My thoughts on Jamie Stewarts' experimental art vehicle range from respect to love to wishing he would stop fucking around and write songs as great as what was on "Dear God I Hate Myself". The opening track of this album finds them engaged in a hushed Lynchian ambiance. I do not ask more from them than what the second song delivers. I never ask for the weird to be compromised, I just want a song. "Maestro One Chord" brings this with electronic beats creating an anxious groove, and the vocals mutter in the background. There is more of a rock feel to "Common Loon" with a hefty bass line to give some drive to things.
They get weirder on "Pale Flower" which sounds like an audiobook of a John Carpenter screenplay narrated by John Waters. It does have enough dynamic shifts to work. The key to these explorations in music as art, lies in "Veneficium" as the hint of prog rock powers the song's groove, creating a balance this album needs to prove they are not just fucking around making odd dissonant sounds, but legit musicians capable of playing their instruments. Even someone like me who has been following this band for the past 15 years, needs to be reminded of this instead of being immersed in what is a brand just like an avant-garde director like David Lynch has branded his own sense of weirdness. This carries over into "Sleep Blvd". They wander back out into the land of abrasive sonic oddities that is "T.D.F.TW". This song is more effective since the listener was just given the taste of songs more grounded in melody.
They are still willing to take things to the other side of the more noisy minimalist side of the spectrum for a song like the trippy swathe of free jazz-like ambiance that is "Bobby Bland". The album closes with "Pina, Coconut and Cherry". This song takes you into a dream state of abstraction. Electronic sounds blip and beep with no form or function aside from the drum beat from a 90s Casio keyboard. Stewart's vocals sound like he managed to capture a nervous breakdown in the studio. This still very much is in line with what this project does, so I can go with the flow on it since they have already given me the actual songs I need from them, you just gotta get this noisy shit out of your system sometimes to have your creative vision realized, this album finds the balance I will give it a 9.
I am not sure people are ok with Ghost and Baby Metal , but have a problem with Poppy, the first song owes more to the Beach Boys than Meshuggah. The metal it does pull from seems to be the more tech djent like. Though the producer who is the real star real nailed the Queen guitar sound. Acts like Issues and In this Moment come to mind when it comes to the title track. This album also makrs her final working with Titanic Sinclair a inter net music personality. The two had a falling out. " Blood Money" has elements of dub step and hip hop mixed into the industrial strength nu metal . It is more abrasive than pop. My 9 year old daughter says "It's like angel sometimes and sometimes it's the devil" .
She has more in common with St. Vincent than the kind of pop that is on the radio. Sometimes she gets preoccupied with a sound more than the song. Other times she shine some song writing chops like on "Fill the Crown" which also has a lower male vocal that sounds like Marilyn Manson.There are no other credits for it so it must be Sinclair. The breezy ballad "Nothing I Need" finds her pretty much on cruise control. Her more electronic elements are fine with me. I would not say they are dancey, and there are more interesting sounds than some of the rock ones she uses where the layering of guitar is weird. Vocally she seems to be more versatile than Billie Ellish, though her songs are not centered around the kind of hooks that gives Ellish her appeal. She does employ a jarring almost Mr. Bungle like shift from styles .
Of the prettier more straight forward sounds she conjures I think I like what goes down on " Sick of the Sun" best. It has some shoe gaze qualities.The album closes with another more straight forward ballad that starts off not as solid as the previous song. It does eventual build up and works in a more rock dynamic. I will give this album an 8.5, uneven from a song writing perspective , but I appreciate what she is doing here.
Here is a band I have paid attention to for some time.Toby Driver is the main creative force behind it. I would say I have a serious appreciation for them. They are like a more avant garde version of Leprous. Their previous album was darker. This time around we find them after they have obviously smoked a shit ton of weed. The opener eventually gets darker and more emotive as it builds, It has more of a shimmer to it.The second song carries more movement with the busier patter of the drums. The vocals are less over wrought and smoother. Not that the delivery on the previous song had anything wrong with them. There are metal elements but I would not say this is a particularly metal album, though it will appeal to metal fans.
There are some really cool guitar tones. The clean ones are crisper and have more depth than when they try to bring the crunch. There are some vocals tones as well as guitar tones that touch up[on the kind of post-punk that is often called goth. "Lost Souls on Lonesome's Way" is more proggy, yet not as urgently pulling you in as the first few songs. There is a guitar solos that breaks out, but the song as a whole doesn't grip me as urgently. There is a more delicate touch to "Vanishing Act in Blinding Gray". It does build in a quirky manner that takes the song in a more dissonant progressive direction not unlike Belew era King Crimson. This vibe carries over into the song that follows it as well. I prefer the darker touches to "Midnight Mystic Rise and Fall:". At time the emotive vocal inflections remind me or Robert Smith or Rozz Williams.
"An Eye For a Lie" sounds almost like the new trap music version of Liturgy. The vocals are better though. It is as angular as a Frank Zappa song. The song floats off into a kind of atmosphere that sounds like what the album cover looks like. The title track this album ends with is pretty dramatic , but falls more in line with what your typical progressive rock band might do in 2019, just without the excessive guitar solos. If you like the idea of progressive rock , but do not like guitar solos then that is even more reason to check this album out. I will give this album a 9, it's easy just to leave on and let play.
Considering that Bowie is the single most important artist that ever touched my life, how can I not review one of his albums. Its obvious why I had to review this one for this series. This is the last of the Berlin trilogy and I am not going to get into Brian Eno's weird Oblique Strategies card game that they use to break creative blocks while making this album.While all the hipsters at the coffee shop only listen to the avant garde trilogy created during Bowie's coke binge, truth be told him and Brian Eno are the original hipsters. Of the albums from this era this is the one I have spent the least time with. So it's like rediscovering it.
He croons that he doesn't want to live with somebody else's depression. He hits a really beautiful note a minute and a half into this one. It has a smooth sway and swagger to create a stranger dynamic considering the weirdness to come. It's his classic post Ziggy band with Carlos Alomar on guitar, Dennis Davis on drums and Dennis Davis on bass. They were supplemented by Brian Eno and Adrian Belew. "African Nght Flight " is well done for the kind of experimentation they were going for here, as he beat Peter Gabriel to the punch when it came to dabbling in world music. I think "Move On" is a better song, and truth be told Bowie is my favorite singer so I want to hear songs that are going to make the most off his voice. He has the lower more distinct baritone croon on this one.
"Yassassin" is one of Bowie's best and most unique songs with its Middle Eastern feel. It show Bowie can be as weird and wacky as he wants and still make a great song. "Red Sails" is upbeat art rock with a groove. It's an interesting song though not as good as "Yassassin" , but probably better than anything your favorite band has ever done. "DJ" has more funk and Bowie is singing his ass off on so what else do we need? A the song progresses you can hear the weirdness dripping off the edges. Another clss and the song I named this column after "Look Back In Anger". This song has a great deal of drive and is one of drummer Dennis Davis' most impressive performances. "Boys Keep Swinging" always seems like a gay anthem to me, its a great song. "Repetition" is not Bowie's most inspired moment but you can hear where the seed for Tin Machine were planted here. It ends with "Red Money" which sounds like it could almost be left over from "Scary Monsters". So marginally darker in it's tension. So even if it's not my absolute favorite Bowie album it's still a good one which makes it better than what mere mortals can do and is a 10.
When this album opens it certainly seemed more like the project is taking on more more conventional rock slant with this. Even with the drone and the odd touch of quirk to the vocals on the first song, you can also here traces of Led Zeppelin. "The Dome" has a angular groove that combines the weirdness of new wave with a driving noise rock pound. Things don't fall as firmly into the craziness I expect from these guys until on "Warning" and then it has a hint of punk to it. His wife Lydia Ainsworth, who we are a fan of here lend her voice to "Pygmalion". It sounds more like her song that what this project does. But it hovers rather than forming a song, so it more of an interlude. I guess everyone has to do a cover of "Sinnerman". The monotone vocals make less of an effort to convey the emotion of this song, so it falls way short of of Nick Cave's on this song.
I really like the dark powerful pound of "Look Daggers". It works of a pretty simple throb , but it's effective, almost like a more demented version of Clutch. "A Sacrifice" finds the darker turn the album takes progressing even further. The tempo picks up rather than relying on a drone.
Lydia returned to sing "Sons and Daughters". This feels more like it came from the 80s. Something Blondie might have done. The album closes with "Uniform of a Killer". It begins with a march and moves into a simmer , but doesn't engage me as much as some of the other songs on this album.
I'll round this one up to an 8, as it reaches a decent compromise. I think some of the more sonic oddities and genre jerking that have been reigned in for the sake of songwriting are not missed as long as they are keeping this heading in a darker direction. I think this album is such it's own thing that it is going to take some time for it to really wear on me , though I suspect tit's the stronger songs which I hear as the darkest that will become most endearing over time.
You can fool some of the people some of the time. It never fails to surprise how many members of the music press have very limited knowledge of music. When you hear an album that i totally derivative of another band and you not able to put your finger on it when it is glaringly apparent then there is a problem.The culprit here is Metal Sucks. For these guys to not recognize how the new Kayo Dot is pretty much a tribute to early Roxy Music is ridiculous. These purveyors of click bait are more concerned with being trolls and social justice warriors, than to recognize the obvious. Kayo Dot does try to obscure this fact by creating chaotic Brian Eno like waves of synths. But Eno played with Roxy Music so we are in the same ball park, the first song that has an originality to it is "Magnetism". It takes some 80s synth sounds and makes a more aggressive form of kraut rock.
Their singer still tries to imitate Bryan Ferry. The guitar tone on this album isn't bad it just sits a little too far back in the mix. They continue to coast along with disjointed atmosphere keeping these songs from congealing and varied synth pulses just swirling around without making contact. It begins to try to rock a little by the end of the song, but gets bogged down in the synths. The albums goes back to wanting to pay homage to Roxy Music on "Brittle Urchin", which closes out the album. This band is known for being experimental and has changed with every album. This is a turn for the worse here. The song writing and heaviness are gone. They don't have to have the metal elements to be a good band, there previous album was dark. This is just a scrambled mess that never really goes any where. I'll give it a 5. I like Roxy Music , but I'll just go listen to them when I am in the mood. This was just released on the Flenser.
My life with David Bowie began in 1986, when I went to see a movie called “Labyrinth”. Midway into the film when the Goblin King was reminded of the Babe it clicked that this was the guy who sang the “China Girl” song I liked from the roller rink. I left the theater that afternoon and my grandparents bought me the cassettes of the movies’ soundtrack and “Let’s Dance”. Up until this point Prince’s “Purple Rain " was the only non-metal album I owned. The rest of my collection was limited to Kiss, Twisted Sister, Alice Cooper, W.A.S.P, Motley Crue and Ozzy. But with one song Bowie opened another world with “Cat People”. Here he proved he proved you could make music that was dark without being metal. This is after he had already backed off with a tender ‘Without You” that found him in his head register. He used many different colors vocally and raised the bar for what I expected from singers to come.
I caught onto Bowie at the right time because the next year he released “Never Let Me Down” and embarked on the Glass Spider Tour. This was my third concert following Kiss and Alice Cooper. It exceeded their level of theatrics and blew my mind. I saw every tour from point on…”Sound & Vision”, his jaunt for “Outside” with Nine Inch Nails,” Earthling” and the “Reality” tour. Of the things I can be grateful for during this time of mourning is how thankfully I am he preserved the perfect memories I have of how immaculate he was live. Never struggled for a note, on the Reality tour his voice seemed the strongest I heard him since 91. That is how I want to remember him, so thank you for not dragging yourself out on the road to make money off the younger generation who never got to see you. Bowie didn’t need the money. He preserved those perfect memories and I’m glad he did not drag himself out on the road again and left the perfect ideal of him in my mind.
It makes me a little sick to see David Bowie referred to as a pop singer or star by the media, as he was an artist. It hard to say if four of my favorite movies are my favorite’s because Bowie is in them or not, but Labyrinth, the Hunger, Twin Peaks Come Fire Walk With Me and the Last Temptation of Christ can all pretty much stand in a league of their own. My years in musical theater would never happened without him. He could wield a paint brush, sax and microphone all with equal grace, but if you ever saw his stage performance of the Elephant Man preformed with no make up, you would know he needed nothing at all but his own talent. But his greatest talent was being himself within each persona. He said in an interview that people who called him a chameleon were wrong because chameleons change to blend in to fit their environment and it is just the opposite he changes his color and the environment confirms to him.
This is how he has inspired me to live my life. All of the roles life has cast me in I’ve adapted them to suit who I am rather than adhering to what society’s idea of that role should be portrayed. Control is one element that plays into this and the measure of it you exert over yourself before controlling how it plays out around you. Bowie was also an occultist so he knows the lust of result and the intention put behind it are crucial elements to any great work. Bowie was very much in control. Even when he was out of control and coke thinking witches were trying to steal his semen. He was always all in with what ever he was doing. While life often threw crazy things at me for the past 30 years his music was a constant no matter what was going on.
This is true even as my taste in music took marginal shifts. Bowie himself was a seeker looking for new sounds and talent. He discovered and developed the careers of artists such as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Luther Vandross, Iggy Pop, Mott the Hoople and Reeves Gabrels. So over the years as varied shades of metal, punk, rock or hard-core changed from being grunged out, emotional, blacker and more independent, Bowie was always relevant in my life. There was never a moment of “Oh, remember when I was into David Bowie?” Some much that I have always been the first person who came to mind when my friends thought of him, so there was a lot of caring words extended to me from them when they learned of this loss. Not only was Bowie a constant, but his influence on the other artists I listened to from Morrissey to Bauhaus to Mogwai and the Cocteau Twins. They have all embodied certain personas through out his career. This fact has only been highlighted over the past day, since I have been able to listen to Bowie with out having a break down. So I delved in some of the more obscure Goth artists like the Legendary Pink Dots, only to hear him there as well. Even metal bears his touch, despite the fact his harder moments are only sprinkled through out his career on albums like “The Man Who Sold the World”, “Aladdin Sane”, “Outside” and the Tin Machine albums. Gene Simmons admitted to Bowie being a huge inspiration to him and how many metal bands would exist without Kiss?
Bowie’s influence on music would take a ten part series of blogs, a blog in and of it’s self, and that is only one fraction of the impact he had on my life.
My sponsor helped me put dealing with the grief in perspective, he said “The Star Man is exactly where he should be, he only came down to Earth to bring the music to the people and his job is done he is going back to the cosmos where he belongs.” In some ways I suppose nothing has changed since he was a legend while he was alive. He is more than just a man with an amazing voice, he is a concept I have watched being passed onto my six year old as she now has memorized his every move in the “Magic Dance “ sequence. I remember when other artists I have love died, Frank Zappa, Freddie Mercury and Shannon Hoon the first and the one with the most impact on me and this feels very different.
I have tried to stay off Facebook, as it hurts to see people who could never hold a conversation about Bowie, changing there profile pictures to him. How many people out of almost a thousand had any knowledge of his new album or posted anything about his Birthday last week...22. I am overly sensitive to this right now and feel no need to post a hundred of his videos on social media. I already posted enough over the years, when “The Next Day” came out, when something of his moved me. I can’t listen to him right now, I need to move into a better place and then maybe tomorrow I’ll be able to listen to “Black Star” again. David Bowie Thank you for teaching me lessons that no one else could. That I could feel music with immense passion that covered the whole spectrum of emotion and not just fist pumping rebellious anger, and it was ok to feel those emotions, gender was a fluid expression when in those moments. Thank for teaching us all that just for one day we can heroes, we can be spiders from mars, we can be scary monsters and super creeps.
This band's sound has really matured. The opening track reminds me of a cross between Roxy Music and Twin Shadow. The vocals have come along way in terms of their command of the melodies.The album had been hailed previously by critics as taking the band into a goth direction referencing Sisters of Mercy in several reviews. I'm not sure what album they listened to or if they know any Sisters of Mercy aside from "Vision Thing". It's dark, but in more of a Japan or Roxy Music sense. At the three minute mark there is a really unique vocal melody on "Offramp Cycle, Pattern 22". The song titles are as long as the songs. I would have complained about the fourteen minute opening track if it was so damn good.
The band strays a little from the sound that works best for them on "Long Time Disturbance.." . The vocal has a smoothness to it but all other elements of the so are angular and minimal in a way that they never really full connect. Two minutes so progressive meandering pulls it in like 80s King Crimson. I can hear some Dredg among the Adrian Belew influence. they walk a much different path than what you might commonly think of as progressive rock today. They capitalize more on the feeling and less about the mathematics, though there are Rush moments on "Library Subterranean". The synths create something that drones like mix of Can and Pink Floyd. "The Assassination of Adam" goes into a dark John Zorn styled alley after having a seizure. This is the album's densest song.
The album closes with a floating falsetto vocal that cools down into some David Lynchian Roxified Music. The sax is steamy and the song as a narcotic pulse that lingers. At ten minutes it becomes more of a dark drugged version of lounge jazz. This album tends to wander and "Long Time Disturbance.." runs of the rails an into the formless clouds, but the band has really matured. I'll give it an 8.5 There no goth to be found, but some good drugged out art rock.
