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Yeah, go for it, man. Take as much as you'd like.

Recent spins:

Throbbing Gristle -- Part Two: The Endless Not
Arve Henriksen -- Strjon
Björk -- Volta
Secht -- True Narcotic Black Metal
Taiga Remains -- Crushed Radiant Deities
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By the way, all of you guys who were excited about Year Zero probably ought to seek out this new Björk (which has been leaked). I'm quite pleased. Not because it's got anything specifically to do with Year Zero or NIN, but in the same way that I felt that record was a huge improvement/recovery from With Teeth, so is Volta from the rather dull Medúlla. (Though I guess it could be said that like the better NIN albums are the result of the collective efforts of many artists more talented than Reznor himself, it's much the same with Volta and Björk.) And yes, Brian Chippendale of Lightning Bolt is involved, drumming on the track "Vertebrae by Vertebrae" (formerly titled "Energy") if I'm not mistaken.

"Declare Independence" is an ass-kicking stunner not quite like anything she's done before.

Also, I am listening to tons of CIRCLE today.
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This Koch-Schütz-Studer is really nice, simplicio, and it makes me think you'd love Supersilent. Have you heard much Supersilent yet? If not, I'd recommend 6 most of all.

EDIT: Ah, nevermind --- I just remembered how you bought most/all of the Rune Grammofon catalogue a while back. Everyone else can consider this a recommendation!

"6.2" always reminds me of Ghost in the Shell.
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Hey, could anyone extend me an invitation to this OiNK site that all the cool kids talk about? I've been told that they have a rip of Maja Ratkje's Stalker LP...
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Hey, Patsy, I saw your message on slsk (I think I was out to dinner or something). I had BaronPatsy on my list, which is the name you gave me before, and you messaged me from Baron Patsy --- which is why you only had access to my AMT and Boris files (that's all I have shared with everyone, while all the other stuff is only for those on my list). If you still want to know what to start with, though, I'll be glad to suggest some things. Actually, this reminds me that I was supposed to write up an AMT primer a while ago... I'll have to get on that. Though I've got to admit the thought of such a thing is a bit daunting.

Anyway, for AMT I'll recommend the album that I started with as your first: Univers Zen Ou de Zéro à Zéro. It's more or less the most well-rounded example of the Cotton Casino era of the first (however amorphous) incarnation of the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. If, after that, you want more heavy-rocking meltdowns, you could check out the Mainliner LP Mellow Out (where Kawabata Makoto got started before forming AMT) or AMT's Electric Heavyland. For something more mellifluous, grab Mantra of Love, which was the last full album to include Cotton Casino on vocals --- her departure marked the beginning of a period of confusion for the band until Makoto decided to lay the Melting Paraiso to rest and rechristen the band Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno, complete with new members (guys from Ghost and White Heaven, etc). I think that although this was certainly the end of an era (I adore Cotton's singing, and the aforementioned albums are some of my favorites), this new band had a different sense of focus and fiery passion. It was this incarnation that I got to see live in '05, shortly after the release of the fucking awesome IAO Chant from the Cosmic Inferno (an extended, volcanic-erupting version of Gong's "Master Builder" riff) and just before the almost unusually (however perfectly) doomy Starless and Bible Black Sabbath. This was the more METAL of the two incarnations of AMT, you see, though they were in no way letting go of the hypnotic riff machine that is and will forever be Acid Mothers Temple. Any way, some time last year there was a convergence of both incarnations and they once again became AMT and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., though Cotton was still missing (the girls of Afrirampo sang and played with them for a time and now there's ... some other girl?). The best thing that's come of this so far has been the Have You Seen the Other Side of the Sky? LP. Other than that, Myth of the Love Electrique, and a whole slew of reissues it seems like they've slowed down a bit. Or Makoto is just focusing more on his solo work (which is a whole other thing to get into (my AMT folder is barely even a fraction of all the material this entire collective has cranked out))...

Um. Well, I suppose that's a bit of a primer right there. Or at least the outline for one.

Boris is a bit easier. If you want something to open your head and pour in molten, crackling lava, grab Absolutego, Flood, or perhaps Vein. For something more accessible, well-rounded and rocking, you've got Akuma no Uta, Heavy Rocks, Pink, etc. And Feedbacker pretty much the ultimate do-everything Boris record. Of course, that'd be forgetting Amplifier Worship... Honestly, just pick something and dive in. I really don't think you can go wrong. I mean, of course. Actually, hey --- you liked Sunn O))), right? Did you listen to Altar? That'd probably make a hell of a lot of sense as a way of working back to the main body of Boris's output, if you haven't heard it already.
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So I'm listening to the new Melt-Banana, Bambi's Dilemma. I don't listen to this band on record very often, but they're one of those bands that you've fucking GOT to see when they come through your town. This record seems to do a better job of capturing the feel of their shows than most of their past studio output has. These guys really strike me as a band almost tailor-made for these forums, at least in my own mind. Japanese noise metal, sweet pop melodies (they describe themselves as pop music, you see) and fucking spastic blastbeats with super-cute vocals.

"We are Melt-Banana from Tokyo, Japan!"
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Yeah, I really couldn't care less about what typically qualifies as "indie rap" outside of MF Doom, though that Edan album The Beauty and the Beat from a couple of years ago was sort of OK, and yeah, I like Cannibal Ox and DJ Shadow's first record. People seem to make the mistake of qualifying Clipse as "indie rap" at times (because they're somehow cool with the Pitchfork crowd), but that's not quite right.

I just hope Raekwon's new one and the Wu-Tang Clan's 8 Diagrams (rumored title) make it out this summer.

Mr Mustache, like I was saying I think Melt-Banana are generally pretty disappointing on record compared to what they're like live, but this new one is kinda fun. I'll probably give it a few more spins.

And yeah, Joe --- cute like a Hello Kitty dagger in your ear is about right.
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I think some of you guys who love your jazz might appreciate this new Nostalgia 77 album, Everything Under the Sun. Apparently the main guy in the group wanted lean more heavily on the emotional aspect of jazz rather than the technical, creating something between Charles Mingus and Portishead (he claims). I suppose that's a fair enough description --- it's warm, lush, and funky, with subtle flourishes of earthy psychedelia. The lovely cover suits it very well:


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HIGASHI.

Man, I envy you. I haven't seen 'em in a couple of years now, and I couldn't see them in Detroit or Chicago on Friday or Saturday night because of work. Guh.

I wonder what they'll play. Maybe something from one of their new records (I was wrong; they haven't slowed down at all). Almost definitely some form of "Pink Lady Lemonade".

Have fun!
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Velvet Cacoon are quite a strange band; a mirror facing a mirror with a dense fog being their only reflections, reality blotted out. So it happened it was revealed late last year that their lovely dreampop EP Dizzy from Eternity was actually Clicks & Hisses by a band called My Violent Ego (scroll down to the post mentioning VC), and the demo How the Last Day Came and Stayed Then Faded Into Simulated Rain was actually Shipwrecks & Russian Roulette by Miranda Lehman aka Korouva. Of course, this wasn't the first hit on their credibility, though it was by far the most damning. Before that they'd admitted their claimed 'ecofascist' beliefs and other bits of information they'd been spreading around the internet were nothing but a false facade, and that they were simply parodying the black metal scene and black metal internet forums in particular. However, it remained that their own records like Genevieve were genuine and sincere expressions of their supposedly true asexual/artistic eccentricities, their fascination with DXM and 4th plateau trips, etc. Interviews revealed a sort of aloofness and pretension so severe that it all seemed almost unbelievable, like another layer of unreality even richer and more confounding than the 'ecofascism' thing, but just believable enough to be fascinating and mystifying -- possibly the exact result they were aiming for. Possibly the simple and absurd truth.

Rumors of a new album called P aa Opal Poere pr. 33 started a while ago, and for quite a long time even the website of their record label Full Moon Productions contained mentions of the upcoming album, but by now they've pretty much confirmed that it'll never be recorded and they're leaving the stage with a two-disc remaster of Dextronaut, their debut.


Angela, aka LVG

Whatever the truth is about who they are, Genevieve in particular remains a sublime minimal black metal/ambient record and they deserve credit for at least that much even if they deny it. As one with an acute appreciation for the wonder of mystery and unreality (not to mention their subversion of the black metal genre (if nothing else they're commendable for releasing such excellent records without leaning on a generic 'grim and true' image)), whether all of their eccentricities are elaborate fabrications or the absolute truth, none of it really matters, and I appreciate them for indulging me with some good music (even that which wasn't their own) and such a strange aesthetic. It's fun to speculate, but what it all comes down to, of course, is the music.

You can read some interesting things here.

"There is no reason. No rhyme, no reason. There is no point to any of it. If you're looking for a plot line, a climax, a theme, a reason, you won't find it. We are random and without cause. Up is down, left is right. Drugs are good and drugs are bad, and the only thing we stand for is this: everything is pointless. You don't matter, this doesn't matter. Stop thinking. For once, just stop. Just enjoy the moment. It's better this way.

We're random people who think the world and life/humans are amazing. [Note: they also claim they're asexual because people are nothing but "little grunting meats".] We're laughing in our amazement of everything, and in very brief moments (and I'm talking MICROSCOPIC whisps of time) when we stop laughing for a moment and sober up, we create music that is symbolic of life in its entirety. Absurd, pointless, and mesmerizing.

That's what Genevieve is. It's what PaoPP.33 [which doesn't seem to exist] is. Perhaps the only two records in the world made where everything from the outside world is voided out.

Are we crazy? Bi-polar? MPD? Does it even matter? The entire world is crazy. 'Normal' is an illusion. The only thought that is really constant in my mind is that I love absolutely everything about life. Relax, we know everything now. It's over."

"We only treat the world like a puppet because we know how to. The puppet enjoys feeling alive."


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I'm really into Raccoo-oo-oon right now. Check 'em out if you enjoy Gang Gang Dance, Bardo Pond, etc. -- something between Wolf Eyes and Animal Collective, maybe? Nice sparkling gobs of free jazz color and texture throughout, when they're not being grim and dirty almost to the point of black metal. I'm still exploring their wealth of output (which can be a bit uneven, quality-wise (and they've released countless cassettes)), but Behold Secret Kingdom is one I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.


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OK.
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Just got a cool email from Aquarius Records, if anyone's interested:

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O)))
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Anyone (with a last.fm account) who wants to make me happy and do the right thing, please go here and bombard the real Ghost pictures with YES votes. I want to push that visual kei shit out of there. It's a disgrace.

These two are especially nice:



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By request!

I'll have another on the way, probably tomorrow.
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:/

I pretty much choose to ignore Jesu lyrics, admittedly, but then I don't generally pay much attention to lyrics in any music. It's the rest of it that interests me. Or rather, the lyrics are just something to check out peripherally, if they interest me. From what I've picked up on, though, yeah, the lyrics on Conqueror are pretty terrible — certainly much worse than anything from previous releases, but Justin's not known for his poetic talents. He makes good music. (The new Sundown/Sunrise 12" is much better than Conqueror, too.)
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You don't need to convince me about the lyrics, but I'm gonna have to go ahead and say you're not even listening if you don't hear the texture in the guitars (or everything else going on) in these songs. Yeah, it's a more languid texture and vibe than most Boris, but I like that. On my LJ I wrote, "Conqueror is a progression from earlier Jesu, favoring even more shoegazey textures and melodies, and guitars that don't grind so much as they scrape along somewhere between dreary bleakness and shimmery hope; sunlight filtered through urban decay." Nope, no blue skies there. Maybe seen through a dirty screen or something, yeah, but. There's something there that I get the impression you're simply not seeing.

I've never, ever had a problem with repetition in music, either. My favorite genres are some of the most repetitious of all, aside from the improv-based stuff — though even that includes a lot of repetition.

Anyway, I'm not trying to convince you or anything, but I think you're wrong (about the music). Could be I hear it differently having been a longtime Godflesh fan — and our tastes are are as different as they are similar, if not more — so. I do wonder if you've ever listened to any other Jesu, though. I enjoy Conqueror, but you'd probably find more to like in the Silver EP. Maybe.
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I've been trying to upload Behold Secret Kingdom, actually, but sendspace and megaupload keep hanging on me halfway through uploads and it's becoming quite irritating. I'll try again later — and maybe do that one, too.
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Well, you may remember that I wasn't too impressed with it initially, and it took a few listens for it to grow on me. I still do prefer just about any Jesu release, but yes, I suppose there is an element of personal bias in play here.

Oddly enough, the first two tracks on the record are my favorites.

As for the drums just being there for the sake of having drums, well, yeah. Have you ever heard any Godflesh? The whole basis of that project was brutal drum machine ecstasy with uncomfortably grinding guitars — fairly obviously, traces of grindcore (Broadrick was in Napalm Death first, you know) combined with a love of hip-hop and industrial. Jesu utilizes drum machines on and off, still, but even with a live drummer the approach is still very much the same. I find it simply satisfying. The drums are the core. The veneer is the texture wrapped around it.

It's kind of like, you know, grind, death, and black metal with blastbeats. I imagine you might have similar feelings about that sort of thing.

On that note, I thought I'd throw this up here (pasted from my LJ) if anyone cares:



So Dead as Dreams was all we ever really got from Weakling. They managed to sink their claws into the edge of the cliff of the best shit, that sought-after majestic obscurity, but never gave themselves the chance to pull up and beyond that with a second album, according to Gossard himself. (Though in my opinion the one record we got is pretty well up there.) "It's a personal flaw of mine never to want to stick around long enough to see if that's gonna happen. Everything I love artistically in music is guaranteed to fail by the second to third album." Hey, even Asunder made it to a second album, along with a split EP or two. Well, that's alright.

Anyway, I just wanted to share a couple of things: the live demo and rehearsal recordings, pre-Dead as Dreams and sans vocals (thought it sounds like you can hear someone shouting without a mic at points). Talk about sketchy! Nevertheless, if you love Weakling half as much as I do you'll want to hear these. It's not another album, but it's something!

Also: thanks, chompers!
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Not yet, but I just (y)oinked it!
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Speaking of Lisa Gerrard (in the movie thread), I'm almost astonished at how good her latest record, The Silver Tree, is in its best moments. There are still a few slight pitfalls of trite movie-music (she did the soundtrack to The Passion of the Christ, after all), "ethnic" music, and a sort of dated trip-hop vibe on one track, but the bulk of it is tasteful dark ambient with her voice providing warmth and color. It's nothing as cosmically sublime as the first three or four Dead Can Dance albums — nothing is — but it's the nicest thing she's done in years.
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No wonder I haven't seen any notifications for this thread! The name was changed.



This is GALLHAMMER. They're a trio of young ladies from Tokyo who play crusty black/doom, and they are fucking METAL. They've released a bunch of demos and one album entitled Gloomy Lights, which were compiled as a sort of best of/primer release from Peaceville called The Dawn of... It's somewhat uneven as a result, with the first two tracks probably being the best (and some outstanding moments scattered afterward), but it's a promising start for a young band, and good fun if some girls doing their Hellhammer/Amebix influences proud sounds like something you'd want to hear.

"Speed of Blood"
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Oh, I've also (finally) been listening to the new Tujiko Noriko, Solo, and I love it.
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IS THIS THING ON

Hey, guys, we're halfway through the year. What are your favorite records of the year so far?

HERE ARE MINE

Sigh — Hangman's Hymn
Rollo — Pinhole
Ghost — In Stormy Nights [whatever anyone says about this record as a whole it's bookended by two wonderful songs]
Merzbow — Coma Berenices
Boredoms — Super Roots 9
Growing — Vision Swim
Nadja — Corrasion [re-recording]
Sunn O))) — Oracle
Earth — Hibernaculum
Khlyst — Chaos is My Name
Mayhem — Ordo ad Chao
Furze — UTD
Rakhim — Crimson Umbrella
Circle/Verde — Tower
Arve Henriksen — Strjon
Taiga Remains — Crushed Radiant Deities
Grouper — Cover Windows and Walls
Colleen — Les Ondes Silencieuses
Tujiko Noriko — Solo
Fennesz & Sakamoto — Cendre
Throbbing Gristle — Part Two: The Endless Not
Einstürzende Neubauten — Musterhaus 8: Weingeister
Gang Gang Dance — Retina Riddim
Raccoo-oo-oon — Behold Secret Kingdom
Koch-Schütz-Studer — Tales from 30 Unintentional Nights
Basil Kirchin — Particles
Flower-Corsano Duo — The Radiant Mirror
Midnite Snake — Shaving the Angel

Ruins of Beverast — Rain Upon the Impure [though it's actually a late 2006 record]
Drudkh — Blood in Our Wells [ditto]
Nachtmystium — Instinct: Decay [ditto again]

I do like the new Jesu stuff, too. The new Finntroll is OK, I guess, but it's been totally eclipsed by the new Sigh. And there's a load of new AMT, but, uh... I must admit I'm kind of AMT'd-out for the time being. There are some other good things from Björk, Wolf Eyes, and many others. Lots of good music! Maybe I'll try to narrow my list down to ten or twenty by the end of the year...

I'm also looking forward to the new Drudkh and Darkthrone records. And the new Wu-Tang Clan; maybe it will remind me that I like rap.
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I don't have a lot of time for discussion right now because I'm getting ready to move to Portland — leaving tomorrow morning! — but here's a little list of some things I've been listening to (mostly black metal in various flavors, and a few other things (psyche, doom, drone, the usual)):

Sigh — Hangman's Hymn
Drudkh — Estrangement
Alcest — Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde
Darkthrone — NWOBlackHM EP
Wolves in the Throne Room — Two Hunters
The Angels of Light — We Are Him
Damon & Naomi — Within These Walls
Six Organs of Admittance — Manifestation
Comets on Fire — Avatar
Om — Pilgrimage
various — Jukebox Buddha

Trying to find the new Circle, Katapult (hint!).

Can't wait to see a bunch of music in Portland very soon after I arrive! WITTR, High on Fire (w/ Mono), Jesu (w/ Sunn O))) and Eluvium), fuckin' BORIS (w/ Damon & Naomi feat. Michio Kurihara on guitar! and Jackie-O Motherfucker), etc. Anyone going to those? Or anything else?

Sorry about the absence; nice to know I was missed! I'll be around a bit more very soon, and I'll try to contribute more than just lists.
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spin it

If you like black metal, get this. If you like psychedelic music, get this. If you like both, duh? Circle say it's what they'd imagine black metal from the '60s to sound like, and it's fucking sweet. It's more like a 'true black metal' record than they've done yet, but with fun kraut-y weirdness and some David Bowie-esque vocals. I've been listening to it over and over.

I'm seeing Boris (again) in a couple of days. Stoked! Coming up not long after that: High On Fire, Mono, Wolves in the Throne Room, etc.
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For the last few months my most listened record has been the Swedish death metal classic by Dismember, Like an Everflowing Stream.



The cover still reminds me of that waterfall stage in Ninja Gaiden II.

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And then there was Witchtanic Hellucinations by Acid Witch, which came just in time for Halloween.



Good & groovy doom metal echoing kraut/psych weirdness of the '70s.

If you like the one above, have another.

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So apparently Marty Friedman, guitarist of Megadeth, is a pop sensation in Japan. I did not know this.



That is the video for his "Death Panda" character, with vocals by 40-some teenage girls, or something.

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http://www.last.fm/music/Bumzur
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Oh my god that is a tragedy. "Tornado of Souls" is a fucking classic thrash tune. Or it was...

Shit, it's been a few years since I put on Things Viral, but is it just me or does "Too Close Enough To Touch" sound a little bit different there? Interesting. Gonna have to put that album on again. I always preferred Khanate's eponymous record, so maybe I'm just not remembering it very clearly. I got so fed up being inundated with all the junk those Southern Lord guys started churning out and have kind of avoided them for a couple of years or so now (I think the last thing I actually bought was Altar), but those first two Khanate records were pretty fucking excellent.

I'll have to look into this, but are Khanate back together? Or is this upcoming release I've heard about just something old?
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Khanate's finest achievement:


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Actually, for more straight-up drone, if you're going to go the route of Sunn O))), I would recommend grabbing Flight of the Behemoth first of all.

People are too quick to refer to Sunn O))) when the subject of drone comes up, though, because (frankly, I think) that's all they really know. Listen to some John Cale, Alvin Lucier, and early Coil before you get into the newer stuff. Hell, even grab some Indian rāga, gamelan, or Scottish bagpipe compilations so you know where this shit is coming from. And then before you return to the Sunn O))), yes, go to Earth.
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