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Rock music from 'the land of eagles'. Tuva, an unlikely place for a rockband: a country in the centre of Asia, surrounded by mountains and temperatures ranging from –50° C in winter to 45° C in summer. The country is spectacularly beautiful with its wild nature, vast forests, the desolate steppe and icy cold rivers flowing into the ‘Ulug Khem’ (main river).
“This is the music to a story yet ‘untold’ – told by the music.” Instrumental music that tells a story. Some people might think that it is impossible to pull that off without lyrics. Former Estradasphere-drummer thinks different, his first release The Deserts Of Träun, part 3 of a trilogy, tells a story by using any kind of music to ‘describe’ various happenings.
There is a heatwave going on and I'm listening to a Merzbow remix album: Frog Remixed And Revisited. Hah! Not really your ideal summer music, but it has it's advantages. The noise will expell the heat from my little room. My speakers puff and yell, and because of the air movement it's like I'm having my own airco system installed.
I had never heard of Jóhann Jóhannsson before this album. When surfing the net finding some background info on the Icelandic musician I found that I probably saw him perform live with Apparat Organ Quartet. The music on his first solo-album music can’t be compared to that loud and energetic combo though.
The Italian Ephel Duath started out as a duo, Davide Tiso and Giuliano Mogicato, playing melodic black-metal. After the release of debut Phormula Giuliano left and Davide signed Ephel Duath to the Earache sublabel Elitist Records. The restored enthusiasm starts the search for a new line-up, as he wants Ephel Duath to become a proper band.
I've always been a huge fan of Devin Townsend. City from Strapping Young Lad is the album I play when I'm really pissed. Infinity is his masterpiece follewed by the always excellent Ocean Machine: Biomech and Terria.
Kaizers Orchestra is another popular Norwegian band starting to do business in the rest of Europe. They are a six-strong band, and formed in Bergen nearly five years ago. Kaizers Orchestra play bluesy rock, with a major Eastern European flavour.
This is starting to look like an ongoing serie of reviews that have written “Nature” all over them. And once more, this is top-notch material...
After I bought this album I was informed that apparently We've Come For You All is "the album to buy for people who disliked the new Metallica album". Which is good on the one side, as I for sure despise their latest effort. But it also is disappointing because Anthrax, despite being a thrash contemporary to Metallica, once stood for so much more then "just an alternative to Metallica".
These days Mtv and other media try to push a host of female singer songwriters on us. Each one is supposed to be even more revolutionary than the previous one. Every time we however are confronted with music that goes in the one ear and right out the other.
Mixing raw and primitive sludge with Captain Beefheart’s tricks sounds like a cool idea. But from the idea to the great CD, there is a long way to... So how far did Samus go?
The Dropkick Murphys are truly something special in the entire punk/hardcore scene. If you are already familiar with them I don't need to tell you that. But if you're not familiar with them or even have a dislike of punk music I would still like to ask you to stick with me for a few more lines.
It’s the kind of album that makes you want to say: this is the best guitar album I’ve heard in 2003. Too bad there is no guitar... Gonna hit you hard and leave you awe-struck all the same anyway...
I thought I could never get around reviewing this album. A bit as if it was beyond my reach... But a couple of hours ago, I really don’t know why, I felt I had to do it. It was just something that had to be done. For this album shouldn’t be left to the sole appreciation of Keiji Haino or Kan Mikami’s fans. It deserves to be exposed to a much wider crowd.
So Austria is not only about Tosca, Pita, Fennesz and Abigor ? Wow, shocking... Granted, Fetish 69 has not much in common with those acts. Doesn’t prevent them from being interesting...
My interest in improv music is quite new. I do not intend to pose as an expert of the genre. However, I am not going to pass the review of this album on to the hands of better connoisseurs: this album is too good for me to refuse the chance I have to share my thoughts on it...
Here is what happens when musicians genuinely have fun recording an album but decide to stay away from the pseudo-intelligent little jokes for an inner-circle elite. Kind Kind is a CD full of humour and great music. Thanks whoever, we won’t have to hear an awful-sounding voice saying things meant to make you laugh...
Ah, label samplers… Some are cool, some are not. Some feature tracks known by everybody, some feature unreleased tunes. This one is DA SHIT, let me be very clear from the start! A must, oh yeah!
Sometimes, being an MC is not enough… Herbest Moon is the music created by one of Japan’s best rappers, Boss the MC, and his friend Wa-Chall. Hiphop with dub and reggae influences. Expect some funk too...
”Composers” don’t create music, they only redistribute vibrations that would be occurring anyway, regardless of anyone’s intentions says Eyvind Kang in his essay Music Suffers. This is a relatively common theory that I heard in different forms from several composers, but to me it seems some people are much better in redistributing the vibrations than others. Kang is surely one who is pretty good at it and on this disc he’s even better than usual.
What happens when the DJ of the best Japanese hiphop band releases a solo CD ? You expect an instrumental hiphop album that will be compared to DJ Krush. O.N.O is happy to wrongfoot these preconceived notions...
Before becoming the truly innovative force they have turned to be on their most recent releases, Tha Blue Herb have released a first album that had a much more straightforward vibe. This album is Stilling, still dreaming.
Better late than never, I finally got around reviewing Personal Journals. Released last year, it is one of the best hiphop albums of 2002. Released on Anticon, of course...
It is funny how one can sometimes feel as one with an artist’s music. It is my case with the music of Tujiko Noriko. I might not understand it the way she sees her music, but I still feel connected to the sounds. Having that in mind, you can well imagine how thrilled I was by the release of her new album, just 8 months after the previous one...