The Skull Defekts are great because you never know what they're gonna do on their next release (except Drone Drug, the was kinda obvious). But seriously, they could do a noise album, some intense drone, or a straight up sexy rock record like The Temple. DFX falls into the noise/drone category.
2 long untitled tracks, pretty much all electronics. The first track starts out with some heaving thrum, gets performance anxiety and starts juicin, turning itself into an introverted industrial monster spawned from the gutters of scum who's hellbent on mayhem. In a kinda pretty way.
The second piece is a bit more in your face abrasive, multi-layered mumbling with thrashy static lazerz and lawn sprinklers spewing caustic green acid. It's totally fuckin crazy. Not in a pretty way.
It's a shame DFX is sold out because the packaging is killer. But I won't even bother describing it because it'd probably just make you jealous. Instead you can just...
Forest World are honestly one of the best bands out there right now. Not sure how they're not blowing up all over the fucking place. They do the raddest minimal chiptunes ever (like on Fvtvre) and then they do sweet electro pop (with plenty of chiptune elements like on Super Bright Skullz) and all of it is just super fucking great.
MMX is their newest output and it's mostly the electro pop stuff, although there are a couple of straightup chiptune tracks. The music they make isn't some lush elaborate grandeur of emotions, it's just really straightforward and stripped down pop. And for music this basic to be so goddamn good means these guys are seriously fucking talented. They must have this super secret formula for all the right buttons to push to elate you and get your feet moving.
I really don't know how they do it. I mean, there seems to be an infinite number of other people doing almost exactly the same thing, but everyone else just falls flat. Forest World nails it every fucking time. And they're making sure you have multiple options for listening to MMX: buy the handmade physical copy for $5, stream it or download it for $4 on Bandcamp, or share it and get a free download.
They're on tour right now and you should definitely go out to seem them because I missed them when they stopped in Boston and that's a fucking tragedy. :(
P.S. There's a "hidden track" that's a MIDI cover of "Like A Prayer" that is probably the funnest Madonna cover ever.
P.P.S. Watch the insanely twisted video for the single "Jodie Jensen" because it gives an entirely different meaning to the song.
"Radiant Arc," one of my favorites, gets in a rad as fuck groove, somehow both chill & rocking, and stays there the entire time with droning organ melodies and intermittent squelches of electronics. I could just listen to that jam for the entire album, eyes closed, head keeping in time with the propulsive beat, and letting the CEV take over.
"Rainbow Bloodsucker" is the title track from Doomstar!'s latest BandCamp EP. It's a loud jangly mess of garage psych pop from Boston that's ridiculously pleasing on the ears. The echoed vocals, the sweet catchy riffs, the relentless drums, this is some high quality/high energy shit that fits right into what's going on in Boston right now. You can grab the whole EP for just $5.
Boston electronic dude Symbion Project has a video for the new track "Exploited & Exposed" directed by David Altobelli. Loud, quiet, extreme, chill, back and forth. It's good stuff. It's got lots of abstract organic things, some digital, some real? I don't know. I'm exhausted. Watch this while I go take a nap.
Another limited slice from the fine people at Native Parts, Utom Alla'sVärldens Minsta Häst was supposed to be their contribution to a split release with Flora V. Fauna, but FvF broke up before that happened. That doesn't mean Utom Alla's music shouldn't be enjoyed, though! A pat on the back for Native Parts coming through on their end.
Världens Minsta Häst is one of those weird, nearly indescribable records that can only come from Sweden. It's got sounds, lots and lots of sounds, and they rarely make sense, either collectively or individually. The only way this album can make any sense is if you just assume it's haunted. There's phantom bird tweets, stuttered ghostly vocals, growling dead engines, audible but stationary chimes, rewound wind, explosive micro-blasts that leave no damage, basically a bunch of sounds coming from nothing and leaving no trace behind. Listen to this enough times and you'll end up going insane. I think.
Truth be told, Utom Alla kinda scare me. I'm not really sure how someone from this dimension could make a record like this. It's some DAMN fine music, and I just know I'll end up listening to Världens enough times to lose my mind. I can't help it, though. Not when it's this fantastic & intriguing. Only 50 copies of this bad boy, so hurry your ass up. Just don't say you weren't warned.
This is another one from the last batch of Dynamo! Sound Collective stuff, a split 20 minute tape between 2 Pittsburgh dudes both wading waist deep in the drone.
D!SC head Hunted Creatures starts things off with a murky bog of evil purity on "Ode To Spunky (Saved)" that's all groaning Goblin synth and amplified tape hiss. On the first half. The latter part of the song chills out and is a beautifully somber organ piece, sweet melancholic melodies soaring above a throbbing hum. Definitely getting a "saved" feeling from this part, going to heaven and all that jazz. And honestly, if heaven sounds like this, I'm all for it. This is some seriously gorgeous stuff.
D/S/Miller's side is broken up into 2 tracks, the first one "Blowing Out A Match" clocking in at 7 and a half minutes and fuck it is really awesome. Lots of warble and skittering hiss, a highly elaborate landscape of texture. It could probably be found on some icy minimal electronics comp and it wouldn't seem very out of place. Its foundation of drone eventually gets flushed out, getting thicker & denser, while the entire thing ramps up in volume & intensity without adding a whole lot else to the mix. It never really climaxes, though, just gets loud enough to be super fucking cool and then drops out like you're not good enough for it.
The second, shorter track "Mesocyclone" is a quick stint of subtly blippy glitched high end drone that cleanses your ears with golden mist before prepping you for another go.
Honestly, there are a lot of things $6 can get you, but I'm pretty sure none of them are as high quality as this tape right here. Limited to 50 hand numbered copies, I'm sure you need this, even if only for that superb John Lennon looking dude praying on the cover art.
Felix Kubin & Jessica Rylan: the deadpan spoken word stuff wasn't especially my kinda thing, but all the crazy electronics, muy amazing, and Jessica's voice, always intense
Felix Kubin & Keith Fullerton Whitman: cosmic cavemen playing Kerplunk, air bubbles popping underwater, malfunctioning retro sci-fi equipment
And the best part of the evening, Kubin did a live score to René Clair’s silent short from 1924, Entr’acte. Totally awesome. But no photos, obviously.
This is one of the many infinitely limited releases that's sold out from the brilliant CD-R label Mystery Sea. Usually only 100 copies of each album, and every goddamn one is a fucking beauty. Tzesne'sCliffs Under The Mist is no different.
You should be able to guess what this sounds like just on the name alone. Super minimal, gorgeous, haunting drone. 3 looong tracks clocking in around 50 minutes total. I think it might be made entirely of field recordings, too. The liner notes don't list any instruments, just various coves from where sounds were gathered. Which is awesome because it doesn't always sound like field recordings, unless there were low flying jets with extra resonant engines that day.
It's called Cliffs Under The Mist but sometimes I get much more of a "cliffs under the sea" kinda feeling from it. It's more rich & dense than I imagined mist would be, and there's a shimmering quality like looking up at the sun from the bottom of the ocean. Not like I think the album is poorly titled. In fact just the opposite. The title is what originally drew me in before I bought it and it still does a good job of getting the point across.
It's all 100% magnificent, if not overtly stunning. It's heavy and intense, moody to the point of being emo (but never ever 'cause emo drone? exactly. never), and so soporifically textured it doesn't matter that it's not the most blissful drone under the sun (or mist (sorry)).
Why it took me 3 years to review this is beyond me. But whatever because now it's sold out and probably never coming back and I'm being a nice guy and sharing it with you all because it deserves to be heard by more than 100 people.
"Crookline" is the latest track from Boston's Ming Ming Dance Co and it's a 9 minute long slow burner jam of the highest awesomeness. They got that new/old psych drone sound everyone loves kinda like Sun Araw, Predator Vision, or Emeralds. But this one's real chill, like a loping burned out blues number. Warped and fucked guitars get their groove on while some synths get all noodly. You can check out similarly crazy hipster-type shit on the free comp this came from, Waaga'sNews.
More awesomeness by way of Western Mass! Bunny's A Swine hail from Northampton, which means I won't get to go out and see them in Boston whenever I want to, but that doesn't stop any of us from gettin down to their fantastically awkward pop rock.
Nothing Bad Will Happen has an unnatural feeling to it and I think it's mostly due to the male vocalist. He's got an abrasive voice similar to Falco from McLusky, and it's always got this discordant sound to it, even if he's in the right key. I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but the one thing I need to get across is that it's not annoying. It might be if it were on its own, but it's paired with a girl singer, and it ends up being just totally fucking magical. A beauty & the beast kinda thing.
The tunes on this are some of the catchiest anti-twee indie rock I've heard since A Faulty Chromosome, although here we have a lot more buzzing walls of guitars and feedback than busted Casios and handclaps. But they fucking rock. This is the stuff I want to blast when I'm done with Pavement or Built To Spill. These are the songs I'm gonna put on mixes for when my friends come over (the friends who aren't really into the weird noise/drone shit I so often listen to) and they're gonna be like "OMG what is this it's fucking great make me a copy i'm gonna put this on my ipod and listen to it everywhere i go and learn all the words and be their biggest fan ever thank you so much justin for turning me on to this amazing stuff." And I'll be their hero.
Honestly, it took me a few listens to really get ahold of what Bunny's A Swine was going for, but their website claims they're "your new favorite band" and while there are a couple of stipulations that go along with that (add a couple of subgenre terms, then we're talking), they're absolutely right. I fucking love these guys. I can't get enough. I just want more and more of their off-kilter rock. PLUSSSS it's all Creative Commons so everyone hop on the remixin train and have a fucking BLAST.
Planning For Burial'sLeaving was available as a free download for quite a while, since sometime last year actually. Despite its shear fucking awesomeness and the dozens of times I've listened to it, Leaving never managed to get any time on AGB. That is absolutely despicable.
Now that it has a supremely packaged physical release on one of the newest/coolest labels, Enemies List (home to Have A Nice Life), I can't ignore the power of Planning For Burial any longer.
It made the rounds a bit on the blogs and stuff so I'm hoping most of you already known what this shit is all about. Hence this review is more for the physical release than the actual music but for those that haven't yet imbibed, let me fill you in. Leaving is quite possibly the most amazing record ever to mix shoegaze, metal, doom, drone, and everything beautifully badass. Seriously epic songs that fill your heart with joy and make your ears fucking bleed. Crank this motherfucker up and let the bliss wash over you while you bang your head. Honestly, just listen to that track up there and tell me that you've ever heard a better song.
Now it's time for everyone to praise Enemies List for bringing the ethereal to this mortal world in the most fantastic way possible. For $10, you get one from an edition of 200 hand numbered copies in an oversized black envelope. Inside there's 3 large black & white cards with images of rooftops & houses & the like which all line up to read "TIMEISNTALWAYSGOOD" (I think) on one side and liner notes on the other. And then there's the CD-R itself, housed in a glossy cardboard sleeve with the art seen above and tracklisting, and the same cherry blossom art is printed on the actual disc. This couldn't be any more fucking perfect.
The Besnard Lakes are a band on the cusp of fame that kind makes me feel I shouldn't really write about them too much on AGB. BUT I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. Thankfully, I have absolutely no problem posting a video of theirs.
"Albatross" comes from their newest ...Are The Roaring Night and is totally single worthy. Superb cinematography, the video is a weird drama noir type thing with a couple of mysterious movie critics and it has the most contextually relevant "found footage" I've yet to see in any music video. And the obligatory sweet climax, like most Besnard Lakes tunes. If you're not listening to them, you should be.
The Russian 2muchachos have a new album called Formanta coming out any minute now on Parallax Sounds. But until that happens, watch this video for one of it's fantastically special tracks, "Northern Sea Ghosts." The song starts out full of ambient hissing noise and unidentifiable percussion, turns into a sad bastard ballad with droning organs and hushed echoing vocals, and finishes in a semi-climax of some really awesome glitchy/IDM type stuff that catches me off guard every time. The video is nicely shot, lots of layered tundra effects, with the obligatory ghostly figures, and a cool "life flashing before your eyes" moment at the end.
North American Family Bond opens with the title track of warped oscillating drone, looped into synth waves with white static caps, and echoing bursts of radiating pulsars. Super fuckin cool and not harsh at all. Pretty chill actually. Then in rolls the "Fog Of Magog" with it's rumbling chaos and twisted squalls of acid. It's like the inside of a steamroller, totally fucking massive. And the vocals are the usual splintering, blown out, wayyyy in the red type stuff.
The B side is a single track, "Gods Bubbles," and I hate to be the lamest dude on the blogs, but I'm getting much more of a Satan's Swamp vibe. Or something like the Bog Of Eternal Stench From Hell. Low end bubble-like throbbing with self contained crusty explosions. You can just tell there's no chance of making it out alive. This shit is going to swallow & digest you whole and then have a fucking dance party to celebrate. "Gods Bubbles" is the inglorious finale to your life and this tape.
Tanzprocesz was kind enough to give North American Family Bond the special treatment. Red case & cassette with a folded super thick tracing paper insert, nicely printed with art that looks like you without your skin plus one of the increasingly trendy triangles.
Have A Nice Life is worth a trip or two to see live. Especially if Alcest is playing right after them. Their set in New Haven was much more tight and polished than it was at their live debut in New York. Cafe Nine was a decent place to see them, although the stage was way off in the corner and it was awkward finding a place to stand (lots of poles and stools and stuff).
The best part about seeing HANL in a bar as opposed to The Stone was there were no fucking seats. Yes, I could stand up and rock the fuck out as much as I want. And trust me, that is the only thing you want to do when HANL is fucking melting amps 2 feet in front of you.
Their "mini-tour" is done and most likely won't be playing any shows for a while. But when they do, you should take a note from Katherine who flew out from Colorado just to see them play in Connecticut. I thought taking a 5 hour bus to NY to see them play and immediately catching the 1 am bus back to Boston was crazy? No way dude, nothing compared to Katherine. That girl is fucking hardcore. Applause!
Out of the 750+ photos I shot, I narrowed it down to less than 20. That means they're all awesome. There's a few here and the rest are on Flickr where you can see 'em bigger & better.
I Want To Review Your Music If you make music and you want it reviewed on my blog, just send me an e-mail. I would love to hear what you're making and give you a little more exposure in the process.
Disclaimer All of the music on this site is for promotional and sampling purposes only. If you enjoy it, please consider buying the record or going to see the band live. They will appreciate it, I promise. If you own the rights to a song on this site and you would like it removed, please contact me and I will do so as quickly as my tiny paws allow.
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