Amplifiedstrawberry continuation

Amplifiedstrawberry

lovelycute

Julia Stone - I am Not Yours

Good morning,

It's 7 am, and there is a thick sheet of gray clouds that has been blocking the sun everyday now for almost two months. All the wonderful things have to come from my speakers right now. Fortunately I found this:



It's the first single from Julia Stone's new album By The Horns. Her lovely voice makes every gray wednesday morning feel like the first sunny days of May.

Spread the love,

Selwin.

Impulsive rant on the inaccuracies of love

The last three years I have been confronted with something I consider an enormous misconception about the game called love, especially regarding the types of males women are generally attracted to. Since I am one of those who are very unfortunate in this game, I often hear people say I have nothing to worry about, as I am generally described as the “humble and sensitive type” and I have the luck being able to study at the local university. “Girls like intelligent boys”, “they are attracted to humility” and “woman adore the sensitive type of males” are three of the biggest lies I have heard in a long time. From an empiric point of view I could say that the people who cope with this description normally end up either depressed, in the gutter, with a rope around their neck, or will spend their entire lives in a miserable state of loneliness. The only reason why these aforementioned sentences are being told is because people feel a certain affection with these people, a certain sympathy, but it’s based on nothing but an often denied form of compassion. This because everyone knows unconsciously that these people won’t make it, the men with the sharp jawline, the men with the strong physical appearance and the smooth talkers will eventually be succesfull and have the women swarming around them like a group of bees swarming around a large pot filled with fine honey. 

If a woman will ever tell you she likes intelligent men, or even worse, that she likes the “nerdy type”, this will either mean the subject knows how to spell “sex” correctly (in case of intelligent men) or has the succesful combination of being utterly handsome and having big, round glasses (in case of “the nerdy type”). If women really are attracted to intelligent men, there would have been a massive queue of females waiting in line in front of the Faculty of Science here in Nijmegen, instead of making out with handsome guys with sigarettes, who still are unable to determine the reason for the sun going up and down every day. Still, that last phenomenon is what I witness every day when I take the train back from the university, when I pass by the local ROC (centre of practical education).

The words of compassion I regularly have to endure are nothing but lies. Emotionally, people might think the ones they feel sympathy for are the ones who will make it later on, but rationally and unconsciously everyone knows this is just pure bullshit. It’s the very same reason why people feel sympathy for the mentally and physically disabled, they will most probably fail at everything the rest of their lives, except for being awesome in having to undergo dozens of looks from people who don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. People won’t feel compassion for the muscular, handsome type of guys, everyone knows they don’t need your help to be succesful in their lives, they know they will be able to accomplish their miserable goals without you offering them a hand.

Please don’t get me wrong on this subject, I absolutely don’t blame anyone for this behaviour, it’s purely natural to judge someone by its looks and to always go for the guys with the sickening amount of self-esteem, the smooth talks and the broad shoulders. I blame those who keep denying this in front of people who aren’t blessed with these properties. It’s giving them hope they shouldn’t have, as I am convinced people should have an amount of hope based on rational thought, instead of lies, imposed by people who feel sorry for you. I have never been fond of a prohibition of denying the obvious (or any other prohibitions whatsoever), but some proper self-regulation would be great in this case. If you want to live in a world of romanticised inaccuracies, please let it be your own world.

With love,

Selwin.

Edit: I realise it's a bit odd to post here, but with a lack of a platform and the need to shout this out loud, I decided to throw it on here.

Bon Iver album preview (2)

About two weeks ago a very short video was posted on Vimeo, containing a 30 second sample of a new Bon Iver song, yesterday a full track, called Calgary was uploaded. It's the first time hearing Justin's beautiful voice again, absolutely astonishing song, too beautiful to waste any more words at, here it is:



I have no idea when the new album will leak, but as soon as it will, a review will be posted here.

Spread the love,

Selwin.

Review: Altar of Plagues - Mammal

Artist: Altar of Plagues
Title: Mammal
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Candlelight Records
Genre: Post-Black Metal
Rating: 89 / 100

Two years ago an Irish band was responsible for one of the most remarkable Black Metal releases of that year. The album was called White Tomb, that Irish act was called Altar of Plagues. White Tomb was a fifty minute album, filled with four very lengthy tracks of absurdly dark, yet progressive Black Metal, ranging from pounding blast-beats to eerie dark ambient intermezzos. This April, British Black Metal label Candlelight Records released Mammal; the logical sequel to 2009's White Tomb.

Those who are familiar with their previous recordings will not be surprised by what Mammal has to offer, pounding, droning Black Metal, but with a very heavy Post-Metal edge, giving this album enough dynamics to compete with bands like Isis or Rosetta. It's the best of both worlds combined, put together these elements generate an atmosphere so dark, many Black Metal bands would be jealous. They have perfectly found a balance between slow, contructive dynamics and these almost oppresive, sonic explosions. It's something that wasn't as balanced on White Tomb, this album was clearly split in two parts, a faster, more Black Metal oriented first half and a much slower, more ambient'ish second half. On Mammal these elements are nicely put together in each of the songs seperately (with When the Sun Drowns in the Ocean being the only exception).

Albums like these heavily rely on the atmosphere, it's what seperates Black Metal from other extreme metal genres, and at the same time, it's what seperates this new Altar of Plagues record from most of the other modern Black Metal albums being released almost everyday. Every single part of every song has its own participation in the creation of this huge burdensome atmospheric unity. It's the unity White Tomb lacked a bit, and it's the same unity that gives this album such an enormous emotional impact.

This emotional impact, together with James O'Ceallaigh fantastic vocals and the terrific musicianship and songwriting makes this record the best Black Metal Record for me so far, together with Deafheavens debut Roads to Judah. 

We put seashells in the trees, so please don't be offended,

Selwin.  

Review: Ringo Deathstarr - Colour Trip

Artist: Ringo Deathstarr
Title: Colour Trip
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Club AC30
Genre: Shoegaze / Noise Pop
Rating: 92 / 100

Unfortunately, the shoegaze movement isn't as alive anymore as it was in the mid-80's. Some bands, like Asobi Seksu, Raveonettes and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart still make music which is of course clearly inspired by the bands that made this genre so famous, but keeping this very modern, sometimes even quite poppy element in their music. Besides this so called nugaze movement there is Ringo Deathstarr, a Texas based shoegaze band which grabs back those elements that made bands like My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus & Mary Chain so unique. Fuzzy, reverb drenched guitars, saturated vocals, mixed to the background, together creating an enormous wall of hazy melodies, a droning noise of pure sweetness.

Back in 2007 they released their very first self-titled EP, which was my personal introduction to their music; a very traditional style of shoegaze. It was one of those rare pieces of music which perfectly balance noise and melody. A couple of singles and EP's followed, eventually resulting in this Colour Trip, their first real album (assuming Sparkler was more a kind of compilation of earlier released tracks). The biggest piece of criticism Ringo Deathstarr had to endure in their early days was their undeniable similarity with both My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus & Mary Chain. It's something that hasn't changed by the release of Colour Trip, I am absolutely not going to deny those similarities. Still, releases like these are extremely rare nowadays, and it's a type of music which has brought forth a relatively small amount of really good albums. I am convinced Colour Trip could with ease be added to that small list of amazing shoegaze albums produced since the early 80's. It might not become as classic as Loveless, but qualitatively it's, in my humble opinion at least, pretty much on the same level.

But what is it that makes Ringo Deathstarr so awes0me? It's actually something I already mentioned in the previous paragraph; it's their ability to perfectly balance noise and lovely melodies. This balance is what makes shoegaze so attractive, and it's a balance Ringo Deathstarr is able to keep, with ease. It's the result of a noisy underlayer of a guitar/bass unity, literally drenched in tremolo, delay, reverb and fuzz, lots of fuzz, but on top the soft male/female vocals, often reminding me of Slowdive, or more topical; The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart.

I could go on about the amazingness of the sound for a couple of hours but I think fery few people are interested in hearing the sexual arousement one could experience from a track like Kaleidoscope or Two Girls. In other words; yes, I could find a tiny little flaw on this album, it's not something which is the bands' fault, unless they've produced it theirselves, but I suspect there is a producer responsible for this. It's part of what's called the Loudness War, producers tend to compress the music as much as they can to make it as loud as possible but at the same time pulling all the punch and clarity out of the music. In the case of shoegaze, this normally isn´t such a problem, but I noticed the guitar sound being sucked away by the drums in some songs, which obviously is due to overcompression. These extreme forms of dynamic compression are a pity, especially when they decrease the overall sound quality of an album, still, Colour Trip is one of my favourite albums of 2011 yet, and some productions flaws won't make it any less enjoyable.

Please spread some love, I tend to fail at this activity,

Selwin.

Review: Cloud Nothings - s/t

Artist: Cloud Nothings
Title: s/t
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Wichita
Genre: Garage/pop-punk/powerpop
Rating: 86 / 100

Ok, this is kinda strange, I was really convinced I already reviewed this album, apparently, I never did, which is a pity, because I really, really liked this new Cloud Nothings release. Some may have noticed Cloud Nothings before they released this album, Dylan Baldi has been active for some time, recording lo-fi rock songs in his basement/garage/whatever, but not really releasing anything. In 2010 he eventually grabbed it all together and released it as Turning On, which was my introduction into Baldi's amazing skills of creating powerful, catchy music.

In early 2011 Wichita released his first real, self-titled album, showing a far better produced, but again really catchy album, to be fair, it's even the catchiest, most easily enjoyable album I have heard this year. One could have been expecting this from miles way, but yes indeed: Baldi's music is nothing new, nothing original, nor progressive or anything like that, it's just very straightforward cheerful, poppy garage punk. It's actually still what Dylan has been doing for quite a while, only differing in line-up (full band instead of solo) and production (studio instead of fuzzy 8-track), fortunately Baldi kept what made Turning On so awes0me: youthfullness.

Last week I remember writing something about Jay Reatard (R.I.P), in my humble opinion Dylan Baldi has kind of the same talent Jimmy once had; being able to create a huge amount of melodic, catchy, uptempo tunes, without ever getting boring, or even containing just one disappointing song. Still, there's a fairly big difference between Cloud Nothings and Jay's solo work, on Jay Reatard albums, one will regularly find quite dark sounding songs, like Faking It, or especially Oh, It's Such a Shame (gotta love that one). Cloud Nothings on the other hand is extremely cheerful, almost happy, one of the characteristics of Cloud Nothing's music that really add to this cheerfulness are Dylan's vocals. Being fairly high-pitched, they sound a bit childish to me, which fits perfectly to the music by the way, please don't get me wrong. It is what makes this album so youthful, and as a result, so damn enjoyable.

I know it's a bit late (multiple months after the release date), but if you love catchy Jay Reatard'ish garage and still haven't checked out Cloud Nothings, or just heard Turning On, but disliked the lo-fi sound, please check this out, it would be a kind of sadomasochism not to look for it.

Please spread the joy (omg, subtle Vivian Girls reference),

Selwin.

Vicarious shame 2.0

I know Liturgy is currently one of the most hated Black Metal bands around, but as amplifiedstrawberry has to keep this blog hipster-approved, I will just have to post their newly released video for Returner. Ridiculous Windows Movie Maker effects and slightly homo-erotic V-necks (*rawr*) below:


For those who have absolutely no idea what they just witnessed, today is your lucky day, because Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, their frontman, happens to be very good at analyzing his own work:

"And so so so, like, part of, part of the composing of Liturgy is sort of, in this like kind of sonata form vibe almost, you know, of sort of like making sure it kind of starts somewhere and then like creates like this huge rapture'ish amount of momentum, which comes from romanticism, which does have a natural connection to Black Metal 'though it's not always acknowledged."

So now you know, and knowing is half the battle,

Selwin.

Review: Caroline - Verdugo Hills

Artist: Caroline
Title: Verdugo Hills
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Temporary Residence
Genre: Electronic pop/glitch
Rating: 88 / 100

Since the day Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir left múm, I really started to miss music as cute as their first two albums with her on vocals. Fortunately I discovered Caroline Lufkin last year, a Japanese artist, specialized in creating adorable electronic, glitchy pop music, which regularly reminds me of what múm once did (despite the far more folky, less minimalistic approach of múm). Caroline Lufkin is the sister of more well-known j-pop artist Olivia (Lufkin), but fortunately (not being a huge j-pop fan), her sister's music is completely different, only sharing the beautiful vocal sound. Not until I began writing this review, I finally discovered Caroline is also a full-time member of Mice Parade, a band the aforementioned Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir did guest vocals for on their 2005 album Bem-Vinda Vontade, so I think my associations with múm weren't as far-fetched as I initially thought.

Somewhere in 2006, Caroline released her debut album Murmurs, ever since that day it has been very quiet around her, a remix album of Murmurs was released through iTunes in 2008, but that was it. Now, after 5 years, she finally releases new material: Verdugo Hills, and oh, how I love to hear her soft, whispery vocals again. Verdugo Hills is an album which is actually precisely what one would expect after hearing Murmurs, slow, compelling songs, beats mainly made up by glitches and electronic noises, droning synth-based instrumentation, and of course Caroline's high pitched vocals exciting my ears in any possible manner.

One of the most recognizable characteristics of this album is the lovely minimalistic, almost childish sound Caroline is achieving here, soft as clouds, thin as a satin blanket, yet warm as the sun of early May. As lovely as Lullatone, yet having a rythm section as inimitable as the first two múm records. It is sweetness square, loveliness to the fourth power, yet musically as interesting as a 65daysofstatic album.

To those who fell in love with all music, sweet, tender and cute, please check this out, to those who are already having issues with The Pains of Being Pure At Heart leaving their fuzz pedals at home, please keep a distance of at least 2 to 3 miles to this record, its tenderness might result in honey-infected ears and similar disorders.

Spread the love,

Selwin.

Review: The Fresh & Onlys - Secret Walls

Artist: The Fresh & Onlys
Title: Secret Walls
Format: EP
Year: 2011
Label: Sacred Bones
Genre: Psychedelic rock
Rating: 68 / 100

The Fresh & Onlys are a band I discovered about a year ago as being an extremely productive, raw, straight-to-the-point garage rock band. These characteristics of their early music made me being fairly surprised to hear the slower, more psychedelic sound of this new EP, Secret Walls. Now I know their 2009 album Grey Eyed Girls, should have been a warning to what way they were going with their music, but I happened to have missed that one, being only familiar with their more raw garage albums.

Production wise, one could say they have finally moved out of the garage, the overall sound of this EP could be considered as a huge improvement to the somewhat sloppy sound on their earlier works. Musically, they went the same route as they did with their production, songs are far more well-structured, multiple layers of interfering melodies and rhythms is what this EP is all about. As I said in the introduction, this EP is a bit more down-tempo than what they were so used to, making the songs, in my humble opinion, somewhat less "exciting". Now, this is an 18 minute EP, so my attention doesn't have any problems with the minor lack of excitement. On the other hand, I can't guarantee that my attention will be as forgiving if this would be a 40+ minute full-length.

During my first listen, I was amazed by the extremely well-structured songs and even fairly catchy melodies this EP has to offer, still, I really prefer their more raw garage sound on their earliest releases. Objectively, I will still have to call this EP a major musical improvement, just not the kind of improvement I was really waiting for.

Spread the love, even when the sun is temporarily gone,

Selwin.

PS: If you have any recommendations, I would love to hear about them in the comment section.

Review: Keren Ann - 101

Artist: Keren Ann
Title: 101
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: EMI
Genre: Relaxing, poppy singer-songwriter
Rating: 66 / 100

It has been almost 4 years now, since Keren Ann previous (self-titled) record was released, it has been about 2 years now since I finally discovered her music, being introduced to her through her fantastic song Not Going Anywhere. As this song still counts as one of my all time favourites, expectations were fairly high for this album, it took her four years, so I couldn't imagine such a wonderful musician would disappoint me. Unfortunately, and even 'though it's still quite a decent album, the French/Jewish/Dutch/Indonesian/Israeli/whatever singer-wongwriter did disappoint me a little bit. I was just expecting a bit more from her. 

Overall I would describe this album as being a bit "careful", there are no sharp edges, no exciting structures or daring vocal debaucheries, just this soft, melodic pop music. I was eating vanilla custard this afternoon, while listening this new Keren Ann LP, and I have to say the slightly sickly taste of the custard could pretty well be compared to 101. It's is a bit sweet, a bit sticky, a bit creamy, but nothing your tongue would be surprised by. Just like my ears weren't really surprised by hearing her new album. Now, this might sound a bit negative, but I wouldn't go as far as calling this a huge vexation or anything like that, it's just... I have listened this album almost 5 times, but still, almost none of the songs really grabbed my by the throat, be it emotionally ór musically.

You might have noticed me saying "almost", you might be currently asking yourself: "why almost none?", well, somewhere in the middle of the album You Were On Fire kicks in, a fabulous, melancholic pop song, drenched in strings and having this really catchy nostalgic melody. 1 out of 11 isn't that much, I admit, but it keeps me awake during a listening session, which is really important, in my opinion, if you make the kind of smooth music Keren Ann does. 

A track like You Were On Fire surprisingly keeps me from disliking this album too much, and as a result, making me able to give this album a strong 6. Yes, Keren Ann disappointed me a little bit, but she's still a lovely musician, and still capable of recording this 40+ minutes of qualitatively well-written music. It's just a bit too careful and too smooth for me to really grab my attention, just that tiny lack of emotional defiance, which makes me rate this album as "decent" instead of "lovely".

Where did Julia Stone go?

Selwin.

Triple EP Review: Birds in Row, Junip and Moby

Artist: Birds in Row, Junip, Moby
Title: Cottbus, In Every Direction, Be The One
Format: EP
Year: 2011
Label: Throatruiner, Unknown, Mute
Genre: Hardcore/Screamo, folk, electronic
Rating: 87 / 100,   62 / 100,   85 / 100

In the first half of 2011 three really interesting EP's were released, it would be a bit superfluous to devote a whole review to each of them, not only because EP's generally don't need giant pieces of text to be discussed in the right manner, but also because two of those three are quite well-known artists, and I don't think people are waiting for two paragraphs of introduction into each of those artists.

So first of all we have this new Birds in Row EP called Cottbus, Birds in Row is a very straightforward hardcore/screamo band with some neocrust'ish edges. An incredibly dark, melodic, yet brutal short piece of music, which is definitely able to compete with the bigger names in the genre. Their sound isn't very original, one has probably heard the elements from their music a dozen times before, but frankly, I really don't care. It's a bit like the most recent Trap Them album: it has been done before, but it's done in the right manner. Overall it's just a very enjoyable EP, and considering they're a very young band they could with ease be the ones to release my favourite album in this genre in 2012.

Next in line is Junip: you might not know this band, but I am quite sure you know their lead singer: José González, known for his cover of The Knife's Heartbeats. Junip is bascially what José González's solo albums would have sounded like if he would have been accompanied by a band. This new EP, In Every Direction was a bit of a weird move for them to make. The title track In Every Direction was actually the opening track of their 2010 album Fields. The rest of the EP contains two remixes of the song, two experimental instrumentals and one new song, being a bit mediocre for Junip standards.

Now, this EP really isn't that bad, the remixes (by White Sea and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.) are fairly enjoyable, but the title track has already been released and the three new tracks, especially those instrumental ones are just a bit mediocore for my taste. A 7" with just those two remixes would have been rated as somewhere between 80 and 85, but I will have to give this EP a 62 / 100. 

Last but not least, there is Moby's Be The One EP, being a kind of interlude to his announced new album. Moby has done a wide range of genres in his fairly long life-span, from progressive house in his early years, towards more electronic ambient like compositions on Play, and the more pop/rock sound on Hotel. This EP is pretty much a mixture of tracks like Natural Blues and Porcelain, and his earlier electronic recordings, having both the slightly melancholic atmosphere of Natural Blues, the ambient like synth melodies of Porcelain, but the house beats known from his earlier works. Moby has been doing stuff like this for almost twenty years now, but still he manages to keep renewing himself, all kinds of new sounds are to be heard on this EP, guitar feedback (Be The One), a strange kind of glitching synths (Sevastopol), and those Ulver'ish slightly distorted synth sounds on the last track, Victoria Lucas. Overall I would consider this as a fabulous EP, being a marvelous introduction to what his new album might sound like. May 16th is the releasedate, can't wait to get a copy.

Spread the love,

Selwin.

Shit's Awes0me: Jay Reatard

In early 2010, one of the greatest contemporary rock musicians died, he was the man behind awes0me bands like Lost Sounds, Destruction Unit and of course Reatards and his solo material released as Jay Reatard, his name was Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr. and he died an unfortunate, drug related death on the 13th of January 2010, when he was just 29 years old. Jimmy left behind an incredible amount of great, raw garage music, which I would love to tell the world about. His solo work is fairly well known, but bands like Destruction Unit or Nervous Patterns happen to be fairly unknown, even 'though their music is absolutely fabulous.

For those who don't know Jay Reatard or on of the numerous bands he played in: Jay is known for his very raw, energetic, yet melodic kind of garage rock. Some of his projects were more on the traditional, punky side of the spectrum, like Reatards, some contain more electronic elements, like Lost Sounds and Nervous Patterns. What amazes me the most about Jay's recordings is that almost any song has an incredible level of catchiness. Even 'though he released somewhere between 10 and 20 albums and a shitload of 7"', it never gets weak, looking for a weak spot in his music is like looking for Ramones vinyl in an Iranian mosque.


To get a bit in the mood, here is one of Jimmy's more well-known works:


What Jay used to do when he was young:


Some awes0me Nervous Patterns stuff:


And last but not least: Lost Sounds.



I would really recommend to look for some of those releases, because, really, I couldn't imagine any garage lover being disappointed by his awes0meness.

Rest in peace, dear Jimmy,

Selwin.

Review: Alessi's Ark - Time Travel

 Artist: Alessi's Ark
Title: Time Travel
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Bella Union
Genre: Folk with some bluesy touches
Rating: 79 / 100

Yesterday, while reviewing the new Blut Aus Nord, I promised I would review the new Alessi's Ark LP: Time Travel. Those who have read this blog more often might have noticed an earlier entry in which I praised Alessi Laurent-Marke's project for creating such beautiful, introvert, cute contemporary folk music. This being said, I fortunately don't need to introduce her any further, these 4 words perfectly explain her way of creating folk music in my opinion.

The thing which grabbed my attention in the first place and made me adore Alessi's Ark so much, were her absolutely adorable vocals. She has this very soft, relatively low pitched voice, often vibrating in the more quiet parts. It is something that makes her able to really stand out from the major part of contemporary folk artist bumping out of the ground everywhere you look nowadays. Now this was my experience with her music when I first heard her debut album Notes From The Treehouse, this album already made clear she is not just a regular folk artist. Most of the songs (except for Woman and Magic Weather) contained a more "standard" pop/rock type of instrumentation, including 4/4 drum patterns, electric and bass guitar, adding a little country touch to the music. Not being a huge fan of country music, I was a bit afraid she would explore this genre more on Time Travel, fortunately, she didn't. There's still the same kind of intrumentation, but the overall rythm and guitar melodies tend to be a bit more bluesy, giving this album the kind of touch one might recognize from artists like Lay Low. This lovely bluesy touch is, in my opinion, something that fits really well to the soft folky sound Alessi is so used to, and actually adds quite a lot to the music.

Now, Notes From The Threehouse already wasn't really an epic record, containing 10 songs, with a total length of just 30 minutes, Time Travel is even shorter (28 minutes) with 4 songs not even reaching the 2 minute mark. This doesn't necessarily mean a decrease in musical quility, but I have to say, in Alessi's Ark's case, I really prefer her more lengthy songs, like, for example Hummingbird, from her debut album. She clearly has the ability to build astonishing songs with great respect to the dynamic aspect of music, unfortunately this was something I missed a bit on Time Travel, giving it the appearance of something that could have been released as an EP.

Alessi's Ark didn't fail to pleasure me with her sequel to Notes From The Treehouse, there are only these tiny point of discussion which doesn't make this album really top their previous, it just lacks that tiny amount of quality to deliver another pearl like Woman or Hummingbird. Despite these tiny points of criticism, I still adore Alessi's voice and would also still consider Time Travel as one of the better folk releases of 2011, it's just too good to be criticised too much.That's why it deserves 79/100 (it used to be 78, but I gave it one extra for the lovely cover artwork).

Spread the love, it's raining again,

Selwin.

Review: Blut Aus Nord - 777 Sect(s)

Artist: Blut Aus Nord
Title: 777 Sect(s)
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Debemur Morti
Genre: Black Metal
Rating: 78 / 100

It's spring, the sun has been shining non-stop for almost a week now and a great amount of sunny pop and rock albums have been released the past couple of weeks. Almost about to review the new Alessi's Ark album (postponed to tomorrow), I discovered French Black Metal band Blut Aus Nord had just released a sequel to their 2010 EP What Once Was... Liber I, It's called 777 Sect(s), and has been announced as being the first part of an album trilogy. Those who are familiar with Blut Aus Nord will know what to expect, even 'though their sound changes from album to album, ranging from a somewhat traditional, Scandinavian sounding first album to the more industrial, complex and dissonant recent recordings, they have always kept this, even for Black Metal standards, very dark and haunting atmosphere, which increased every album and reaches its preliminary climax at this 777 Sect(s). 

Blut Aus Nord has always been known as a band that constantly keeps renewing themselves, their history is one full of very distinct albums, each (in my humble opinion) great in its own way, just one exception was made in their carreer, but you probably know which album I'm talking about, 777 Sect(s) is at least no deviation from this pattern. Blut Aus Nord is familiar with the creation of this onerous, burdensome sound, here they again reinvent this sickening kind of music, this time by the use of stomach wrecking lows and brain destroying mids, topped by synth based, droning highs. Overall one could compare the atmosphere on this album to what was to be heard on MoRT (ok, here it is, I said it), the difference being that MoRT had a somewhat empty, hollow sound, 777 Sect(s) on the other hand has a much fuller, and at the same time more suffocating sound, capturing what they were probably trying to achieve on MoRT, but in a much better way.

The thing that makes the sound of Blut Aus Nord so remarkable for me has always been the kind of inimitable songwriting, the complex, yet seizing compositions. On here this expresses itself in a dissonant, anfractuous kind of Black Metal, which is, for me at least, fairly hard to listen to; it's definitely not something one would like to put on while enjoying spring's sunlight or having one's morning cup of tea. The aforementioned compositions consist of a mixture of a slightly industrial type of programmed drums (in the same fashion as MoRT), distorted, guitar like bass, heavily distorted dissonant guitar melodies and, surprisingly, a very small role for the vocal parts. 777 Sect(s) heavily focusses on the instrumental part of the musis, which is something I really do not mind, their occasional appearance add to the album's overall atmosphere, but they are low in the mix and are never overdone.

Objectively speaking Blut Aus Nord have created a very fine addition to their very extensive, alternating discography. Subjectively I must say the album's heavily opressive, anfracturous sound is something which makes me think of albums like Memoria Vetusta II Dialogue With The Stars or Odinist - The Destruction Of Reason By Illumination as being more enjoyable albums. Yet, this last statement is highly personal, and doesn't derogate from the quality of this album at all.

Spread the love,

Selwin.

Review: The Moby Dicks - s/t

Artist: The Moby Dicks
Title: s/t
Format: EP/demo/cd-r/whatever
Year: 2009
Label: Mammoth Cave
Genre: Garage Punk
Rating: 85 / 100

Albums which were released in 2009 are normally not very interesting to review on a blog since most of the devotees of the genre have probably already heard it, and have had about two years to optimize their opinions to the fullest extent. In this case we're dealing with a Canadian punk rock band which is pretty much unknown, even to underground punk lovers, having only 73 listeners on last.fm. I found this while looking for that new Moby EP thingy that was released some days ago, even 'though I really enjoy that new Moby record, this just had to be reviewed first, for being such a marvelous find.

When I say marvelous, I mean marvelous for noisy garage punk standards of course, the music quality is shitty, the sound is utterly distorted and the drumkit only contains a tom and a snare, but damn this is fucking rock 'roll; energetic, youthful, not giving a fuck about whatever would come to mind while thinking about pop music. Their sound lies somewhere between The Ramones (especially Ballad Of the Red Dog) and a kind of lo-fi King Khan & The Shrines, but without the helmeted smelly Indian beer belly. It's music that smells like a trashed fast food "restaurant" and sounds like three 19 year olds throwing 80's punk records around in a flooded basement.  

For a music reviewer there's actually not very much left to talk about, it's just 14 minute long pounding attack to your eardrums, but for fuck's sake, I would like to have my eardrums attacked like that on a daily basis. This makes me again realise why I prefer raw, shitty underground music so much to modern polished pop acts. Everyone who can go absolutely crazy on those earlier Dirtbombs records or regularly has huge par-tays to The Spaceshits, please check them out, you won't be disappointed.

Three songs waiting for you to let their feedback destroy your ears

Spread the noise,

Selwin.

Xiu Xiu joins the Polyvinyl family

Two days ago I mentioned the most recent signing of Sub Pop Records; Georgia based chillwave project Washed Out, this time it's up to Polyvinyl Records (Asobi Sesksu, Vivian Girls, Starfucker) to present their newest family member; they create experimental electronic music and are far from new to the world of contemporary music; Xiu Xiu. After the release of 8 full-lengths and several EP's/7"'s, they have now joined Polyvinyl for both a full-length (early 2012) and fortuntately in the meantime a 7", which will be released somewhere this September, apparently including a Rihanna cover. For now, I can't tell you whether amplifiedstrawberry will be still alive and kicking in early 2012, but I will assure you a review of that tiny piece of 7" vinyl will be posted here as soon as I get the oppurtunity to hear it.

Until September one will have to enjoy oneselves with their earlier works, as I am a huge devotee of enoyment, here's a unofficial fan video of I Luv the Valley Oh!


Spread the love, it's worth it,

Selwin.

Review: Explosions In The Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

Artist: Explosions In The Sky
Title: Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Temporary Residence
Genre: Post-rock
Rating: 90 / 100

Yep, it took about 4 years, but it's finally here; the new album from post-rock legends Explosions In The Sky. Their previous albums gained quite a lot of attention, pretty much setting the standard for the oh so famous typical modern post-rock sound; the fast tremolo picking, the melancholic mazes of melodies and the dynamic song structures often working towards dramatic climaxes. Many people might have been a bit afraid of Explosions In The Sky drifting away from their original sound, especially after a 4 year absence, and the release of a surprisingly accesible new Mogwai album. Those people were partially right, this Take Care, Take Care, Take Care doesn't contain the same sound as for example The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place, but when talking about musical quality this album is still  far from inferior.

Last couple of weeks I've seen some bands that went through  (sometimes subtle) sound changes, resulting in what could often be called a deception. There was the new, kind of modest, Times New Viking album, a new Smith Westerns album, which also didn't really got my feet off the floor and of course the biggest disappointment yet: Party Store by The Dirtbombs. Explosions in the Sky have definitely moved towards something slightly different from the sounds of their earlier work, they incorporated some sampling into their music, there are these occasional electronic elements and something I also noticed is the more droning type of sound during the clean parts, instead of the clear tremolo picking which was a major part of their earlier works.

Now, these new elements could of course result in music not in any way as good as what it used to be, but what we're dealing with here is a band called Explosions In The Sky, in my humble opinion one of the best post-rock bands to ever walk on the face of the earth, and yes they again made something absolutely lovely, something which might disappoint some fans because of their subtle sound change, but also something I begin enjoying more and more everytime I hear it. I've fell in love with tracks like Six Days At the Bottom of the Ocean and especially Catastrophe and the Cure, but those are tracks that won't deliver anything new after the third or fourth listen, a track like Let Me Back In on the other hand makes me able to discover new things every time I hear it, again and again. That's probably what made them need 4 years to write and record this album, there are so many layers, so many melodies to be found in every song, even 'though post-rock is already known for being exceptionally dynamic music, Explosions in the Sky seem to take it to another level.

Ok, those were all the things I loved about Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, aren't there any flaws then? Well yes there are, but it's the same kind of criticism they always get, their type song structure is still fairly predictable, still, I would call Take Care, Take Care, Take Care the least predictable album from their whole discography, mainly due to those electronic elements and the smaller focus on climaxes. Another quite minor flaw for me were the "ooh ooh"-vocal samples at the start of Trembling Hands, it was an experimentation probably, and I hope they will keep it an experimentation, because it adds absolutely nothing to their music, it just gets a bit obnoxious after a while.

Fortunately those minor flaws detract alomost nothing from the unprecedented awes0meness of this record, those 6 songs together really form a beautiful, slightly nostalgic unity, a fine breath of life, a sunny sunday afternoon, with a dramatic, yet loving end, it's like a 46 minute, polaroid tinted, description of the first leaves of spring evolving from the tree's branches. 

Spread the birds' tjilping, it's what I love,

Selwin.

Review: The High Llamas - Talahomi Way

Artist: The High Llamas
Title: Talahomi Way
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Drag City
Genre: Bossa Nova'esque chamber pop
Rating: 58 / 100

The only reason for checking this band out was their name, yes, it might sound a bit silly but I couldn't imagine a band with a name like The High Llamas sounding dull. Well, as exciting as their name might be as gingerly their music sounds. The High Llamas make a kind of music which directly made me think of kind of orchestral non-melancholic version of Tindersticks, including the carefully appearing hints of jazz and lounge music, all mixed as smooth and slippery as possible.

People who read this blog more aften might know I have a kind of predilection for raw, youthful and energetic music, I can go totally mad on bands like Japandroids or No Age, still, I also really enjoy smooth jazz like early Miles Davis or bossa nova tunes from artists like Bebel Gilberto or Stan Getz. That special kind of relaxed, serene feeling I sometimes get from these "smooth" kinds of music is what I would have to feel to really enjoy a The High Llamas album, unfortunately, I didn't. This doesn't mean Talahomi Way is a bad album, it's actually pretty decent music, but as there is absolutely no punch, no impulse, be it musically or emotionally, this record might incline a bit towards mediocrity in my humble opinion.

If I had to describe this album to somebody else I would probably describe it as anti-rock 'n roll, because it basically lacks everything that made pop and rock music so big; the rebellion, the transmittance of emotion, anger or even love. My pleasure doesn't lie within gentle orchestra strokes, a carefully played clean organ, velvet vocals and prudent songwriting. Apparently there are quite some people who fell in love with their sound, so please don't be turned off from this album for my dislike of their sound, there are abviously a lot of people who do like it, and I could imagine any random person being one of them. This album contains just enough potential of really being loved by someone, that "someone" just isn't me.

If God would be called James McAwes0me, I would become a Christian,

Selwin.