I’m not quite a big fan of instrumental rock music, perhaps because I get into rock music and I spent over a decade spiting into the microphone, but this “I Was Here For A Moment, Then I Was Gone”, the third album by Maybeshewill, band from Leicester, U.K. formed in 2005, it’s quite impressive. They play a sort of post-rock, pretty gloomy themes, but in a quite charming way, and they using programmed and sampled electronic elements alongside acoustic and electronic instruments. Maybeshewill has seen a number of musicians come and go, but core members Robin Southby on guitar, John Helps on guitar and James Collins on drums have been with the band since their first tour and album. On bass currently is Jamie Ward.
They might be compared by some with Mogwai, but Maybeshewill’s music is more intense, powerful, in a particular way more rock oriented, but also much more colorful, I would say deeper. Comparisons have also been made with Sigur Rós, but once again, Maybeshewill sounds much heavier I think, they have stronger rock roots and their music is not that spacy, soundscape and soundtrack/cinematic like. Read more Maybeshewill – I Was Here For A Moment Then I Was Gone (2011)
Yearly Archives: 2011
KYNAN – High Heals (2011)
When I saw the cover and read that is an “experimental” labeled product, I admit, I was pretty scared that I stumbled into another dark and twisted noisy “sick something”, connected to S & M, bondage and god knows what else. Well, I was absolutely misleaded, this is quite a nice, pulsing, even sunny trip into the pop flavored, electro-dance-funk area with charming trance filtered moments, groovy pop punk like turns and tempos, catchy themes and “feel good” spices. KYNAN is a young musician from San Diego, CA, and “High Heals” was digitally release on 31 March 2011 via the Absent Fever label on their Bandcamp page from where you can downloaded for the symbolic price of $1. 10 tracks, extremely pleasant listening, a nice mixture of indie pop and electro-acid, chill moments and quite danceable explosions in a fluid flow of sparking sounds. Read more KYNAN – High Heals (2011)
Genocide Organ – Under-Kontrakt (2011)
In an interview in June 99 they said: “We never say what we think, and we never believe what we say, and if we tell the truth by accident, we hide it under so many lies that it is difficult to find out”. They were talking bout them self, but it’s quite true generally speaking. From the moment when information is overflowing and filtered, truth stops existing and I believe, that was the end of democracy as once Greece defined it. “Genocide Organ have provoked reaction from listeners – be those extremists who perceive the group have certain sympathies that align with their own, or vocal detractors labeling the group as racist, fascist, or more crudely – hate mongers. likewise for those listeners intelligent enough or otherwise uninterested in making such simplistic and polarized views of Genocide Organ, merely the extremity of sound can likewise provoke reactions from revulsion through to pure pleasure, the pleasures received in pain is an amply adage here.”
Formed back in 1986, Genocide Organ explore the borders of industrial and power electronics, sometimes reminds me of the 80s militarist Laibach, the pioneering Slovenian band which majorly influenced the German electro/industrial scene and being the source of inspiration for the so-called Neue Deutsche Härte fulminating by the outbreak of bands such as Rammstain, but as well, Genocide Organ reminds me of some experimental moments of the Chicago based Martin Atkins’s Pigface. Read more Genocide Organ – Under-Kontrakt (2011)
The Rodeo Idiot Engine – Fools Will Crush The Crown (2011)
Extreme metal, pretty psychotic, chaotic grindings and technical, contorted moments follows like a hurricane and tiring everything apart.
The team from Throatruiner Records continue to bring up to the surface extreme and experimental metal bands, maintain their fan-friendly approach, once again, you can download this material even for free (“give us what you want, even 0!”) from their Bandcamp page.
Jerom – vocals, Allian and Txomin – guitars, Thomas – bass and Mikel – drums reveals a chaotic and insane world, their furious hardcore collide with loud and emotional metalcore and the result, as the bend defined it, it’s “blackened mathcore”, kind of sick and full of energy extreme, modern metal with roots back both to hardcore and black/death metal and the outfit of now days mathcore, emocore. It’s not an easy piece to swallow, but fans of brutal massacres and intense, energy full metal will spit their longs out bloody screaming on it. Read more The Rodeo Idiot Engine – Fools Will Crush The Crown (2011)
Project Bob Dylan – celebrates Bob Dylan’s 70th birthday and more!
There are probably million different point of views, different perceptions of America. All of them are simultaneously right and wrong and that might be the “secret” of “the land of hope” and that’s why nobody is indifferent about America. On the other hand, I believe we don’t actually know enough about America as we actually do not know enough about each other generally speaking. Just for example, probably most of the people may thought that the official language of America is English while the truth is that America have none official language at federal level and English is only de facto national language. Everyone identify America by something, most of us by some products such as Coca-Cola, Marlboro or McDonald’s, others might think about country music or blues… In one way or the other, all these are icons. And speaking ’bout blues, Bob Dylan is one of the most respected and loved icons. And Dylan is not only a singer-songwriter and musician, but also poet and painter as well.
As a huge Laibach fan I read about this project of the U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana on their web site and I didn’t hesitate to write an e-mail to obtain my free copy of the CD: [email protected]. One week later – this morning 🙂 – I received the CD and a beautiful 78 pages booklet. Read more Project Bob Dylan – celebrates Bob Dylan’s 70th birthday and more!
Channel Zero – Feed Em With A Brick (2011)
Often referred to them as “the Belgian Metallica”, “Feed Em With A Brick”, the band’s fifth studio album comes after “Black Fuel” released 14 years ago, engineered and produced by Attie Bauw, a Dutch producer who worked previously with Fight (Rob Halford). Channel Zero split in August 1997.
Singer Franky De Smet Van Damme, drummer Phil Baheux and bassist Tino De Martino are back with full force while original guitarist Xavier Carion due to a traumatized ear will be replaced by Mikey Doling (ex-Soulfly). And “Feed Em With A Brick” is another classy, powerful and groovy metal album, fans will be delighted. Read more Channel Zero – Feed Em With A Brick (2011)
Heroin and Your Veins – Lovely Bone Structure (2011)
I stumbled into this accidentally on the Bandcamp, but well, I still don’t believe there is anything accidental in this life, so…Heroin and Your Veins is a one-man band started in 2006 by Janne Perttula in Tampere, Finland and Solina Records released the debut album entitled “Dead People’s Trails” in August 2007. The second album is called “Nausea” and it was released in April 2009 by Verdura Records. It is available also on Bandcamp for 8 Euro. “Lovely Bone Structure” is one single track last for 48 minutes, it was released on 19 April 2011 and only available in the internet at Bandcamp and “name your price” actually means that you can downloaded even for free typing zero. Well, it’s not quite polite, but… I think art and artists deserves our support in a world where everything becomes more and more plastic, fake and prefabricated. Read more Heroin and Your Veins – Lovely Bone Structure (2011)
DJ Clonepa – Courroux (2011)
Mixing breakcore with classic, symphonic music and sometimes with jazz, DJ Clonepa actually make pretty interesting blending of music. Nathaniel Marlow, from Richmond, Kentucky, started in 2007 his mixing and “Courroux” is a pretty exciting and intense material, an explosive collision of groovy and twisted drums with smooth, harmonic symphonic orchestral constructions and jazzy musical inserts. Sometimes this blending is smooth, sometimes the drums overlapping everything creating hell of a noise, but still, there are some extremely interesting moments, good twists and turns, the gloomy, kind of authentic Baroque/Gothic atmosphere and these contorted rhythms and breaks are making an unique and exciting pair.
Following the tradition of precursors as Venetian Snares, DJ Clonepa bring to the surface some extremely intense and exciting mixes and there are a few very good tracks. Read more DJ Clonepa – Courroux (2011)
Brian Eno with Rick Holland – Drums Between The Bells (2011)
In 1992, Eno talking about his interference with Roxy Music and his musical career, said: “As a result of going into a subway station and meeting saxophonist Andy Mackay, I joined Roxy Music, and, as a result of that, I have a career in music. If I’d walked ten yards farther, on the platform, or missed that train, or been in the next carriage, I probably would have been an art teacher now”. In life turning on a particular point to left or to right, sometimes makes the difference. Eno took the right turn and went on his own way. He didn’t get along with Bryan Ferry, he quit the band on completing the promotion tour for the band’s second album, “For Your Pleasure” in 1973, but he becomes an important musician, composer, record producer, music theorist, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.
Eno’s solo work has been extremely influential, pioneering ambient and generative music, innovating production techniques, and emphasizing “theory over practice”.He also introduced the concept of chance music to popular audiences partly through collaborations with other musicians.By the end of the 1970s, Eno had worked with David Bowie on the seminal “Berlin Trilogy,” helped popularise the American punk rock band Devo and the punk-influenced “No Wave” genre, and worked frequently with Harold Budd, John Cale, Cluster, Robert Fripp and David Byrne, with whom he produced the influential “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” in 1981. He produced and performed on three albums by Talking Heads, including “Remain in Light” in 1980 and produced seven albums for U2, including the famous “The Joshua Tree” (1987), and worked on records by James, Laurie Anderson, Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Paul Simon, Grace Jones and Slowdive, among many others. Read more Brian Eno with Rick Holland – Drums Between The Bells (2011)
Helms Alee – Weatherhead (2011)
Helms Alee were formed in 2007 by Ben Verellen (of the Harkonen, Roy, and These Arms Are Snakes), Dana James and Hozoji Margullis. “Weatherhead” is a boiling mixture of fury and beauty melting together vibrating and smooth acoustic elements and raging post-hardcore riffings, delivering perfect balance of what we mainly labeled as “alternative rock” and post-metal. Dana James have a powerful and expressive voice, she both singing and howling while Ben Verellen sometimes bring some extreme raw vocals as support. “Weatherhead” sounds cutting, dirty, full of energy, but still, they built in smooth and beautiful moments which gives a gloomy shining and more dynamics to their songs and this powerful album.
The trio sliding between styles and genres, switching from metal to psychedelic, from hardcore to folk, but they do all this extremely fluidly. Read more Helms Alee – Weatherhead (2011)
