What can I say about it? Well, first up, the band, it's two core members: Drew St. Ivany and Ben Armstrong were member of Laddio Bolocko before it's dissolution in 2000, guitarist and bassist respectively. Most website qualify them as "experimental rock". They been compared to Lightning Bolt, Boredoms and High Rise(Personally I find them rather close to Oneida).
The album? Hmm, well it's their most recent album to date, 4 years after the previous one.
How is it? Compared to their previous albums, the tracks it is perhaps the most "organised" in it's sound and structure, while still having the amount of energy present in "Gamelan Into the Mink Supernatural" and the "droness" of "Origins and Primitives". Jazzy, psychadelic while still being heavy.
I personally enjoyed quite a whole lot, I loved the sound it have. I don't know what else to say... >_>
I think it's gr8, but I doubt everyone will like it.
About the previous pick: DuAlity by Captain Murphy.
I don't know what to say, it wasn't unpleasant, it was interesting, trippy. But here's the thing, when I deal with songs, it seems that my brain dumb down and I can't really decode the lyrics going on, which kinda makes music genre like rap kinda hard for me to fully appreciate.
That being said, I definitely enjoyed the vibe it had, the sampling was neat, I might listen to the instrumental later.
The guitar noises on this album are pretty cool. They never really coalesce into a coherent composition, though, which limits the utility of this music to me.
Note that this isn’t me saying “durr hurr they should write pop songs”, because I know that’s not what they’re trying to do. I just wish that they’d emphasize interplay between the guitars more often, as opposed to just building a crushing wall of sound.
That said, sometimes you just need noise you can have on in the background while playing video games or whatever. This works for that purpose if you generally prefer rock to electro but still want something that won’t distract you too much while playing. You should just make sure to turn the volume down before you listen to it, or you’ll give yourself permanent tinnitius.
I’m reasonably sure my girlfriend will love this album. Naney probably would too if he’s paying attention to this thread.
This album is interesting enough to keep around to me, but I’m not sure how often I’ll listen to it.
But here's the thing, when I deal with songs, it seems that my brain dumb down and I can't really decode the lyrics going on, which kinda makes music genre like rap kinda hard for me to fully appreciate.
I have had this issue too. I've gotten better with it, but it's a lot easier for me to appreciate melody lines and the general "feel" of a song moreso than the lyrics in most cases.
Sometimes I have this problem when I see musicals, too. I have to really focus on what is being sung about to understand the lyrics instead of just listening to them as music-noise.
Also I get the impression that this is supposed to be a continuous mix? I'd probably like this more if Spotify weren't so laggy, sticking awkward bits of silence between each track.
I’m reasonably sure my girlfriend will love this album.
and I do! ^_^
the only real complaint I can give is that it can stand to be less trebly, but other than that, it's some great monster jamming after another, I approve
Hahahahaha. Section and I were talking about this thread on Saturday, and which albums we were going to choose—and he predicted that one of us would get chosen next.
Anyway, my album is Pepe Deluxé's Queen of the Wave.
This is the first Pepe Deluxé (pronounced the same as “Deluxe”; apparently that accent is the steampunk equivalent of the heavy metal umlaut) album I ever heard, so I might as well talk about it before describing the context.
This album is retrofuturistic. PD’s two current members, James Spectrum (tape editor) and Paul Malmström (multi-instrumentalist), consider 1955–1975 the Golden Age of Pop Music. But instead of just trying to recreate the sounds of that age, they’ve tried to imagine how their favorite genres would have evolved if the general public hadn’t gotten bored with them. (Section42L gave another apt description once, stating that the album sounds like what might have resulted had the pioneers of electronic music been more focused on creating pop songs with their synthesizers.) So this isn’t music from the 60s; this is music from an alternate universe where the 60s lasted until 2012 or so.
To realize this creative vision, Spectrum and Malmström got help from a small army of guest vocalists and musicians, including players of off-the-beaten-path instruments like the gusli, Viola de Gamba, and Tesla coil synthesizer. They also hunted down genuine vintage equipment to record and mix everything on—and built their own weird equipment, based on research into old recording techniques.
I think the one detail that best demonstrates their particular brand of obsession is the fact that track 8, “In the Cave”, was performed on the Great Stalacpipe Organ. It’s an instrument constructed from Virginia’s Luray Caverns, which produces notes by striking hollowed stalactites with rubber mallets. Pepe aren’t the first to record a performance on the Stalacpipe Organ, but surprisingly they are the first to write a song specifically for the Organ. When they first asked if they could record a song on the Organ, the answer was that the Organ was undergoing repairs and couldn’t be used. Rather than playing the song on any other instrument, Pepe Deluxé waited patiently for the repairs to finish—delaying the album’s release for two years. The song in question is barely two minutes long.
The finished album is an intense mishmash of different genres. What keeps it from degenerating into a complete mess is the paradoxically restrained way Spectrum and Malmström approach the self-indulgence. It says right there on the cover that Queen of the Wave is not a “rock opera”, but a “pop opera”. Perhaps those words were emblazoned in neon lights on the walls of Pepe’s studio, because the pop sensibility keeps all of the stereotypical prog-rock excesses in check. The genres featured (psychedelic rock, psychedelic folk, surf rock, baroque pop, early electronic music, opera, to name a few) were ruthlessly edited and run through those home-made distortion pedals until they sounded like they actually belonged next to each other. Instrumental showboating is kept to a minimum, and every “weird” instrument fits into an ensemble context. There is a plot to the album, but the songs are just as much fun if you have no idea what they’re about. Only one song is longer than five minutes.
And the songs are catchy as hell.
My favorites are “Queenswave”, “Contain Thyself”, “Hesperus Garden”, and “The Storm”.
And now, for the abbreviated background:
1999: Pepe Deluxé consists of James Spectrum, JA-Jazz, and DJ Slow. They put out their debut album, Super Sound. It’s Big Beat and trip-hop, allegedly pretty generic, but good if you’re a fan of the genre.
2003: Pepe is now just Spectrum and Jazz, with Paul Malmström contributing as a guest musician. The album BEATitude is retro-tastic and a lot less generic—“dance music” that you’d be hard-pressed to actually dance to.
2007: Pepe swears off external samples (but continued arranging their songs to sound like they’re made out of samples). And they really embrace their love of the 60s. The resulting album, Spare Time Machine, marks the point where the psychedelic rock overwhelmed Pepe’s Big Beat roots.
2012: Pepe is now just Spectrum and Malmström. Surprisingly, they don’t change their style very much this time. Queen of the Wave is really just a poppier version of the sound from Spare Time Machine.
You dont have to write about it in a music literate sorta way I dont think, just talk a bit about how the music makes you feel and maybe some of the history behind it
I already listened a while ago, and it's already one of my favourite modern albums, if not one of my favourite albums period, so I don't have much more to say than that.
my album is Yield to Despair by Tangled Thoughts of Leaving
word of warning: this is a massive, heavy beast of an album. it may not be to everyone's taste and it may well not be something you 'get' on first listen, so in that sense it's extremely inapppropriate for an album club. the fact that i went ahead and picked it anyway is testament to just how fucking good it is. be open to it and it'll reward you, in a kind of incredibly bleak, crushing way.
im going to give a small quote from the artist behind that album art (which i also love) and which i think is very indicative of the contents of the album : “That blackness, that nothingness, comes from the flood of information that I get through visual culture … This sludge is kind of the by-product of image culture and image-driven society. It’s almost like oil, it’s this kind of dirty, smelly, black thing that will require constant analytical process.” at its densest points the album really encapsulates this. it builds towards a kind of sensory overload configured into some form of sonic blackness, a weird incomprehensible techno-Lovecraftian force threatening to engulf everything. at these moments it sounds like a jazz band being dragged backwards by a cyclone through a Merzbow concert thats going on in a slaughterhouse, and i mean that in the best ppossible way.
it's not all hostility and overload, though, if you are beginnning to be intimidated. there are equally moments on the album which are beautiful and tend towards an Earth-esque minimalism. TToL historically were a group who explored the boundaries between jazz and post-rock with an interesting flair for electronics thrown in, and Yield to Despair is an evolution of that sound into a doomier, noisier one. (if you feel that this album is too dark and you'd prefer it with less hissing static and rumbling blacker-than-black doom metal guitar tones (but why would you?) then it'd be worth checking out their first album, Deaden the Fields.) it's an album which is yes, dark, and yes, bleak, but also has an overall balance. there are moments of contemplation and hope as well, even if we're ultimately yielding to despair.
really the reason i picked it is that it's a proper virtuoso piece of work. i mean that in the rare sense that it's both made by incredibly technically gifted musicians and is startlingly innovative in terms of its songwriting and what it's trying to do. it's huge and maximalist at times and yet introspective and brooding at others. it can be hopeful or soul-crushingly hopeless, and it does all of these things equally brilliantly. and possibly most important of all, it all feels right. it doesn't feel as though there's a single note out of place; the impression i get of the album is that it wasn't so much written as found inscribed by some unknown force onto a black monolith like the one at the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey. and there is some kind of narrative going on here, something totally inexplicable and mysterious, but you can be sure of one thing: it ends badly. i don't feel like i'm spoiling the album by saying that - the clue to how it ends is in the title.
The Psychic Paramount album i have heard before. i like sort of massive sprawling complex blasts of noise and this did the job very well. but it's not an album i've gone back to before particularly - i think i just prefer albums to have more clearly defined changes and variations. it all kind of melded together, which i suspect was the point, but it kind of leaves me without anything to anchor myself to. i think 'well it was a good listen' but i don't have any points i can think of that i wanted to return to and investigate more because the whole thing was blurring together in my mind from the moment i stopped listening
if you like this sort of thing id suggest checking out some Flower-Corsano Duo, which is basically this but taken to the next level, just pure frenetic ecstatic rhythmic drums/strings noise which does that to such an extent that it becomes the whole reason you want to come back to it
the Pepe Deluxe album was interesting. i think they have taken a big risk in this kind of project. the idea is interesting - it's something more than just a return to the past - but if they did it wrong it would have come across as twee revivalist advertisement music. most of the time it avoided that quite well though there were a few points where it slipped into stylings that made me think 'iphone advert' - the vocalists in particular i think did very varying jobs of capturing the "golden age" vibe stylistically, some sounded straight out of the 60s but others had modern inflections that betrayed them quite a bit. as a big fan of 60s synths and rock organs though i did appreciate this album. there was a proper Caravan-worship synth solo in 'temple of unfed fire' i think it was. oddly enough the things that captivated me the most was when it ventured into the more untrod areas of the 60s, like its more canterbury prog moments
from here i would say Sabbath Assembly's 'Restored to One' is a good comparison point as it's doing a similar revival/reconfiguration thing ("reProcessing") and has a similar sort of 60s vibe, although darker. funnily enough i remember recommending that exact album for the tvt album club back in t'day
^ oh yeah, I did thought of the Flower-Corsano Duo while listening but had forgot to brought it up for some reason
so yeah I think your album is p rad!! I'm always a sucker for noisy guitar intertwined with keyboards/piano and the overall mood is quite evocative as you described it
Upon further thought, I think my comments about "background music" apply much more to the TToL album than they do to the TPP album.
It made for a pretty interesting listen, though, and I don't feel anything "missing" like I did with the TPP album. I'll definitely have to listen to this again soon to see if my assessment of it improves past this point.
Comments
What can I say about it? Well, first up, the band, it's two core members: Drew St. Ivany and Ben Armstrong were member of Laddio Bolocko before it's dissolution in 2000, guitarist and bassist respectively. Most website qualify them as "experimental rock". They been compared to Lightning Bolt, Boredoms and High Rise(Personally I find them rather close to Oneida).
Note that this isn’t me saying “durr hurr they should write pop songs”, because I know that’s not what they’re trying to do. I just wish that they’d emphasize interplay between the guitars more often, as opposed to just building a crushing wall of sound.
That said, sometimes you just need noise you can have on in the background while playing video games or whatever. This works for that purpose if you generally prefer rock to electro but still want something that won’t distract you too much while playing. You should just make sure to turn the volume down before you listen to it, or you’ll give yourself permanent tinnitius.
I’m reasonably sure my girlfriend will love this album. Naney probably would too if he’s paying attention to this thread.
This album is interesting enough to keep around to me, but I’m not sure how often I’ll listen to it.
also i have to say that it reminds me of... something i cant quite place
it's on the tip of my tongue but i cant quite
also now that im done with the semester i should sign up for this thing
Jane can you add me to the list pretty please? :3
Glad you like it. Did you have any favorite songs?
(The other Jane)
I can sort-of hear it
(The other Jane)
(The other Jane)
(The other Jane)
my album is Yield to Despair by Tangled Thoughts of Leaving
word of warning: this is a massive, heavy beast of an album. it may not be to everyone's taste and it may well not be something you 'get' on first listen, so in that sense it's extremely inapppropriate for an album club. the fact that i went ahead and picked it anyway is testament to just how fucking good it is. be open to it and it'll reward you, in a kind of incredibly bleak, crushing way.
im going to give a small quote from the artist behind that album art (which i also love) and which i think is very indicative of the contents of the album : “That blackness, that nothingness, comes from the flood of information
that I get through visual culture … This sludge is kind of the
by-product of image culture and image-driven society. It’s almost like
oil, it’s this kind of dirty, smelly, black thing that will require
constant analytical process.” at its densest points the album really encapsulates this. it builds towards a kind of sensory overload configured into some form of sonic blackness, a weird incomprehensible techno-Lovecraftian force threatening to engulf everything. at these moments it sounds like a jazz band being dragged backwards by a cyclone through a Merzbow concert thats going on in a slaughterhouse, and i mean that in the best ppossible way.
it's not all hostility and overload, though, if you are beginnning to be intimidated. there are equally moments on the album which are beautiful and tend towards an Earth-esque minimalism. TToL historically were a group who explored the boundaries between jazz and post-rock with an interesting flair for electronics thrown in, and Yield to Despair is an evolution of that sound into a doomier, noisier one. (if you feel that this album is too dark and you'd prefer it with less hissing static and rumbling blacker-than-black doom metal guitar tones (but why would you?) then it'd be worth checking out their first album, Deaden the Fields.) it's an album which is yes, dark, and yes, bleak, but also has an overall balance. there are moments of contemplation and hope as well, even if we're ultimately yielding to despair.
really the reason i picked it is that it's a proper virtuoso piece of work. i mean that in the rare sense that it's both made by incredibly technically gifted musicians and is startlingly innovative in terms of its songwriting and what it's trying to do. it's huge and maximalist at times and yet introspective and brooding at others. it can be hopeful or soul-crushingly hopeless, and it does all of these things equally brilliantly. and possibly most important of all, it all feels right. it doesn't feel as though there's a single note out of place; the impression i get of the album is that it wasn't so much written as found inscribed by some unknown force onto a black monolith like the one at the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey. and there is some kind of narrative going on here, something totally inexplicable and mysterious, but you can be sure of one thing: it ends badly. i don't feel like i'm spoiling the album by saying that - the clue to how it ends is in the title.
stream it here: http://music.tangledthoughtsofleaving.com/album/yield-to-despair
if you would prefer a download link it is easy enough to find if you google 'tangled thoughts of leaving yield to despair zip'
i hope you enjoy it
(The other Jane)
Interestingly, this reminds me of a dodgy VSTi I got a few months ago which mysteriously vanished a couple of weeks ago....
The Psychic Paramount album i have heard before. i like sort of massive sprawling complex blasts of noise and this did the job very well. but it's not an album i've gone back to before particularly - i think i just prefer albums to have more clearly defined changes and variations. it all kind of melded together, which i suspect was the point, but it kind of leaves me without anything to anchor myself to. i think 'well it was a good listen' but i don't have any points i can think of that i wanted to return to and investigate more because the whole thing was blurring together in my mind from the moment i stopped listening
if you like this sort of thing id suggest checking out some Flower-Corsano Duo, which is basically this but taken to the next level, just pure frenetic ecstatic rhythmic drums/strings noise which does that to such an extent that it becomes the whole reason you want to come back to it
the Pepe Deluxe album was interesting. i think they have taken a big risk in this kind of project. the idea is interesting - it's something more than just a return to the past - but if they did it wrong it would have come across as twee revivalist advertisement music. most of the time it avoided that quite well though there were a few points where it slipped into stylings that made me think 'iphone advert' - the vocalists in particular i think did very varying jobs of capturing the "golden age" vibe stylistically, some sounded straight out of the 60s but others had modern inflections that betrayed them quite a bit. as a big fan of 60s synths and rock organs though i did appreciate this album. there was a proper Caravan-worship synth solo in 'temple of unfed fire' i think it was. oddly enough the things that captivated me the most was when it ventured into the more untrod areas of the 60s, like its more canterbury prog moments
from here i would say Sabbath Assembly's 'Restored to One' is a good comparison point as it's doing a similar revival/reconfiguration thing ("reProcessing") and has a similar sort of 60s vibe, although darker. funnily enough i remember recommending that exact album for the tvt album club back in t'day