EPT
Rap
Avant-Garde Metal
28th Feb-14th Mar
15th Mar - 21st Mar
Desperation & Futility
I went out last Monday (ooo, Mr. Popular) so no issue last week. Check out what I've been listening to at http://www.last.fm/user/ice_9
Music Mag #6 – 29th March – 11th April 2011
It’s been a good two weeks for me. Despite having a bunch of CDs still on the way I did manage to get some new ones and there’s been a good balance of finding new artists and getting re-acquainted with old bands and finding more to love!
Ozric Tentacles are a band that fulfilled exactly what I wanted them to. I was searching for a rock group with the whole psychedelic and spacey synths throughout and here they are. I actually found them because my friend’s half naked brother was blasting them throughout his apartment while I was in Sweden. Anyway, I decided that I should listen to Ozrics more often, so recently I was going through “The Floor’s Too Far Away” and ended up really listening to this closing track. It’s got that incredible bass groove throughout and the lick that gives the song its title (the ever present ping) just keeps the song going as a bizarre trip. I love music where there’s so much additional ambience going on and the nature of this song with the hidden guitars, cymbals and synths just in the background creates this music that surrounds the listener. I think it helps that it’s been quite warm recently and this track has a real summery vibe to it. One thing I really love about this track is that it changes. A lot of ambient music doesn’t go anywhere but thanks to amazing guitar solos and that bass you’ve no doubt done a little tour of whatever trippy planet you’ve ended up on.
So I started watching Cowboy Bebop (13 years late, amirite?) and you can add me to the long list of people who love the soundtrack. There’s some brilliant tracks from all sorts of genres but it’s Big Band Jazz I’m here for. When it’s as loud and bombastic as this track, Big Band Jazz is probably my favourite genre of music. It takes all the jazz I listened with my dad and takes it to eleven. If you think about it, Big Band Jazz is as to regular jazz as Extreme Metal is regular Metal. How can you not love that? Brass sections blasting sound across the room in a party-time fashion? A group of ten+ musicians playing in perfect unison? Come on, you can't say no to that. I’ll hopefully have some more Big Band for you guys later on but for now, just stamp your feet to this. But yeah, the bass, the sax and the audience, the smooth interlude at about one minute, the solos and the bass line again. Jesus, maybe I should’ve made this the bass line issue.
This band are pretty cool. Firstly imagine some Cyber-goth, add a bit of thrash metal and top it off with pop music. That’s sort of what you got here. Just listen to the track. It’s not that heavy. Go try it you wuss. See, not too bad is it. It reminds me of Sebkha-Chott (see the avant-garde issue) but with, you know, a direction. I love the catchy pop verses most and some of their other tracks have other folk and world music influences. A nice surprise for me, I wanted to listen to pop music but I need to stay cool so this is my outlet. (jk) I got some albums on the way by these guys. I didn’t think I needed to mention that they’re French. Spotify has these guys tagged wrong too. Outrageous. The female singer has some crazy range. She can sound like a little kid one moment and an opera singer the next. Quite impressive if you ask me.
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Pleasant surprise? Absolutely. Found out about this band from a random list of best albums of 2010 on last.fm. This is a band made up of people from other bands (Between the Buried and Me, Cradle of Filth, Fear Before) but from what I can tell comes out with its own sound. It’s part effect heavy guitars, part amazing piano and synth lines and a bit spacey too. The biggest obstacle for this band will be the vocalist who I actually quite like. I thought I’d hate him, but as I listen to the music I've begun to struggle to think of what the band would sound like with someone else. I don't think it would work as well with a more traditional rock vocalist but I'll leave that for you to decide. This is not normal progressive rock so I added a little hardcore tag in there for you guys to get a decent idea of it. This is a pretty unique sound, kinda like if modern music kids decided to make their own prog rock music, which I guess is what happened. For me the pianos and the synths really make this album worth listening to. The two long tracks People Will Read Again and Eclipsical are both incredible long songs with great atmosphere and shifts throughout (the hallmark of a good long song is keep the same feel but with a developing sound). Eclipsical has a great finale to the album with a great build up with the aggressive vocals before a soaring Final Fantasy style set of Synth Arpeggios. I would've linked the long tracks but I expect that most people would click the link, see how long it is then just leave. The track I selected is a cool (if creepy) song about a Minister's son who decides to kill everyone so he can be special. It's actually a really good song and the ironic and dark lyrics work really well with the whole pseudo-beautiful music. If you're into any sort of rock or hardcore music I really suggest you check out this album. It has a great range of aggressive tracks, spacey sounds, a whole slew of genre influences and it's... well, it's just really good.
I had a few other tracks set up for this but after listening to this track yesterday it just stole into my song spotlight. This is the first mashup in my blogs and is one of the best I’ve ever heard. One part is a track by a rapper who worked with Nujabes and the other is done by Film Score Composer Michael McCann and is a world music track with some beautiful tribal chorus. The original tracks are great too and the mashup gives a new perspective on the song. This is another tribute to Nujabes so it has a combination of beautiful music and beautiful lyrics, sadly, about passing on. Evan Awake has been making some amazing hip-hop mashups for a while on youtube and always sources all of his tracks so it’s a good way to find new artists. If you like this track, check out his others and subscribe to his channel for more.
My New Albums
Itaca – The Soulbreaker Company
This CD is really good. Like really, really good. It’s Prog Rock by a Spanish group and it’s kinda annoying for me that I don’t have enough room to put them in the full article. If you like modern prog-rock and saxophones try this album. The singer has bad pronunciation which is actually the worst part of the album. Pronunciation being the worst thing? You know it’s worth checking out then. Try It’s Dirt and Where Mermaids Sing Loud. This album took forever to arrive, but big thanks to marcoso for alerting me to this band through his blog. It’s got cool album art too.
Surtur Rising & Twilight of the Thunder God by Amon Amarth
I listened to this Viking Metal band a lot a while ago, but never owned an album by them. With their new release and my recent birthday I got two of their cds. I knew I’d like them. It’s normal Amon Amarth. It sounds a lot like Dethklok now that I listen to it again. For those who don’t know, Viking Metal is like Melodeath but with more folky stuff. It’s great.
Blood Alliance – Power Quest
Power Metal by way of 80s Glam Rock. Super cheesy which is how I like it. It sounds a lot like classic 80s Rock bands, especially with the ballad tracks. I do like it though. The shining point throughout is the incredible guitar solos. Some of these soar like all great power metal solos should. A true highlight. Check out Glorious and for a true slice of cheesy power ballads and great guitar solos, listen to Only In My Dreams. If you hate power metal I’d suggest testing your limits with this album.
Accelerated Evolution – The Devin Townsend Band
It’s Devin Townsend in the most Devin Townsend record he’s done. Take base Devin Townsend and record and album and this is what you have. It’s nothing special, but it’s also Devin Townsend so yeah. I likeAway for an awesome Instrumental and Slow Me Down for a cool Devin Rock song.
I’m not insane, not insane, I’m just smarter than you
Asleep Next to Science – ORBS
Check out album review. This album is awesome.
Albums Released This Week
This will also cover those released the week I was gone too.
In Paradisium - Symfonia
Power Metal super group made up of 3/5th good members and 2/5th bad. Actually, it’s Timo Tolkki so let’s make that 3/10th good, 1/10th bad and 6/10th Timo Tolkki levels of bad. I dunno how this will turn out. I saw it for a tenner in HMV and still didn’t try it, so yeah…
Hope – The Blackout
A post hardcore band or something. The cover was of space and I was enjoying ORBS so I stuck this here. I’m basically going by the album cover and the urge to try more hardcore music. Could well be awful.
Last Paragraph
Some dates have been confirmed for albums I love and for me, one the best is the date of the new “The Lonely Island” CD being set for the 10th of May. Check out We’re Back on youtube if you haven’t already. I loved their last album and in my experience, the second album is usually great, the third is a letdown, the fourth is like the third, the fifth is a return to form then the album recorded over five years is amazing. I doubt they’ll last that long, but still.
Unrelated, if you’ve wanted to get into Electro-Rock for a while, you could do worse than trying the Sucker Punch soundtrack. The film isn’t half bad either.
Derp, I was meant to add a poll:
Poll: Favourite Track ?
Luv(sic) pt 5 - Shing02 x Michael McCann (2)
67%
Nearly Dead Bat Make-Up - Pin-Up Went Down (1)
33%
Ping - Ozric Tentacles (0)
0%
Tank! - The Seatbelts (0)
0%
Something Beautiful - ORBS (0)
0%
3 total votes
Nearly Dead Bat Make-Up - Pin-Up Went Down (1)
Ping - Ozric Tentacles (0)
Tank! - The Seatbelts (0)
Something Beautiful - ORBS (0)
3 total votes
Your vote: Favourite Track ?
(Vote): Ping - Ozric Tentacles
(Vote): Tank! - The Seatbelts
(Vote): Nearly Dead Bat Make-Up - Pin-Up Went Down
(Vote): Something Beautiful - ORBS
(Vote): Luv(sic) pt 5 - Shing02 x Michael McCann
