Report to the Dance Floor: Dark Model

Here is something very unique and I think will appeal to many of those among us who might normally shun anything that could be given the term dance music and in this case it is at the fringe of the term being more classical than dance at times. It's not until the second song that I would even call this dance. 

The song writing chops are finely tuned here as this guy has collaborated and remixed James Brown, Diana Ross, Chic, Simon LeBon, Ron Sexsmith, Serge Gainsbourg, Hotei, Puffy, Digikid84, Yoshihide Otomo, Radiopilot, Dune. What this project is brings back memories of the old Hooked on Classics album that came out in the 70's .The soundtrack vibe is heavy here so it should come as no surprised some of his music was used in the first promo reel for Elysium. There is something inherently epic about this so sci-fi and fantsy flick would benefit from this type of backing. 

"Close to Infinty" the classical elements tend to dominate though the songs works dynamically work like the build of a dance tack where you are waiting for the beat to drop. "Broken Arrows" drops down into a piano piece the strings come in with an almost Nightwish sense of drama to them. So fans of orchestral metal will appreciate this album. To be honest any one who just likes music will dig this. If you play epic MMO's then you need this as your soundtrack.

The more electronic elements re-surface on "Onibi". It has a very Matrix type techno throb to it , though the string hits accent the song and aid the sense of movement it carries . Of course songs like this that have a darker element to them are the ones on this album I tend to connect to more. "Hope is Never Gone" does posses this , though its moodier than most of the songs up to this point ,especially when the songs breaks down into the piano section. The song ebbs and flows from more uplifting sections though there is a tension throughout. 

The ambiance of "Candle in the Desert " comes across more like an interlude in this otherwise uptempo pounding album. '' Ran" has the blares of harsh sense that seem to be in every trailer for an end of the world type film. The dub step elements lurk on the edges of the other Omen like dramatics of the score. There is more industrial undercoating to " Double Cross" carries a bit of a Liabach feel to it , though with more groove than the more militant and stiff feel industrial carries.It strays from the darker feel as the song progresses into a more dub step tinged espionage sort of thing. 

Themes are more of an influence with Dark Model than other composers. Sure there are familiar sounds being integrated to ensure a modern market, despite the heavy use of strings, The Eastern vibe of "Prayer for the New Moon" is very different than the more Hollywood sounds on this album. Fans of Dead Can Dance would dig this as it is very dark but with a lot of ethereal atmosphere. 

The album's fastest moment comes in "Moment of Truth" that races against a break beat.This creates a hug dynamic shift when "Judgement Day" follows, as that song is more string driven, almost having a more chamber music cadence.When juxtaposed against the harsher throb of the dub step elements that come in midway, it's a pretty powerful moment. The song builds even further with added layers of strings and piano, before it's allow to collapse into the sob of the piano line. 

The dark ballad like pacing of "Abandoned" returns the album to a more brooding pace.While the album is well balanced it is a monumental listen that overloads you if you sit down and just listen to it on headphones as I did. It serves much better as a back ground piece, even though with "Abandoned" there is a more rock like melody to sink into. Until "Oath" the other songs towards the albums final act following "Abandoned" stay in variation on the epic themes of Hollywood. "Oath is much more a straight up dub-step song , which given the nature of the rest of the album is odd, but works . The piano part that surfaces helps tie it back into the more classical build that the song leans into. 

If you want to feel like you are in a movie this is the album for you. It's dark enough that the classical edge might appeal to goths  and more educated rave kids , digest as you can as it is a lot to swallow , but worth the digestion process.  

         
     

Woman is The Earth : Depths

Another amazing step forward in USBM is a South Dakota band , who if you let the atmospheric black metal label fool you then you will be as taken by surprise by the hammering intensity they open the little three song album with.There is a layer of atmosphere to what they do , but it only provides a thin buffer to the beating your ear drums will get from this one .

These guys are a three piece , two of the members are brothers and they conjure a pretty big sound for a three piece.It seems live volume is their secret, though the songs do find and ebb and flow. Midway into the first song acoustic guitars break out only for a breif reprieve. I like these guys are very dark and very heavy. I had gotten turned off by atmospheric black metal because if the production on the thin keyboards don't sound weird there wasn't enough meat. Each modulation hits the same kind of mourful sweet spot that funeral doom does.

The second song "Lifted" almost feels like an interlude sandwiched in-between the two heavy juggernauts. The guitar playing is pretty cool, so it makes it worth a listen, even if you would normally think of it as blues noodling fir for Opeth. I do wish this had been a full song rather than just breathing room for a solo, no matter how well composed it was.

"Child of Sky" is the second actual song at over nine minutes so there is about twenty minutes of songs and five of a solo piece making this fall closer to an EP. Reign in Blood sets the standard for shortest album before its an EP at 28 minutes. This one takes it time getting warmed up into with lots of chanting before they stomp into battle like Moonsorrow, with double bass blaring.It is weird how in the final four minutes the song stops and launches back into a more sonci riff which is cool but a awkward transition. Still these guys are great at what they do just want to hear more of it. They do tend to revert into the blasting when all else fails , so curious to see if they break that bad habit on a longer effort, still this is good stuff and I will give it a 8.5, as I like it but think they brought the goods so hard on the first song they are capable of even better.  

2.5
 

A Pregnant Light : " Before I Came"

This one man machine is  good even though you will get a migraine trying to figure out if this is black metal or hardcore. It is impressive this is the work of one mind as all the the elements that interlock so well sound like they come from a band that embraces the individuality of the diverse backgrounds. "Lilajugend" has a organic strum of guitar to it that sounds like it doesn't come from the same place as the more hardcore opener.

Of course I like the fact the clean vocals on this have a post-punk feel to them. This is a compilation, but having just released splits and e.ps of sorts I think this counts as a proper album to those of us who aren't going to hunt down all those 7 inches.

The strum of guitar takes on a similar almost Smiths like feel on " Heat Makes These Flowers Grow" this is also the first song where I can hear an element of depressive black metal in it amid the rock chords. It is also surprising to me that this project hails from America much less Michigan. In fact the band spoils you so when they launch into a more straightforward blend of black metal and hardcore it feels like a let down because you know they are capable of more, though it is still catchy and atmospheric enough to please Deafheaven fans, even when he launches into a more Rollin like howl on their namesake track.

The black flags fly with the black metal on "Stars Will Fall". This creates elements that remind me at times of Planesmistakenforstars so I am good with this.There is a weird angular torque to some of the riffs when they are not hitting you with the blast beats that don't seem as much like blast beats with out the black metal shriek over them.This guy keeps an experimental edge to his hardcore making it blend better with the black metal.

"My Life Outside the Party" starts off like emotional hardcore from the late 90's. The guitar melody is cool but still could be from that musical era as well, it's the more post-rock swell that the song takes on that brings it up to date.This also creates another Deafheaven like moment. This is more focused on the hardcore than the beauty..Some of the experimentation on the marriage of sounds goes wonky on "Glint Glimmer and Glow" though it isn't a bad song just a weird Frankenstein of one when it stumbles out on borrowed legs.

There is almost an Amp Rep style stomp in the  unwieldy flail of " The Heavens Alone in Love". The stomp has guts and character carrying the riff into the realm of song. It is left to the mercy of the blasting to transition it in and out of this sonic rumpus.It is the more subdued breakdown in the middle of the song that wins me over. Any one can bang out riff, but creating feeling and melody takes a more artistic touch.

A twenty minute "DeathMyhangingdoorway" closes out this album of sorts, it starts much differently than the lo-fi cvltlike production of the re-verb cavern of black metal it leads to.He employ tempo changes and clever accents so it never falls into what you might called typical black metal. I do wish for the time you invest in listening to a twenty min song that it was better production wise, but maybe that is the effect he was going for. The sound clears up for the acoustic interlude in the middle of the song and the distortion tightens slightly for the pounding that follows which reminds me of a Mastodon riff.

I'll go ahead and round this up to an 8.5 as it is a clever monster he has created, some of the imperfects give it the charm this collection of songs carries, I would like to hear a proper full lenth from him as it seems the conceptual sphere of it would be up his alley as well as mine.    

 

8.2

Up From the Underground: Mangoseed "Basquiat"

This quartet out of London has created an album they claims inspired by the work and spirit of Jean- Michel Basquiat. Not his art work but his approach to the creative process that employed the use of old and new along with his focus on suggestive dichotomies and rebellious ability to use any influence in his work. This a quiet a mission statement for a band to take on. 

They explode into "Lioness" with the kind of fury I miss from Bad Brains, who was one of my favorite bands growing up . The vocal approach is really the only element that remains of this once they go into "Careful" which has a much darker and more electronic feel to it, not acid jazz or trip hop but they start off on a similar vibe as Massive Attack grooves on. They do build into more of a funk metal thing, which bands like Fishbone and 24-7 Spyz tread on in the 90's. 

Dance hall/ dub elements dominate "Brix-Tone" . There are some cool guitars tones on this one, though it stays close to the confines of the genre. They jump over into a bluesier feel in the warmth of the raw guitar tone of "I Shoot My Friends". This production on this track is stripped down and almost sounds like it being sung from the bathroom. The blues sticks around for "Devil in the Road". This is not surprising as the devil always seems to have on hoof in the blues. The song does take on an aggressively militant reggae swagger as it progresses. The guitar of Karlos Coleman  on this song and throughout the album is one of this bands strong points. Fans of "40 Ozs to Freedom" era Sublime should especially take note.  

The album takes a slight turn with the interlude "Soul Bird" that leads into "She is All in" in retains the same atmosphere as the interlude leading into it , but the build a groove up around it. The same sample repeats like a reoccurring mantra haunting the even more ghostly passages of guitar. The shadowy nature of this song makes it one of my favorites on this album. The album stays on this more experimental direction with the jammy interlude "Bali Men Interrupted".

They return to a more conventional rock approach with the straight forward rock of " Standing on High", which seems to be as thc influenced as the rest of the album. "This Life " is musically more laid back though the lyrical flow of the song is more frantic until the more melodic hook of the chorus. While this song would have the best chance of gaining airplay in the current climate of college radio, it is also the one I am the least partial to, even though after repeat listens the chorus does prove to be rather infectious.The album retains it's mellow feel on the even more laid back ballad "Rise and Shine". Nicholai La Barrie's vocals are allowed to shine on this song which makes the ballad worth the effort. 

A more punchy guitar funk drives the hear of of "Thief Head". The way the vocals are spit out is more in your face than the guitars, which sit back further in the reverb of the mix.The drum beat at the beginning of "Army of One" reminds me of "Run to the Hills" but no other element of the song does which is a cruising funk groove that is propelled by the vocals that bob back and forth. 

 Overall I 'd say these guys  excel at what they do. It's ummer so it's a good time for what they do, as fans of this sort of thing like to hang outside and smoke pot, so this is the perfect soundtrack for that sort of thing. I prefer the albums more Bad Brains moments and some of the darker grooves , so if you hide out in your cave, but like Massive Attack's more upbeat moments then you can find something here as well.      


          

Perfect Pussy : "Say Yes to Love"

They are much better than Pussy Riot. This New York band formed in 2012, and the name alone is getting them a lot of attention. Their music, is anti music on songs if you want to call them songs like "VII" , but on songs like the opener "Driver" their is a sense of cohesion and it all makes sense. They are volatile, Meredith Graves, is as aggressive as any female punk singer in recent memory.

The very lo-fi nature of what they do is the element I have to acquire a taste for.It's not as far removed from what I sometimes listen to as the hippest of the hipsters might want to think of these guys, they are not unlike Sonic Youth or P.j Harvey in either's more chaotic moments.

When they flirt with conventional songwriting they show a lot of promise, "Big Stars" surprised me as it's a very good song , that flows well despite it's jarring energy. Once I got use to this the punk rock spasms of "Work" made more sense to me. It's funny how I can listen to prog all day long no problem , but when it comes to something as simplistic as the quirky noise these guys make I have to rewire my brain to wrap my head around it. I think a song like "Dig" they bashed out giving little thought to the fine points of songwriting and the lack of detail doesn't .

Most of the songs are quick in and out wham bams at about a minute, when they linger longer and give themselves chance to establish something like the very Daydream lull of "Interference Fits" leads you into the more punk temper tantrum it builds into.One of the longer songs is the 5 minute "Advance Upon the Real" is more noise than song, which just kind of takes up space for no reason, though the elements of song they start with are like angry Kim Gordon fronted Sonic Youth. The song returns later in the album for a more noise laden reprise. .

"Bells" is discordant and starts with a live sample of the singers dialogue making the song feel like it is live and the way this album is recorded its hard to tell if it is or not. "III" follows a similar sonic path though the vocals seem to actually have a pattern to them.The clang the song takes on as it is battered back and forth has a charm to it as clumsy as it is. "I" feels like it hold some of the similar melodic themes in some of the sound layered in this distorted tempest.

I will give this album a 5 as it falls short of really being songs, I think as this band matures and deepens their need for songs and melody in the direction of "Big Stars" that they will be onto something. For now this isn't my thing, but I appreciate some of the notes they hit.

58

Wovenhand: "Refractory Obdurate"

If Wovenhand's albums easier to find in the nooks and crannies ,I leech my music from off the inner webs, I would have them all. So I was delighted to find the leak of their newest album.They open things up with a similar blend of the dark and hypnotic Americana David Eugene Edwards the former front man of  16 Horsepower, (which if you are reading this you are aware of) maintains his smooth baritone even as this album takes him further into more rocking territory.    "Hiss" gets well... pretty metal. It is driving and sonic. More metal than say Swans , but in a similar sonic sphere.

"Masonic Youth" has a pretty straight forward upbeat indie rock feel to it, though its much darker than your typical Coachella fare. It comes across much closer to Nick Cave, than not. The narrative has the same grim authority to it. " the Refractory"  hit the perfect balance of the projects Americana sound and the heavier hard rock direction they seem to be leaning towards on this one. The melodies are ungodly strong, sung with loads of conviction. He has such a unique quality to his voice, telling stories but not forsaking a melodic nature.

The drumming takes a more prominent role in the song wirting on this album, which is why they tend to have more of a rock groove to it. It sounds like the songs were written with Edwards jamming along with a band rather than on an acoustic by himself. The "Good Shepard" chugs along like it's radio rock until the final climax builds

Edwards doesn't stray to far from familiar territory not only sonically but lyrically  on "Salome" which recalls some of "Threshingfloor's " darker moments."King David" keeps with his biblical themes as well. There is a more organic feeling to this as Appalachian sounds coat the edges of the song.This is oddly followed by the fuzzed bass on "Field of Hedron" which I would expect from say Queens of the Stoneage, but seems are more rock device than what Edwards normally delivers, but they are on Deathwish now so maybe a heavier turn was expected by the label.  Not to say it doesn't work well because it does and makes the more rock moments on the album stand out.

"Obdurate Obscura" goes heavily into the mesmerism, as it eaves it's hypnotic drone around his melody that is almost like a chanted mantra. His narrative crawls underneath the dark swirl. "El-bow" is constructed with a similar intention to lull you into it's ritual throb. It is dark enough that it works and the climax makes it worth it as the drums build up in the background . They use a measure of restraint here not exploding like you think they will.  

This album is much deserving of a 10 and I can bestow a perfect to it with little reservation. I know there are times where droney bands have scored low, this album shows when and where drone works best and how it can be applied to actual songwriting rather than a device unto it'self. This album has it all for me. If you can't find something on this album you like, then it's time to thin the herd, so go kill yourself.
 

Lantlos : " Melting Sun"

Despite the Niege connection the band has only dabbled in black metal and was more of a post- rock band at heart as most members came from Liam. I really liked "neon" and never gave "Agape" much of a listen , but was curious about this one , so I'm guessing if I had paid more attention to "Agape" this might not seem like such a hug leap into prog shoe gazing.

Each song is labeled as another part of the album which can me seen as one piece if this were classical music or just pretentious. Supposedly six parts one of them is a two minute noise interlude which got deleted as soon as it was discovered on my ipod and truth be told the final song, ' Golden Mind" is so shoe gazing it has a hard time holding form or my attention for that matter.

The shimmer to "Azure Chimes" is breathing in a way I haven't heard since the golden days of Jesu, which is the best comparison to where these guys are now headed. Though they embellish the hypnosis the beautiful drone induces by jarring you with angular syncopation of math rock more along the lines of older Minus the Bear. The metal moments are still there, the distortion is lower and thicker giving them a tone more like Katatonia's heavier moments of "Night is the New Day" , though there is a liberal dose of Hum influence on this album.

With out the benefit of Niege's delicate tenor the vocals default back to the slacker post-rock approach derived from the 90's. The vocals are generally sparse , but their inclusion is important as they ground these songs into being songs rather than a soundtrack.

The guitar tone on this album is remarkable. Not only from a production aspect , but what these guys to with the effects at their disposal using them to shape their playing rather than hiding behind all the delay.Things break from just shiny melancholy into a darker The guitar parts get pretty incricate in many of the long sprawling passages they wander trying to find their way back into the song. They linger in white noise before draping themselves into  "Aquamarine Towers". This has one of the more alternative rock moments in terms of accessibility, just because they are not has heavy the songs are still pretty dense for your average radio listener , so they are not selling out by any means.

They employ a more Minus the Bear in the guitars approach to "Jade Fields". They delve into a much darker place than your average mathrock band would dive. The angular accents on this song make it stand out from the other wise dreamy float of the album. I will go ahead and give this one a 9.5 , as they have grown in a way that makes them more current in their sound and shows a lot of growth in the adventurous way they prog out. The lulls some of the shoegazing takes it what keeps it from being perfect.