This is a vibrating, soulful, jazz-rock fusion album. I admit, I didn’t follow Skolnick’s career for long-long time. Back at the end of the 80s, beginning of the 90s, I loved Testament, but I never was a fan of the so-called guitar heroes. In 1993, after 10 years thrashing, he left Testament and he joined briefly Savatage, the Stu Hamm band, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, made a guest appearance on Lamb of God’s “Ashes of the Wake” album. Skolnick fronted several projects in the Bay Area during the mid to late 1990s, such as Alex Skolnick and the Skol-tones, Exhibit-A and Skol-Patrol and also recorded two albums with Attention Deficit, a 3-piece featuring Tim Alexander from Primus.
Relocated to New York, began devoting all of his energies to jazz, enrolling in the jazz program at The New School and earned a BfA (class of 2001). At the New School where Alex Skolnick Trio was born. Their first recording, “Goodbye To Romance:Standards For A New Generation†(2002 US, 2004 UK and Europe) brought together the worlds of metal and traditional jazz in an unprecedented blend. ‘Goodbye To Romance…’ reached the top 30 on the US jazz radio charts. Read more Alex Skolnick Trio – Veritas (2011)
Yearly Archives: 2011
A Hidden Agenda – Pussy, Punk Rock and Pop*Tarts (2011)
A Hidden Agenda. Spell it otherwise A HA. But not from Norway, they are Americans and plays quick and straight punk rock, adding some pop touch as it expected now days. It’s nothing unusual, not outstanding, not mind-blowing or something, but it’s quite honest, full of energy and fun, much better than 9.99% of the same kind of stuffs you can get these days. And talking ’bout hidden agendas, some of us grew up with punk rock, we all want pussy – every man is a disguised lesbian 😆 – and most of us dreamed about being a pop star and quit our stupid nine to five jobs. Well, maybe once you bought a guitar but you never really believed it’s the extension of your soul, but a piece of wood with some strings on it, probably you did re-sell it long time ago or maybe you keep it in the attic, now you’re bold, you’re wife get fat and have mortgages to pay. What the fuck I’m talkin’ about?! Hopefully, Jerm and Danny-Boy will have the guts to go on this way and make their dream comes true. And well, we can have a beer (or two) and some fun listening A Hidden Agenda and maybe even dreaming sometimes. Read more A Hidden Agenda – Pussy, Punk Rock and Pop*Tarts (2011)
The Rite (2011)
An American seminary student travels to Italy to take an exorcism course. This crock like plot summary probably may sounds tempting, for me at least. Actually I’m kind of interested in exorcism while it’s being a dangerous spiritual task, an act of Magick work. In Roman Catholic dogma exorcism is a ritual but not a sacrament, unlike baptism or confession. But just like in many other cases which involve the Church, there are more rumors than facts about exorcism and for sure the Church still keeps secret documents about this rituals and practices.
So, I hoped that this new movie maybe open a window to these secrets, I wasn’t looking for another movies like “The Exorcist” and “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”. But the truth is, “The Rite” – in my opinion – it’s not even about exorcism.
This film is about faith and lack of faith. The exorcism it’s just a tricky add-on to rise the interest for the film. Well, there’s still a few funny and a few interesting things, but the subject of exorcism remains scratched only on the surface. It’s kind of disappointing, but not unexpected.
“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist” – this famous quotes is re-served as “The highest proof of the existence of the devil is that we can not proof that he exist.” It’s kind of twisted demonstration, pretty axiomatic, but it bring us to the faith. And director Mikael HÃ¥fström try to convince us that Christ exist by showing us the devil. Read more The Rite (2011)
Prefuse 73 – The Only She Chapters (2011)
Strange, but nice, kind of mysterious is this brand new album by Prefuse 73. Trip Hop textures, distant and soft noises, kind of familiar obscurity floating around through this 18 tracks that been tied together by the words “The Only…” which at the beginning of every title from the songs. Sometimes it reminds me of Dead Can Dance, but Prefuse 73 strip down everything to the bone, they are much more electronic and minimalist. Their spacy and atmospheric music have something warm, friendly, intimate, peaceful. And it’s quit charming. It’s kind of release or even caress. On the other hand there’s always some hidden tension in the background which keep our attention focused. It may be a tricky game, but Prefuse 73 play it well. You can leave this one on repeat and it will flows and floats around like the smoke. And once again, this is nice. Read more Prefuse 73 – The Only She Chapters (2011)
Kodjabashia And Foltin – Penelope X (2011)
Nikola Kodjabashia is a London based Macedonian composer, audio artist, producer, electronic wizard, conductor, pianist and virtual instrumentalist. He studied with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Anatol Vieru, György Kurtág, and Rolf Gehlhaar and he’s the composer of two critically acclaimed albums “The Most of Now” from 2008 and “Reveries of the Solitary Walker” released in 2004. He has scored and conducted music for numerous plays, TV productions & films, and he is a Musical Director and co-founder of The Diesel Orchestra and Meta4 ensemble. Foltin, far as I know, is one of the most important Macedonian bands. Additional contribution for this release comes from the drummer Goce Stevkovsk. Well, “Penelope X” is an exciting, colorful material where jazz and ethno (world) elements grows together and blooming into a powerful, expressive musical experience. Macedonian, gypsy and Klezmer reflexions are merged into jazz and contemporary music constructions, the result once again something particular and very alive. Read more Kodjabashia And Foltin – Penelope X (2011)
John Zorn – Nova Express (2011)
Zorn’s first release for 2011, another piece of the puzzle from his colorful, restless, dynamic and sometimes moody musical world. “Nova Express” is a very intense work where most of Zorn’s previous explorations comes to unite. It contains the depths of the Interzone conspiracy, the lyricism of Zorn’s classical works, the clear-obscure notes of Naked City and the virtuosity showed on the Masada songbooks. It’s an avant-garde journey where jazz and contemporary music collide in the most intense and vibrating way its possible. Dark, gloomy passages are nicely colored with subtle jazz interventions or expressive explosions of improvisations. “Nova Express” is a groovy and exciting collection of modern chamber music filled with beautiful details and dramatic passions, another borderless intercourse in the mystical and vibrating world of Zorn where every single note is worth at least a picture and together opens the window to another universe of deep shadows and bright lights, its the pure dancing poetry of a forgotten ancient world or just the shapes of things to come. This record have an incredible groove, the abstract trips and the sharp cuts of intense passages are overlapping and shifting each other incredibly fluently in a perfect balance and tempo. Read more John Zorn – Nova Express (2011)
Triptych – Physical Fitness for Better Tyranny (2011)
Best things in life comes for free! At least that’s what a buddy of mine used to say. And the best beer I ever drink was for free, the best whiskey was also for free, not to mention the best fuck. Well, sometimes free means that somebody else pay for it, that’s quit true, but what the hell?! life is full of shit enough to get lost in that kind of small details! 😀 “Physical Fitness for Better Tyranny” actually it’s for free for real. And it’s quit a nice piece of work. Well, definitively it doesn’t sound like a super sophisticated production, but it sounds very alive, absolutely honest and their music is balancing fluently from post rock experiments to jazz like solutions and turns, heavy and noise moments followed by jazzy improvisations or quiet breathes, their music swimming around in nice and colorful circles, raving and pumping without any annoying barriers. Complex and exciting journey into a very alive music.
I didn’t manage to dig out anything about this band, probably from San Antonio, Texas, but listening their 5 track material was a really nice surprise. Read more Triptych – Physical Fitness for Better Tyranny (2011)
Signo Rojo – Promo Album (2011)
Jonas Nilsson – bass and vocals, Hampus Henningsson and Elias Mellberg – guitars and drummer Pontus Svensson from Sweden deliver us a heavy material with roots anchored both in the deep sludge of southern USA and the other planted in the deep crevices of doom-metal. Signo Rojo’s promo album can be listen and download at their Bandcamp page and “name your price” means you actually can download their album even for free, but I believe any artistic effort deserves to be rewarded. (Giving one dollar for example it makes no sense, PayPal and Bandcamp having 40 revenue from any transaction and by transferring from PayPal to the current bank account the money the artist loose a few more percents, so, in the end to the band will not attain more than half of the original amount.) Read more Signo Rojo – Promo Album (2011)
Mathias Eick – Skala (2011)
Mathias Eick is a Norwegian jazz musician, his main instrument is the trumpet, but he also plays double bass, vibraphone, piano and guitar. He has performed with several famous music groups and musicians, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Jaga Jazzist, Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Jacob Young, Iro Haarla, Motif, Trygve Seim, Jan Gunnar Hoff Group, Audun Kleive, Morten Abel, Bertine Zetlitz, Thomas Dybdahl, Julius Winger, Manu Katché and Lars Horntveths, etc.
Eick has a long and colorful list of influences: Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Kenny Wheeler, Thomasz Stanko, Chet Baker, Arve Henriksen, Nils Petter Molv..r, Jon Hassel, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Bill Frisell, Jan Garbarek, Jon Christensen, Jaco Pastorius, Joni Mitchell, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Keith Jarret, J.S. Bach, Police, Sting, ECM, Chick Corea, Elvis Costello, Burt Bacharach, Metallica, Flaming Lips, Steely Dan, Rufus Wainwright and his music sounds like a nice blending of Miles Davis and Jan Garbarek. Read more Mathias Eick – Skala (2011)
Battles – Gloss Drops (2011)
Imagine the living room of a mental hospital where some guys left from the seventies high on some unknown substances are jamming with some drunk, but friendly aliens. Or anyway, something like that. It’s spooky, but controversially, it’s kind of exciting. And quit surprisingly, the guys from the band called Battles managed to control all that crazy sound battles. This is an experiment which sometimes sounds like the Nintendo games, but somehow simultaneously it’s goddamn serious. The band’s current line-up comprises guitarists and keyboard player Ian Williams (formerly of Don Caballero and Storm & Stress), bassist and guitarist Dave Konopka (formerly of Lynx), and drummer John Stanier (formerly of Helmet), and their benefit from the guest featuring of Matias Aguayo, Gary Numan, Kazu Makino and Yamantaka Eye. I think a permanent vocalist would do no harm, their music is kind of dense and more singing may bring some release and add a human touch. Read more Battles – Gloss Drops (2011)
