Imagine a song which starts as the smoothest John Coltrane song and end up as the most furious The Thing live jam. Ladies and gentlemen, we proudly present: Byzant At Sunset.
fusion
Steve Vai – The Story Of Light (2012)
Mr. Steven Siro Vai started his apprenticeship in the court of (the king) Frank Zappa, going on his first tour with Zappa in the autumn of 1980 after he did some guitar overdubs for Zappa’s album “You Are What You Is” and previously transcribe a number of Zappa’s guitar solos, including some on the “Joe’s Garage” album and the “Shut Up ‘n’ Play Yer Guitar” series.
But Vai actually began playing guitar in 1973, at the age of 13, one year later he took guitar lessons from guitarist Joe Satriani, and attended the Berklee College of Music. Zappa referred to Vai as his “little Italian virtuoso” and listed him in the liner notes as performing “stunt guitar” “strat abuse” and “impossible guitar parts”. Vai featuring on over 20 Zappa’s records, but also on several David Lee Roth, Alcatrazz, G3 and contributed to one Whitesnake and one Public Image Ltd. album. I admit, I’m not an unconditional fan of his work, but have my preferences, I really love his Zappa fueled “Flex-Able” debut album and “Flex-Able Leftovers” EP, I was pretty excited about “Sex & Religion”, and, of course, the infamous “Album” by P.I.L. is one of my favorites. But, on the other hand, he pretty fucked up the 89’s Whitesnake “Slip of the Tongue” album where he definitively over-played the guitar and his virtuoso style really do not fit it in.
He’s eighth studio album, “The Story Of Light” which was released on August 14, 2012 on Favored Nations, somehow take us back to the “Flex-Able” feel and vibe, but incorporating smartly all the other Vai’s achievements collected along the way from 1984 till now and building a smooth musical bridge from “Flex-Able” to his 2005’s “Real Illusions: Reflections”. Read more Steve Vai – The Story Of Light (2012)
Emilie Autumn – Fight Like A Girl (2012)
World-class violinist. Fashion icon. Famously bipolar. Vegetarian turned vegan. Identifies herself as asexual, freak for some, idol for others, Emilie Autumn is one artist you may love or you may hate, but definitively hard to stay indifferent. And even further, listing – and living – through “F.L.A.G.” – her third installment – you may love one song and hate the next one while this is another tumultuous journey from glossy cabaret to Industrial chaos, from burlesque to Glam Rock and back to psychotic Steampunk, while she often labels her music and style as “Victoriandustrial”.
Her vocal work has been compared to Tori Amos and Kate Bush, while her music encompasses a wide range of styles, it was labeled “new age chamber music, trip-hop baroque, and experimental space pop”, as well as “cabaret, electronic, symphonic, new age, and rock & roll”. Things did not changed with “F.L.A.G.”, Emilie cry one moment and laugh the next one and the music follows her ever changing flow of mood. Not an easy walk through a sunny park Sunday at the noon, but a dark, fractured, fever burned trip on the wild side. For real and for delusion. Read more Emilie Autumn – Fight Like A Girl (2012)
Atomik Clocks – Magdan in Charleroi (2011)
Literally mind-blowing Funk, some pumping Punk energy and pounding Rock attitude, Atomik Clocks delivering a quite refreshing mixture of Jazz, Funk and Rock, merging the spirit of free, improvised music with the power and weight of experimental spiced, Progressive Rock, eventually reminds me of Morphine.
“Magdan in Charleroi”, their first full-length release is available as digital download for only €3 on their official Bandcamp page, and definitively it worth every single penny of it!!
We’ve got 10 groovy, sometimes pretty Psychedelic taste-like, experimental, but not pointlessly abstract songs, an exciting mixture of styles and approaches, the saxophone playing the main role, but the killer funky bass is equally present while the drums offers the solid bases for these sonic jams. Read more Atomik Clocks – Magdan in Charleroi (2011)
Serj Tankian – Harakiri (2012)
Although to put together a Rock album seems a quite simple thing, to be honest, it’s been a while since I didn’t heard a good Rock album. Maybe because everybody pretend to be somebody else, maybe because music isn’t art anymore, but business and industry, or because everything became patterned, excessively target oriented, predictable and plastic taste-like. Tankian – once again – seems to put his thoughts and his soul on the table, while he’s completely cut off any ties to any particular genre, style and expectations and focused on the music and his message. “Harakiri” isn’t a “complicated” album, but a honest one. And “Harakiri” isn’t a classic Rock album in its pure conservative sense, but a colorful, tripping, searching and experimenting material, each and every song have its own soul and style while all together is absolutely and unmistakably Serj Tankian. Read more Serj Tankian – Harakiri (2012)
Neneh Cherry and The Thing – The Cherry Thing (2012)
Do you remember “7 Seconds”? It was a hit single back in 1996 and received a Grammy nomination, won the Best Song title at the MTV Europe Music Awards. The album was entitled “Man”, “7 Seconds” featuring Youssou N’Dour, the track “Woman” is Neneh Cherry take on James Brown’s 1966 track “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”, “Trouble Man” a cover of a Marvin Gaye track, while another track, “Together Now”, featured Tricky.
In 2006, Cherry announced the formation of a new band, cirKus, releasing two albums “Laylow” in 2006, respectively “Medicine” in 2009.
Mats Gustafsson (saxophones), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (double bass), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums), knowned as The Thing, are one of the most incisive experimental/free Jazz bands of the contemporary Jazz scene.
This four artist together delivering the eight tracks of “The Cherry Thing”. Album will be released in June 2012. Read more Neneh Cherry and The Thing – The Cherry Thing (2012)
Reserve de Marche – The Last Twenty Years (2012)
7 tracks – 50 minutes, the debut album by this three-piece instrumental rock band from Moscow, Russia, is an excellent and colorful mixture of (Rock) genres and styles from classic, Progressive Rock to Post-Rock, Match Rock, Sludge and Shoegaze. Atmospheric, dark passages and heavy riffs, intense moments are combined and the merge of the different elements make the… difference.
If you’re looking for a groovy, still emotional, dark, but contorted and sometimes intense and heavy, modern, instrumental Rock album, “The Last Twenty Years” worth your attention. “Name your price” means you can downloaded even for free, or you can order the CD from Mals Records. Read more Reserve de Marche – The Last Twenty Years (2012)
Ihsahn – Eremita (2012)
Ihsahn – Vegard Sverre Tveitan, born in 1975, in the town of Notodden, Norway, began playing piano at seven and guitar at ten and began recording songs shortly thereafter. He began his career at age thirteen as a member of what would become fledgling black metal crew Emperor. As a band, Emperor would both define and refine metal, pushing the boundaries of what was considered possible within the most arcane of art forms and taking some of the most adventurous and extreme music of all time to a huge global audience. With albums like seminal “In The Nightside Eclipse” – recorded when Ihsahn was only seventeen, and “Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk”, Emperor obliterated all-comers and became one of the most revered metal bands in history. After the release of their final masterpiece, “Prometheus: The Discipline Of Fire & Demise” in 2001, Ihsahn announced that the band were to part ways to enable himself and his colleagues to pursue new creative avenues.
He also played in Peccatum with his wife Ihriel (real name Heidi S. Tveitan) until 2006 and has appeared in Thou Shalt Suffer, Zyklon-B and Hardingrock, and now devotes himself to his solo project, Ihsahn. “Eremita” – the latin for hermit – is the anticipated fourth solo album, which was released on June 18 by Candlelight Records.
Recorded and produced at Telemark’s Ivory Shoulder Studios, with additional tracking completed at Notodden’s Juke Joint Studio and Seattle’s Envisage Audio, Eremita was mixed by Jens Bogren (Opeth) at Fascination Street Studios in rebro, Sweden. Alongside Ihsahn, the album features performances from drummer Tobias rnes Andersen (Leprous), saxophonist Jrgen Munkeby (Shining-Norway), guitarist Jeff Loomis (ex-Nevermore), and vocalists Devin Townsend, Einar Solberg (Leprous) and Heidi S. Tveitan (Starofash). The album’s packaging has been created by award-winning Spanish designer Ritxi Ostariz. Read more Ihsahn – Eremita (2012)
John Zorn (Moonchild Trio) – Templars-In Sacred Blood (2012)
In 2006 John Zorn formed the hardcore voice/bass/drums trio of Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn, and Joey Baron which became known as the Moonchild Trio. The very same year the trio performed and released two albums of Zorn’s compositions: “Moonchild: Songs Without Words” – an album inspired in part by Aleister Crowley, Antonin Artaud and Edgard Varèse and “Astronome”. A third album with the trio, but also featuring Zorn, Ikue Mori, Jamie Saft and chorus, “Six Litanies for Heliogabalus”, was released in 2007. Their fourth release “The Crucible” appeared in 2008, and “Ipsissimus” – one of the best albums of 2010 and my personal favorite albums of all time – was released in 2010.
Now Joey Baron – Drums, Trevor Dunn – Bass, John Medeski – Organ and Mike Patton – Voice are back with the 6th CD in the Moonchild legacy. All songs was written by Zorn and they spend over one year in the making. Disturbing and tumultuous, sometimes extremely intense or silently subtle, the 8 songs of “Templars-In Sacred Blood” will take the listeners into another mystical journey. Read more John Zorn (Moonchild Trio) – Templars-In Sacred Blood (2012)
Mr. Pan[k]sament – Doomstep Prophecies – The Remixes (2012) FREE DOWNLOAD!
Remixing isn’t a good business and generally speaking remixers are mainly disconsidered. Half way between sound engineers and musicians, remixers are doomed. If you deliver a better track then the original, the artist will definitively hate you. A friend of mine, Bluetrax explains it precisely: “See, the perfect world of music works like this: if you have a weak production, the remix cannot by any means be better than your original. so, for you as a remixer it’s a waste of time trying to get the best out of you. just try to please the world with some more senseless crap. anyway, that’s how it works most of the time. that’s why so many musicians have to fight for their rights and their money 😉 ”
I lost the numbers on the way, don’t know exactly how many remixes I did this year – already. Many. Probably too many. Here we go, 30 new tracks, FREE DOWNLOAD – in return, eventually you can vote for some of the contests I’m still in: Matisyahu, Kimbra, The Temper Trap and Jason Mraz. Thanks – appreciate it! Read more Mr. Pan[k]sament – Doomstep Prophecies – The Remixes (2012) FREE DOWNLOAD!
