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«First Kranky release aimed at your ass as well as your head ». So claims the press release of Out Hud first LP. Though, as a general rule, you never should trust those texts, it has to be said that this time, they got it right. Out Hud is really a band that makes intelligent, danceable music. But they are not IDM...
This is something different from our Japanese friends. Cowboy Bebop is a popular anime show in Japan and currently is being released on DVD in the rest of the world. The music is one of the things that makes this show quite unique.
One year of silence for Tha Blue Herb. Way too long if you ask me. Of course, in the meantime we had records from their other projects, Herbest Moon, Shigam and O.N.O (all reviewed or to be reviewed here). But it was high time that the great TBH released some new material. Mirai wa oira no te no naka (the future is in our hands) is their latest single.
In 2003, every couple of month sees the release of a new Nobukazu Takemura album. Songbook is the third. Or not really... It’s actually an American re-issue of an album which was released in Japan in 2001. Being the snob that I am, I favoured the original version. What’s the difference? Three songs are only available on this one...
Spy stories, spacey music, highly respected players. In a nutshell, the ingredients of Culper Ring. Released on Neurot, one of the few essential labels of this time, 355 is a great moody album.
King Crimson has been around, on and off, since 1969. They represent ‘prog-rock’, something which makes many serious (punk)-rockers shudder. Which is fine by me, they go shudder and listen to the White Stripes while I enjoy the second full length album by King Crimson ‘level five’.
A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed an album by DoF, an excellent example of what not to do when you try to mix acoustic instruments and leftfield electronica. Japanese duo Fonica shows the world how to do it right when mixing such ingredients, and they do it with class.
Some play it nice and acoustic, other favour electric settings and faster than bullet riffs. There is also gentle poppy playing or distorted heaviness. You can even combine 2, 3 or more way of playing. Some people have decided to use their guitars in unconventional ways. Texture showcases one of those ways.
There is a lot of great music out there for those who are not contented by what the hype feeds them with (be it mainstream or in the so-called independent niche). Chance served me well and made me encounter Matt Borghi’s music. Borghi comes from Detroit, USA and defines himself as a “multimedia artist and performer”. I don’t know about his other activities, but his music certainly is damn fine.
Belgium has some history when it comes to electronic music. Industrial, EBM, House and Techno have all had Belgian people in their pioneers. This connection faded away over the last ten years. But there is a growing electronica scene and Glamor is undead is a compilation whose aim is to put back Belgium on the electronic music map. The people behind it even coined a great word to qualify this new Belgian scene: Belgtronica.
Finland, the European country with the highest suicide and alcoholism rates. A country where nights are long, very long. Where days are short, very short. Or so say the clichés... But it’s not And then you die’s music that is going to deny them. Speaking of stereotypes, when it comes to music, Finland is the place famous for Nightwish, Children of Bodom or Spinefarm crap. Let’s hope the industrial driller of ATYD will kill them soon.
Frank Zappa-releases have been sparse since his untimely death in 1993. Only the Yellow Shark ‘prequel’ Everything Is Healing Nicely was released until now. His son Dweezil and the Zappa estate has started to search the enormous vault of recordings of material worthwhile and true to Frank’s intentions.
I just love Boris. And how could any sane being not love them? They’ve done everything: drone, doom, sludge, stoner, post-rock, slocore, ambient, noise. They've worked with Keiji Haino, Masonna and Merzbow. They've written a 66 minutes long drone track and Korosu, a 4 minute ultra-catchy rocking song. I tell ya, they’ve done everything, and they’ve done it better than anyone else. For real.
In 2001, former Sole and Moodswing9 associate jdwalker put out on Bluecyde Recordings this Loganprojects album called Character Assasination. Loganprojects is jdwalker and Blucyde (which I assume is the man behind Bluecyde Rec.). Motion Recordings had the good idea to rerelease this damn fine hiphop album...
DoF is Brian Hulick, a young American musician. He has an interesting story to tell us: what made him start doing electronic music was the crash of a meteorite in his garden. The “powerful cosmic rays” gave him the ability to hear, visualise and play way better than before. He is also able to instantly learn any instrument he wishes. Right on. Now he’d better have written one hell of a killer album...
Third album from Thomas Weber’s collective, Cicadidae is full of gorgeous quiet melodies at the intersection between Jazz and Electro.
While not always flawless, everything I heard from Motion Recordings thus far proved extremely interesting. One of the label’s latest release is an ep by jdwalker, full of demanding but rewarding hiphop...
I remember the first time I heard this album: I had a hard time swallowing the horrible clean vocals and production glitches (at various points some crackles and pops appear - vinyl nostalgia and all). I admit to not being familiar with Bathory's whole back-catalog, but I've heard the albums considered to be the most important ones and know about the band's history, so of course the atrocious clean vocals and low production values were no surprise to me.
The world has been demanding a new Strapping Young Lad album for years, but Devin Townsend always said there would never be a new one. Well, along came september the 11th, which sparked Devin's emotions into the right mood and here it is, the long awaited Strapping Young Lad album: SYL.
The curtains are drawn. Light falls on stage among shadows; the silhouette of a piano crouches in the limelight. A man appears from the left, followed by other musicians. They pick up their instruments: guitar, violin, contrabass, trumpet... Around the drums are various percussion accessories, gadgets and machines. A music box stands on top of a black synthesizer.
Already written off by many fans, yet Ministry dares to produce another album after the last two weren’t exactly “well received”. But now that songwriter Al Jourgensen is clean, we don’t need drugs anymore to sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old Ultra-Violence. Ministry’s latest effort, Animositisomina, is enough.
During his career Aphex Twin has done remixes for many artists. Not always with the same dedication as the rumour of Richard James getting a random tape from the shelve when the courier came to collect it aptly illustrates. These 26 mixes give a nice insight in his approach to the job of remixing and gives us a chance to hear some tracks stashed away on limited edition vinyl editions and other out of print items.
I've never been the biggest Katatonia fan in the world, but I've enjoyed most of their works over the years and so I own a couple of their albums. Viva Emptiness is their latest effort in depressive hard rock with it's legs firmly in the metal scene.
He got in the public eye with his two Silicom albums, evolving in a field not far removed from Autechre, but it’s with Indigo Rose that Aoki Takamasa shows his sheer class...