Thoth was considered one of the most important deities of the Egyptian pantheon. Thoth was often considered to be the heart which, according to the ancient Egyptians, is the seat of intelligence or the mind and tongue of the sun god Ra, as well as the means by which Ra’s will was translated into speech. He played many vital and prominent roles in Egyptian mythology, such as maintaining the universe, and being one of the two deities who stood on either side of Ra’s boat, the other being Ma’at, who was also his wife. In the later history of ancient Egypt, Thoth became heavily associated with the arbitration of godly disputes, the arts of magic, the system of writing, the development of science, and the judgment of the dead.
In the early 90s I’ve get interested in Tarot and by that I have been reading a lot about Egyptian mythology and several other books linked to this subjects, one of them being “The Book of Thoth : A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians”. That book describes the philosophy and the use of Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, a deck of Tarot cards designed by Crowley and co-designed and painted by Lady Frieda Harris. On the other hand, the “original” “Book of Thoth” is a book containing powerful magical spells that appears in an ancient Egyptian story from the Ptolemaic period which reflects the Egyptian belief that the gods’ knowledge is not meant for humans to know.
But for sure you must know about Thot – the band – is another nice discovery bring to my attention by Aurelien Dubois-Pham of Domino Media Agency. Gregoire Fray from Brussels, Belgium, guilty of unleashing this beast, created a quite exciting and unique mixture of electro-rock merging industrial, darkwave and indie/alternative rock elements. Read more Thot – Obscured by the Wind (2011)
music
Crossfaith – The Dream, The Space (2011)
Before I had listen to “The Dream, The Space” the second full-length album by Crossfaith, I saw on YouTube their video of “Omen” and it just blow my head off. I’m quite a devoted Prodigy fan and “Omen” is one of my favorite songs, but these guys released a killer cover.
On the other hand I have to admit, I’m sick, tired and bored of this “metalcore”, “alternative metal” trend, trillion of bands from all over the world playing the same patters, it becomes absolutely cliche this mixture of raw and clean vocals dialogue, this post-emo approach of classic metal with post-hardcore elements. Well, as always, there are a few exceptions, and these Japanese guys are one of them. Read more Crossfaith – The Dream, The Space (2011)
Slide On Venus – Put music to your troubles, EP (2010)
Formed in 2007, Slide On Venus* from Besançon, France merging power pop, indie, pop punk and high-energy rock elements in their groove oriented, electrifying music. Their third EP “Music To Put Your Troubles” released in November 2010 consist of five dynamic, pulsing, high-end and absolutely positive songs, beside their declared influences, reminds me a little bit also of OK Go, and not only because these French guys are singing in English, but their sound and music is quite American.
“California Saturday Ghost”, “Tongue and Blood”, or the smoother, softer “Aurora” are quite catchy songs, this positive vibe just feels alright. Read more Slide On Venus – Put music to your troubles, EP (2010)
48V – South II (2011)
In 1966, Neumann GmbH of Berlin, Germany, presented a new type of transistorized microphone to the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, NRK. Norwegian Radio had requested phantom-powered operation. Since NRK already had 48 volt available in their studios for their emergency lighting systems, this voltage was therefore used for powering the new microphones, KM 84 model, and is the origin of 48-V phantom power.
“South II” is the second full-length album by 48V from Hunan, Chengdu, China and it’s instrumental. A quite interesting blending of post-rock and electronic elements into a flowing, growing, sparkling music with a nice, electric groove and some catchy themes.
And considering they name, I might be wrong thinking of 48 volt while their MySpace URL is 48… vodka. 😀 Read more 48V – South II (2011)
BadBadNotGood – BBNG, EP (2011)
I actually thought their name is The Odd Trio, it seems I was wrong. And I admit it when I’m fucking up things. For God sake I’m not perfect. Yet. 👿 I’m willing to improve myself.
BadBadNotGood are back with another free EP, can grab it from their Bandcamp page or via Mediafire. Matt Tavares on piano, Alex Sowinski on drums and Chester Hansen on bass are three talented guys from Toronto and they plays smooth, but groovy modern jazz balancing between classic aromas and post-bop flavors. Experimental, still classy charming, smooth and exciting. Something absolutely nice to listening to. It’s quite an unique blending of traditional jazz and avant-garde experimentation, improvisations. Absolutely fresh and sparking. Read more BadBadNotGood – BBNG, EP (2011)
Basement – I Wish I Could Stay Here (2011)
Basement. Don’t matter what others may say, I really don’t give a shit about, believe me, I think it’s pretty dumb to name your band with a one – common – word. The world really gonna mad, every fucking single day independently or through one of the few trillion labels, a few trillion albums are released. I quite believe: everybody’s singing, nobody’s listening (and care). And very few are actually interested in buying something. So, if you name your band as probably at least a few others already did and some few will name their own a few minutes later, you’re just increasing your chances to stay unnoticed. Not to say that if somebody will try to “googling” you, there’s absolutely no way to find you. “Cloudy Basement”, “Burning Basement”, “Bass-ment”, fuck knows, but try to figure out something.
The very next issue is: “Basement? Oh, that guys sound just like Title Fight…” Read more Basement – I Wish I Could Stay Here (2011)
I, The Phoenix – Self Titled (2010)
Belgium gave to the world a few quite exciting artists. Well, my first “acquaintance” at age of 6 was René Magritte. Few years later I was crushed by Front 242, after a while, a Dutch friend of mine introduced me TC Matic (the former band of Arno Hintjens), dEUS are still on the top of my favorites list, and there are a few others as well. Kingdom of Belgium might be a small country – 11,787 square miles (30,528 km2) – , but it’s only prove that “size don’t matter” in some particular cases. Still, Belgium is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU’s headquarters, as well as those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.
In addition, I had in my mind “In Bruges”, the black comedy directed by Martin McDonagh in 2008. And somehow, in my subjective perception, the Belgian art scene delivering mainly pretty gloomy stuffs. Some like it hot, while others chosen the darker path. ITP makes no exception.
I, The Pheonix is a project born in Brussels, the brainchild of Jean-Paul Frenay and Vincent De Puydt, as they call it: “an organic platform”. ITP – far as I heard – is quite an unique something. Label it industrial seems unfair. Rather is a disturbing mixture of dark-wave, garage and gothic rock, a twist of psychedelic and progressive rock, some tasty spices of noise and industrial and lot of creativity. Read more I, The Phoenix – Self Titled (2010)
The Locomotive Sound Corporation – Self Titled (2011)
Aureien Dubois-Pham from the Domino Media Agency bring them to my attention and well, it was a quite nice surprise.
How many times in the last few decades it was declared: “rock is dead!” and get buried? I think indie is dead. Or at least I thought so. Then out of blue appeared Jack and Meg White and at the break of the century they had their own little revolution and gave new sense for something which faded out of sense. Since, we’ve got The White Stripes, The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs, The Black Keys and a few other exciting acts. Now we’ve got to add another name to this list: The Locomotive Sound Corporation.
Instead Alison Mosshart we’ve got more like a raging PJ Harvey from ’93 (“Rid of Me”) and raw, garage rock with roots back to Sonic Youth. And the Parisian band got a fan-friendly attitude: this self titled, five track debut EP scheduled to be released on July 11, 2011 can be listen and downloaded from their Bandcamp page for $1 (“or more”). Read more The Locomotive Sound Corporation – Self Titled (2011)
Harm’s Way – Isolation (2011)
I don’t have a clue if the novel by James Bassett written in ’62 inspired this guys from Chicago or not, but “Isolation” is definitively heavy as a cruiser on a seek-out-and-destroy mission. They delivering kind of old-school but excellent hardcore merged with some sludge and doom after-taste moments and sounds, filled with cutting and crushing groove metal riffs, pumping drums and howling basses that will tread you to the ground. Not to compare it with, but it reminds me of Biohazard’s “Urban Discipline” (1992), it has the same groove, strength and unpolished freshness and raw, but also incorporated the power of Pantera and their best riffing without actually copying anything. Usually I don’t get too easily excited, but Harm’s Way quite made me bang my head. Read more Harm’s Way – Isolation (2011)
Allcoy – Loud Music For Quiet People (2011)
Promised to be the new grunge revelation, Allcoy have delayed only one decade and so.You can get a taste of what they call “Allcore” at their Bandcamp page and buy their debut album if you like it. And these four guys from Detroit, Josh Augustine, Bryan Aldrich, Anthony Palsgrove and Drew Easton, delivering a pretty tasty alternative rock material with catchy grunge after-taste. It might be kind of out-dated and retro, but still, they write some good riffs, catchy themes and put together a couple of groovy rock songs. When most of the trendy bands are completely predictable, something “out of the beat”, even if it’s quite familiar, are sometimes a bless. And Allcoy brings back something from the rawness of the early Nirvana, the heaviness of Godsmack and the attitude of Stone Temple Pilots and blended all of this elements in their own high-energy rock. Read more Allcoy – Loud Music For Quiet People (2011)
