Hello, fellow humans! Time for my first non-review-y-type post. The idea for this one comes from a conversation I had with my dad back in January while visiting my parents for the Christmas holiday. I was listening to the new Napalm Death album (which I reviewed here) and my dad came into the room. Heavy music is one of the areas where my taste and his diverge, and his first reaction was to burst out laughing at the strange noises coming from the stereo. Once he'd got his breath back, he said, "What do you like about this?"
I was stumped. I tried to communicate to him how great it sounded, how much fun it was to listen to, but I couldn't find the words. So I decided to show him, and anyone else out there who's interested - this is Grindcore for Beginners.
Conflict - Increase the Pressure
Released 1984, in England.
Ok, I know, this isn't grindcore. Seeing as this list is called "Grindcore for Beginners" I thought I'd better ease you in. So, this is your starting point.
I chose this album as our embarcadero because, quite simply, it's fun. That's a quality a lot of people don;t associate with heavy music, but remember - Napalm Death, Minor Threat and the Stooges were all out first and foremost to have a good time.
And what a good time this album is. I mean, if the title track doesn't make you want to jump around like a hyperactive five-year-old, then there's something wrong with you. That combination of anger and good vibes runs through the entire album - unlike original anarcho-punks Crass, who just preached, Increase the Pressure is as much a party as a political broadcast. If I'd been born 25 years earlier, Conflict would have been the band of my adolescence - they show that protest music doesn't have to be some over-earnest Woody Guthrie wannabe (Leon Rosselsson, take note). Like all good punk bands, Conflict combined righteous fury with genuinely enjoyable music - and that, dear readers, is what grindcore and all other punk derivatives are about.
Wednesday 27 February 2013
Saturday 23 February 2013
Review - The Great Mire
The Great Mire
All Is Vanity
Torn Flesh Records
Ok, for my next review, a solid EP from an astonishingly prolific American grind band (their Bandcamp page lists over twenty releases).
This is a perfectly enjoyable grind record - the vocals are gruesome, the drums sound like some hyperactive piece of industrial machinery and the overall atmosphere is genuinely creepy. The dirt-cheap production both helps and hinders this band. On the one hand, it's punk as fuck - a proper lo-fi grind record made on a shoestring. On the other, it sometimes gets in the way of the music; the guitar parts are too low down in the mix to make a real impact and the lack of clarity means that the songs sound rather too similar. Another downside to the low-budget sound is that the band sound restrained - these songs don't leap out and grab you by the throat like Pig Destroyer, but nor do they have the same low-end aggression as Discharge or early Napalm Death. Overall, the atmosphere is more creepy than in-your-face terrifying.
Which brings me to the samples. I've never been a fan of samples in grindcore, but now and then a band come along that make them work. The Great Mire are not one of those bands. Every time they get a really good piece of good old-fashioned grind going, they interrupt it with some unnecessary video-game sounds, or a piece of soothing electronica.
Even so, this band can still kick some arse when they put their minds to it. I would definitely recommend downloading this EP (especially as it's available for free). These guys obviously have potential, and I look forward to hearing more from them in the future.
Rating: 6/10
All Is Vanity
Torn Flesh Records
Ok, for my next review, a solid EP from an astonishingly prolific American grind band (their Bandcamp page lists over twenty releases).
This is a perfectly enjoyable grind record - the vocals are gruesome, the drums sound like some hyperactive piece of industrial machinery and the overall atmosphere is genuinely creepy. The dirt-cheap production both helps and hinders this band. On the one hand, it's punk as fuck - a proper lo-fi grind record made on a shoestring. On the other, it sometimes gets in the way of the music; the guitar parts are too low down in the mix to make a real impact and the lack of clarity means that the songs sound rather too similar. Another downside to the low-budget sound is that the band sound restrained - these songs don't leap out and grab you by the throat like Pig Destroyer, but nor do they have the same low-end aggression as Discharge or early Napalm Death. Overall, the atmosphere is more creepy than in-your-face terrifying.
Which brings me to the samples. I've never been a fan of samples in grindcore, but now and then a band come along that make them work. The Great Mire are not one of those bands. Every time they get a really good piece of good old-fashioned grind going, they interrupt it with some unnecessary video-game sounds, or a piece of soothing electronica.
Even so, this band can still kick some arse when they put their minds to it. I would definitely recommend downloading this EP (especially as it's available for free). These guys obviously have potential, and I look forward to hearing more from them in the future.
Rating: 6/10
Friday 22 February 2013
Review - Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Push the Sky Away
Bad Seed Ltd.
I have to admit, I didn't like this album when I first heard it. I found the lyrics vague and uninspired, and the music dull. But that just goes to show, you should never judge an album by the first listen. Once I got used to Cave's lyrical style, and learned to live with his sadly limited voice, this album quickly became one of my favourite Nick Cave records. Those who are new to Nick Cave might find it difficult to get into Push the Sky Away, but it's worth the effort - this release easily stands up to any other album Cave has made since leaving The Birthday Party.
Despite the irritating title, opener "We No Who U R" is a classic Cave love song, simultaneously tender and threatening, and the lyrics are the kind that noone else could have written. Whispering drums and a high, plaintive keyboard give the track an air of longing, while Cave's, ahem, unique voice provides that ambiguity that is an essential part of so many of his songs - he could be calling you to bed, or waiting in your garden with an axe.
"Wide Lovely Eyes" is more frustrating. Sonically, it's easily the album's best track - insistent, tender, at times vaguely reminiscent of 80s-era Springsteen. The problem is the lyrics. There is the occasional stunning phrase - "they've hung the mermaids from the streetlights" - but in general, the rhyme scheme is annoying, and the lyrics a little too sixth-form to stand up to repeated listens.
"They take apart their bodies like toys" - if that isn't one of the best opening lines to any song ever, I don;t know what is. The rest of "At the Water's Edge" is just as good - one of Cave's best songs so far, and that's saying something.
I'm not sure about "Jubilee Street" - at times it sounds like so much filler, but then a lyric jumps out at you that just...fits.
I've just been listening to this album, but I can't remember what "Mermaids" is like - I think that may be the best comment on it I can put down
The throbbing bassline of "We Real Cool" compliments perfectly the sinister lyrics, which seem to posit God as some kind of shadowy organisation.
"Finishing Jubilee Street" is fantastic - Cave's impressionistic lyrics are perfectly suited to the dreamlike subject matter. "Higgs Boson Blues" is a classic end-of-the-world song in the manner of Tom Waits' "Earth Died Screaming," and how can you not love a song that manages to fit in references to both Robert Johnson and Miley Cyrus?
Unfortunately, Cave chooses to end the album with its worst song. The title track is a dull, obvious song reminiscent of nothing so much as Bob Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody."
The main criticism I can come up with for this album is that it's too homogenous. The atmospheric anti-melodies are fantastic backgrounds for Cave's lyrics and voice, but after a while the songs do seem to melt into one another. That effect isn't helped by the inclusion of a couple of tracks that could easily have been left on the cutting room floor. Still, a quality record - I would recommend it.
Rating: 7/10
Push the Sky Away
Bad Seed Ltd.
I have to admit, I didn't like this album when I first heard it. I found the lyrics vague and uninspired, and the music dull. But that just goes to show, you should never judge an album by the first listen. Once I got used to Cave's lyrical style, and learned to live with his sadly limited voice, this album quickly became one of my favourite Nick Cave records. Those who are new to Nick Cave might find it difficult to get into Push the Sky Away, but it's worth the effort - this release easily stands up to any other album Cave has made since leaving The Birthday Party.
Despite the irritating title, opener "We No Who U R" is a classic Cave love song, simultaneously tender and threatening, and the lyrics are the kind that noone else could have written. Whispering drums and a high, plaintive keyboard give the track an air of longing, while Cave's, ahem, unique voice provides that ambiguity that is an essential part of so many of his songs - he could be calling you to bed, or waiting in your garden with an axe.
"Wide Lovely Eyes" is more frustrating. Sonically, it's easily the album's best track - insistent, tender, at times vaguely reminiscent of 80s-era Springsteen. The problem is the lyrics. There is the occasional stunning phrase - "they've hung the mermaids from the streetlights" - but in general, the rhyme scheme is annoying, and the lyrics a little too sixth-form to stand up to repeated listens.
"They take apart their bodies like toys" - if that isn't one of the best opening lines to any song ever, I don;t know what is. The rest of "At the Water's Edge" is just as good - one of Cave's best songs so far, and that's saying something.
I'm not sure about "Jubilee Street" - at times it sounds like so much filler, but then a lyric jumps out at you that just...fits.
I've just been listening to this album, but I can't remember what "Mermaids" is like - I think that may be the best comment on it I can put down
The throbbing bassline of "We Real Cool" compliments perfectly the sinister lyrics, which seem to posit God as some kind of shadowy organisation.
"Finishing Jubilee Street" is fantastic - Cave's impressionistic lyrics are perfectly suited to the dreamlike subject matter. "Higgs Boson Blues" is a classic end-of-the-world song in the manner of Tom Waits' "Earth Died Screaming," and how can you not love a song that manages to fit in references to both Robert Johnson and Miley Cyrus?
Unfortunately, Cave chooses to end the album with its worst song. The title track is a dull, obvious song reminiscent of nothing so much as Bob Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody."
The main criticism I can come up with for this album is that it's too homogenous. The atmospheric anti-melodies are fantastic backgrounds for Cave's lyrics and voice, but after a while the songs do seem to melt into one another. That effect isn't helped by the inclusion of a couple of tracks that could easily have been left on the cutting room floor. Still, a quality record - I would recommend it.
Rating: 7/10
Sunday 17 February 2013
Review - Napalm Death
Napalm Death
Utilitarian
Century Media
Ok - second post. I know this album came out last year, so I'm a little late reviewing it, but this blog didn't exist last year, and I'm hardly going to not review a new Napalm release, especially when it's one of their best so far.
A lot has changed since Napalm Death released Scum, the album that gave birth to grindcore - back when that record came out, the Tories were in power, Britain was torn by inequality, and the Yanks were bombing anyone who looked at them funny...
Ok, so maybe not that much has changed.
In musical terms, though, things are very different. When ND released their first album, they were the undisputed kings of extremity; noone played faster, harder or heavier than them. Now, on the other hand, great grindcore bands are ten a penny. If Napalm were going to hold their own against the likes of Noisear, Pig Destroyer and thedowngoing, their new record would have to be something really special.
Mission accomplished.
Album opener Circumspect is a big, lumbering behemoth of a track, striding around swinging its fists like a silverback gorilla. Then the second track Errors in the Signals kicks in, and from there on in it's pure, straight-ahead grindcore. There are a few slower moments, and even some unnecessary and frankly irritating Gregorian chant, but basically this is a grindcore album, pure and simple, and what's wrong with that? The production is clean, but don;t think that that means this is a slick, toned-down version of Napalm Death; on the contrary, the clarity of the sound only means that every brutal, ear-punishing note is captured perfectly. There's some great vocal interplay between Barney's roars and guitarist Shane Embury's throat-ripping shrieks - at times, those two blokes sound like a lion and a wolverine fighting in a blender. Every track drips with righteous anger - while it's not always possible to tell what the band are singing about (even with the aid of a lyric sheet), it's clear that they aren't pleased.
There are negative aspects to the record, of course. First of all, it's bloody long, especially by grindcore standards - nine of the album's sixteen songs are over three minutes, which by the standards of the genre is practically epic. And those of you who (like myself) were excited by the news that John Zorn would be appearing will be sorely disappointed; he phones in a by-the-numbers sax-ual assault on one track, and that's all. But despite all this, Utilitarian is still a blistering set of songs - the length in this case merely means more of a good thing. This album just goes to show that, even more than twenty years after John Peel fell in love with them, Napalm Death are still the band to beat.
Rating: 9/10
Utilitarian
Century Media
Ok - second post. I know this album came out last year, so I'm a little late reviewing it, but this blog didn't exist last year, and I'm hardly going to not review a new Napalm release, especially when it's one of their best so far.
A lot has changed since Napalm Death released Scum, the album that gave birth to grindcore - back when that record came out, the Tories were in power, Britain was torn by inequality, and the Yanks were bombing anyone who looked at them funny...
Ok, so maybe not that much has changed.
In musical terms, though, things are very different. When ND released their first album, they were the undisputed kings of extremity; noone played faster, harder or heavier than them. Now, on the other hand, great grindcore bands are ten a penny. If Napalm were going to hold their own against the likes of Noisear, Pig Destroyer and thedowngoing, their new record would have to be something really special.
Mission accomplished.
Album opener Circumspect is a big, lumbering behemoth of a track, striding around swinging its fists like a silverback gorilla. Then the second track Errors in the Signals kicks in, and from there on in it's pure, straight-ahead grindcore. There are a few slower moments, and even some unnecessary and frankly irritating Gregorian chant, but basically this is a grindcore album, pure and simple, and what's wrong with that? The production is clean, but don;t think that that means this is a slick, toned-down version of Napalm Death; on the contrary, the clarity of the sound only means that every brutal, ear-punishing note is captured perfectly. There's some great vocal interplay between Barney's roars and guitarist Shane Embury's throat-ripping shrieks - at times, those two blokes sound like a lion and a wolverine fighting in a blender. Every track drips with righteous anger - while it's not always possible to tell what the band are singing about (even with the aid of a lyric sheet), it's clear that they aren't pleased.
There are negative aspects to the record, of course. First of all, it's bloody long, especially by grindcore standards - nine of the album's sixteen songs are over three minutes, which by the standards of the genre is practically epic. And those of you who (like myself) were excited by the news that John Zorn would be appearing will be sorely disappointed; he phones in a by-the-numbers sax-ual assault on one track, and that's all. But despite all this, Utilitarian is still a blistering set of songs - the length in this case merely means more of a good thing. This album just goes to show that, even more than twenty years after John Peel fell in love with them, Napalm Death are still the band to beat.
Rating: 9/10
Friday 8 February 2013
First post - Locust of the Dead Earth review
Locust of the Dead Earth
Mithridate
Nostril Records
Ok, I'm new to this blogging lark, so this first post might be a bit shit. I'll start with a quick introduction to the blog: I'm going to be reviewing music of all kinds, mainly focusing on artists with Bandcamp pages, 'cause then I can listen to them for free. Feel free to send me a link to anyone you think I should review. I'll try and get a minimum of one new post up on here every week, but probably won;t manage that every week.
Ok, so - first review. This is a band/artist I came across while browsing Bandcamp, looking for some new doom bands. Locust of the Dead Earth (which seems to consist of one guy, Marcio de Cunha) is tagged as doom, but the actual music - or this album, anyway - is more of an ambient bent. De Cunha himself describes his music as
"An exploration of nihilistic atmospheres where drones and Frippesque guitar work will take you in a journey of swirling density"
and that seems quite accurate. I'm not sure what "nihilistic atmospheres" sound like, but there does seem to be an air of ecstatic, Neitszchean nihilism about these peices. Certainly, there's a sense of rising (or should that be downgoing?), of progression towards something, that reminds me of Thus Spake Zarathustra. There aren't any tunes to speak of, with the focus being more on texture and atmosphere - think Brian Eno synths, swirling, almost raga-like guitar lines and the occasioal doomy riff.
The entire album has a kind of ethereal beauty to it - it sounds like the soundtrack to an uncharacteristically upbeat Stanley Kubrick film. The guitars and synthesisers meld together to create a blissful, occasionally disturbing soundscape that calls to mind Godspeed You! Black Emperor's last album. Now, Locust of the Dead Earth is not as good as Godspeed (let's face it, noone is) but the style of this record is very similiar, if a tad less complex.
All in all, then, an excellent album, and definitely worth downloading (you can pay what you want for it on their Bandcamp page, so there's really no reason not to get it). It drags a little in parts, but it's still a solid record, and I look forward to hearing more from Locust in the future.
Rating: 8/10
(As a side note, does anyone know how to pronounce that name? Mithridah-tee? Mithridayt? Mithridattee?)
Mithridate
Nostril Records
Ok, I'm new to this blogging lark, so this first post might be a bit shit. I'll start with a quick introduction to the blog: I'm going to be reviewing music of all kinds, mainly focusing on artists with Bandcamp pages, 'cause then I can listen to them for free. Feel free to send me a link to anyone you think I should review. I'll try and get a minimum of one new post up on here every week, but probably won;t manage that every week.
Ok, so - first review. This is a band/artist I came across while browsing Bandcamp, looking for some new doom bands. Locust of the Dead Earth (which seems to consist of one guy, Marcio de Cunha) is tagged as doom, but the actual music - or this album, anyway - is more of an ambient bent. De Cunha himself describes his music as
"An exploration of nihilistic atmospheres where drones and Frippesque guitar work will take you in a journey of swirling density"
and that seems quite accurate. I'm not sure what "nihilistic atmospheres" sound like, but there does seem to be an air of ecstatic, Neitszchean nihilism about these peices. Certainly, there's a sense of rising (or should that be downgoing?), of progression towards something, that reminds me of Thus Spake Zarathustra. There aren't any tunes to speak of, with the focus being more on texture and atmosphere - think Brian Eno synths, swirling, almost raga-like guitar lines and the occasioal doomy riff.
The entire album has a kind of ethereal beauty to it - it sounds like the soundtrack to an uncharacteristically upbeat Stanley Kubrick film. The guitars and synthesisers meld together to create a blissful, occasionally disturbing soundscape that calls to mind Godspeed You! Black Emperor's last album. Now, Locust of the Dead Earth is not as good as Godspeed (let's face it, noone is) but the style of this record is very similiar, if a tad less complex.
All in all, then, an excellent album, and definitely worth downloading (you can pay what you want for it on their Bandcamp page, so there's really no reason not to get it). It drags a little in parts, but it's still a solid record, and I look forward to hearing more from Locust in the future.
Rating: 8/10
(As a side note, does anyone know how to pronounce that name? Mithridah-tee? Mithridayt? Mithridattee?)
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