Some bands are coming out of the blue and breaking all the rules and conventions, and delivering what we should simply call “the real thing”. Music. Not conveniences. Not consumables. Not that predictable boom-boom, bang-bang what we use to upload in our mp3 players to cover the urban background noises and isolate ourselves from all the others and the rest of the world. No. It’s definitively something it’s very wrong whit this species.
But this isn’t everything. If a really-really good, to the bone creative and ground breaking band surface the scene, mainly they will come and go unnoticed and will disappear in the media trash. People love products, prefabs, love the s*it nicely packed in cellophane, love Lady GaGa because she’s so eccentric! And we love any other bitches, any other freaks and any other fake and fabricated star the industry and media deliver to us as “the real thing”, but never, never, never, the real thing.
The real thing it’s weird, unusual, not easy to assimilate, hard to compare and impassible to label, to fit into a box.
Although they manage to infiltrate one episode of “NCIS: Los Angeles” and had a song placement in the documentary “h2indo”, Tangent Transmission it’s still mainly remains completely an unknown band.
They also were awarded with the Artist of the Year in the All Indie Magazine music awards last year. And they really deserve it! Read more Tangent Transmission – Pull, EP (2011)
experimental
Acid Mothers Temple and The Melting Paraiso UFO – Son Of A Bitches Brew (2012)
Heavy Psychedelia this time merged with Electric Jazz with consistent Miles Davis aroma. References to key recordings or artists/bands of Rock/Metal/Psychedelic or Jazz were always incorporated in their works, but never so directly referential as this time. You need balls, or talent, or both to enter the musical world previously build by Davis, John McLaughlin, Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Wayne Shorter, Bennie Maupin, and the list is extremely long and filled only with valuable artist. But these Japanese sonic samurais, got balls, got talent, but also the healthy craziness necessary for genuine creation.
“Son Of Bitches A Brew” – with it’s a clear reference to Frank Zappa as well – will not be an easy walk through some sunny sound fields, AMT are delivering extremely dense and vivid incursions into the outer limits of the known musical universe, they not only merging genres, but radically different layers and sounds mostly in the same song their building.
With Kawabata Makoto raging on his guitar, Shimura Koki smashing to pieces his drum kit, Tsuyama Atsushi grinding the bass, Higashi Hiroshi turning his synthesizers inside-out, while Tsuyama Atsushi replacing Wayne Shorter on saxophone, this trip can’t be nothing but dangerously wonderful. Read more Acid Mothers Temple and The Melting Paraiso UFO – Son Of A Bitches Brew (2012)
Inflatable Best Friend – DMT Bike Ride (2013)
Noisy and raw garage punk(rock) rides twisted into some weird psychedelic trips and flavored with lo-fi, drone contortions – this is the menu on the debut album by this Michigan based and DIY devoted band. Not for those who are in the search of the perfect crystal sound and are only comfortable with the polished and mainly over-produced, but tasteless, and inconsistent fancy products of the almighty digital era. No, these guys will take you back to their garage, will tear the walls down at the house party in some suburb or in the basement of some filthy and obscure club. This taste like life, sounds messy and full of trouble as reality, wear perfectly with cheap beer, sleepless nights and lost memories.
With roots back to The Velvet Underground and Lou Reed (“Circus Dog”), but with the fury and energy of Sonic Youth (“I Wanna Ride a Sabertooth”), Inflatable Best Friend will shake you up and grind you down, and rock you into weird, vivid dreams only to crash you down again. This is legal, but dangerous stuff. Read more Inflatable Best Friend – DMT Bike Ride (2013)
Matryoshka – Laideronnette (2012)
Very chill, very trippy, sounds like shattered from a dream and feels like heroin. Rhyming was unintentional and regarding the heroin, I never experienced it, so, probably my perception it’s at least false. And then again this music it’s smooth, floating, heaven-like. I’ve never been in heaven as well, so, I might be wrong again. The music it’s beautiful. We all have a different perception of beauty, but this is really nice. Quite cinematic, smoothly layered and smartly chilled, merging Trip Hop with Dream Pop, and Glitchy IDM with classic music, the Japanese Matryoshka creates a very comfortable and restorative ambiance with their minimalist, but nicely flowing music. The duo it’s made of Sen responsible with the instrumentals while Calu it’s the female vocalist. She’s angel-like singing reminds me mostly of Julee Cruise (probably best known for “Falling”, the theme song for the cult U.S. television series Twin Peaks). They are based in Tokyo, Japan, and this album was released on 12-12-2012 by Virgin Babylon Records, perhaps this is their second album, but my Japanese it’s pretty rusty and I did not manged to dig out any further useful information about them. Read more Matryoshka – Laideronnette (2012)
Vajra – Inside the Flame, video single
Singer, composer, producer, writer, and keyboard player Annamaria Pinna formed Vajra during her self-imposed exile in India and “Pleroma” is kind of a collection of 10 “sonic postcards” which painting up by sounds this mystic journey to self-conscience filled with hypnotic mysticism and some explosive sonic hurricanes. Read the full review HERE.
Now Varja released a music video for the fan favourite track “Inside the Flame”. The song have that ancient driven power which made magic the debut Tool album and it’s a perfect attention grabber. “Almost One” have the touch of Godsmack, it’s a mixture of gloom and groove with Rock strength, hypnotic, but simultaneously kicking. Read more Vajra – Inside the Flame, video single
c.db.sn – …At The End Of It All Remixed (2012)
“Emotion driven electronic music” – this is the essence of what Chase Dobson (aka c.dobson or c.db.sn) delivers and this brand new collection of twisted in and out remixes delivered by Tineidae, Architect, Larvae, Sean Byrd, Worms Of The Earth, Displacer, Access To Arasaka, Consolectrl, Anklebiter, and Erode it’s an extraordinary opportunity do dive into this mysteries flavored spaces filled with subtle grooves and smartly arranged layers of sounds and noises.
And what you people like even more then anything else, it’s a (half-way-through) free stuff, “name your price” means you can give even zero and grab it, but you should consider that artists need and deserve all of our support and music it’s not a free background noise or residue for our iPods and mp3 players. Read more c.db.sn – …At The End Of It All Remixed (2012)
Byzant At Sunset – Bang Ur Head, double EP (2012)
This is Jazzcore, Avant-garde and experimental, genres merging and envelope pusher music, weird for any average, comfortable and conservative listener, but definitively something intriguing and exciting for the people with open mind and open ears, bored of comformities and cliches.
While the album starts quite furiously with a grinding and contorted Tango followed by a genuine Punk classic in the vein of Dead Kennedys twisted into modern contortions and fueled by wildly improvising saxophone solos; the album rides in and out of genres from Post-Rock to Jazz and from Dubstep to Industrial only to quieting down to a Coltrane feel-like Jazzy smooth ballad as a closing act. Anyway, almost like a ballad. With Byzant At Sunset you never can be sure of anything.
An extended play (or EP) is a musical recording that contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full studio album or LP.
This is the second EP by Byzant At Sunset, a double EP actually, but this is really-really an ultra-mega-super extended play while the band delivered 9 original tracks (more then 44 minutes) and 10 plus 1 (hidden bonus) remixes – which are pounding more then 46 minutes.
Totally 95 minutes of music, it’s definitively hell of an extended play!!
The three members of this project are living on different continents, they never been in the same room, not even in the same country ever, but they are playing together. This is an exclusively “via internet” (on-line) collaborative-creative project. One proof of the positive effect and impact of Globalization and technology over humanity. Although they never had the opportunity and pleasure to playing together in the rehearsal room, this music sounds very alive, very fresh, raw and impossible to fit into any genre. Read more Byzant At Sunset – Bang Ur Head, double EP (2012)
Let’s Murder the Moder Arts
Cut the crap and be brutally honest: modern generally speaking means quite tasteless or even worst. That’s a fact. Art is not about express yourself anymore, but about kissing asses to cash in eventually. It helps if you’re mindlessly gay or at least bisexual, if you have at least a Jewish promoter and – most of all – if you don’t have a clue what you’re talking, singing, painting, writing and generally, doing about. It’s better to be black, Hispanic or from China, Caucasian is so fuckin’ boring and ordinary! You need – it’s hopelessly mandatory – Facebook, Twitter and… Botox.
My name is… Picasso. Let’s Murder the Modern Arts! Read more Let’s Murder the Moder Arts
Navene K – Human Design, free EP (2012)
Navene Koperweis (aka Navene K), is an American drummer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer, best known as the former drummer of Animosity and Animals as Leaders. Koperweis started drumming when he was eleven years old. He has played for The Faceless, and runs his technical death metal band, Fleshwrought, where he plays all instruments.
Debuted on record with Hoods on their 2003’s album “Prey for Death”. With Animosity featured on three albums: “Shut It Down” (2003), “Empires” (2005) and “Animal” (2007). Under the moniker Fleshwrought released in 2010 the album “Dementia/Dyslexia”. Featured on the second album, “Weightless”, by Animals as Leaders in 2011 both as drummer and engineering.
Plays beside the drums guitar and various electronic instruments.
He is also a dubstep/electronica producer, and is currently working on his debut electronic album. A tasteful peak into his upcoming works it’s this free, four track EP aviable for free download from his Soundcloud and Bandcamp page. Read more Navene K – Human Design, free EP (2012)
Eric Burdon and The Greenhornes – Self-titled EP (2012)
When I said a few days back that I’m tired and bored of music because music became only the additional sub-product of an exclusively profit oriented industry and the true values (the music) were replaced by fad, predictable, patterned and instantly forgettable (background) noises. In this world, in this frightening circumstances, Mr. Burdon and his youngster new allies, The Greenhornes, delivered balm for my (ears and) soul.
In a world where nothing seems genuine anymore, 71 years old Eric Burdon, the man who led The Animals in the 60s and the War in the 70s, proves – once again – that music it’s music when it’s still played with soul.
While Burdon was ranked 57th in Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time; the Garage Rock band The Greenhornes from Cincinnati, Ohio, are less famous. Formed in 1996 by vocalist/guitarist Craig Fox, bass guitarist Jack Lawrence and drummer Patrick Keeler, they released four albums, one EP and one compilation. In 2005 Lawrence and Keeler formed The Raconteurs with Jack White and Brendan Benson which eventually bring them some more exposure.
Released on November 23rd as part of Record Store Day’s “Black Friday”, this 4 track self-titled EP it’s a raw, pounding, powerful modern Blues release flavored with noises and garage feel. If this is not genuine, don’t know what it is. Read more Eric Burdon and The Greenhornes – Self-titled EP (2012)
