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)
post rock
The Elijah – I Loved I Hated I Destroyed I Created (2012)
When the market is full-filed with millions of same look-like, sound-like, taste-like products – not quite artists I’m afraid – sometimes (pre) judging a CD by its cover, might be a pretty strong argument. First the cover, then the title – “I Loved I Hated I Destroyed I Created” – grabbed my attention.
Dan – Vocals, Michael – Vocals, Guitar, Sean – Guitar, Orchestration, Sam – Bass, and Jakub – Drums managed to explore a quite unique path somewhere between Sigur Rós and At the Drive-In, a disturbing place where ambiental, cinematic soundscapes and turbulent, furious (Post) Hardcore collide and make an actually nice pair as only opposites are capable of. Read more The Elijah – I Loved I Hated I Destroyed I Created (2012)
Mission Of Burma – Unsound (2012)
In the good tradition and vein of such truly seminal artists as the Velvet Underground, The Stooges and Dead Kennedys, Mission Of Burma delivered their own flavored Post-Punk/Indie Rock and “Unsound” is their sixth and upcoming album filled with experimental explorations and paths back to the 70’s without being retro at all.
Formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1979. The band was formed by Roger Miller (guitar), Clint Conley (bass), Peter Prescott (drums) and Martin Swope (tape manipulator/sound engineer), over the course of their brief first four-year career (1979-1983), Mission Of Burma has laid the foundation for a movement in Post-Punk Rock which remains vital today and inspired several generations. Their bracing mixture of Punk, Pop, Art Rock, and Avant-garde experimentation as they play it strident and powerful, gave them an unique flavor which remains fresh and an unmistakable trademark of the band. Read more Mission Of Burma – Unsound (2012)
Dementio13 – El Lissitzky (2012)
“Sick”, “dope” and FREE (name your price) !! Exactly as the people expect to be nowadays. Still, as I often said, art and artists need to be supported, otherwise it will fade out and we will only have the mainstream plastic BS, perfectly packed, consumer-friendly, but meaningless and tasteless. I’m kind of dependent of independent music, too old to expect or believe in “revolutions”, but still willing to take the hard way and prefer to explore the unknown and unexpected, then accept the comfortable. And Dementio13 it’s definitively genderless, experimental, boundaries breaker music ready for open minds and ears.
So, if you’re not afraid to take a trip into the wide open unknown without having a clue where it’s gonna take you, “El Lissitzky” is your ticket to ride – and get free. Read more Dementio13 – El Lissitzky (2012)
The Smashing Pumpkins – Oceania (2012)
“Quasar” sounds extremely alive, intense and rocking, it’s surprisingly fresh and powerful, almost anthematic, have the nerve and rawness, positive energy of the 90’s and “Panopticon” follows pounding as well.
Although Billy Corgan argued that albums are a dead medium and experimented the “one-song-at-a-time” releasing recipe instead the classic format of 12–15 songs in one package with the previous tracks of the concept album “Teargarden by Kaleidyscope”, after releasing the first 10 songs as free downloads at the band’s official site, Corgan changed his mind and released the tracks compiled eight of them in two box sets.
Produced by Billy Corgan and Bjorn Thorsrud, “Oceania”, ninth studio album of the band is also part of the band’s ongoing 44-song concept album, “Teargarden by Kaleidyscope”, adding 13 new songs to the project. Corgan admitted that they switched back to the album format because – “I just saw we weren’t getting the penetration in to everybody that I would have hoped.”
Well, we’re living pretty strange times and nothing is what it seems, nothing is what it used to be and music became only secondary sub-product, accessory of the so-called “music” business which eat itself up and sell exclusively fakes packed and labeled originals.
In this conditions and state of fact, kind of difficult to predict which audience is targeted by The Smashing Pumpkins because “Oceania” is a pretty classy album for old fashioned listeners. Read more The Smashing Pumpkins – Oceania (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)
Linkin Park – Living Things (2012)
Yo! I’m gonna be deadly honest: never was a Linkin Park fan, even further, I kind of consider them the (more or less) Rock version of New Kids On The Block, or any other prefabricated boy band. Now, Rick Florino of Artistdirect called it the band’s “best record and a landmark for rock as a whole”, which, we have to admit, set our expectations probably excessively high. And once again, it’s not the case. Don’t have to be a musicologist to figure it out, Linkin Park are not Faith No More, NIN, Ministry, Nirvana or name any other genre founder and envelope pusher, edge cutter band, but a smartly managed and marketed and generally pretty over-produced band. Don’t misunderstand me, the famous Rick Rubin and vocalist Mike Shinoda on their third collaboration of co-producing a Linkin Park album were done – again – an excellent job, but the sharp production and the bombastic sound can not cover the mediocrity and shapelessness beneath the surface. And once again, Linkin Park collected a million different sounds and musical approaches and blended them into their own spiced “thing”, but that still do not actually make it their own. Linkin Park might be the perfect prototype of a fully functional machine without its own soul which each time borrowing one. Imagine Mona Lisa (La Gioconda or La Joconde) without her mouth – and mysterious smile. Read more Linkin Park – Living Things (2012)
Rush – Clockwork Angels (2012)
Not a clockwork orange, but clockwork angels. Ladies and gentlemen, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart are back after a five years gap with their 19th studio album, scheduled to be released on June 12. They play in this line-up since July 1974, having 38 years of impressive and spawning career.
Rush’s sales statistics place them third behind The Beatles and The Rolling Stones for the most consecutive gold or platinum studio albums by a rock band, they possesses 24 gold records and 14 platinum from which 3 are multi-platinum records – they sold over 40 million units worldwide.
They have been cited as major influence by various other artists and bands from Metallica to The Smashing Pumpkins and from Primus to Dream Theater and experienced different styles of Rock and Metal from their early Blues-inspired Heavy Metal through Progressive Rock and Electronic spiced, New Wave influenced Rock.
Their previous release, the 2007’s “Snakes & Arrows”, although it was Read more Rush – Clockwork Angels (2012)
Future of the Left – The Plot Against Common Sense (2012)
I’m a Punk Rocker. Hell yeah! True, in my early forty’s, with considerably less hair and tooth then two decades ago, dragging with me several more or less chronic diseases, but still banging. Sometimes. On the other hand I had never believed in the values of the political left. Getting further, I do not believe there is any value in any political build-up and honestly, I do not trust anybody, sometimes not even my own bloody self.
I like Future of the Left and along with PiL, I think FotL is one of the very rare genuine (Post) Punk bands that managed to merge noisiness and aggressiveness with caustic content, intelligence and coherent message. I don’t think there’s anything left “politically correct” – like it ever was something -, but still, this is about music, and FotL still got both the magic and the bollocks to deliver some banging songs while the mainstream is drowning in its own emptiness. And you might be or not lefty, they have something to say while most of the singers only open their mouth to show their tooth. Definitively there is a plot against common sense while Diplo is considered “one of the most influential music taste-makers”…. 😆 😆 😆 Read more Future of the Left – The Plot Against Common Sense (2012)
Meredith – Debut, EP (2012) – free download!
Fred Lefranc – Guitar, Vocals and Ben Delacroix – Drums formed Meredith in Paris, France and this four track free release available through their Bandcamp page is an excellent mixture of raw (garage) Punk – in the vein of The Stooges – , dark, contorted post Rock with roots back to Joy Division, adding some heavy (Post) Hardcore energy and not at least their own originality with cutting edge experimental taste. As they describe themselves perfectly: “Meredith are the bastard child of a drunken encounter between Dave Grohl and Shannon Wright, the duo Meredith was born on a moonless night, in the back of a filthy cab. Bearing the gifts of raw, uncompromising ruthlessness, with some siblings in Barkmarket, Fugazi and Trail of dead, their lineage is extensive and impassioned.” Read more Meredith – Debut, EP (2012) – free download!
