25 Kanye Producers Needed to Screw in A Light Bulb

The internet is a black hole. Facebook sometimes tries to suck you in and pull you down to it's level of uncommon sense. There was discourse I engaged in about the meme below.

This was obviously created by someone who has never heard of the song "Ogre Battle" or really any brains at all as those Kanye lyrics are still pretty terrible and were much better stated by Chuck D 20 years earlier. I think the problem with music "then" vs "now" started in 1998 with the dawn of auto-tune, first used for effects by Cher to later become a crutch for entertainers who cannot sing. Since he doesn't play an actual instrument and relies on a team of producers to create for him, Kanye tends to fall along side other pop "artists" as an entertainer. I like my share of pop music, but it's like eating fast food occasionally vs a balanced diet. I was shocked to learn Kayne West's new album has 25 producers on it. We are talking multiple producers per song. How many Kanye producers does it take to screw in a light bulb? This brings new meaning to the term "over-produced". In all fairness I looked up Taylor Swift and the Weeknd to see how many producers were on their albums. On 1989 Taylor Swift had 8 and the "Beauty Behind the Madness" had 13. Still despite this gross excess is still combined less than the number West rolls with. An interesting side note, only one producer worked on "A Night At the Opera", so they obviously didn't need as much help.

So what gives Taylor Swift and the Weeknd the edge over Kayne? Well it goes back to 1998. They can actually sing if required to do so. Swift can even play an instrument, edging her out of just being an entertainer, though she is embracing the pop queen role which is obvious if you have seen any of her videos. But rappers are poets you argue....if that's the case, then they need even fewer producers. How many producers did Allen Ginsberg need? The flow of lyrics on "Beauty Behind the Madness" has more heart in it than Kayne has ever put into any of his albums. West's real talent is being a media whore. So Taylor, watch your step or you won't be much better no matter how classy of a Grammy speech you give. At the end of the day if your music doesn't matter more than the brand then you are in trouble, trouble trouble... Go ahead, make all the money you want, as PT Barnum said "There's a sucker born every minute".

Ask Quincy Jones how many extra producers he needed for "Thriller". If you don't count Suge Knight's role as the executive producer, which means money man, the role that Kanye is assigned to on his own albums, then Dr. Dre was also the sole producer of "the Chronic". So if you are wondering what's wrong with hip-hop, how hard can you be if your shit has twice as many producers working on it than the team that puts together a Katy Perry album? If you are just making a circus then pack as many clowns as you can fit into your car. With that said I think Charlie did a wonderful job with the song below which is without a doubt Kanye's best work since "Gold Digga" .

Graves At Sea : "the Curse That Is"

I had been waiting for these guys to drop a full length as the splits and eps were great, but I wanted something more to sink my doom hungry jaws into. Doom begs to be questioned here right from the eleven minute title track that opens the album.  It's an odd evolution that includes the bigger production value this album has. It finds them thundering into your ears with something more akin to a stoner rock version of "Through Sliver and Blood" era Neurosis. Some evolution an be expected considering the line-up changes that have yo-yoed the band about. The vocals are still mean in their ample grit coated screams. The guitar has warmed up a bit. Perhaps it is the time they took in the studio to perfect their tone versus previous releases which have had a rawer, angrier sound. It's not a deal breaker. I can appreciate the expanded musical qualities they invested into the songs here, it is just going to take a little getting used to.

They slow enough on "Dead Eyes" to give them a somewhat more doom oriented sound. The twisting curves of the riff have a more rock n roll feel to them. They are well executed. The lyrics are more intelligible here even in their most scorned and rancid throat scraping rasps, which call out some very memorable choruses. That is what song writing is about after all no matter how heavy you want to be. It needs to bring you back to the songs over and over again. The demented slant to the vocals which drew me into the band in the first place is still there, though much more familiar in the second song. There is an almost Iron Maiden like cadence to how the riffs dance in the song's final act. While it never gets to the happy go lucky arena rock vibe of classic metal the influence can not be denied even with the shadows cast by Alex Carson's violin.

The crazed vocals carry a higher rasp on "Tempest". This song is attacked with a swampy fury not unlike that off Eyehategod. While it is very powerful it is also the most straight forward of the first three songs. The violin returns to accompany the clean guitar that opens the fifteen sprawl that is " Ashes Made Her Beautiful". It lurches into the deliberate pound of the verse, that offers up some bong boiling worship to the path Sabbath paved. In sections this finds the band at the most melodic I have ever heard them play. The violin earns its place on the album when the song reaches the six minute mark. The vocals into a more haunting lower rasp. At this point in the album the mood here  finds the band digging themselves down  the closest to doom as they have come the entire album.

Though it's pretty punchy the more upbeat "This Mental Sentence" has more of an almost rock n roll swagger to it. They get back to down and dirty basics on "Waco 177". It's the kind of heavy metal depravity that I pretty much expect from the band. Lyrically it pays homage to the fall of David Koresh. Serial Killers tend to get way more love from metal bands than cult leaders so it's a nice change of pace. "Luna Lupus Venator" is an acoustic instrumental interlude leading into the last song "Minimum Slave". I'm not too worried about the fourteen minute run time of the last song, as none of these songs have felt like they are dragging. It's a burly stoner metal riff, that has a sinew groove that recalls Tool or Kyuss to me. Though funny enough most people who will praise this band would slam Tool. The vocals do keep these guys more firmly placed in the metal camp. I wouldn't say the band jams, but they do allow the groove to wind around them.  They do crush it with a pretty molten riff. I'll still round this album  up to a 9.5 as it's going to take some getting used to the change of sound, but I do find myself wanting to go back for further listens despite the long winded songs, so something is working.

Tombs : " All Empires Fall"

What happens on Tombs new album should not come as a surprise considering how they have evolved with each album. The last album might not have been as dark as the previous, but Mike Hill and company continue to evolve. With the inclusion of Fade Kainer into the fold on "All Empires Fall" it made me think the industrial influence that has lurking under the surface would rise like Godzilla. This is not the case. They make it clear the metal isn't going anywhere. They kick the fucking door down with a neck crushing riff on the opening instrumental "the World is Made of Fire". They lash into something closer to straight up black metal for "Obsidian". It's not just full blast ahead. These guys have more tricks up their sleeves. Does Kainer's synths bring another sonic layer? Yes, but it doesn't compromise their sound.

The darkness rolls in on "the Last Day of Sunlight". This finds the band reaching the next level. Hill comes in with a low croon. The music slither around him in an almost exotic death rock fashion. We have heard this side of the band before, here it is just more fully embraced. Tribal drumming lead into the bass driven beginning to "Deceiver". Here the band fuses the two sounds into something dark and heavy with a ton of crunch to it. The verse riff has almost of Motorhead feel before going into the more chugged chorus. I had already heard "V" which finds them blending their dark side perfectly with the more metal muscle of their sound. I didn't even have to keep score on this one it gets a 10, this is what I want out of music. The only thing wrong with this release is the fact it's an EP rather than a full length, because it leaves me still wanting more.



 This album is being released on Relapse Records April 1st.

Terrible Love : "Change Nothing'

Hard-core with a British accent can rub me the wrong way as they never sound angry enough, so I had to go into this pretending it was more along the line of Iceage. Tonally these guys are pretty dynamic and have the sonic palate to create a dark enough sound, without having to go all Converge on us here. They often jangle more than they chug.Even when the pace picks up into a more frantic punk buzz, it's hard for me to think of these guys as hard-core. I like what they did on the first song more than where they go on MT. Misery. I don't need breakdowns, I do need the punch that they eventually find on this one.I suppose post-hardcore is a fitting title for what they are doing since it sounds more like angry indie rock. They are more introspective and emotive without going full blown emo on "They Need You". Then they get even darker on "Stone in me" which kind of falls out of the previous song, so I had to switch windows and see this was not just a transition "They Need You" made. The song does have a life of it's own. The narrative is more punk than hard-core in it's anger level. I played this for a friend and he thought they sounded like a hard-core band that had grown up. I can't help but agree, when it comes to the guitar playing which is not afraid to utilize a wide range of tones.


 They take on a more ultra-sonic punk feel with "Sparrow". This is not make favorite song on the album as it is more straight forward and doesn't offers as many moods and colors aside from the shouted distress, It's not a bad song I just think the rest of the album is better. This is an impressive display of emotionally charged songs that won't bring back the ghosts of Myspace. I'll give this one a 9, it should make the trip over to the iPod. I am on a hardcore tangent this weekend so who knows what the competition is for these guys. They have raised the bar pretty high when it comes to down trodden thinking man's hard-core.

Sonance : " Blister the Maw"

 These guys are back and the experimentation is heavier than the music by the half way point of the thirteen minute opener. Mainly whispers and feedback with a brooding bass line. A lot of noise has come this blogs way in the past week and I'll say here what I've been saying in other reviews, that I love Swans, I can handle noise as long as it brings a pay off and used as a dynamic tool. Here the pay off doesn't come in the first 13 minutes, which effectively makes that wasted time. A side note here...since this review was written, in the comments below it was brought up that due to the fact real instruments was used to make this noise, should not make it but make it a real song. So how we define real songs around here is .....establishes some form of melodic merit. For 13 minutes no melodic merit is established, so it's noise, and just like Pinocchio wishing to be a real boy just because you have instruments, wishing alone doesn't mean you are making music since music is defined as  

the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity vocal, instrumental, or mechanical sounds having rhythm, melody, or harmony

no melodic order to your tones = not music


 The first real song"Oldest Harm" kicks ass. It brings more of a punk influence to the table than I remember from their last album. This is taken in a more sonic direction on "Destroy and Dismember" which does actual feel like it has a Swans influence to it. The vocals are an almost more hard core choked shout.The melody that sweeps though the background of the song is cool, but I'm not sure it lives up to what they gave us on 'Blackflower". This doesn't mean this is a bad song, it's just the bar is raised pretty high for these guys. They come closer to reaching more of the balance they struck on the last album when they get to "Staggered". The bass keeps things creepy and fluid, the vocals are more screamed and growled in the layers of harshness coming from their throats.


The last song "Capitulation" is just a noisy outro, for the sake of this review I am not even going to count it. Sure this is being released on tape and it's basically an ep. I'm counting the first song, because it must take up the first side of the tape and as long as all the real songs put together. So for that reason it brings this albums score down to an 8, if we were just talking about the three actual songs then it would be a 10, but they are the ones who threw the first 13 minutes on there so I am guessing while it might have been a mistake it was not an accident.

Tombstalker : "Black Crusades"

This band does have a nice dark rumble, but don't let that fool you even with all the Entombed influence they are still pretty much thrash. Death metal influenced thrash, but thrash none the less.  They really want to be death metal and that struggle is real. If you asked me I would have never guess these guys were from Kentucky.  So they do have that suspension of disbelief going for them. Just when I'm thinking "Wow, I really dig these guys more than I thought I would" they go and get blasty. Just wanting to be death metal is not good enough, they want to be blackened death metal. The second song disappoints me after such a strong start. The dual vocals don't really add as much as they intend once the groove is lost. They do get some of that back on with "Fate Weaver" . This lets the album regain some of it's momentum and the title track helps add to that . The black metal undertones fight to bubble up.

The vocals work better when they carry more of a snarl. They can pull of the lower death metal growls, but for what sets them apart from hundreds of other death metal bands, it's their thrashing side. The title track feels a little long winded. Some of their songs are pretty concise with the fat trimmed off of them, this just isn't one of those songs and I begin to get lost in it. Even their guitarist is not the world's greatest shredder, or even a shredder at all, the solo section of the title track adds to the song, though it could also stand to lose some bloat. Many of the songs start off with samples from horror movies and "Soul Eater" is not exception. It finds the band back in there trashing place. The song does race away from them a bit when they get overzealous in their quest for blackness.  The snarl of the vocals on this song begin to descend into what could be the scathing growl of any metal band these days. The bass comes up in the mix to fall back into the distance shortly after. I think heavier bass in the mix is one thing that is keeping this album from thrashing harder and makes it sound more death metal.

"Plague Father" opens with the cawing of crow and then launches into it's hybrid thrashing death metal. I do like when the slow down into the more powerful part toward the end and I'm totally o.k with them going in that direction as a death metal band. I do feel they pass up some melodic opprotunites on this song and leave it as middle of the road death metal. They break the eight minute mark again with the closing song "Chaos Enthroned".  They get off on the wrong spiked boot by going into a blast, but as the song winds around get a better handle on it until it locks into a pretty solid groove midway in. To get such a strong start this album did not go the way I wanted it to. I think it found them in an identity crisis not unlike that Atlanta band Vimur fights. You might want to be black metal band, but if that is not what is in your heart, then you should always play what is in your heart.  I'll give this album a 7, hopefully they find themselves heading more toward the place they were at on "Chaos Undivided" as that was some powerful shit.

Up From the Underground : Phlefonyaar's "Kissing Carrion"

Here is an album that is ugly in all the right ways. The intro this album which saw the light of dawn back in February sets the stage to be suitably dark. This band from the UK treads a pretty spot between sludge and industrial. The distorted vocals are more shouted than screamed.The pace is still very deliberate and pounding, but picks up into a tank like roll on " Castigation on the wings of crows". One thing I like about these guys is the layers of atmosphere added to the beating they dish out on your ears. The songs have abrasive qualities, but never abrasive for the sake of just roughing up your ear drums and challenging you to keep listening. Instead it draws you further into their nightmarish post- apocalyptic landscape.There is a burlier and more straight forward hammering to " All hail the red duke of loss". They do not relent. The beatings continue until morale is improved.The melody that does surface sits oddly against the more distorted body of the song, to the point of me thinking I had another window open on my lap top that was playing. There is a more angular quality to "Wretched Thing of Blood". The vocals have more of a howl to them. The lyrics remain easy to understand in thick of the din. The more industrial elements wane some as the album progresses making this more solidly sludge, though there remains an experimental electronic ghost continuing to haunt the frayed edges of the songs.


If you lean more heavily towards sludge I think you will not be disappointed. This album proved to be a great listen I liked the first two songs that followed the intro piece the best, but appreciated the more plodding chug of the second half of the album. I'll give this one an 8.5 and look forward to hearing what the future holds for these guys. Being an old goth from way back I of course want them to help bring industrial back, but at heart this beast is more of a collision between Godflesh and Eyehategod, if you took milked all crust of  the New Orleans punk out of Mike Williams' band . But as you can tell I did not immediately reference either band in the meat of the review since they have their own thing going. Do yourself a favor and check out the album below.
  3.3