This is not an album, but a treasure with the characteristic of a dynamite: it will explode right in your face in the very moment when you will push play.
Although there is a solid line-up of gifted singers such as Jesse Harris or Sofia Rei, the crown belongs to the genius of Mike Patton. He’s really something and he is brilliant, sparkling and unique each and every time, with each song he reveals another shade or dimension of his unlimited possibilities to approach and perform a song. It’s both admirable and completely disarming.
But the release feature a whole army of outstanding musicians conducted by the man who put all this “atoms” and “elements’ to work, the Magus John Zorn. Marc Ribot – Guitar; Trevor Dunn – Bass; John Medeski – Organ, Piano, Fender Rhodes; Kenny Wollesen – Vibes, Joey Baron – Drums and Cyro Baptista – Percussion are the solid foundation of these sonic buildings. Read more John Zorn – The Song Project Vinyl Singles Edition (2014)
2014
L’Effondras – L’Effondras (2014)
Post-rock it’s a vast and vague space and definition, fancy sometimes, abstract and elitist/exclusivist, but unfortunately mostly shallow, quite selfish and meaningless. Instrumental bands and albums scar me as David Bowie is afraid of Americans.
L’Effondras – actually ☉ – it’s a French instrumental trio and when I first watch a recording of one of their live performances posted on YouTube my first thought was early (Barrett era) Pink Floyd. So, it’s not really that “thing” called “djent” – or whatever – and – fortunately – it’s not that bored to death thing called quite elegantly shoegaze (or shoegazing). Although, there’s a little bit of both worlds in their music, but they manage to combine all those elements smartly and efficiently. Read more L’Effondras – L’Effondras (2014)
dNeau & mSelv – Junior Spirit (2014)
A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Music with roots back to the 70’s and 80’s, a wide and vivid space where disco meet psychedelic flavours and funk collide violently into acid pop. Grooves and feelings are drifting into the unknown in a quite disturbing after-hour trip. You take off on the wings of the sound, but you don’t know where you will landing. If you close your eyes and turn up the volume, you can fly. Or just simply you will falling up.
My personal favorites are the Bowie-feels-like “Chinoise” and the hypnotic title track, but there is a piece of cake for everybody who’s willing to listen!
Buy and support independent artists!! Read more dNeau & mSelv – Junior Spirit (2014)
From Mozambique To Minnesota Volume 2 featuring Rich Prewett (2014)
This is a quite ambitious and interesting project I had stumbled into a few years back and yes, I saw the opportunity in it and gave the link to my American guitarist friend Rich Prewett. If I recall it correctly, the first song he made was “Egoista”, then he did “Sonhar” and it was followed soon by another one. Rich did an awesome job mixing those African vocals with good old tasty blues flavors. I told him that it would be great if he put together a whole album out of it and that’s what he did!
And this is really good. Feel good, sound good. Rich Prewett is a quite experience and versatile musician and producer, he made miracles with those vocal stems. The music he created and performed around those vocal tracks it’s a vivid mixture of blues, rock, reggae and Latin vibes and sounds, but maintaining throughout a “world”, an universal flavor of it. This is extremely universal, but still, very particularly Rich.
I love it throughout!! Read more From Mozambique To Minnesota Volume 2 featuring Rich Prewett (2014)
John Zorn (Moonchild) – The Last Judgement (2014)
This seems to be the last piece of the mystical-musical puzzle started by Zorn. I’m still in love with the insanely brilliant “Ipsissimus” released in 2010, followed by “Templars-In Sacred Blood” in 2012.
Zorn formed in 2006 the hardcore voice/bass/drums trio of Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn, and Joey Baron which became known as the Moonchild Trio.
Moonchild is the title of a novel written by Aleister Crowley in 1917. Its plot involves a magical war between a group of white magicians, led by Simon Iff, and a group of black magicians over an unborn child. In the novel, numerous acquaintances of Crowley appear as thinly disguised fictional characters. Crowley portrays MacGregor Mathers as the primary villain, including him as a character named SRMD, using the abbreviation of Mathers’ magical name. Arthur Edward Waite appears as a villain named Arthwaite, and the unseen head of the Inner Circle of which SRMD was a member, “A.B.” is theosophist Annie Besant.
Same year two albums of Zorn’s compositions performed by the trio were released: “Moonchild: Songs Without Words” and “Astronome”. Read more John Zorn (Moonchild) – The Last Judgement (2014)
AC/DC – Rock or Bust (2014)
Who would believed that there will be a fifteenth AC/DC album in 2014 on 19 February 1980? With a serious six year gap since the release of their previous album, “Black Ice”, and repeated rumors regarding their eminent retirement, nobody really expected one more AC/DC album. But damn, if Rolling Stones managed to celebrated their 50th anniversary in the summer of 2012, it would be a serious treason if the Australian rockers would not have their 40th anniversary with a world tour in 2015! Still in school-uniform outfit, Angus is 59 years old!!
At under 35 minutes, it is the shortest studio album ever released by the band, two minutes shorter than their previous shortest album, “Flick of the Switch”, which was released back in 1983. Looking at the song titles – Rock the Blues Away, Got Some Rock & Roll Thunder, Rock or Bust, Rock the House, Play Ball, Baptism by Fire – it is definitively a genuine AC/DC album: everything just stay the same as it ever was. And – obviously – that’s what most of their fans expect from them. I think bringing in someone like DJ Lethal – for instance – or any other creative fresh mind and not some fancy assh*le like Sonny John Moore (aka. Skrillex), would be a nice touch, but then again, experiments are always involve high level of risk and these guys and their hardcore audience are extremely conservative. Don’t worry guys, the album consist of only good-old Rock’N’Roll!!
The only change is Malcolm and Angus’ nephew Stevie Young replacing Malcolm Young who seems to be seriously ill and unable to perform. Read more AC/DC – Rock or Bust (2014)
Faith No More – Motherfucker, 5000 copies 7-inch single (2014)
Keyboardist Roddy Bottum says in a statement: “It feels apt that the first track we’re releasing is ‘Motherfucker,’ a song about accountability. Basically we’ve created, recorded and mixed a new body of work by ourselves and we’re releasing it on our own label. It’s a huge deal for us to only have ourselves to answer to at this point in our career and the song is about that, where the buck stops via the basic imagery of foie gras production, bondage. . .y’know, stuff like that.”
And here we go, we have the very first brand new Faith No More recording since…. Since 1997? Holly cow! And this is so not Faith No More like that it is exactly Faith No More! Read more Faith No More – Motherfucker, 5000 copies 7-inch single (2014)
Gong – I See You (2014)
How old you are? “I See You” will be probably the swan song of this legendary band which spinning around for the last 47 years. Brain-child of Daevid Allen, other notable band members include Tim Blake, Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Francis Moze, Mike Howlett and Pierre Moerlen. Others who have briefly played in Gong include Bill Bruford, Brian Davison, Don Cherry and Chris Cutler.
This is an effervescent mixture of progressive, psychedelic and space rock reaching out the border of jazz fusion and other vivid experiments. With a tasteful addition of mythology.
Gong was formed in 1967, after Daevid Allen — at that time a member of Soft Machine — was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom because of a visa complication. Allen remained in France where he and a London-born Sorbonne professor, Gilli Smyth, established the first incarnation of the band. Read more Gong – I See You (2014)
Rise of the Northstar – Welcame (2014)
![Rise of the Northstar - Welcame (Japanese Edition) [2014]](https://brushvox.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/cover-150x150.jpg)
![Rise of the Northstar - Welcame (Japanese Edition) [2014]](https://brushvox.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/cover-300x300.jpg)
I actually missed this type of straight forward, brutal, NY flavored hardcore. Although this is a French band, this sound just like it was conceived in Brooklyn. Flawless, absolutely brilliant debut album!
They describe themselves: “Rise of The Northstar is a young thrash band whose spirit was born in the back alleys of 1980’s Shibuya. Indeed, Japanese culture, mangas and its “Furyos” all blend into ROTNS’s sound. Through its lyrics, music and imagery, the band created itself a unique identity, bringing together 90’s New York Hardcore, Shonen Manga, Heavy riffs and catchy Rap vibes… Tokyo hold on tight, Rise Of The Northstar is coming.”
It reminds me both of heavy predecessors as Cro-Mags, Madball and Biohazard as freaky American comedy rock acts such as Green Jellÿ.
VITHIA – vocals; EVA-B – lead guitar; AIR ONE – Guitar; FABULOUS FAB – bass and HOKUTO NO KEV – drums delivered a murderous butchery throughout, there is no time to breathing, but head banging! Read more Rise of the Northstar – Welcame (2014)
Emigrate – Silent So Long (2014)
If the name do not ring any bell, I tell you this: Emigrate is a New York based metal band, led by Richard Z. Kruspe, the lead guitarist of the leading Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein. Their sound is a mixture of rock and metal elements with some different resonances and the most exciting thing about their second album it’s the presence of some famous and infamous guest artists such as Marilyn Manson, Lemmy Kilmister (Motorhead), Jonathan Davis (Korn), Peaches, Frank Dellé (Seeed) and Margaux Bossieux (bassist of the all-girl NY punk band Dirty Mary). Bossieux was involved also in the recording of Emigrate’s debut album. She and Kruspe have a daughter and they have an on-again, off-again relationship over the years. Read more Emigrate – Silent So Long (2014)
