Sábado 17 Out 2009, 1h:18
As it turns out if you don't delete playcounts and open up your device manager, it does it for you the next time around. It doesn't, however, get rid of ratings. That's cool. Some thoughts on my latest batch of stuff:
Aube's Metal On Metal is varied and often a bit more quiet and/or less composed/processed than I like but Suppression earns five stars.
Under his real name, Akifumi Nakajima, Water 1990 showcases not his early near-industrial noise work, but gives a glimpse of his later more ambient work. Hell, there are synths. It's pretty cool.
Birch Book's new album Vol. III - A Hand Full Of Days is not-surprisingly awesome. Less diverse in terms of instrumentation over all but good. Worth it for Stray Summer Song and Will Of The Wind alone.
Three Overcrowded Cities Built By Short-Sighted Planners showcases just how awesome CM Von Hausswolff is at blending minimalism, noise, ambient, field recordings, etc. and making a cohesive, intelligently composed whole. Try Mexico City And Tokyo.
Aleph On Hallucinatory Mountain by Current 93 is at first shocking as it sounds nothing like early work. But eventually is revealed this remarkable mix of krautrock and doom metal all trying to relay an epic poem written by a Christian mystic. Try to say that three times fast. I can't stop listening to this album, especially Invocation Of Almost and Not Because The Fox Barks. Oh and I must say, Stephen Stapleton's production technique here is incredible. Worth paying attention to.
Speaking of which, I thought Christian neofolk sounded cool so I tried out Heroes & Traitors by The Days Of The Trumpet Call and was sadly not impressed. Their music is good, often comparable to the work of Michael Cashmore but the pieces seem like fragments of a larger thought and the vocals are so subdued as to be pointless. Needs some refinement but certainly a good start.
On the other hand, there are some promising similar artists to be found on the Credo In Unum Deum compilation (why doesn't last.fm link comps right?). Try Laibach-esque Parzival's Bewahre Den Glauben or Rose Rovine E Amanti's Jerusalem or Kayno Yesno Slonce's Aum or Our God Weeps's In The Heart Of Our Creator. Just for the hell (irony) of it, check out Lonsai Maikov's Regnum. It can't decide if it wants to be progressive rock or neofolk or martial. Yeah, crazy, huh? At least folks are thinking!
Thank you last.fm for introducing me to Espers through neofolk radio. Love 'em! Try Blue Mountain.
Faust's C'est Com...Com...Complique is so flipping good. I've been listening to this religiously for a while. Can't pick a track. They're all good.
Pyramids! End Resolve and Monks and 1,2,3 are gems. The remixes aren't half bad either.
Astro's Live At Muriyouku Muzen Temple is beautiful psych'd out analog synth noise. Get it.
Reformed Faction's I Am The Source Of Light, I Am Not A Mirror is, uh, shocking. I realize it's not the Reformed Faction of Soviet France, and that they're trying to be something different, but this album is all across the board. Hell, they even flex the Horizon 222 muscle of dub on More Hands Worth. And that's not bad. But I come to this with a certain expectation. Not sure yet.
Also not sure about Dead Voices On Air's Fast Falls The Eventide. In fact, as much as I was excited to see Abrader included here and as much as I like it and understand why Akifumi Nakajima liked it enough to release it on G.R.O.S.S. I must say it stands in great contrast production-wise to the new material. And then there's the apparent influence from Download. Not a bad thing, but a bit unlike previous albums. Still, Mark Spybey's unique post-ambient vision shines brightly. More on this but make sure to check out Honour Boe with cEvin Key.
I hope to explore Hazard some more as so far I really like what I hear. More soon.