galaxie 500
Winter - The Dodos
Young Men Dead - Black Angels
In The Cold, Cold, Night - The White Stripes
Lost Snow - Mono

12 songs, 1:12:05, 185 Mo

Permanent Vacation, by Pet Milk, is on both mix 18 and 15. redundancy success.

Enjoy

JNCT

...

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.

"In the interrim, this sounds like the music that MacBooks would make if SkyNet was a Snow Leopard app and The Matrix was autotuned"

 I KNOW THIS IS ONLY JAN. 11 BUT I'M VOTING THIS BEST LINE OF THE YEAR. 

original post at thundercurrent express. Please publish his damn novel, he obviously deserves it