Blue Touch Paper – Drawing Breath (2013)
Featuring drummer Benny Greb, saxophonist Mark Lockheart, Stephan Maass on percussion & electronics, guitarist Chris Montague, Edward Maclean on bass and Colin Towns (from Ian Gillan Band and Gillan) on keyboards; Blue Touch Paper it’s a Brit-German jazz-rock fusion band while ‘Drawing Breath’ it’s their second album released on the 14th October 2013. Their music it’s a rainbow like colorful mixture of sounds, styles and genres, from Garbarek to Pink Floyd and from ethnic flavored jazz to chilled down and spacy breakdowns, ‘Drawing Breath’ got it all and surprisingly, all those moving parts are coming together nicely and everything make perfect sense. We’ve got 12 songs and over one hour of exciting, groovy music. Read more Blue Touch Paper – Drawing Breath (2013)
Tattoos by Xoil
Surreal Murals by Etam Cru
Panzanellas – Aggression, EP (2013)
Panzanella or panmolle is a Tuscan salad of bread and tomatoes popular in the summer. It includes chunks of soaked stale bread and tomatoes, sometimes also onions and basil, dressed with olive oil and vinegar. It is also popular in other parts of central Italy, but also around the world.
The concept behind Panzanellas is quite simple: just with an act of violence it is possible to conquer freedom, so they start to kill men and animals conquering their own freedom.
Two brand new tracks on the band’s second EP, the same sonic aggression, Panzanellas are grinding on the borderline between free jazz and avant-garde/experimental rock. Heavy beats, contorted and twisted out guitars with tumultuous, crazy saxophone solos throughout. They came in, kill’em all and leave. Pure madness or killer efficiency. No use to compare it with any other band, this is just Panzanellas. And it’s quite alright, we need this kind of out of the box trips and although some will probably label it as a slaughter, this is still much more exciting then most of the prefabricated, plastic and predictable “music” these days. Do yourself a favor, give it 5 minutes from your boring life and get yourself a fair share of aggression and eventually, a broken nose!! Read more Panzanellas – Aggression, EP (2013)
Geometry by tattoo artist Peter Aurisch
Frustration – Uncivilized (2013)
Frustration it’s definitively not that average indie/punk/post-whatever band and although we’re listening to a French band, they sound pretty British-American and bloody intense. Mixing the sound of Iggy and the Stooges, with contorted post-modernist a la Mark E. Smith and The Fall and some Franz Ferdinand/The Enemy type of indie-punk flavors, this Parisian combo find their own path to deliver they heavy, raw and militant post-punk-rock. No compromise, but energy and intensity. Not staying on their knees and becoming a whore of the media and the industry, it’s not only a proof of integrity, but it’s really rare on the music scene lately.
While music became only a secondary sub-product of the music industry, it’s pretty cool to still stumble into some real stuff. And “Uncivilized”, Frustration’s second album was already declared one most important French records released in the past 5 to 10 years. And it makes perfect sense. Just listen to the title track and you will know why this was labeled brutal. Read more Frustration – Uncivilized (2013)
Some of the best photos of 2013
Mechina – Xenon (2014)
Released on the first day of 2014, “Xenon” is the fifth and the brand new symphonic-cyber-metal album of this Chicago based experimental, futuristic metal horde. For Fear Factory fans and followers, Mechina might be just on spot and “Xenon” the perfect year starter.
Dave Holch – Vocals, Joe Tiberi – Guitar, Steve Amarantos – Bass, and Dan Anderson – Drums delivered five albums in five years, which is a pretty intense agenda for any band. “Xenon” pick up where “Phedra” left off last November and the melange of electronic layers, orchestral/symphonic layers and the contorted and furious metal riffings work perfectly. This is a very dynamic and technically flawless mixture of different elements and styles. Based on industrial fueled death metal, the symphonic pads and electronic layers create an unique vibe and tension while the intensity of the music reaches explosively high levels throughout the album. There is no dead moments, meaningless fills in “Xenon”, just pure intensity and grinding throughout. Read more Mechina – Xenon (2014)
Romantic Street Art by Alex Senna
