Yeah, I'm not writing about music today. Rather, CD's. You know, the shiny, round things you probably have bought music on at one point. I am a CD fan. It's actually a controversial thing to like, because as vinyl becomes more and more back into the mainstream and MP3s/digital formats become more and more prevalent, CD's are being forgotten.
Everyone I know has said the same thing about CD's:
1) they skip
2) vinyl is better because of how it sounds
3) vinyl is better because often it contains download codes and you can have the hard as well as digital music
4) blah blah hipster bullshit.
Lemme just say this: fuck vinyl. No, I'm not saying that vinyl is a inferior format and I'm not saying those things aren't true, but what I am saying is that CD's will always have that awesome 90's feel to them and vinyl just won't. All's I'm saying is that I love my CD's and I love to buy them.
I just bought a CD at the store, and I'm extremely proud of it. I won't ever buy cassette though,. because seriously, who the fuck has a cassette player any more???
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Friday, May 24, 2013
Fucked on a Pile of Corpses
Skullflower's 2011 release, Fucked on a Pile of Corpses, is one of the most intense releases I've heard.
Sheer. Yes, sheer. As in pure, as in absolute. This is my description of this release. Very noisy, very intense, and definitely harder than a lot of Skullflower, or Matt Bower in general for that matter. The first track, Hanged Man's Seed, is a great example. Distorted, bizarre beats tremble in the background as shrieks blare out of nowhere and a dizzying throb of guitar pulsates in the background. I just wish it could go on forever.
Something is very twisted and rotting at the core of this, the black soul is edging out and taking over. This release does not hold out hope for humanity or the future, rather it squashes hopes and dreams like it was second nature.
Skullflower has dabbled in the droning, experimental, traditional rock and Ethnic music (hell, all of Bower's projects have) and this is nothing like that. When I first heard this, it's hard to believe this comes from the same mind that brought us such freewheeling, happy-go-lucky Sunroof! releases like Temple Music and Rainbow Electric Sabbath.
Even earlier Skullflower, the dissident, rock band that is was, was nowhere near this imposing, hurtful, and scary. When acting as a team, it seems Bower would often feel at ease just to sit back and create beautiful walls of freeform noise, and this is definitely not a team work, and not beautiful. This is, as I said, Sheer.
Maximum volume recommended:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLQNnTQOrV0
Sheer. Yes, sheer. As in pure, as in absolute. This is my description of this release. Very noisy, very intense, and definitely harder than a lot of Skullflower, or Matt Bower in general for that matter. The first track, Hanged Man's Seed, is a great example. Distorted, bizarre beats tremble in the background as shrieks blare out of nowhere and a dizzying throb of guitar pulsates in the background. I just wish it could go on forever.
Something is very twisted and rotting at the core of this, the black soul is edging out and taking over. This release does not hold out hope for humanity or the future, rather it squashes hopes and dreams like it was second nature.
Skullflower has dabbled in the droning, experimental, traditional rock and Ethnic music (hell, all of Bower's projects have) and this is nothing like that. When I first heard this, it's hard to believe this comes from the same mind that brought us such freewheeling, happy-go-lucky Sunroof! releases like Temple Music and Rainbow Electric Sabbath.
Even earlier Skullflower, the dissident, rock band that is was, was nowhere near this imposing, hurtful, and scary. When acting as a team, it seems Bower would often feel at ease just to sit back and create beautiful walls of freeform noise, and this is definitely not a team work, and not beautiful. This is, as I said, Sheer.
Maximum volume recommended:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLQNnTQOrV0
Friday, May 10, 2013
Biggest news in 8 years
I know I'm a bit late to act like this is breaking news, but Boards of Canada, one of my favorite bands and one of the leaders of bizarre IDM music, is releasing their first album in 8 years come this July.
Something is to be said for a band that has stayed strong, and managed to make huge waves with every one of their releases, and stayed at the fore front of experimental music for the last 20+ years. Something is also said by the legions of hardcore, devoted fans that have created websites, wikis, blogs, theories, and paid thousands of dollars just to have any bit of information about this band.
Thoroughly secretive, cult-like, and clearly very intelligent, the brothers Sandison have created musical voyages unlike anything else, whether it is ambient, IDM, downtempo, experimental, etc. Their music has a very deliberate quality to it, so that even if it sounds like it has been aged by hundreds of years, that is the intended and desired effect.
The beginning was the impossibly rare Twoism release in 1995. This was the first time anyone outside of friends and family had access to any of their music (which they had been making for several years before this release). This became noticed by fans and other musicians alike, due to amazing tracks like Sixtyniner, Oirectine, Twoism, Smokes Quantity, and the quiet, strange 1986 Summer Fire.
Boc Maxima followed, with 20 tracks that ranged from beat oriented Chinook, Everything You do is a Balloon, June 9th, and Turquoise Hexagon Sun, to strange wandering snippets like Wildlife Analysis, Skimming Stones, Concourse and Carcan.
By this time, they had developed a following and caught the attention of the band Autechre and record label Warp. Their next release, Music Has the Right to Children, was distributed more than anything previous to it, and again took audiences through the many visions of music the band had. For the first time, they had a hit too, with the track Sixtyten and Roygbiv.
Things turned dark with Geogaddi, a very intense release that had some of their most intense songs and some of the more bizarre works. Tracks like Gyroscope, 1969, The Devil is in the Details, and You Could Feel the Sky evoked a very dark and twisted feeling, and this for me is the highlight of their work.
We had a remarkably different The Campfire Headphase, bringing heavy use of guitars and slower beats to the mix, including their second, larger hit, Dayvan Cowboy. With just 4 unheard Boards of Canada tracks, Trans Canada Highway came out with a similar style to Headphase, with less beats and more weirdness to it.
Fans are exploding with theories as to the new music, you can check out www.twoism.org or the major work of accomplishment that is www.bocpages.org or read this rave review: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/838-music-has-the-right-to-children/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYP6f4DQKLc
Something is to be said for a band that has stayed strong, and managed to make huge waves with every one of their releases, and stayed at the fore front of experimental music for the last 20+ years. Something is also said by the legions of hardcore, devoted fans that have created websites, wikis, blogs, theories, and paid thousands of dollars just to have any bit of information about this band.
Thoroughly secretive, cult-like, and clearly very intelligent, the brothers Sandison have created musical voyages unlike anything else, whether it is ambient, IDM, downtempo, experimental, etc. Their music has a very deliberate quality to it, so that even if it sounds like it has been aged by hundreds of years, that is the intended and desired effect.
The beginning was the impossibly rare Twoism release in 1995. This was the first time anyone outside of friends and family had access to any of their music (which they had been making for several years before this release). This became noticed by fans and other musicians alike, due to amazing tracks like Sixtyniner, Oirectine, Twoism, Smokes Quantity, and the quiet, strange 1986 Summer Fire.
Boc Maxima followed, with 20 tracks that ranged from beat oriented Chinook, Everything You do is a Balloon, June 9th, and Turquoise Hexagon Sun, to strange wandering snippets like Wildlife Analysis, Skimming Stones, Concourse and Carcan.
By this time, they had developed a following and caught the attention of the band Autechre and record label Warp. Their next release, Music Has the Right to Children, was distributed more than anything previous to it, and again took audiences through the many visions of music the band had. For the first time, they had a hit too, with the track Sixtyten and Roygbiv.
Things turned dark with Geogaddi, a very intense release that had some of their most intense songs and some of the more bizarre works. Tracks like Gyroscope, 1969, The Devil is in the Details, and You Could Feel the Sky evoked a very dark and twisted feeling, and this for me is the highlight of their work.
We had a remarkably different The Campfire Headphase, bringing heavy use of guitars and slower beats to the mix, including their second, larger hit, Dayvan Cowboy. With just 4 unheard Boards of Canada tracks, Trans Canada Highway came out with a similar style to Headphase, with less beats and more weirdness to it.
Fans are exploding with theories as to the new music, you can check out www.twoism.org or the major work of accomplishment that is www.bocpages.org or read this rave review: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/838-music-has-the-right-to-children/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYP6f4DQKLc
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