went to a recital with Nishat Khan playing last night
if any well-known Hindustani classical musician happens to be playing in a recital nearby and you don't mind concerts that'll last around three hours or more, I highly recommend attending it
Edge of the Sun. New album by Calexico. Wonderful. Maybe the best thing they've ever done.
Reminds me of Feast of Wire, not in terms of the overall sound, but in the way both albums manage to be cohesive even though every song sounds completely different. Also, they got a bunch of guest musicians for this album—different ones on every song—without ever feeling like the guest overpowered the song.
I've finally been able to listen to To Pimp A Butterfly in full. It’s a pretty good album.
In fact, I though it was better than Good Kid MAAD City, although I’m not sure if it actually is or if Kendrick’s overall approach has just grown on me over time.
It does share a problem with GKMC in that it's too long for me to want to listen to it very often, but it enthralled me even more than GKMC did when I listened to it. I suspect that both albums will be regular, if infrequent, parts of my playlist for the foreseeable future.
i need more things that sound like three trapped tigers and/or hella recs plz
tangled thoughts of leaving tread a similar kind of virtuosic math/postrock ground, albeit jazzier than hella/TTT, however they do often incorporate electronics/unusual effects into their sound in a similar way to TTT i think.
this reminded me: TToL actually have a new album out which came out literally today, im listening to it and while im not all the way through it sounds to me like a massive sweeping return to form that they havent quite hit since deaden the fields, so im very stoked
i need more things that sound like three trapped tigers and/or hella recs plz
tangled thoughts of leaving tread a similar kind of virtuosic math/postrock ground, albeit jazzier than hella/TTT, however they do often incorporate electronics/unusual effects into their sound in a similar way to TTT i think.
yeah start with Wonderful Rainbow for lightning bolt. incidentally they also put an album out recently which i should check out!!
and yeah for TToL absolutely download Deaden the Fields, and also the new one which is called 'Yield to Despair' and which has just blown my ears off and nailed itself firmly into my top 10 for the year. it's doomier and noisier than their previous material but still that recognisable jazzy/postrock ttol feel
other lightning bolt news: they are, weirdly, supporting GZA at the roundhouse in june. even weirder, the other supports are Tortoise and the shoegaze band Loop
ok so i decided to check the cd collection at my local library cuz they have something good every once in a blue moon and today they had:
* scar symmetry * alma deutscher (never heard any of her pieces but she's 7 years old so it's gotta be interesting) *arvo pärt * ballaké sissoko * a compilation of early american folk song as performed by the boston camerata * marc ribot * the hilliard ensemble * the shaggs * skeletonwitch * testament * young fathers * the complete works of varèse * fatima al qadiri * grace jones
my analysis of the new young fathers album is that its p good but not as good as Dead
but then again my first reaction to Dead was 'its good but not as good as tape two' and now i think theyre on an equal footing, so probably it will grow on me. i like the songs that sound like fucked up decayed post apocalyptic iphone advert music
was that 'Shame' i guess? i cant remember if that or Rain or Shine was the 1st single off it, shame is one of the strongest tracks on it tho
ive not heard powell before so i looked him up and found this sentence: "London-based producer Oscar Powell‘s music is to techno what Jandek’s is to rock ‘n roll." ???
The new full length (number two) from the Boston based avant-black/death/doom band Ehnahre, Taming The Cannibals, is one of the more cerebral and challenging "death metal" albums to have come through the Crucial Blast headquarters this year. After being turned on to their excellent debut from 2008 The Man Closing Up, I've been itching to hear more from these warped death abstractionists; their debut instantly dazed me with its jarring, alien approach to bestial slow-motion death metal, drawing heavily from the twelve-tone serialism of composer Arnold Schoenberg and the outer fringes of free-jazz and free improvisation as much as they do from the foul black pit of early 90's death metal and doom. Even after years of devouring the most dissonant strains of death metal that I could get my mitts on (Gorguts, Demilich, Immolation, Portal, etc.), these guys stunned me with their extreme chaotic dissonance and pitch-black chthonic textures, a combination of atonal 20th century classical music and vicious blackened death laced with squalls of free-jazz horns, stretches of intense choral ambience, and blasts of calcifying glacial doom. Featuring former members of the prog/gothic art-rock band Kayo Dot and avant-death metallers Biolich, Ehnahre are creating some of the most difficult death metal I've heard since Obscura, but also manage to balance the extreme atonality and relentlessly unpredictable nature of their arrangements with seething aggression and crushing riffage.
^^ actually looked it up and for some reason i assumed that album was new, ive actually heard theur latest (Old Earth) which i assumed was the first album but i had got everything mixed up
* the keyboard work is really nice, in many metal albums the keyboards seem to be more a supplement or ornamentation to the "real" instruments, providing orchestral intros and maybe some organ sounds if you're psychedelic or something, but the keyboards here have a very strong presence, with well considered timbres, strong melodies and solo bits that trade off with the guitars
* it's ultra catchy and more than a little cheesy, which leads me to the third point here
* progressive death metal: Based on this label I was thinking this was gonna be kinda like Opeth or something. As it turns out it actually sounds more like "a 70s prog band that went through a time warp and ended up listening to a bunch of Priest and some melodeath and maybe also some slam and some power metal?" it's very self indulgent and meanders about and one of the songs is titled Technocalyptic Cybergeddon
maybe that undersells how metal the thing is but the structures and the clean vocals (sometimes) and the cheesiness and the way the keyboards interact with the rest of the music is very prog
Comments
you can buy a physical copy for 10 bucks here
why are so many of these songs so long?
and the stereotypically egyptian sounding riffing is cornier than i remembered it being
finally, music just for me!
tangled thoughts of leaving tread a similar kind of virtuosic math/postrock ground, albeit jazzier than hella/TTT, however they do often incorporate electronics/unusual effects into their sound in a similar way to TTT i think.
i should tho
and yeah for TToL absolutely download Deaden the Fields, and also the new one which is called 'Yield to Despair' and which has just blown my ears off and nailed itself firmly into my top 10 for the year. it's doomier and noisier than their previous material but still that recognisable jazzy/postrock ttol feel
other lightning bolt news: they are, weirdly, supporting GZA at the roundhouse in june. even weirder, the other supports are Tortoise and the shoegaze band Loop
* scar symmetry
* alma deutscher (never heard any of her pieces but she's 7 years old so it's gotta be interesting)
*arvo pärt
* ballaké sissoko
* a compilation of early american folk song as performed by the boston camerata
* marc ribot
* the hilliard ensemble
* the shaggs
* skeletonwitch
* testament
* young fathers
* the complete works of varèse
* fatima al qadiri
* grace jones
but then again my first reaction to Dead was 'its good but not as good as tape two' and now i think theyre on an equal footing, so probably it will grow on me. i like the songs that sound like fucked up decayed post apocalyptic iphone advert music
ive not heard powell before so i looked him up and found this sentence: "London-based producer Oscar Powell‘s music is to techno what Jandek’s is to rock ‘n roll." ???
and that seems like a reasonable-ish description
his music is raw and post-punk-ish-vaguely and awkward and angular and repetitive
here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq9s-EqCdW0
attn. sunn
it is name your price here
* the keyboard work is really nice, in many metal albums the keyboards seem to be more a supplement or ornamentation to the "real" instruments, providing orchestral intros and maybe some organ sounds if you're psychedelic or something, but the keyboards here have a very strong presence, with well considered timbres, strong melodies and solo bits that trade off with the guitars
* it's ultra catchy and more than a little cheesy, which leads me to the third point here
* progressive death metal: Based on this label I was thinking this was gonna be kinda like Opeth or something. As it turns out it actually sounds more like "a 70s prog band that went through a time warp and ended up listening to a bunch of Priest and some melodeath and maybe also some slam and some power metal?" it's very self indulgent and meanders about and one of the songs is titled Technocalyptic Cybergeddon
on the inside booklet all of the tracks are numbered in binary and all of the band members have photoshopped cybernetic implants
the growly guy is really average tho he does this more rapid-fire rhythmic thing in a few of the heavier bits that is fun
he has cool ideas but all of his tracks that i've heard feel very underdeveloped