Showing posts with label noise rock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label noise rock. Show all posts
10.6.12
Part Chimp - Thriller
29.2.12
30,000 Monkies - Womb Eater Wife Beater
So fucking incredible. This is like seriously the most amazing thing you will ever hear in your lifetime.
30,000 Monkies is a Belgian four-piece noise rock/stoner metal band, and this was their debut EP. They have some Electric Wizard and some Earth in their sound but mostly this is like the next level of amazing stoner/noise rock.
22.2.12
Mi Ami - Steal Your Face
It is thundering outside...
Oh yeah, this album is so so so so so so so so goddamn incredible. Honestly. It is energetic and all over the place, pulsating with some indefinable, attractive chaos. The frantic sounds edge around psychedelia and a constant, steady beat keeps it moving. The vocals, which by the way are unforgettable, reminded me of Les Georges Leningrad. They're the kind that grate against your ears but leave you begging for more.
Mi Ami is a San Francisco-based noise rock/experimental trio founded in 2007. They've been releasing EPs and 12"'s since 2008, and Steal Your Face is their second album of three (the latest one being from 2011). Fuck everything else on your to-do list today or lack thereof and listen to this album now.
Something else that I admire about this band. They have very nice track names which are ordered in such a way that they seem to... need each other...? lkdwnn told me about this, so thanks @ him.
01 Harmonics (Genius of Love)
02 Latin Lover
03 Dreamers
04 Secrets
05 Native American (Born in the U.S.A.)
06 Slow
* Download link taken down upon request.
1.2.12
Pain Teens - Destroy Me, Lover
For the first post of February, here is Destroy Me, Lover, one of the final full-lengths recorded by the Houston, Texas experimental noise rock band Pain Teens. Pain Teens formed in 1985 by Bliss Blood and Scott Ayers, and Bliss sings on nearly every track. She reminds me of Jarboe (Swans), but for some reason I feel like she would do well singing for Electric Wizard or something. She also has some Lady Gaga moments (that's not a bad thing!) Her menacing low female voice that I love so much - that's what makes this album, for me. Not to mention the incredibly heavy and distorted guitars, and just everything. Um.
I really, really feel like Destroy Me, Lover is what I've been searching for for a long time. I love this album on such a level that I didn't even know I could even feel something this strong. Well, yes I am being quite serious.
12.12.11
Chokebore - Anything Near Water
Ungainly noise rock with some incredible Jandek-y vocals set against an emerging 'sadcore' backdrop. As I talked with a friend about the record, we both noticed a certain youthfulness that can be attributed to the vocals, provided by Troy von Balthazar - they are constantly cracking, yet in an attractive manner. This adds, quite well in fact, to the impreciseness of the music.
Chokebore was an indie rock band formed in Honolulu in the 90s that eventually moved to LA. Anything Near Water, the band's second full-length, is an aimless venture down a long, desolate road. Highly recommended for fans of early Nirvana and Idaho.
Shellac - Uranus
Hibernation: I just want to stay in bed for 3 days straight not taking showers and not moving. Eating a lot. Snuggled as warm as possible, to the point of becoming sweaty. Revolving around some distant planet, listening to these two tracks on repeat continuously.
Need New Body - U.F.O.
This is seriously an amazing album. Repetitively mind-numbing, yet beautiful. Complete randomness... glorified. You might want to call it spazzcore.
Need New Body was an avant-garde/experimental/jazz band from Philadelphia active during the early 00s, and U.F.O. is their second album. Enjoyyy.
EDIT: "Moondear" is probably my favorite track in the entire universe that is under 2:00. God daammnnn.
4.12.11
Steaming Coils - Breaded
Breaded is an incredible array of songs and styles and atmospheres. It is invariably quirky and fun, but there is a sense of irresistible sophistication and classiness and worldliness that immediately attracted me to their sound. "Hue and Cry Over Pink and Green with Almond Shade of Beige," as you can see from my last mix, is one of my favorite songs in the entire universe and I have been listening to it non-stop for the past 48 hours.
1.12.11
Men's Recovery Project - Bolides Over Basra
2000; 14 tracks
For the first post of December, here is the second and last full-length by the punk/experimental band Men's Recovery Project. It is definitely my idea of perfection - recommended if you like The Residents!
What is this strange taste in your mouth?
30.11.11
Rat At Rat R - Rat At Rat R
Rat At Rat R was a noise rock quartet formed in the early 80s by Victor Poison-tete. After moving from Philadelphia into New York, they quickly became a major part of the underground NYC scene alongside bands like Sonic Youth and Swans. Rat At Rat R was the group's third and final release, and it is full of noisy, artsy, Swans-y no-wavey greatness.
25.11.11
Gorge Trio - Open Mouth, O' Wisp
Two words I might use to describe Gorge Trio, an instrumental band from New England: seemingly aimless.
"With Open Mouth, O' Wisp, the group moves from the broad strokes of the past to a series of densely packed miniatures, all 22 of which clock in at a running time that just breaks the half-hour mark. There have always been Russian egg constructs within their previous lengthy jams, but here some of the layers are given markers, allowing listeners to step into the fractured crossfire as well as enjoy this as a well-constructed whole. The more constructed pieces here, like 'Intimate Addition,' recall the Gorge Trio's other incarnation as Colossamite stripped of the heavy rock gestures (screaming vocals and two volumes: loud and louder) that aligned that group with the math rock of Don Caballero, placing the trio closer to the source, Captain Beefheart. There are other moments worth calling out, too, like guest Keiko Beers' flute turn on 'Invisible Student,' but they all amount to points on a very busy map that begs to be taken in as a whole. And the whole is quite marvelous, an epic in miniature that encourages repeated listening."
"It's not easy music, but it's also not difficult to like. It fulfills the ears you didn't know you had, shaking a brainstem in its ozone with an ether fiddle. Every note seems compressed to the last degree and scratchy pitches burst forth like mercury through steel wool, scattering about a Donald Judd surface of maximum refraction. It's darned near impossible."
Yeah. I don't know either.
Milkmine - Braille
I love this album so much - even as the only release by the quite obscure Cincinnati-based noise rock band Milkmine, Braille could easily be one of the greatest noise rock gems of the 90s. From what I've read, they consist of two bassists and one drummer. There is so much noisy and sludgy fuzziness to enjoy here, so, enjoy. Highlights, aka songs that either made me break down and cry or want to scream: "Snapshot" and "An Evening Gown."
Big Black - Songs About Fucking
I feel a little behind, but even if I found out how incredible Songs About Fucking is today or in 500 years the effect would still be the same: this is incredible.
Big Black was a noise rock/post-punk band from Illinois founded in the early 80s by guitarist/vocalist/lyricist Steve Albini, who you might also know from Shellac (I suggest reading more about their background here). Along with his work with his bands, Albini has also engineered hundreds of albums and recording projects, all of which are top-notch releases - check out the full list here. It is clear why so many people see him as the father of the independent noise and post-punk scenes.
It is a very brutal album, surely, but Songs About Fucking is essential listening.
18.11.11
Savage Republic - Customs
Savage Republic was a tribal/noise rock/experimental/post-punk band hailing from the 80s L.A. underground scene. Their sound is a mixture of many elements - psychedelic drones, middle-eastern cantillation and tribal rhythms. Influences include Einstürzende Neubauten, Joy Division, Sonic Youth, Throbbing Gristle, and others. Customs, their last album before splitting then getting back together with a different line-up, can accurately be considered a masterpiece.
I know that much, much more could be said about Savage Republic, and I find myself wanting to go through their entire discography (which is quite large), but standing alone Customs is a terrific album.
"Their brand of ritualistically tribal exhibitions blurred the boundaries of post-punk and industrial music. Their music incorporates minimalist bass rumbles, exotic and/or militaristic drumming, Arabic melodies, primal chants and even a bit of surf guitar."
14.11.11
Polvo - Cor-Crane Secret
1992; 11 tracks
I am so in love with this album. It is so alive - pulsing, breathing, ever-changing. As you listen, you will get a sense of what I mean.
The first release by the NC-based noise/math rock band (personally I think they transcend mere "math rock") Polvo, Cor-Crane Secret is a treasure trove of wonderful things. They do everything right, but the rhythm changes are so unpredictable you may as well give up on following along (when "Kalgon" is first getting started it could go in a variety of directions, but it builds up to an incredible stop-and-start melodic pattern that is really astounding) - but I think that might be what draws me so much to Polvo's sound. The unpredictability, the impreciseness, the layers upon layers of musical ideas and approaches, they all add up to one beast of a debut release. I love the song names, too: "Vibracobra," "Ox Scapula," "The Curtain Remembers." I really, really recommend this.
9.11.11
Dead Elephant - Lowest Shared Descent
It is slightly difficult for me to describe this, but I will try. Dead Elephant is an Italian group specializing in vicious noise rock-infused post-hardcore. You might like them if you like Cherubs, or Neurosis, but I have never before heard something quite like it.
Psychedelic and sludgy, sometimes incorporating elements of noise rock, black metal, post-hardcore, doom jazz ("Post Crucifixion"), and even industrial, Lowest Shared Descent really does stand apart from the rest. "Black Coffee Breakfast" is a highlight, the melodic lines particularly captivating (and preeetttyy).
29.10.11
Making - EP
9.10.11
Loop - Fade Out
1989; 8 tracks
27.9.11
The USA is a Monster - Wohaw
This truly is an incredible album, but it sounds like it should have been made in the 90s. Prog-rock and noise rock mix, sometimes creating a sound that might be characterized as mathfolk, to stunning effect. The USA is a Monster was a noise rock duo from New England, and this is their second album.
I am completely and thoroughly obsessed with the song "Tecumseh."
That is all.
Penthouse - Gutter Erotica
More noise rock, but this time it's from the depths of hell. Penthouse was a noise rock band, often tending on the blues/punk side, based in London and active during the mid-late 90s and early 00s. This is their first album. Crushing and stoner-metal-ish, this is good for fans of Killdozer and Cherubs.
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