EmptyMansions it’s the solo effort of Interpol’s drummer Sam Fogarino. Sam Fogarino wrote most of the songs for snakes while on tour promoting Interpol’s fourth and self-titled album, from mid 2009 to late 2011. This is raw sounding, garage flavored, but genuine indie rock, somewhere in the space between dEUS, Eels (in their good old days) and Sonic Youth. As he describe it: lyrically, the songs are the result of he’s reading much postmodern fiction by writers such as Hubert Selby Jr (‘Sulfate’); discovering an appreciation for aerial dance and a fascination with outer-space (‘Lyra’); the TV-drama Justified (‘Up In The Holler’), and Black Francis of Pixies fame (‘That Man’). Musically, Sam drew upon classic heavyweights; Neil Young (The closing track on snakes is a cover of ‘Down By The River’), The Stones, Zeppelin—filtered through his affinity with the likes of Sonic Youth and Pixies. Read more EmptyMansions – snakes/vultures/sulfate (2013)
Reviews
The Conjuration – The Human Condition (2012)
So, this is one of the sickest metal s*it I heard lately, and definitively one of the best releases of the genre in 2012! Anyway, for sure one of my favorites! It’s damn shame this band it’s not world-wide famous yet!! This is much-much better then 99.9% of the s*it that the media and the record labels pushing and selling lately under any (sometimes fake) metal moniker!
Corey Cochran – compositions, guitar, vocals, programming; and Josh Moss – bass and keyboards are the pillars of this project formed in 2010, in Danville, Virgina. Delivering a psycho kind of twisted death metal with psychedelic and progressive taste and avant-garde edge, The Conjuration released their second full length album on 21 December 2012. Both albums were released last year and both are available for FREE DOWNLOAD at the band’s Bandcamp page.
Drawing inspirations from different bands such as The Dillinger Escape Plan, Therion, Strapping Young Lad, Rush, Opeth, Cynic, King Crimson, Between the Buried and Me, Alchemist, Pink Floyd, Slayer, The Cure, Sigh, Atheist and ELP, they delivered a twisted in and out journey to the outer limits of metal.
They says: “Music is an art. Art is an outlet of emotions and philosophies that can fill the senses and change lives…and that’s exactly what we want to do. We make music because we love music. We make music because we want to help people. We want to make a better world for all the earth’s lifeforms. We just want to be heard, and have our music help someone out there… ” Read more The Conjuration – The Human Condition (2012)
Not Only Bass, volume I – free download (2012)
“Nu Doar Bas” – meaning, Not Only Bass, it’s a free album with some of the best romanian producers (Vlad Onu, Alien Pimp, Dudawles, Archer, Dyl, Fane, Mighty Boogie, and Beepo) in drum and bass and dubstep, plus as a bonus a tune from Marginal (featuring Datacode and Alien Pimp). We’ve got 9 tracks, 51 minutes of pumping Glitch-Hop with some contorted wobbling and drops, a chilled, smooth, but electrifying mixture of subtle IDM textures and noisier, drum’n’bass flavored and sometimes dub and drumstep fueled, nowadays fancy contortions. All the tracks have their own sound and taste, although the compilation flows smoothly and flawless. This young producers managed to stay close to the trend with the sound, but simultaneously being creative and adding their own identity to these tracks.
This is just perfect for any worthy after-party and it’s for free, so, turn up the bass ( 😆 !!) grab it and enjoy it, have an awesome, Happy New Year! Read more Not Only Bass, volume I – free download (2012)
Savant – Alchemist (2012)
Norwegian musician and producer Aleksander Vinter, aka Savant, has a long history experimenting with sound, from playing a Yamaha electric organ at age 4 to composing music with such computer programs as eJay and FastTracker. With no formal musical training, he discovered an uncanny ability to spontaneously imagine and then compose original music, oftentimes writing and finishing up to an astonishing 3 songs per day while his personal catalog exceeds 10,000, and he’s only 25. As impressive as his output is his diversity, his Soundcloud page filled with 99 unique songs, from the classical “_Obscurite_” to the 70’s soundtrack styles of “The Christopher Walkens” to the electro-metal “Overkill” and super-bass-filled, Glitch Hop “Shake the Room”.
Best known for his prodigious musical output, which now includes 80+ commercial releases and over 40 free downloads, and vivid musical range from EDM, Metal and Glitch all the way to classical piano, has released “Alchemist”, his fifth original album in 13 months, on 12/12/12. Read more Savant – Alchemist (2012)
The Black Widow’s Project – Heavy Heart (2012)
Think of Down and Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society with even more and more intense stoner infusion, add some weight from Kyuss/Queens Of the Stone Age and the right amount of Alice In Chains/Soundgarden flavor to got the essence of what really The Black Widow’s Project it’s about.
The Black Widow’s Project delivered a surprisingly mature and solid debut album filled up with 14 genuine songs, and forged throughout with good-old-fashioned fuzz, powerful riffs, a heavy blend of blues and rock with noisy garage sound.
Formed in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2010 by the lead singer-guitarist Al Castro and the drummer Math Sink, they quickly realize their first EP called “Benefit Of The Doubt” which arouse great interest among the audience and in underground venues. After several lineup changes, Raph Despas joined the band as the bass player which allows them to find an even more powerful and personal sound. Read more The Black Widow’s Project – Heavy Heart (2012)
The CNK – Revisionnisme (2012)
The CNK started as a raw black metal group, named Count Nosferatu in 1996 by Nicolas St Morand (aka Mr Hreidmarr) and Jean-Sébastien Ogilvy (aka Heinrich Von B). They shortly changed their name into Count Nosferatu Kommando. Hreidmarr joined symphonic black metal act Anorexia Nervosa in 1998 and due to he’s busy schedule with his new band, the project was put aside in 1999.
The band’s real rebirth came in 2002, with the release of properly entitled “Ultraviolence Über Alles” album, on the late Kodiak Records label. Merging Rammstein and Slayer, Skinny Puppy and Deicide, The CNK delivered a furious and merciless mixture of death and industrial metal with Laibach flavored gravity.
Due to a lack of steady line-up, CNK wasn’t able to support their album on stage. Then, because of several problems such as the label’s demise, the band was once again put aside in 2003. Read more The CNK – Revisionnisme (2012)
Avishai Cohen – Triveni II (2012)
Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, Avishai Cohen began performing in public in 1988 at age 10, playing his first solos with a big band and eventually touring with the Young Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra to perform under the likes of maestros Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur and Kent Nagano. Having worked with Israeli folk and pop artists in his native country and appeared on television early on, Avishai arrived as an experienced professional musician when he took up a full scholarship at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
In 1997, the young musician established an international reputation by placing third in the Thelonious Monk Jazz Trumpet Competition. Avishai came of age as a jazz player as part of the fertile scene at Smalls, the storied club in New York’s West Village, where he developed his artistic vision alongside such friends and colleagues as pianist Jason Lindner and bassist Omer Avital. The trumpeter’s artistic stance was informed by the fresh, broad-minded legacy of this vital 21st-century scene. Avishai also toured and recorded with the avant-punk Lemon Juice Quartet, experimenting with effects and collaborating with friends, a common thread throughout his career; the band’s 2002 release Peasant Songs earned praise from the likes of DownBeat, which applauded the album’s “rollicking joi d’vivre.”
“Triveni II” it’s his 6th solo album, follow up of the 2010’s “Introducing Triveni”. This is definitively a delicatessen for any Miles Davis fan! Read more Avishai Cohen – Triveni II (2012)
Acyl – Algebra (2012)
Metallers start getting familiar, comfortable with Ethnic infusions in the 90s with the colorful sounds built in the Metal genre by Sepultura. More recently, System Of A Down introduced Oriental and Arab flavored shades into Metal and conquered the whole world with their music. Somewhere between the Thrash/Death gravity of Sepultura and the modern intensity of System Of A Down and revealing the beauty and mystic flavor of Arab music, the Paris, France, based Acyl delivered a brilliant debut album. One of the best and most exciting Metal albums of 2012.
On the other hand, this is not only an excellent Progressive/Experimental Metal album, but also a genuine, deeply spiritual journey. And the use of the word “genuine” wasn’t random or accidental. Read more Acyl – Algebra (2012)
Artifex – Suspension of Disbelief (2013)
If there is a space between King Crimson and Marilyn Manson, that space definitively it’s filled with the Italian Artifex. With roots back to the Psychedelic/Progressive Rock of the 70s and 80s, but with gloomy resonances of the Industrial Rock and Industrial Metal of the 90s, Artifex are building a brand new world out of Hard Rock bricks and modern sounds, electronic layers, but not at least, strong emotions.
Antonio “Mircea” Olivo (voice/guitar/electronics) founded Artifex in 1997, in Bologna, Italy, wanting “to recall that “verve” which had the great bands of the 70s, developing their sound in a modern key through the “balance” between analog and digital.”. The line-up was completed by Francesco Paonessa (drums & machines) and Davide Schipani (bass guitar, synth). By now the band released four self-produced CDs: “Tristis” (1997), “In-Side” (2001), “Artifex” (2003), and an EP entitled “Redux” in 2009.
“Suspension of Disbelief” will be released on 27th January 2013 and it’s a concept album based on the MAN’s emotions, an intermittent and laborious back to basics made of suspension and disbelief as well.
The album also have two special guests: Pat Mastelotto from King Crimson on drums featuring on “Witness of Transition” and Fabrice Quagliotti from Rockets on keyboards and backing vocals featuring on “Electric Lights”. Read more Artifex – Suspension of Disbelief (2013)
Tangent Transmission – Pull, EP (2011)
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)
