No Eyed Bird

Bi-coastal artists collaborative percussive clash creating the lesser known, yet longer lasting experimental stepchild of Drumline. Unlike that shitty movie, these guys use more sounds, play improvisational self composed pieces, and ahem; a glockenspiel. Mike Pride of New York City, has studied under the likes of Amir Ziv, and more recently, his mentor Milford Graves. He adds sinister vocals at points as well as electronic freakouts, but offers no words. Pride runs the studio FUNHOLE where this album was produced live! Japanese born Marcos Fernandes recently played the KFJC pit (04-2007) and is an active live performer in the San Diego scene. This particular release came from Fernandes and Pride meeting in Japan while both on tour in 2005. They later decided to take a day out of their lives to record this tasteful piece of percussion art fusion. A Mountain is a Mammal starts out with acid jazz fluxations, enters into a 27-minute piece with surprising sounds of bells, and ends with evil earth imploding electronic experimentalism.

Drum Machine Mayhem meets electric avant virtuoso guitar. Solo release by NYC’s Mick Barr of Orthrelm, The Flying Luttenbachers (formerly) & Crom-tech (duo with Hella drummer Zach Hill). takes the butt-rock out of metal guitar and births instrumental madness. I challenge any listener to discern time signature in any track. Nine songs (3,4,5,8,9,10,15) are purely guitar as this Fullforce Composer Series release by TZADIK seeks Guitar Hero status among hipsters and D&D fans alike. Produced by John Zorn, expect to be thoroughly impressed and confounded by the speed and compositional creativity evoked through the hands of a reincarnated Chopin or Beethoven.

-johnny darko

Two (female) artistically intoxicated folk heroes out of Santa Cruz, CA forcibly mate piano/organ tones with a battered accordion and to produce a tone-deaf clarinet baby. Coulda been the American soundtrack to Amelie. Mismatched lyrics that don’t make sense, are spoken over each other and sung by both Silvie Margot Deutsch (piano) and Zoe Ruth Cusmus Latta (accordion). Songs are sweet and sincere, as erratic as an unrehearsed kids choir with track #2 Little being the ultimate display of their witty sound. I hate to say the term cutsie, but sometimes in many tracks, that’s the only way to describe Belly Boat’s take on Raccoons, love and Agnus Dei.

-johnny darko

Teenage brothers Jordan and Jamie make up this alt-rock duo, Future Future from New Jersey. This EP release by the same name combines Jordan’s vocals and production with Jamie’s drumming, and it embodies the attention to the noisy melodic elements and embracing of electronics that characterize 2000s alternative rock. Somehow, this stuff reminds me of Muse (if the band decided to go with a noisier, faster sound). Track 1 “Television Glow” is characterized by danceable drumbeats and Jordan’s powerful vocals. Another notable track “My Machine” with a more electro take on alt rock. In all, the EP feels pretty short, but it’s just about the right length for these high energy rock songs. Future Future is out May 8, 2009, and is available on the duo’s MySpace.

Drums. Percussion. Rhythm. These make up the base of the organization of sounds known as music. When I was in high school band, there was something special about being a part of drum corps. When we played parades, the rest of the band would shut the hell up every couple of pieces, and let us percussionists show off the precision of rhythm. On Ensemble delivers that mysterious, hypnotic attraction to beats with the release Ume In The Middle. Melding together traditional Japanese Taiko music with modern electro and jazz, the CD delivers delectable beats and blips with a dash of drone.

The album opens up with the first two tracks “Yamasong” and “Hisashi,” keeping it nice and slow with droney chants and traditional-sounding flute. I was fooled into thinking that the rest of the CD would be the same, but I was treated to breakbeat paired with chopped-up samples in track 4 “Hiroya vs. Miniboss,” electro blips and beeps in track 7 “Silverback,” and downtempo instrumental goodness in track 9 “Yamasong (Remix).”

Rhythm transcends stylistic differences and is present in almost all forms of music; therefore, it’s nice to see On Ensemble proving this point with the ability to skip through different types of genres (and varying complexity in the rhythms). For example, track 7 “Silverback” sounds like material by WARP’s Plaid (if they had access to some really cool drums, of course) with the ensemble’s appreciation for IDM, and track 3 “Waiting” included plenty of sunny vocals and bright chords. Track 8 “Bounce Back” is something for drum corps members to appreciate. Combined with a splash of flute, the percussion shows off how On Ensemble plays as one with the precision that all percussionists strive for.

Ume In The Middle is slated to be release May 5, 2009, so keep your eyes open!

Forget what you think you know about electronic music and enjoy something different and refreshing yet freakishly familiar. The Dino Soars offers laid back hip hop beats alongside some sugary dance tracks inspired by the hot days of disco where music wasn’t held back by genres or being typecast as ‘electronic’ ‘indie’ and therefore limited to a esoteric musical audience. For Stegosaurus Rex, every listener is equal and he offers audible appetizers in this, his first of many albums to come. Instead of releasing 4 individual EP albums, this mega CD compiles and mixes them all into something almost random at times, with wild mood swings and gentle downtime.

Listen closely to his single on the album, track #13 “Nowhere To Run” and you may notice similarities to Ladytron’s “Seventeen”, but scarier still is its connection to Crystal Castles and their track “Crimewave“. While the self-titled Crystal Castles album was released one month earlier than The Dino Soars, the single “Nowhere to Run” had been out 2 years earlier as a single. Whether or not they took any influence from the track is inconsequential in the end because the two bands are obviously contemporaries with roots following back to Ladytron, Miss Kitten, and likely Kraftwerk. When asked of the similarities between the tracks however, Steg Rex comments, “I didn’t know who Crystal Castles was 2 years ago when they friended me on Myspace, after I had released the Nowhere To Run Single.” So it is possible that Stegosaurus Rex inspires bands like Crystal Castles. Either way, each band shoots off into different directions as Rex moves into the French inspired disco house realm with amazing cuts like “Fleeting Disco Do” and “Polar”. One of my personal favorites is “Mike Myers”, inspired by Michael Myers Halloween series, its IDM leanings have me respecting Steg Rex’s wide array of musical taste. Check out the video for Nowhere to Run on Youtube.

-johnny darko

Re-release of the 1983 cassette comp under Iham Products and FOPI. The album features shorts clips, most under a minute with clips like a 39 second Frank Zappa interview to to a piece by Charles Manson called Charlie and his MAM. Compiled by David Tibet (of Current 93), many are looped, foreign language and mostly of Throbbing Gristle material. This stands as the missing piece of the jigsaw between Coum Transmissions, Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV including rehearsals, radio bytes, phone calls, unreleased demos, interviews and ultra nonsense. The original release was issued in February 1983 as the fourth, and final issue of the Nanavesh magazine (The tape was the issue and didn’t include a written publication with it). The magazine concentrated initially on Throbbing Gristle and with its demise it moved onto Psychic TV. 23 Drifts To Guestling is a retrospective tape of Throbbing Gristle & basically a magazine on tape. It contains an interesting insight into TG with messages from their ansaphone, some material, an interview with Genesis following the ‘Prostitution’ exhibition at the ICA, an interview with American spree killer Gary Gilmore, a chat between Genesis and Monte Cazazza, bits and pieces of songs and a few death threats over the phone. It makes compulsive listening because it’s so strangely put together and it’s a good insight into the character of Mr P-Orridge.

-johnny darko

From the word “pomegranate” came the word “grenade” for the explosive weapon, because the pockets of shrapnel reminded soldiers of the seeds on the fruit, that would one day be plucked away from the core (or be expelled by the weapon). Pomegranates lives up to its namesake to bring together both sweet and explosive music in their CD Everything Is Alive, incorporating elements of rock music that have made its influences great. Poppy and catchy, the melodies from this indie rock release will stick inside your head. Retro sounding guitars, classic drumming, and powerful vocal performances make up the release.

Some standouts include track 4 “Late Night Television” which rivals songs by The Ramones in power and melodic content. Track 6 “Appreciations” includes a vocal presentation that reminds me of Mick Jagger (although with a much better touch of dynamics). The next track “Desert Hymn” slows the release down for a bit of introspective musing on Jesus. Track 10 “Honey Moon Pie” cleverly marries together power-pop with disco, bringing the music close to the realm of avant-pop. Last but not least, track 2 “In The Kitchen” is an exposition of charming lyrics and beautiful rock arrangements.

This release is for fans of The Owls, Silversun Pickups, Call And Response, as well as Ghostly International. Just like a grenade, such a small package brings so much power.

The Scarecrow Frequency is the project of Seattle musicians John Argetsinger and Erica Sherman, combining placid melodies and vocal media appropriated from various classic sources. Claiming to be shoegaze, the music takes austerely powerful, yet mellow soundscapes and combines them with beautiful pop elements, in a way quite similar to Jesu or Eluvium (but bridging the gap between the heaviness and softness, respectively). The opening track Transponder Parallels gives a small taste of the CD with a sample of a Richard Nixon Vietnam War speech. Interspersed throughout the release are various quotes about America, with a bittersweet and nervous look backwards. The tone of the music fits in with this theme of nostalgic remorse, wrapped up in commentary about the nation. And yet through some of the brighter melodies, a sense of determination may be felt.

A formidable release of American shoegaze/avant-pop, this CD will feel at home with fans of shoegaze in general.

The Scarecrow Frequency - Ivory Skeletons Of Dark Horses

1990’s Psych-rock-garage group from Harrisburg Virginia made up of members Sexua on vocals, Lmil on drums, Kshake on guitar and Ame Dread on bass. Part gimmick band, the groups thing was to dress up in different costumes for each show, as they did a puppet show one time and wore only vines another. Featured on this album is a cover song of the 70’s psych group Ultimate Spinach cut Hip Death Goddess (Ballad of the). The recording is by Warton Tiers who also did many of the early Sonic Youth albums. Its god a bit of the Sonic Youth and Fall vibe to it but without the seriousness to continue doing the act for more that the few years they were together as a college band at James Madison University. Think of a milkshake gone bad, left out on its own in college, getting drunk and figuring out how to make a lasting impression upon the world, and the audio slop will begin to make sense. The packaging for the original vinyl release which I unfortunately did not get, included a 3-D poster of the group, gorilla 3-D glasses (w/ scratch and sniff banana), chopsticks, a 12-page booklet full of art, a mermaid drinking glass companion, a hot dog bag, a 2nd poster/insert, and a nudie Teen Beat matchbook with the wise words “Relax Brother Relax” scrawled upon it. Most tracks on the album are short demo sounding chucklets and included as a bonus track is the last track, a live recording called Cave Bacon, Volume 3 which includes captured sound of about 4 minutes of vinyl crackling and the end of a vinyl.

-johnny darko

Fusing improvisational Java music performance and electronic composing is Gregory Taylor  of Madison Wisconsin. This is his first musical work, piecing this 7 track CD together live by creating samples and loops of an improv. electronic composition in the vein of Post Modernist and gamelan style music theory. Ambient and soft sounds ring like a cross between soft glass harps and organic wooden church bell. Glitch influence breathes lightly over the entire album that is free from silence and seamless throughout. Minimalistic in ways much like Brian Eno yet closer to Phillip Glass, Taylor uses synth tones performing in both Indonesian pentatonic scales Slendro and Pelog. Many of the track titles come from the Javanese note names of the Slendro and Pelog scales whose 5 notes were named after body parts. Note #2 – gulu – meaning neck, note 3 dada – is the chest, note 5 – lima – is hand or five fingers, and - nem,- note 6 referring to the male genitalia. The scales sad sound sets the mood of this album as its use in countries such as Bali were for cremation ceremonies. Celebrating Indonesian traditions and expanding it into the digital age, watch out for the easy New Age classification of his 25 year devotion to the sounds of Java.

-johnny darko

Blame Xiu Xiu for being so good that that they will have follower groups for the next 20 years. Eyes is one of those bands, but thankfully they don’t even try to polish themselves and come off sounding much more like I.B.O.P.A. the earlier project of Xiu Xiu frontman Jamie Stewart. The group is a duo plus many, made up of Nail In The Coffin label head Jorge Tapia and William Harris. From their Midwest headquarters in East Molina Illinois, Eyes aren’t your average corn herders, with their heads stuck in cassette tape culture a indicated by the infinite amount of OOP releases and lathe cuts on their discography, not to mention an upcoming comp alongside artists Zombi. They’ll have upcoming shows with the Chinese Stars and are inspired by Sun Ra as you can hear from the acid jazz breakdown of track 5. Soular Lust. Much of the other sounds on this album tributes 80’s electronic and New Wave with hyper Halloween tremolo vocals and over-amplified everything (piano, guitars, drum machines). Expect the tremolos to keep coming with each track in the album as if an old sweaty pair of yellow and black adidas sweatpants anthropomorphized into a rainbow garden of gay core fannypack dance team hand slapping professional B-boy image assistants, who’s primary duties include making sure everything you drink is fluorescent and no actual beads of sweat form on foreheads across the nation.

-johnny darko

Decade long droners stoners Japan’s own space super fab five take psychedelic turns at speeding you through long drip out trips in long movements around 8 minutes a piece and as long as 22 minutes! You may notice this release includes vox/drummer Pikachu who sings beginning of end of movement 2 with her Native American chantingin the right channel while singing on the left. Also the prog, one cannot forget the progtastic way in which the band behind her keeps the livid rainbow forms floating in your cornea. Don’t miss out on the ultracheese classic Casio keyboard sounds in movement one. And while over 3/5ths of the bands members are bearded, do not underestimate the potential hidden beard factor which Pikachu, a current member of the band Afrirampo, may have. For those who just want a small scoop, skip to the shortest movement #4, at 4 minutes including amazing Glockenspiel performance you’re psych-tooth will fall out before you even leave the meth lab. Are these crazy band members just another innocent surf band or are they lifted spacemen drifting into the depths of darkened obscurity? Either way enjoy on your upper/downer of choice and be prepared to have your mind reprogrammed by hyperactive braintrolls with severe ADD.

FYI: Acid Mothers Temple & the Cosmic Inferno differs from the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. not only in line-up but also in style of music. The Cosmic Inferno generally plays much heavier, hard-rock inspired psychedelia, and experiments more with effects pedals. (wikipedia)

-johnny darko

IVG is the third release by French label Poutre Apparente featuring more than a baker’s dozen of tracks split between various artists. This CD version put out by Born Bad Records (tracks are in a different order) is for those who prefer listening digitally to their experimental music. The themes and sounds of the CD are certainly disparate, spread across the release in haphazard fashion. Blending together tracks from some of the most experimental of the avant-garde artists of the time, IVG shows us the temporal uncertainty of an almost undefinable genre, being created in a time that was post-industrial, post-modern, and certainly post-punk. Instead of being melded together as a cohesive movement, the electronic, poppy, and punky tracks on the CD are like islands reaching towards each other through the receding waterline, almost-but-not-quite joined. In this same way, we see all the different types of influences to New Wave/No Wave on the release. A few different tracks stand out for different reasons. For example, track 4 “Indicateur Ou Drageur” by Nini Raviolette references French mod pop and 1960s rock ‘n’ roll with its fuzzboxes and heavy reverb. Track 11 “La Roue De Bicyclette” by D.D.A.A. is a droney, minimalistic presentation of hypnotic repetition. Finally track 12 “Le Manoir Du Chat Noir” by Atom Cristal is quite synth-heavy, exploring the on-the-verge world of synthpop atmospherics and analog drum machines. IVG is by no means an easy listen, and even at its roughly 40 minutes might seem lengthy. However, with each new listen, one can find beauty and musical order in the apparent abrasiveness of the tracks, and come to understand a whole era of music a bit better.

Bitcrush is a solo project of Mike Cadoo, focusing upon rock-based musical elements. Shimmer And Fade is a remastered reissue of the 2005 digital release of the same name (this time out on CD, limited to 1000 copies) and it includes 4 bonus tracks. The art references the original, but it is slightly different, being a bit cleaner.

Moving on to the music, the CD begins with dissonant, droney guitars layered over each other, signaling the album’s mood, austere and introspective, and set over sludgy, spacey rhythms. Distant and melodic, Cadoo’s music slowly explores harmonies and textures without making the music too experimental and unforgiving. Reminiscent of rock/metal-based shoegaze projects such as Jesu, Cadoo favors instrumentals over vocals, and makes sure that guitars don’t overpower the sound, using them only as a way to layer smooth, complex polyphonies over each other. The tracks also incorporate Cadoo’s previously honed skills and know-how of breakbeat rhythms and glitchy production. While most of the tracks are Warp-worthy, the real gems are (surprisingly) the tracks that sound a lot more rock than electronic. Warm and optimistic, they are listenable and easy to follow. For example, track 3 “No Bridge No Water” is a five-minute exposition of brightly melodic synths and strong alternative rock guitar riffs. More pop-structured than the other tracks, the song unabashedly skirts the line between accessibility and sophistication. Track 10 “When Swallowing Becomes Difficult” sounds like something off Ghostly International, being cute yet introspective, with a touch of bittersweet euphoria. These two tracks stand out from the others and bring to the album a bit of avant-pop energy from within a much more downtempo sound.

Bitcrush - When Swallowing Becomes Difficult (30s clip)

Marvin Ayres is a British composer of ambient soundscapes, mixing together minimalistic, yet dynamic melodies that swirl around different genres. A master of polyphony, Ayres draws from the harmonic traditions of Medieval plainchant, to the glory of Renaissance vocal works, to the ultra-experimental pieces of the musical genius Gyorgy Ligeti. By combining the breathtaking beauty of repetitive melodic themes with the movement of sound flowing in and out of dramatic tension, Ayres creates music that resides between glorious and muted, pious and indifferent, beautiful and worn. The CD opens with “Androgynous Weave,” an almost perverse reversal of the sacred minimalism of Arvo Part. Repetitive and hypnotic, it certainly leaves a mark on the mind, but with a decidedly barren tone. Track 8 “Do You Hear Me Now?” sounds like Medieval plainchant, but with a beautiful mix of polyphony, building up to an almost sacrosanct wall of piety, but pulling us out of our dreams of the old by layering a thick barrier of reverberation and clean-cut audio. Most of the CD brings a sense of barrenness and austerity to the listener, with a slight touch of pessimism. However, by listening close, one can find the shimmering light of emotional apex at the beginning of track 2 “Soured Alchemy,” bringing to the audience a sense of finality and peace, executed beyond the bounds of temporality.

Yet another offering of electro from the French label Kitsune Music, German duo Jens Moelle and Ismail Tuefekci (Digitalism) adds a bit of power-pop flavor to the wider genre of electro-house with the CD album release Idealism. With Daft Punk’s experimentation of using less sample-based production in favor of more synths, Digitalism carries the ball further, using synths to replace the traditional role of guitars without being as abrasive as their predecessors. For example, track 3 “I Want, I Want” is a jangly post-punk little number, complete with that classic drumset groove, divorcing the sound from the hold of drum machines that dominates the whole electro-house genre. Track 7 “Pogo” on the other hand, sounds like a poppier Joy Division song, reminding one of The Killers with its power-pop straight rock drive, and 1/8 note basslines. The duo even manages to touch upon the sounds of 80s New Romantic with track 12 “Apollo-Gize.” However, even apart from the virtuosity of extracting the essential nostalgia of the 80s, Moelle and Tuefekci really bring that magical groove that is so necessary to disco-variations. Track 5 “Digitalism In Cairo” shows off the duo’s skills in chopping up samples, and track 14 “Jupiter Room” just lays down a humongous house groove epitomizing the electro-house style. In all, Digitalism’s release Idealism is a danceable, yet melodic piece of work.

Digitalism - Pogo (YouTube Video)

Unsettled On An Old Sense Of Place is a release by Gustavo Aguilar, experimental percussionist. Throughout the CD, Aguilar pieces together different bits of avant-garde electronic, jazz, and percussion to create challenging tracks of various lengths. Although comprised of only 6 tracks, each track contains plenty of complex ideas made for the listener to digest. Aguilar employs the help of other very accomplished artists to help with vocals, strings, and a variety of other instruments to bring forth the essence of tonal balance through the scraping, the tapping, the plucking, of various materials. In track 2 “Contrafactum For Scelsi,” Aguilar puts his percussionist tendencies to use as he taps out a series of sounds from the different surfaces available on a guitar, going beyond what is normally thought of as playing (on the strings). He shows off his virtuosity in percussion by showing us syncopated, accented notes, building in intensity as he presents the whole range of energies present in such a performance. Track 6 “Wendell’s History” is a track featuring poet Wendell Berry’s work, crisp vocals layered over hypnotic, sparkling glockenspiel-playing. Quite possibly the most amazing track on the CD is track 4 “Dirac’s Theory,” (named after physicist Paul Dirac) a unique 3-minute long drum solo. Playing only a snare drum, Aguilar shows us once again not only his virtuosity on percussion, but also the possibility of sounds that exist (or can exist) within one single instrument. The tracks on this CD might be slightly abrasive at times, but they certainly yank the listener (and the musician) out of their comfort zones, showing them the possibility of sounds that are not popularly utilized.

Gustavo Aguilar - Dirac’s Theory (Clip)

Julie Fowlis is a Gaelic singer from the island of North Uist, in Scotland. In Scottish Gaelic tradition, individuals compose little songs to reflect the events and mundane business of daily life. Fowlis in this album Cuilidh puts together a collection of 12 songs taken from the compositions of others on the island. Slightly rustic, and intensely personal, the album is a deep dive into the oral story-telling tradition of the culture. The melodies are moving and the characters memorable, and weave together a small microcosm of the people on the edge of the world. All the songs are sung in Gaelic to preserve the original forms, but the booklet luckily provides English translations for everything, allowing the general audience to peer into a language that is now spoken by about only 60,000 people in the world. Deeply touching, the songs touch upon lost love, hard lives of patriotic war vets, long journeys at sea… Track 2 “Mo Ghruagach Dhonn” for example is a love song lamenting a man’s lover going abroad to Australia. A beautiful ballad, the song reminds me of the medieval troubador music of Bernart de Ventadorn and his song “La Douza Votz” with their similar themes of lost love and acceptance. Track 9 “Oran Nan Raiders” is a song about a group of men who were promised land if they fight in the war (WWI). However, they are betrayed by the government and they decide to take matters into their own hands by attempting to seize the land themselves. Track 6 “Set Of Jigs” sounds like something straight from a medieval village, drawing from traditional European dance music structures. A big chunk of 6/8 time music, joyful tracks like these offset the more bittersweet and more tragic songs on the CD. Traditional and personal, the album is immediately accessible to the general listener with its focus on how folk music can fit into modern pop acoustic. (Believe me, medieval ballad/troubador music influenced a LOT of modern music!)

Death in June is Douglas Pearce, and Douglas Pearce’s new album is another offering of brooding neo-folk entitled The Rule of Thirds. Against a backdrop of only a strumming guitar and an array of subtle, but ominous sound effects Pearce croons through thirteen haunting tracks. The hollowness of Pearce’s voice is similar to that of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, though he does not possess the late singers prowess for songwriting. For an album with such scant instrumentation to be compelling it must contain lyrics that are nothing short of poetic (i.e. Leonard Cohen, early Dylan), and while there are breaths of thoughtful prose on Rule, it is clear that Pearce is no James Joyce. The lyrics on songs like “Good Mourning Sun”; And on this Winter’s Day/I can’t drink it away/I feel it’s here to stay/The rains they seem to pour and pour/And, what is more I’ll always settle to score, and “Idolatry”;You come and go/You’re the Emptiness/That was meant to be/The missing piece/Of the Puzzle of Me left me wanting and a little disappointed that the 52 year old Pearce could not contrive some more introspective verse. That being said, there are a couple creditable tracks on the album, namely “My Rhine Atrocity”; which sees Pearce’s minimalist style adding hues to his sobering words, and the angst-ridden “Takeyya,” which pits a catchy chord progression against Pearce’s biting British accent. The most resonant cut is the finale “Let Go,” a song that flourishes in its languorousness, and finally accomplishes what I imagine was Pearce’s intent for the album as a whole. The Rule of Thirds would be ideal to put in your player on a sunny Sunday hangover afternoon, as you sentimentally muse bad decisions and analyze the state of your failing life, but if you’d prefer not to enter this dark realm, I’d just suggest a cup of coffee.

Canada’s Kataklysm has always been somewhat unique, a band characterized seemingly by their extremity but also their versatility. Yet, their new album prevail, only seems to showcase these talents to a minor degree. “Prevail” opens with the title track, with a quote from Last Man Standing, the 1996 film inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo, where a young Ronin pits two gangs together in order to save a town. While they have sampled film clips for their songs before, this seems unorthodox source material for a death metal band indeed…and it seems as though this is a sign that Kataklysm is flirting with the intellectual or highbrow as it did in previous albums. But it doesn’t account for a whole lot of deviance from standard death metal tropes on the rest of the album.

The quote itself is the perfect beginning to the pounding, and unrelenting furor of the first track, blurting “went to hell…everybody ends up dead, it’s just a matter of when.” Yet the song itself seems to be about prevailing through this hell, and thus it seems about the futility of such an action, which is curious considering the power incited by “Prevail.” Its inconsistency is perhaps saved by the lyric “I will be discouraged and turn it into rage…” Perhaps another lyric of theirs that can sum up part of their approach on this album was “there’s no time to contemplate/settle this hate to devastate.” Which is characteristically consistent with their brand of death metal, but it occasionally seems immature for a band known to release multi-themed, multi-faceted songs such as those from 2006’s “Temple of Knowledge” These lyrics are interesting indicators of the rest of the album: a good effort marred by some inconsistencies in theme and the execution therein, but altogether redeemed by certain qualities.

The album is solid, and an indicator that Kataklysm hasn’t lost its edge on this eleventh album. What follows is a very good, if perhaps uneven and just-above-standard death metal album, featuring tangible Iron Maiden influences, which is usually a sign of quality for any Death Metal band, and Kataklysm is no different.

Guitar solos appear to be somewhat sparse on this album, which is unfortunate, because Jean-Francois Dagenais ‘s lead guitar work is at times, excellent, evocative of Katakylsm’s roots. The solo from “Blood and Heaven” seems the spawn of “The Thing That Should Not Be” and any Dimebag Darrell solo from “Far Beyond Driven” on…and an astonishing outro that shows that Kataklysm have not forgotten their other obvious influences: Maiden, and Death. So many bands claim to garner inspiration from such bands, but Kataklysm’s “Prevail”, like many other new albums by artists on Nuclear Blast, actually has song construction similar to their forefathers. Listen to the brilliant instrumental track on the end of the album, “The Last Effort,” which recalls Maiden’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Furthermore, sweep arpeggios on “The Vultures Are Watching” are in league with some of the best, proving that death metal bands can still hold their own against power metal’s ridiculous instrumental prowess.

That being said, what is most refreshing about this album is their frequent bursts of melodicism in many of the songs on their album, especially on “Tear Down the Kingdom,’ and “Blood in Heaven.”

Maurizio Lacano, vocalist since 1998’s “Victims of the Fallen World,” continues to pound home his death metal growl that never comes close to the idiotic “cookie monster”: sounds that other bands use simply in order to call themselves death metal. But Lacano is definitely the real deal… and some of his growls and high screams harken back to those of Chuck Schuldiner, incorporating backing vocals that work far better than one would expect.

Mark Duhamel’s blast beats make an appearance but for the most part are underemphasized, and he shows remarkable restraint at many points, slowing down tempos to give off strangely simple yet effective 4/4 rhythms.

The lyrics, unfortunately, do not match up to the musicianship, and they can be as uneven and awkward as some of Dave Mustaine’s weaker offerings, or those of fellow Nuclear Blast Records devotee Alexi Laiho. But the musicianship of “Prevail” is almost enough to overshadow this, like most albums of the aforementioned artists, whose songwriting qualities almost always have, well, “prevailed” over their dubious lyricism. And So does Kataklysm.

Still, the songs are not perfect, “The Throne of Sorrow,” for example, contains an intro riff that seems to belong to a nu-metal band, and the following unrelenting pre-chorus tremolo riffs seem to simply exist for the sake of repenting for this mortal sin. Fortunately, this and other songs come out swinging for all their flaws, versatile, never quite similar. “The Throne of Sorrow” shifts into a melodic mode for a semi-clean riff leading into a melodic distorted riff and then a great guitar solo, so these flaws are somewhat negligible.

But only somewhat.

3.5 of 5 devil horns

For more on Kataklysm, check out www.kataklysmrocks.com

Ebb and flow. Dissonance and Consonance. The Denouement’s full length debut Low Tide is an exercise in dualism. The Denouement is an indie rock band currently based out of Azusa, CA. While they claim to sound like Felix the Cat or King Kong, (the cartoon and movie, respectively) a more apt comparison might be a combination of the free earnestness of The Arcade Fire with the exploration of dissonance and loud/soft dynamic present on Cursive’s The Ugly Organ, and classic rock textures comparable to The Wall-era Pink Floyd. In reality, though, these comparisons simply fall short of describing the band’s sound, as they present a voice that is truly only their own.The album opens with “Addition,” a track that alternates between the calm before the storm and alarming urgency. While this kind of comparison is rarely side by side in the same song after this point, the rest of the album fulfills the varying promises made by this track and more.Every track here is a carefully woven tapestry of sound, but of course there are standouts. “Saddest Joke” drops a perfect dose of pop exactly when it is needed after slow-burner “Sleepwalking,” with singer Malachi Ward proudly proclaiming that: “my life, it doesn’t fit into a straight line.” Instrumental “12 Minutes” presents a richly textured sonic thesis. “Shake Off” mutates from ominous dirge to Cursive-inspired dance-off. Closer “Keep Hunting” bids the listener farewell from what feels like a journey along hidden path of the soul. And it truly is a path that will occupy the soul- Low Tide rides the big questions of existence, asking questions of meaning that all have pondered, but never offering the easy answers that ruin so many works of art that could be described as “issues music.” A friend described this album as “agnostic rock.” Maybe, but where The Denouement are concerned, I consider myself a believer.

The year is 1970. James Brown has just released his single “Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine.” One year earlier, Sly and the Family Stone changed the funk world forever with their masterpiece Stand! It feels like funk is on the verge of being the soundtrack to solve all of the world’s ills, a reminder to keep strong and keep optimistic in an era of increasing national unrest. Along comes Breakestra, the natural culmination of the urgent need to combat despair through music.

Wait. That’s not it.

The year is 1993. This “hip-hop” thing is emerging from a street undercurrent to a prominent social and political voice. Groups like De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest are pushing hip hop forward as a true art form and a forum to combat the negativity and violence prevalent in American street culture, with language steeped in both fire and love, and a gave both forward and backward to the funk forebears to whom they derived philosophical lineage. In the midst of this changing musical landscape, Breakestra emerges, melding the best of funk optimism with a very 1993 hip-hop sense of beat dynamics.

That’s not it either.

The true story:

Breakestra was formed in 1996 as a jam session by leader Miles Tackett, and released their first full-length, The Live Mix Part 1, in 1999. The child of a shared love of aforementioned early 1990s hip-hop and 1960s-1970s funk, their second album, 2001’s The Live Mix Part 2 captures both sounds completely and effortlessly. So-named for its hybrid production featuring live intrumentals performed by the band, sampled and mixed and then retranslated for live playing to capture both the breakbeat, sampled concepts of their hip-hop heroes along with the soul inherent to live funk. The album starts off with a 9-track break mix sampling the varied talents of Herbie Hancock and Jimmy Smith among others. The mix takes on a life of its own, and if I may indulge in a blasphemous moment of hyperbole here, manages to exceed the sum of its prestigious parts (no small feat). The rest of the album plays largely as a best-of set of funk covers, reinterpreted here for a post hip-hop generation, but maintaining the raw soul of the original compositions. While this could have easily resulted in the kind of underwhelming triteness seemingly inherent to a “covers” album, the tracks take on a life of their own in this context, momentarily making you forget that these aren’t original works through the earnestness of the performance. Truly great funk of this magnitude hasn’t come around in a very long time, and The Live Mix Part 2 will make you believe in 1970. Or 1996. Or 2001. Whatever.

You may not know it yet, but Delta Spirit is your new favorite band.

San Diego genre-benders Delta Spirit are poised to bust out of obscurity with their first full-length album, Ode To Sunshine. The band has brought their A-game on the new disc, setting themselves apart from the pack with an enigmatic and exciting debut.

Working with a decidedly rustic sound, Ode To Sunshine blends elements of jazz, folk, funk, surf, Brill Building pop and so much more, bubbling over with crisp, clean harmonies and delicious hooks. The album is a calculated mess; and singer Matt Vasquez howls with cathartic conviction over buzzing strings and distant drums.

There is one thing that Sunshine makes clear: these boys know their way around a hook. The verse-chorus-verse construction of “People C’mon” is irritatingly catchy, but the simplicity of its structure is refreshing and alluring. The raucous “Trashcan” inspires a spontaneous joy with its scream-along chorus.

Delta Spirit can also create moods like no other band out there these days. An out-of-tune piano over the clatter of barware charms the listener in “House Built For Two”, and the endless-summer feel of “Strange Vine” conjures up images of the band’s San Diego heritage.

The album’s centerpiece is no doubt “Bleeding Bells”, a departure from the rousing battle-cry of the songs that surround it on the album. “Bells” is a slow, shaky dirge punctuated by serene horns and Vasquez’ solitary whisper. The usally brazen frontman trades in his noisy audacity for a shy and vulnerable murmur, making it the standout track on what is already a near-perfect album.

San Diego has long been a sunny utopia for artists of all types, but its knack for fostering creativity is often lost in nearby Los Angeles’ neon glow. Skeptics may pass them off as another ‘indie/folk’ act from some granola town in California, but all the proof you need to negate that idea is in Ode To Sunshine. From start to finish, every song is eye-opening; maybe even life-changing.

Sa DingDing, one half Han and one half Mongolian (two different Chinese ethnicities) releases Alive to the world. With her Chinese and international appeal, Sa’s US release is ambitious and perfectly timed as the Beijing Olympics commence near the album’s release date. Sa uses the various languages of Mandarin, Tibetan, Sanskrit, and her own self-created language to weave together a complex mix of musical styles that spans across pop, electronic, and the traditional music of the various ethnicities of China. For those who don’t know, there are 55 different ethnicities (minorities!) that are officially recognized and categorized by the Chinese government. In China, cultural identity is not as simple as it may appear on the surface. In this way, Sa works to bring together different cultures with the melding of different styles of music. The opening track “Mama Tian Na” shows off the variations of styles that she is capable of, from muted chants to epic drums to driving soundtrack beats reminiscent of various movements in the works of Harry Gregson Williams. This epic style is repeated in the two versions of “Alive” (tracks 2 and 8), which is delicately layered with a mix of traditional Chinese instruments along with modern rock beats and basslines. Track 7 “Flickering With Blossoms” is one of my favorites on the album, incorporating lyrics written by a woman who submitted them onto Sa’s blog, and employing a sultry downtempo instrumental track. Track 6 “Lagu Lagu,” is also of note, written in her own self-created language, binding the album together and allowing her to completely appropriate her own music in a work that is unique to Sa DingDing.

Lucibel Crater is a New York 3-piece band, cranking out bits of funk and jazz elements along with some indie shoegaze. The Family Album is a 10-track exploration of eclectic elements coupled with lush instrumentals and Leah Coloff’s singing/spoken word. Oftentimes moody and mysterious, the music definitely does not drag. For example, track 6 (”Blue Stationwagon”) is a long jazzy instrumental piece, sounding like semi-improvised explorations of sound set on top of brilliantly frenetic drumming. If The Doors had known shoegaze, they might have made something like this, bringing a harder edge to “Riders On The Storm.” Track 9 “Swimmers” broods on for the first 3 minutes of the track; the guitar theme then mixes with the drums at the 3-minute mark, congealing into a catharsis of dissonantly beautiful melodies, before abruptly ending at around 5:30, shaking the listener out of its kaleidoscope of manic action. The best piece on the CD is arguably track 7, “Where You Are,” showing off Coloff’s excellent vocal talents and enveloping the listener with a haunting, repetitive melody. Perhaps not as focused as it could be, The Family Album nonetheless showcases the project’s excellent musical ideas.

The Mountain Goats have tiptoed back onto the scene with Heretic Pride, another dreamy album of hushed acoustic pop. On Heretic Pride, The Mountain Goats touch on everything from pretty girls, cryptozoology, and singer John Darnielle’s own personal history. Darnielle writes lyrics with a remarkable candor and honesty, offering glimpses into some very personal and very specific moments. His untrained vocals add an air of earnest authenticity, and as the album goes on, you begin to feel as though he is sitting on a lawn chair in your backyard, a beer in one hand, telling these stories amongst good friends from your own hometown.

Fans will be accustomed to Darnielle’s confessional style of writing, but to unfamiliar ears, his nostalgia can become overbearing at times. While much of the tracks sparkle with Darnielle’s and bassist Peter Hughes’ distinctive chemistry, songs like “San Bernardino” and “Marduk T-Shirt Men’s Room Incident” are constantly walking the line between poetic and sappy. Both songs about long-lost lovers and relationships gone wrong, the choruses hop back and forth from cute to clingy to creepy, and just when you’re ready to skip to the next track, back to cute again.

Though the Mountain Goats perform in their usual acoustic style on Heretic Pride, they are masters of mixing it up. Their sound shifts greatly from track to track, showcasing the skills they’ve honed from a decade and a half as songwriters and performers, and proving that a simple six-string can be one of the most liberating and flexible instruments around. The Goats still sound as fresh as ever, and establish on Heretic Pride that they remain a force to be a reckoned with, and a benchmark for every kid who quits their day job in pursuit of a musical career.

On his full length debut with Stones Throw, James Pants absolutely oozes groove. There’s no other way to describe the Spokane, WA DJ/Multi-instrumentalist’s approach to music. Pants deals not in songs and hooks, but grooves that slowly creep at the edges of your brain. This is not to say that Welcome is a hookless album. The synth bass of “We’re Through” and the quietly irresistible vocoder riff of “Cosmic Rapp” will nab the listener like a bear trap on first listen. Rather, these obvious hooks service an atmosphere so thick you can breathe it. James’ layered keys and funked-up beats create an aural world so nasty and sexed up as to be almost pornographic. This strength becomes Welcome’s only major weakness as well. Pants occasionally becomes so enamored with atmosphere that he forgets to come back to earth and bring the listener along or the ride, “Prayers of the People,” in particular, overstays its welcome as more of a 2 and a half minute long experiment than an actual song. Throughout the album, Pants seems to fall in love with his own oddness and the vintage of his synths and sometimes forgets to fall in love with actual songcraft. Still, within the larger album context, “Prayers” makes a lot of sense, and most of Welcome’s finest moments come in the form of a slow creep: sounds that didn’t catch in your head the first time, but pull you further down the rabbit hole with each subsequent listen. The more time the listener gives Welcome, the more likely the listener is to fall in love with the same oddness and sounds that Pants has himself.

Producer Simon Smart’s project Sonanaut is focused on music that could be classified as ambient house/acid jazz chillout. Not quite as funky as Ninja Tune (acid jazz), nor as mainstream-sounding as Naked Music (deep house), and certainly not as experimental as Eno (experimental ambient), Smart crafts music that rests between all of these genres, incorporating clean, layered soundscapes along with some dubby beats and slow, sludgy trip-hop sonic aesthetics. In addition, he samples other sources to link to the bigger musical community. Track 8 “Don’t You Know?” is quite possibly the best one on Sinking Upwards, and brings together beautiful electronic drumbeats, phased-and-filtered synthesizers, and complex harmonies, into a piece reminiscent of some of Morgan Geist’s more abstract work. Through Smart’s smooth movements and transitions between tracks, we hear rehashes of musical themes that make up the core of previous tracks on the CD, bringing compelling coherence to the entire release. This is definitely good music for chillout fans, and many others will be interested in the collection of Sonanaut music videos as well.

When one thinks of Scandinavian 5-piece bands, they usually think of The Cardigans, which is a pretty hard act to follow. However, with The Cardigans making most of their greatest songs in the 90s and waning since then, The Beatitude, a five-piece Danish band, crashes onto the scene with some fresh new tunes. Whereas The Cardigans referred back the the 1960s mod scene with its cool, calm instrumentals and cute vocals, The Beatitude refers back to the alternative rock and grunge bands of the 1980s and 1990s with its collection of loud songs. Apart from being Scandinavian and being very good at imitating retro music (yep, 90s music is “retro” now, and I hear Nirvana songs being played on classic rock stations now), the musical styles of The Beatitude and The Cardigans aren’t too similar. Instead, The Beatitude sounds like a mixture of Weezer, The Pixies, and The Breeders, with its poppy distorted guitars and hilarious lyrics. Somehow, opening track “Jump!” reminds me a bit of Morningwood’s “Nth Degree” with its loads of fun punk energy and its very listenable melodies, giving a glimpse of the sound that makes up the rest of the CD. Not obnoxiously political, The Beatitude intelligently discusses some pretty hefty philosophical arguments with tongue-in-cheek humor. For example, in track 2 “Hymn To The Hen,” singer Karin Jonch Clausen questions the view that there is uniqueness or agency in individual consciousness (aligned with Nietzsche, Althusser, Foucalt, etc) with its critique of 18th century French Enlightenment assumptions (as well as the views of Denmark’s own Soren Kierkegaard). In track 8 “Dualism Fails” the band questions the philosophical stance that the world is separated into material and spiritual worlds; in short, they argue that the spiritual world cannot exist outside of what we can see. Hegel, of course, would not be happy. However intellectual the lyrics can be, listeners can definitely enjoy the CD at a musical level as well. Other songs of note are tracks 7 and 10 (”The World Is Wrong” and “Blown Away”). “The World Is Wrong” has a good guitar melody and a nice driving beat, whereas “Blown Away” is a cover of the song by the same name originally done by The Pixies, at a much faster pace and with a cleaner sound. Throughout the whole album, The Beatitude plays some very cool music that is definitely worth a listen. The only gripe I have is that some of the lyrics are hard to hear and it would be awesome if they were included with the packaging. In any case, if you like early 90s alternative rock and grunge, this is for you!