Saturday, September 30, 2017

Korgonthurus - Marras (2009)


Finnish raw depressive black metal. Vast, cold, and without a hint of light.

Track listing:
1. Marraskyyneleet
2. Mustan Usvan Kohdussa

Bleed for the one who will bleed for this world

Also listen to:
Bergrizen -
Autism (2009)
Black Howling -
O Sangue e a Terra (2015)

Friday, September 29, 2017

Ur Draugr - With Hunger Undying (2015)


Australian black metal with occasional death metal elements. An excellent modern embodiment of BM's eternal push and pull between epic and brutal, beautiful and ugly, etc etc.

Track listing:
1. Fertile Crescent
2. Seeds Sown in Famine
3. Rise of the Thaumaturge
4. Solace within Torpor
5. Augur Incarnate (Distended Crown)
6. Cult of the Greatwurm
7. Lethe Drinker
8. With Hunger Undying

Bereft of love for your world
Born with hunger undying


You should also listen to:
Carpe Noctem -
In Terra Profugus (2013)
Tortorum -
Katabasis (2014)

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Remembrance - Fall, Obsidian Night (2010)


Related:
Remembrance - Frail Visions (2005)
Lethian Dreams - Season of Raven Words (2012)

Beautifully sorrowful, keyboard-saturated French funeral doom. This was the Remembrance record that I actually wanted to post last time, but Frail Visions is harder to come by, so I felt a weird sense of responsibility to get it out there, despite Fall, Obsidian Night being the superior record in every way.

Track listing:
1. Ageless Fever
2. Stone Mirrors
3. The Omen
4. Our Memories Are Made of Stones
5. Ice Cold Conscience
6. Winter Tides
7. Obsidian

An ageless pain

More like this:
Omit -
Repose (2011)
Ennui -
Mze Ukunisa (2012)

Hands - Synethesia (2013)


Idiosyncratically hook-y, aughts-style indie rock. Gauzy synths, chiming guitars, semi-yelpy vocals, and busy, colorfully layered arrangements. As I've said before (regarding a different style of music, but still): many, many bands play this style, but Hands are one of the few bands that use the sound as a conduit for cool, interesting songwriting.

Track listing:
1. Trouble
2. Videolove
3. Elegant Road
4. Brave Motion
5. The Game Is Changing Us
6. House of Jars
7. Lonesome Body
8. Kinetic
9. Nothing But Animals
10. Take It All

If I know you

You might also like:
El Guincho - Alegranza (2008)
+ Pop Negro (2010)
Nightlands -
Oak Island (2013)

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Towards Darkness - Solemn (2007)


Canadian funeral doom. Massive guitars, darkly ethereal keyboards and samples, and distorted screams.

Track listing:
1. The Summit
2. Contentment
3. Nine Faces
4. Continuity Error
5. Alone
6. Despair
7. Untitled [hidden track]

Pay for life

You should also listen to:
Pantheist -
O Solitude (2003)
Deos -
Fortitude.Pain.Suffering (2013)

Pitchfork - Eucalyptus (1990)


Related:
Hot Snakes - Automatic Midnight (1990)

An oddly obscure piece of knotty, post-hardcore greatness courtesy of (Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, and Rocket from the Crypt frontman) John Riese -- and the rest of the band, obviously.

Track listing:
1. Burn Pigs Burn
2. Placebo
3. Twitch
4. New Kid
5. Rana (Frogs)
6. Loot
7. Flatland Farming
8. Drop Dead

Graphic detail

Also listen to:
Shudder to Think -
Get Your Goat (1992)
U.S. Maple -
Purple on Time (2003)

black tape for a blue girl - A Chaos of Desire (1991)


Related:
Sam Rosenthal - Before the Buildings Fell (1986)

Ethereal darkwave. Lush swaths of interwoven, textured synths, mournful violins, and dramatic, at times theatrical vocals. Is your cheese-o-meter going to twitch? Sure. But, if I may, I'd encourage you to ease back on your need for disaffected coolness, and simply appreciate the purity of this band's dedication to their explorations of love, heartbreak, self-hate, and mortality. Plus, the synths are super rad.

Track listing:
1. These Fleeting Moments
2. A Chaos of Desire
3. Pandora's Box
4. Tear Love from My Mind
5. The Hypocrite Is Me
6. Beneath the Icy Floe
7. We Watch Our Sad-Eyed Angel Fall
8. One Last Breath
9. One of These Reminders
10. How Can You Forget Love?
11. Chains of Color
12. Could I Stay the Honest One?

Shine shattered lights into my eyes

You should also listen to:
Dark Sanctuary -
Royaume Mélancolique (1999)
Halgrath -
Liquid Mind (2010)

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Count Raven - High on Infinity (1993)


Old-school Swedish traditional doom of the highest order. 75% Sabbath + 25% Candlemass = 100% badass.

Track listing:
1. Jen
2. Children's Holocaust
3. In Honour
4. The Madman from Waco
5. Masters of All Evil
6. Ode to Rebecca
7. High on Infinity
8. An Ordinary Loser
9. Traitor
10. The Dance
11. The Coming
12. Lost World
13. Cosmos

Drop out of society
Leave it all and follow me


If you like this, try:
Trouble -
Run to the Light (1987)
Serpent Venom -
Carnal Altar (2011)

David Bowie - Liveandwell.com (2000)


So David Bowie is my all-time favorite artist, bar-none. He to me represents all that is good about music. If I were to list my top 20 albums, it'd be pretty boring cause there'd be at least five Bowie records in there (Aladdin Sane, Station to Station, Low, "Heroes", and Blackstar.) He is the only celebrity whose death actually sent me into mourning. Like, I cried, listened to nothing but his music, and was bummed about it for literally months afterwards. During this time, I also became utterly obsessed with Blackstar, and annoyed everyone around me by listening to it and watching its associated music videos at every opportunity.

This is all to say that I am almost too familiar with his discography, so coming across a great Bowie record that I haven't already heard is pretty goddamn rare. But that's exactly what recently happened with Liveandwell.com, a live (duh) album, recorded in 1997, that was only ever made available to BowieNet subscribers. (There's a four-track bonus disc, too, but the live part's the focus for sure.)

Half of the tracks are from Earthling, the album for which he was touring at the time Liveandwell.com was recorded. And though Earthling's dated electro production make it one of my least favorite Bowie records (meaning that I just really like it, as opposed to loving it), the problem was never with the songs, and the full-band approach and live setting really help them out -- they're fleshier, jazzier, and just more fun.

The other five tracks are from 1. Outside, a labyrinthine concept album written and recorded with the aid of Brian Eno and released 22 years ago yesterday [EDIT: I meant to post this yesterday and that originally read "today" but I am dumb]. Misunderstood at the time of its release, the years have been quite kind to 1. Outside, as now most Bowie fans recognize it for the knotty masterpiece that it is, especially in light of its dark, jazz- and electro-heavy sound representing the only clear antecedent to Blackstar in Bowie's discography. Just don't ask me what the story's about. Something about a murder, a minotaur, "interest drugs," and someone named Judy? It's like Lost Highway -- the soundtrack to which, incidentally, included "I'm Deranged" -- the closer you get to understanding, the surer you become that you will never understand.

Welp, that's what happens when I start in on Bowie, I guess. I end up with the longest writeup I've ever done on here, for a 10-track live album. Hope it was worth it!

Track listing:
1. I'm Afraid of Americans
2. The Heart's Filthy Lesson
3. I'm Deranged
4. Hallo Spaceboy
5. Telling Lies
6. The Motel
7. The Voyeur of Utter Destruction (As Beauty)
8. Battle for Britain
9. Seven Years in Tibet
10. Little Wonder
-Bonus Disc-
1. Fun (Dillinja Mix)
2. Little Wonder (Sanny Saber Dance Mix)
3. Dead Man Walking (Moby Mix 1)
4. Telling Lies (Paradox Mix)

Now, not tomorrow

Also of interest:
Gary Numan -
Living Ornaments '79 and '80 (1981)
Visage -
Visage (1980)

Chaos U.K. - Chaos U.K. (1983)


Classic debut of harsh, noise-addled street punk from Chaos U.K. One of my all-time favorite punk records. I'm particularly fond of the dark, rhythm section-heavy "The End Is Nigh" and "Victimized". I also blame this LP for my pretending to like -- and subsequently drinking way too much -- Woodchuck cider, for about six months when I was 16.

Track listing:
1. Selfish Few
2. Fashion Change
3. You'll Never Own Me (False Prophets)
4. The End Is Nigh
5. Victimized
6. Parental Love
7. Leech
8. Chaos
9. Mentally Insane
10. Urban Guerilla
11. Farmyard Boogie
12. No Security
13. What About a Future
14. Hypocrite

It's cold outside, it's cold outside

You might also like:
Rudimentary Peni -
Four EPs
H.D.Q. -
Hung, Drawn and Quartered (1985)

Monday, September 25, 2017

Paper Garden - Paper Garden (1969)


A first-rate lost gem of 60s psychedelia. Colorful and ornate -- at times to the point of cacophony -- but with tinges of darkness and paranoia lurking in the peripherals. What Sgt. Pepper's might have sounded like if The Beatles didn't have all that money and spent more time doing all the drugs that they were so fond of namedropping.

Track listing:
1. Gypsy Wine
2. Sunshine People
3. Way Up High
4. Lady's Man
5. Mr. Mortimer
6. Man Do You
7. Raining
8. I Hide
9. Raven
10. A Day

How I hate to go to bed

You would probably also like:
Gary Lewis -
Listen! (1967)
The Five Day Week Straw People -
The Five Day Week Straw People (1968)

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Paranoid - Hardcore Addict (2012) + Destroy Future Less System (2014)


Swedish raw d-beat annihilation. Gnarly-as-fuck tones, sick riffs, a redlining mixdown, and a whole lotta feedback.

Track listing:
-Hardcore Addict-
1. To Whom It May Concern
2. Never Existing
3. Af-Raid of Life
4. Shitstorm
5. Illusions
6. High-Tech Future
-Destroy Future Less System-
1. 生、被害妄想、死
2. 盲目願望
3. 世界的核破壊
4. 悪循環
5. 腐敗と強欲

End my life



You would also dig:
Gloom -
撲殺精神破綻者 (2003)
D-Clone -
Creation and Destroy (2013)

Mourning Beloveth - The Sullen Sulcus (2003)


Irish doom royalty. Melodic and crushing -- emotionally and sonically -- with a trance-like pull that only grows stronger as the album progresses.

Track listing:
1. The Words That Crawled
2. It Almost Looked Human
3. The Insolent Caul
4. Narcissistic Funeral
5. My Sullen Sulcus
6. Anger's Steaming Arrows

The knotted despair of a ravaged corpse

More along these lines:
The Slow Death -
The Slow Death (2008)
The Fall of Every Season -
Amends (2013)

Saturday, September 23, 2017

Ben Klock - One (2009)


First-rate minimal techno by German producer Ben Klock. How do people dance to such anxious-sounding music? If I got my heart-rate up AND these aural anxiety attacks were blasting out of the speakers -- in a dark room full of other sweaty, gyrating people, no less -- I'd probably have a goddamn heart attack.

Track listing:
1. Coney Island
2. Gooldy Sin (feat. Elif Biçer)
3. Check for Pulse
4. Underneath
5. Gloaming
6. Init One
7. Cargo
8. OK (feat. Elif Biçer)
9. In a While
10. Init Two
11. Gold Rush
12. Grip
13. Thirteen Rounds

No money

Also listen to:
Ellen Allien -
Stadtkind (2001)
Lawrence -
Lawrence (2002)

Jocelyn Montgomery with David Lynch - Lux Vivens (The Music of Hildegard von Bingen) (1998)


Related:
Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night (1989) + The Voice of Love (1993)
Chrysta Bell - This Train (2011)

Haunting, centuries-old vocal works sung with reverence and grace by UK musician Jocelyn Montgomery, and accompanied by cavernous dark ambience, lush strings, and more, courtesy of one Mr. David Lynch.

Track listing:
1. Flame and Vision
2. Sapientie
3. O Tu Illustrata
4. Et Ideo
5. Viridissima
6. Battle and Aftermath
7. Gloria Patri
8. Lux Vivens
9. Deus Enim
10. Clarissima
11. Orzchis
12. Caritas
13. Kyrie
14. Hodie
15. Alleluia

Imprisoned in flesh

You should also hear:
Jocelyn Pook -
Deluge (1997)
Lisa Gerrard & Patrick Cassidy -
Immortal Memory (2004)

Friday, September 22, 2017

Vallendusk - Black Clouds Gathering (2013)


Indonesian atmospheric black metal with post-rock elements. Sorrowful, epic, and beautiful, but not too beautiful -- like, you're not gonna forget that you're listening to a black metal record.

Track listing:
1. Fragments of Light
2. To Wander and Beyond
3. Shades of Grey
4. Into the Mist
5. Among the Giants
6. Realms of the Elder
7. Land of the Lurking Twilight

Over moor and mountain, forest and land, soaring over
Vast expanses of nothingness, a solitary figure against the endless sky
Into the never-ending grasses that move like a thousand hands waving
We came in colors of every shade


More along these lines:
Ardour Loom -
Demo (2014)
Felix Axemo -
Den Lycklige (2016)

The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One (1999)


Related:
The Apples in Stereo - Science Faire (1996)
Elf Power - The Winter Is Coming (2000)
The Gerbils - The Battle of Electricity (2001)
Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't - Individualized Shirts (2001)

Essential 90s indie psych pop. A colorful, dizzying sound-journey through a world of Beatles/Beach Boys-style pop, as refracted through a kaleidoscope then recorded onto a four-track. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea aside, Black Foliage is the quintessential Elephant 6 record, and one of my all-time favorite albums.

Track listing:
1. Opening
2. A Peculiar Noise Called "Train Director"
3. Combinations
4. Hideaway
5. Black Foliage: Animation 1
6. Combinations
7. The Sky Is a Harpsichord Canvas
8. A Sleepy Company
9. Grass Canons
10. A New Day
11. Combinations
12. Black Foliage: Animation 2
13. I Have Been Floated
14. Paranormal Echoes
15. Black Foliage: Animation 3
16. A Place We Have Been To
17. Black Foliage (Itself)
18. The Sylvan Screen
19. The Bark and Below It
20. Black Foliage: Animation 4
21. California Demise 3
22. Looking for Quiet Seeds
23. Combinations
24. Mystery
25. Another Set of Bees in the Museum
26. Black Foliage: Animation 5
27. Hilltop Procession (Momentum Gaining)

In the blink of an eye, you get several meanings

You should also be listening to:
Bongwater -
The Power of Pussy (1990)
The Boo Radleys -
Giant Steps (1993)