Ok, it's been a hell of a six months, and it's now time for me to post my top 5 albums of the year so far. Here we go:
5. Phyllomedusa - Local Grey to Green Rendezvous
Phyllomedusa is a one-man grind/noise project with a love of frogs that straddles the line between charmingly eccentric and genuinely creepy. Earlier this year, he put a frog on a peice of paper and let it hop around, then used the resultant pattern of wet patches to guide his composition of a peice of music. What resulted was this, a forty-eight minute minimalist epic that is probably the most beautiful peice of music that I've heard this year. Check out Phyllomedusa's other work on Bandcamp (there's more than forty albums to choose from, so you might be there a while. That's ok. I'll wait).
4. Behemoth - The Satanist
Back yet? Good. I'm surprised that I haven't seen Behemoth's new album on more mid-year lists. It really is a monster - crisp production, great artwork, crushing grooves and phenomenal riffs. If you like your death metal with high production values and a fair bit of black metal influence, then check this out.
3. Elbow - The Take Off and Landing of Everything
And now for something completely different. Elbow are one of my favourite young bands, and once you hear their last record, you'll see why. The lyrics could work on their own as poetry, and several of the songs could function as instrumentals, and their are precious few artists writing songs like that.
2. Tori Amos - Unrepentant Geraldines
Those of you who read my review of this album will not be surprised at it's inclusion. Neither will those of you who've heard the album. Tori Amos is awesome - melodies that make me gnash my teeth with jealousy, great piano playing and fantastic lyrics. Tori Amos is one of the best songwriters out there, and she's managed to turn out a true late-career masterpeice (unlike certain others I could mention). Even if it does get a little Guardian in places, I'd still be very surprised if it doesn't make my top 10 at the end of the year. It'd take something very special to top this.
1. Gridlink - Longhena
Oh, look, something very special! Gridlink's final album will go down in grindcore history as a truly original development the likes of which have not been seen since the 1990s. This is a grind album that does not aim for heaviness at all costs; that manages to be beautiful in the same way as a Mozart concerto, but with blast beats and screams. This is the future of grind.
Sunday 22 June 2014
Wednesday 18 June 2014
Review - Mayhem
Mayhem
Esoteric Warfare
Well, I'm currently on a working holiday in the wonderful Norwegian town of Kvinesdal, so what better time to review the new album from one of the original Norwegian black metal bands. Mayhem have been putting out bleak, blistering albums since the '80s, and Burzum helped to create the entire sub-genre of black metal, so I came into this with high hopes, and I was not disappointed. The vocals are the standard raw, black metal shrieks; the band plays like a finely-tuned machine, shifting through different riffs, tempos and rhythms with ease; the lead guitar chimes like the bells of some unholy church - in short, this is everything one could expect from Mayhem. Every track on this album is a monster - every riff, every scream and every blast beat will strip the paint from your walls. The one downside is that towards the end of the record, the vocals become a bit intelligible, which is not something I look for in metal, as it's not a genre known for producing great lyricists. Still, other than that, det er en fantastisk album.
Rating: 8/10
Esoteric Warfare
Well, I'm currently on a working holiday in the wonderful Norwegian town of Kvinesdal, so what better time to review the new album from one of the original Norwegian black metal bands. Mayhem have been putting out bleak, blistering albums since the '80s, and Burzum helped to create the entire sub-genre of black metal, so I came into this with high hopes, and I was not disappointed. The vocals are the standard raw, black metal shrieks; the band plays like a finely-tuned machine, shifting through different riffs, tempos and rhythms with ease; the lead guitar chimes like the bells of some unholy church - in short, this is everything one could expect from Mayhem. Every track on this album is a monster - every riff, every scream and every blast beat will strip the paint from your walls. The one downside is that towards the end of the record, the vocals become a bit intelligible, which is not something I look for in metal, as it's not a genre known for producing great lyricists. Still, other than that, det er en fantastisk album.
Rating: 8/10
Monday 16 June 2014
Review - Behemoth
Behemoth
The Satanist
This is one hell of a record. It kicks off with one of the best riffs I've heard in some time, and continues in that vein for the next forty-four minutes. The Satanist is like some unholy union of Facebreaker and Burzum - the groove and high production values of up-market death metal mixed with the atmosphere and sheer aggression of black metal. Also, it features the first good metal lead guitarist since Tony Iommi. There are fast parts that will knock you on your arse; slow passages that sound like some ancient seige engine rolling up to your front door; a crunchy low end mixed with shrill (but never too abrasive) lead playing; and a vocalist who seems very serious about the whole Satanism thing. Because, at the end of the day, this music is every bit as religious as anything by Mahalia Jackson - it's just a different religion. And I can tell you, if churches played music as epic as this, maybe we would actually live in a Christian country.
Rating: 9/10
The Satanist
This is one hell of a record. It kicks off with one of the best riffs I've heard in some time, and continues in that vein for the next forty-four minutes. The Satanist is like some unholy union of Facebreaker and Burzum - the groove and high production values of up-market death metal mixed with the atmosphere and sheer aggression of black metal. Also, it features the first good metal lead guitarist since Tony Iommi. There are fast parts that will knock you on your arse; slow passages that sound like some ancient seige engine rolling up to your front door; a crunchy low end mixed with shrill (but never too abrasive) lead playing; and a vocalist who seems very serious about the whole Satanism thing. Because, at the end of the day, this music is every bit as religious as anything by Mahalia Jackson - it's just a different religion. And I can tell you, if churches played music as epic as this, maybe we would actually live in a Christian country.
Rating: 9/10
Sunday 15 June 2014
Review - Neil Young
Neil Young
A Letter Home
What is it about the "getting back to their roots" album? As soon as a musician starts getting a few grey hairs, they seem to feel obliged to make a folk record. Of course, pop musicians don;t have the faintest idea how to make a folk record, so they normally just turn out some semi-acoustic shite that the papers will call "stripped down" even though it's got twenty fucking musicians on it. If anyone reading this ever becomes a famous musician, then please listen to my advice: if you want to make a bare-bones album, get an acoustic guitar, sit in your bedroom and do it properly.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, there's a new Neil Young record out, and it has a pretty cool gimmick. Basically, in old-timey fairgrounds they sometimes had a booth where you could go and make a recording of your voice onto a record. As you'd expect, the quality wasn't great. So Young has got his hands on one of those booths and decided to make an album of covers in it, because he was worried that Trans might go down as his most idiotic concept album, and he can do so much worse than that.
I'm a big Neil Young fan, and I'm also a big fan of lo-fi recording, but this is a terrible record. It's not because it sounds like it was recorded in a tin shack in the middle of a hail storm (that's not always a bad thing) - it's because he sings the songs badly. Young isn't a bad singer - he can sing fantastically, despite his voice - but he doesn't even sound like he's trying here. The main problem is that he hasn't thought, "I'll do a no-frills folk record because that will force me to give a great performance rather than hiding behind a band". He's thought "lol an old recording thing, I'll make an album in it lol". There's no reason for him to record this album in an antique recording booth, he just thought it would be cool, and what he's managed is folk karaoke of the most mediocre kind. There's an astonishing performance of "The Needle of Death" on there, but other than that this album can fuck off.
Rating: 2/10
A Letter Home
What is it about the "getting back to their roots" album? As soon as a musician starts getting a few grey hairs, they seem to feel obliged to make a folk record. Of course, pop musicians don;t have the faintest idea how to make a folk record, so they normally just turn out some semi-acoustic shite that the papers will call "stripped down" even though it's got twenty fucking musicians on it. If anyone reading this ever becomes a famous musician, then please listen to my advice: if you want to make a bare-bones album, get an acoustic guitar, sit in your bedroom and do it properly.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, there's a new Neil Young record out, and it has a pretty cool gimmick. Basically, in old-timey fairgrounds they sometimes had a booth where you could go and make a recording of your voice onto a record. As you'd expect, the quality wasn't great. So Young has got his hands on one of those booths and decided to make an album of covers in it, because he was worried that Trans might go down as his most idiotic concept album, and he can do so much worse than that.
I'm a big Neil Young fan, and I'm also a big fan of lo-fi recording, but this is a terrible record. It's not because it sounds like it was recorded in a tin shack in the middle of a hail storm (that's not always a bad thing) - it's because he sings the songs badly. Young isn't a bad singer - he can sing fantastically, despite his voice - but he doesn't even sound like he's trying here. The main problem is that he hasn't thought, "I'll do a no-frills folk record because that will force me to give a great performance rather than hiding behind a band". He's thought "lol an old recording thing, I'll make an album in it lol". There's no reason for him to record this album in an antique recording booth, he just thought it would be cool, and what he's managed is folk karaoke of the most mediocre kind. There's an astonishing performance of "The Needle of Death" on there, but other than that this album can fuck off.
Rating: 2/10
Thursday 5 June 2014
Review - Tori Amos
Tori Amos
Unrepentant Geraldines
Alright, so I don't know what that title means, and the cover of this album looks like something Gwyneth Paltrow would post on Instagram, but people keep telling me Tori Amos is a genius, so I'll give Unrepentant Geraldines a go.
*Just over an hour later*
Ok. This is what Kate Bush would sound like if she were any good. Amos' voice is like a cross between her, Dido and Joanna Newsom (and comparing anyone to Newsom is a pretty huge complement in my book); on "16 Shades of Blue" she demomstrates that she can combine bile with melodicism as well as Jarvis Cocker, if not better; on "Weatherman" she displays a poet's gift for language, and an ability to make any line scan that most songwriters would kill for; throughtout the album - alongside the aforementioned - there are flashes of early Bowie, Circulus, Baydelaire, Rhianna, Transformer-era Lou Reed and more, but Amos never once sounds derivative. Every note and every lyric is unmistakably hers, and if you're not hooked by the third song, there's something wrong with you.
My one criticism of this album is that at times the production is a bit flat. "Promise" is a fantastic song both lyrically and melodically, but the arrangement takes the lustre out of it, making it sound a bit too dull. That's a problem common to the slower moments on Unrepentant Geraldines, and it could ruin a lesser record, but thanks to Amos' way with words and her fantastic ear for melody that's never a danger. The most boring moment of this record is more interesting and engaging than the vast majority of music out there. I am officially a Tori Amos fan now.
Rating: 9/10
Unrepentant Geraldines
Alright, so I don't know what that title means, and the cover of this album looks like something Gwyneth Paltrow would post on Instagram, but people keep telling me Tori Amos is a genius, so I'll give Unrepentant Geraldines a go.
*Just over an hour later*
Ok. This is what Kate Bush would sound like if she were any good. Amos' voice is like a cross between her, Dido and Joanna Newsom (and comparing anyone to Newsom is a pretty huge complement in my book); on "16 Shades of Blue" she demomstrates that she can combine bile with melodicism as well as Jarvis Cocker, if not better; on "Weatherman" she displays a poet's gift for language, and an ability to make any line scan that most songwriters would kill for; throughtout the album - alongside the aforementioned - there are flashes of early Bowie, Circulus, Baydelaire, Rhianna, Transformer-era Lou Reed and more, but Amos never once sounds derivative. Every note and every lyric is unmistakably hers, and if you're not hooked by the third song, there's something wrong with you.
My one criticism of this album is that at times the production is a bit flat. "Promise" is a fantastic song both lyrically and melodically, but the arrangement takes the lustre out of it, making it sound a bit too dull. That's a problem common to the slower moments on Unrepentant Geraldines, and it could ruin a lesser record, but thanks to Amos' way with words and her fantastic ear for melody that's never a danger. The most boring moment of this record is more interesting and engaging than the vast majority of music out there. I am officially a Tori Amos fan now.
Rating: 9/10
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