I love Otep and it was unpleasant to hear that their upcoming sixth studio album will be their final one as well. Listening “Hydra” it’s a strange feeling because it’s not only their supposed final album, but their weirdest one too. And it’s absolutely nothing wrong with being weird, but this is like a twisted little nightmare on a loop. And then again, there’s nothing wrong with twisted little nightmares. Just as Shamaya pointed out: this “music is universal and does not belong nor can it be contained in a nice, neat, little box.” Which is definitively good.
“Hydra” it’s an unusual mixture of mostly whispered spoken words and cinematic, gloomy and minimal, avant-garde music with here and there surfacing riffs and metal rooted passages and carousel like, dark, hip-hop flavored grooves. Quite different from their previous release, the intense “Atavist” which was released in 2011, and was one of the best releases of the year on my personal list. Read more Otep – Hydra (2013)
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Lords Of Acid – Deep Chills (2012)
“Deep Chills” is the fifth studio album from the legendary Belgian electro-dance-industrial band Lords of Acid and marks the band’s first studio album in 12 years. With the exception of band founder Praga Khan, “Deep Chills” features an entirely new lineup from previous releases and marks the first time an American vocalist – Mea Fisher (aka DJ Mea) – to take on vocal duties for an album. The album also features guest vocals from porn star Alana Evans on “Pop That Tooshie,” as well as vocals from Zak Bagans, star of Ghost Adventures and host of Paranormal Challenge, on the track “Paranormal Energy”. “Paranormal Energy” have also a quite intriguing story, according to Khan, his studio computer took on a life of its own and began writing its own music. Khan described the experience, stating “While working on a new Lords of Acid track tremendous fear shook my heart as I tried to edit a melody line on my cubase. All of a sudden it felt like the computer came to life, notes started to change position creating a new melody, completely different from the original one.” Khan also declared that the computer was not connected to the internet, so, there was no way his computer could have been hacked.
During the recording session another incident occurred, Read more Lords Of Acid – Deep Chills (2012)
Plymouth Fury – Vaudeville (2012)
With roots back to The Stooges and the grooves and melodies of The Dandy Warhols, merging the fury of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion with the straight simplicity of the Danish Surf rockers The Good The Bad, juggling between the rawness of The Velvet Underground and the new blues spirit of The Black Keys, the French Plymouth Fury serve us a hot and noisy, garage flavored rock with resonances to Spaghetti westerns with Tarantino vibe.
The trio, Worzo – guitar and vocals, Will – bass and vocals, and Stephane Kurdijaka – drums, has been formed in 2007 in Paris, and so far they shared the stage with bands such as Division Of Laura Lee, The Elektrocution, The Bombettes, Favez, It’s Not Not, Magic People, TV Buddah and King of Conspiracy. They have one thing on their minds: to burn all those places down! And honestly, this 70’s taste-like, unpolished, straight and noisy rock it’s just perfect for a hell of an evening down in the club! Read more Plymouth Fury – Vaudeville (2012)
Coat Of Arms – Sun & Satellites (2013)
Coat Of Arms it’s a metal/groove band based in Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and they just released their brand new collection of furious riffs, angry vocals and unstoppable grooves.
I’ve got a soft spot for these Middle and Far East, Oriental sounding bands, Acyl was a really great and pleasant surprise last time, and not so long time ago, but I must mention also a few other exciting bands I wrote about such as Nervecell , Orphaned Land, Melechesh, Absolace and Arkan. Well, unfortunately Coat Of Arms delivering a very Western (American) type of groove metal without adding any Oriental flavor to it. Fortunately they do it very well, they have a great sense of melodies and deliver some grinding you into the ground kind of solid and powerful riffs. Their sound it’s fueled by the Pantera branded rhythmic and riffs merged with some nu metal after-taste (Slipknot) and metalcore infusion (Alexisonfire). They find an excellent balance between melodies and brutality. Singer Rayan Bailouni manage to sing like a rock star and scream/howl like a dying devil and switch smoothly to one into another creating additional groove to their music and adding expressiveness. Read more Coat Of Arms – Sun & Satellites (2013)
Blue Willa – Blue Willa (2013)
Blue Willa is the debut album by the Italian art rock quartet bearing that same name. The band had been touring and recording for years under the name Baby Blue, but then they decide it that the time has come for change and came up with a brand new identity: Blue Willa.
They explains: “Continuing a story which lasted seven years and three records so far, we decided to carry on our pursuit for a sound that would fit neatly onto our ideas asking a person we unquestionably loved to help us fulfill it.
We called on Carla Bozulich, whom we had met in Florence some four years ago, and she immediately got involved and interested in our plans.
We spent ten days in the Italian countryside, working side by side with her and our sound engineer, Davide Cristiani. Carla took care of our songs and sounds, proposing shapes and a whole new imagery for them. She made our sounds feel aquatic, ringing and overturned: a sort of underwater punk rock music from the Thirties.
This music then went on to be mixed and fixed on the Himalayan mountainside and in Paris: it is a pleasant thought for us to imagine that something from these places – as well from our provinces – got entangled and caught inside these songs.”
And well, this is really a journey to folk flavored punk, psychedelic rock and vivid experimentalism, but also to yet undiscovered places, unrevealed sounds. Read more Blue Willa – Blue Willa (2013)
John Zorn – Music and Its Double (2012)
I’m not an “expert”, actually, not even a frequent and frenetic listener of contemporary symphonic music. But Zorn it’s Zorn, my curiosity was bigger then my fear of abstract, eventually unfriendly listening. And Zorn managed to grab my attention. Still, this is quite dark, dramatic, twisted out Wagnerian feels-like music, unfriendly and probably for most nerve-racking, or at least disturbing. The violin (the cello and ultimately the soprano… 😆 ) sometimes literally split your brain in two and makes your ears bleeding, while the tension it’s tenebrous and the dissonances makes you feel like you’re trapped in a horror movie – think of the Kubrick’s “The Shining” soundtrack. The four parts of “Ceremonial Magic” definitively fits that profile and vibe. Still, the work have a huge groove and Kenny Wollesen bang his drums like crazy. Zorn’s cinematic experiences are leaving their sonic finger-prints on his symphonic adventures as well. Don’t think that the closing one-act opera, “La Machine de l’Être”, because of the vocals it’s an easier piece. It’s not.
John Zorn is not only prolific, but also fascinating, he manage to express himself in so many different ways by different musical vehicles – just like any true Magician. And there is no doubt, Zorn it’s a Magician. Read more John Zorn – Music and Its Double (2012)
Steven Wilson – The Raven That Refused To Sing (and other stories) (2013)
Third and deadly? The restless guitarist of Porcupine Tree, and beside involved in a million and one projects and collaborations, plus full time mixer, remixer and producer, it’s back with his third solo album which will be released on 25th February 2013. Alan Parsons (best known for his work on Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon”) engineering the album and we’ve got a quite colorful and dynamic mixture of King Crimson, Rush and Jethro Tull. Probably not accidentally, currently Wilson is remixing the back catalogue of King Crimson from 1969–84 into MLP (Meridian Lossless Packaging) 5.1 and new stereo mixes, as well as remixing the back catalogue of Jethro Tull.
So, the presence of Theo Travis (flute and saxophone) it’s not really surprising. Travis has made ten albums as leader, composing and arranging most of the material; and he has also worked with Robert Fripp, Gong, The Tangent, Bill Nelson, Bass Communion, No-Man, David Sylvian, Harold Budd, John Foxx, Burnt Friedman and Dave, Richard Sinclair, and Porcupine Tree. But this is a full all star release featuring exclusively well respected and acclaimed musicians. Read more Steven Wilson – The Raven That Refused To Sing (and other stories) (2013)
Tribute to Laghetto – Il coraggio di essere suonati (2013)
This is a double album, tribute to the Italian hardcore punk band called Laghetto compiled by the Italian music web magazine Impatto Sonoro. And what for these guys was a year of hard work, you can have it for free by giving up your precious e-mail address HERE. But, as they say, more then a tribute, this is a declaration of love. Although Laghetto prefers to called themselves a”ninja-core band”. So, this is Ninja love. Kind of murderous, isn’t it? And well, you got the chance to get know a lot of really ass-kicking Italian bands of different genres given quite different flavors to the original tracks. Read more Tribute to Laghetto – Il coraggio di essere suonati (2013)
Figure Announces “Adventures In Time & Space” 2013 Tour
The ‘Adventures In Space & Time” tour launches in Paris on January 11th then heads across Western Europe before landing in the United States for a North American Tour spanning February & March 2013.
“I want this tour to be a showcase of my catalogue; a bit of the old, tracks that the fans come to hear, as well as surprise them with new, fresh material that i’ve been saving for a good part of 2012 to premiere on this run. This tour is about the music taking the spotlight” – said Figure (aka Josh Gard) .
He’s latest album, “Monsters Vol. 3” will definitively slaughter down not only your wall to wall neighbors, but the whole neighborhood. We’ve got 15 tracks, a hell of a collection of originals including collaborations with Tommy Lee and Bare as well as sick remixes from the likes of J.Rabbit, Oscillator Z, Alex Sin, Dr. Ozi, and Phrenik.
Now Figure has announced his International 2013 Tour, “Adventures In Time & Space” along with the release of a new DJ Mix available for free download. Go and grab it!! Read more Figure Announces “Adventures In Time & Space” 2013 Tour
Kursed – Miaow (2012)
Two years after its acclaimed debut effort “Like a coffee” released through M&O Music & Mosaic Music Distribution, Kursed returns with a new album entitled “Miaow” and filled-up with the same Brit indie rock and post-punk revival flavored music in the vein of Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, The Fratellis, Kaiser Chiefs, and blended with dirty American, blues rooted indie rock in the footsteps of The Black Keys, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Modest Mouse, The Killers, and Interpol.
This mixture of sounds and aromas might be odd or at least unusual for a French band, but Kursed proved that in music there is no boundaries, on the other hand they proved a vivid ability to turn those “foreign” genres into their own and finally giving to the music their own identity. Read more Kursed – Miaow (2012)
