Swans : To Be Kind

To Be Kind sees experimental post-rock titans Swans continue with the sound developed in their 2012 release, The Seer. Released under the band’s own label, Young God Records, To Be Kind can only be described as a refined savagery, with unsettling metronomic tracks shackling listener and music together with its dark instrumentals and near flawless structure.

Running for an arduous two hours (including a 34 minute track less than half way through the album), To Be Kind is more of a battle than your standard 'headphones on the metro' listening experience. Many of the songs are structurally dependant on repetition as vocalist Michael Gira constantly sings the same line over and over with little variation - all the while the music lurking into crescendo at a snail's pace. This instils a bizarre metronomic effect that lingers in the head of the listener in the same way that a clock ticks; only Gira successfully replaces that clock with the horrifying chants of a dark evangelist screaming “FUCK!” over and over.

However it's not all following a single formula - tracks like Oxygen work like a perversive throwback to the band’s sound circa 1990s, taking the same catchy rock sound but twisting it with catatonic vocals and rhythmic stabs of noise-rock riffs. I’m Just a Little Boy (for Chester Burnett) divides the album by putting a calm, yet eerie blues track into the fray and the closer/title track To Be Kind is provides a mellow, bittersweet end to an otherwise chaotic album.

What works best for the album is that outside of all the strangeness in the vocal styles, 30 minute long songs, cult chanting and other general weirdness - there's a successful amalgamation of blues, post-rock, noise-rock and experimental themes here which shows that there are still bands who are willing to throw something into the rock genre that isn’t about haircuts and familiarity. To Be Kind may be the antithesis of conventional music, but to those willing to pay attention it’s a goldmine for pushing conventional boundaries and sating one’s curiosity.  

BY THOMAS BRAND

Best Track: She Loves Us!
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: RUSSIAN CIRCLES, early LIARS, NEUROSIS
In A Word: Horrifying

Here's a submission I made to Beat Mag. Might as well keep something on retainer here hey?

I'm now working for an online E-zine.

Soon to go to print. The name is 7/62 and can be found here:

http://www.sevensixtytwo.net/

That's where I'll be writing from now on. Stuff will be different from what I'm used to writing but a job is a job and I'm pretty optimistic that this is going to be a decent read!

Thanks for the support guys x

Have A Nice Life - The Unnatural World (proper review)

Posted this review to Rate Your Music. Thought anyone who read my first impression might want to read this guy...

After giving the album many listens, I still feel like it's got a lot of flaws. There are maybe three songs here that are genuinely good, but let's pull the album apart piece by piece.

Guggenheim Wax Museum has a big and unsettling sound. It's a positive thing and it works for the track, but at the same time you can't help but feel like the production could have been better, no matter how intentionally poor it might have been.

Defenestration Song needed to have the improvement in vocals, but really didn't need to have any of the riffs dumbed down. That really uninspiring shred part in the middle just ruined the song for me.

Burial Society is probably one of the stronger tracks, but I can't help but feel like the end of the song isn't as well planned or laid out as that ominous, haunting start.

Music Will Untune the Sky and get skipped every playthrough.

Cropsey is kind of cool but the introduction goes on too long to make the song one you'll go back to. You'll listen once, enjoy it, and then every time you want to go back it'll feel like a long walk for little reward.

Actually, to cut it short, I think the only song on the second half of the album that really interested me one way or another would probably be Dan and Tim, Reunited by Fate - if not for the rolling bass line and airy vocals. This was probably one of the best songs on the album because it didn't feel like they were trying to do anything but make a good song.

The album is BLIGHTED by ironic attempts at 'deep' and 'different' production and average song writing. I've taken caution to not review this as 'Deathconsciousness II' but even then, this album has definite and obvious flaws that shouldn't be over-sighted just because Dan's Giles Corey releases and DC were all good or at least interesting. Treat this as it's own beast - a beast with a few good songs but ultimately lacking in staying power.

Kidcrash - Jokes

Kidcrash - Turtleelephant

From start to finish, a brilliantly technical and involving album. Every instrument played here is working with eachother to create a monster of a song. Youtube informs me that you can download the album for free at http://bit.ly/i5tXb5

I'm in the middle of a phase that has seen me getting into a bunch of post-hardcore / skramz bands and I've gotta say I'm enjoying it. Highly reccommended in the genre lies Kidcrash's album, Jokes, which offers many solid tracks of highly technical post-hardcore jams, tonally similar to other bands in the field while being far more advanced in a subtle way.

The album manages to guard the talent of every instrumentalist by using an odd guitar tone, cleaner than your standard rock, metal or hardcore band. Other bands with similar song structure such as Gospel or Between The Buried And Me have worked with a highly produced, heavy toned chaos that while impressive, has a certain 'showoff' air to it which I always found quite jarring. Kidcrash's clean guitar and more modest structuring still has that 'showoff' vibe without going over the top with it, resulting in what I feel is a much more listenable album than works from the previously mentioned artists.

Back to the instrumentals, each instrument is carefully attuned to the rest of the song. Both guitars seem to dance through eachother's riff work, creating airy progressions and crushing jams. The bass doesn't simply follow the rest of the music but rather creates it's own tone behind the song, while the drums are constantly changing the pace of the song to the point where the same riff could have been played three, four times but it would have sounded completely different due to the drums snapping off in these brilliant flowing rock style jams. The vocals are kept to an absolute minimum and are barely emphasised in comparisson to the rest of the music, cutting in like an extra instrument used minimalistically in the same way that some samples or synths are used structurally in other songs.

As a guy who loves his instruments, I can really see the value of an album like this. I'm sorry to lay this one down with pseudo technical bullshit, but this is one of the best constructed albums that I've listened to without having to deal with the wankerish tone that you could expect from music so well constructed (I'm looking at you BTBAM with your goddamn clean vocals, hour long chained song album and stupid jazzy well produced jams smacked together in one of the most frustrating strucutral clusterfucks I've ever heard/liked).

So yeah, give these guys a listen if you want a mix between Gospel/BTBAM and Fall of Troy/Crash of Rhinos. Really fantastic shit. Kind of trails off at the end of the album on the first few listens, but I'm finding an appreciation for every song and I'd easily give the album a 4.9 out of 5.

Old Love

http://oldloveaus.bandcamp.com/

Here's a 5 track EP that my mate put me onto. The songs are a nice mix of several genres - Post hardcore, Hardcore, Skramz/emoviolence and a couple of prog-sludgy segments as well. The interesting thing is that a lot of the riff work is quite unexpected and dark while still sounding very post hardcore, however still staying heavy and strong as if it never left the hardcore itself. The melodic follow-ups complement the heavier sections well.

Give it a shot if you want. Or don't. Fuck you.

Tom Odell - Long Way Down

Tom Odell - Another Love
Listen closely people, this is how you make a song APPEAR to be good.

Now the thing that brought my attention to this album is that NME slammed it with a 0/10 review which would indicate that it has no redeeming features, AT ALL. So I got my hands on it and gave it a listen, keeping in mind the criticisms that the NME review had, saying the album did nothing original and took elements from all the industry's most boring indie artists of the time and put it into this album. What was my verdict? Well...

There's things this album does right. The album's production and song structure are pretty stellar - it's got a big stadium vibe and the addition of piano puts it a little bit apart from similar bands in the genre - but the review was right. This does sound like an amalgamation of Mumford and Sons/Florence and the Machine.

However, the album shits me. The first thing that threw me off about the album is that it kept falling flat lyrically. Odell would be setting up the verses to what should have been wrapped with brilliant metaphors, but those metaphors never came. Matter of fact he'd do a disservice to his songs by setting up some brilliant piano numbers but then having really, really, incredibly, awfully, terribly shallow pop lyrics, constant moans in the backing vocals and repetition of themes and song structure. It's very well constructed, but just annoying to have to listen to because of the repetition and the overall cheesiness. It kind of shits me in the same way that Imagine Dragons do because it feels like I'm listening to a giant cliche.

Alright, I'm cutting it off here. I'm getting a little bit annoyed at how something that has such good production could still wind up being repetitive and shallow. I mean not to say it's a bad album, if you're into that channel V bullcrap, this album is for you... But I've had my stint of listening to piano heavy albums (or at least tracks) and the piano is not an instrument you take lightly, or pair up with a complete lack of dynamic or meaningful lyrics.

Fuck man. I mean that NME guy is a tool because this is at least a 5+ for production alone, but after two listens in I'm getting angry at the album.

Have A Nice Life: The Unnatural World advance play on P4k

New England shoegazers Have A Nice Life (Consisting of Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga) are finally back to make you feel awful about everything with the release of their highly anticipated album, The Unnatural World. This album takes a step back from their dreamier, poppier tones from their previous album, and decides to create a more focused, darker album.

I have yet to write a proper review for this one. I'm letting it sink in fully before I go out of the way to type up a post about it. However, I will say this - my first impressions are that Dan Barrett knows he's got a following now, and I believe he's using that to try and get away with making some less than fantastic tunes by experimenting or forgoing dynamics. He and Tim are still keeping it quite interesting though, they've thrown in what I percieve to be post-punk elements with the song Unholy Life, darker indie rock elements with Dan and Tim, Reunited by Fate.

So far my favourite song is Burial Society. Listening to Guggenheim Wax is what despair sounds like - wretched, drawn out, taunting you like some kind of fucked up voice in the distance, and as an opener it sets up the album really well. The remix of Defenestration Song is not as bad as I gave it credit for, but still feels like they've mixed it a bit crap for artistic merits. 

It's as if the negativity that festered in Dan's Giles Corey project has bled into this album. The passion of both the musicians isn't as vibrant as it was over Deathconsciousness and the Voids EP, it's a manifestation of misery. Like I said before, this is much, much closer to what despair would sound like if you gave it form, not loud but drawn out, taunting you from behind a wall of ambience in a similar way to how the mind taunts a person when everything else is background noise.

http://pitchfork.com/advance/317-the-unnatural-world/

I'm now on Last.fm!

Now you can find out what I'm really doing at home with my headphones on! Am I listening to great jams? Emo crap? Porn?

http://www.last.fm/user/Teabowne

Other news, I'm about to start a Tumblr to do some publicity for a music festival within the week. I'll update this post accordingly.

First gigs of the year

Agents of Abhorrence at The Tote (3/1/14)

For a grindcore set, I found the set to start off slow. They had a singer come and fill in for them while the main singer was absent (which apparently happens a lot for the band), and the fill in guy was a bit flat with his screaming, especially the timing. However, about 2/3rds of the way through the set, one of the band's old singers jumped on and absolutely SHREDDED it. The crowd got animated, the set had rhythm, everything was in absolute chaos. For 15 bucks, the set was well worth it. Also my first gig of the year!

Besides that, I caught a band called White Walls playing before hand that had a sort of noise rock vibe to them. Their set started slow, but by the end there were some great progressive jams going on and it was pretty good listening to a wall of noise that wasn't grindcore.

Before that was a band by the name of Internal Rot. I remember three things, the drummer being fucking insane, the face the guitarist pulled as he was shredding the fuck out (that face being the kind you'd only pull when three types of things are happening in your nether regions at once) and the vocalist (who was the drummer for Agents) keeping the vocals tight and in line with the music. Good set.


I was gonna do one for crystal fighters that I got in free for thanks to my mate Roon dog (a nice and very animated set) but I'll pop that one up later.

Skywave - Synthstatic

2014 people. Lets do this.

Skywave released their third and final album, Synthstatic in 2003. This album managed to do two things right; firstly it took the post-punk sound laid out by bands like The Cure and Joy Division and revive it in a blast of distorted, self loathing noise rock. Secondly, it set the stage for A Place To Bury Strangers' third album, Worship - both albums sound incredibly similar in both song structure and musical style. Before accusing anyone of plagurisation, Oliver Ackman who fronts APTBS was previously the bass player for Skywave, including on this album. Does that make it ok? Considering they are both fantastic albums, I'm willing to say yes.

I think the reason I'm enjoying this so much is because every song has a different mood to it. You're not so much listening to an album as you are listening to some whacked out rollercoaster of overdone synth jams, and I mean that in the best way possible.. The first track 'Tsunami' opens the album in a really 'in your face' manner by throwing distorted drums and loud bass at you, where as four tracks in you get a beautiful, slow and more spaced out song with 'Nothing Left To Say'. The rest of the album throws songs that are poppy, gloomy, sexy, noise-punkesque - and while I wouldn't say that they're all worth a listen, what is good on this album makes up for the weaker tracks by a long shot.

Well shit, they don't have all the tracks for the album readily available. Here's one of the more noise-punk tracks - Kill Me Dead (By Skywave obv.)

Mac Demarco's Live set at The Shadow Electric, Melbourne.

Earlier this year, when I was employed and enjoying the youtube benefits that an office job could bring, I found myself watching a couple of Mac Demarco's live shows. They were brilliant - the band were animated, they played their songs even better than the album versions, told rude jokes, did all sorts of crazy shit...

And I'm glad to say that that experience was brought to their show on Monday.

It was absolutely fantastic. The support acts were pretty cool too, Jesse Davidson was a bit like a two man Two Door Cinema club with thrashy guitars and nice trembling vocals, and I bought his 7" which had a dong on the cover. Scot Drakula (dunno how it's spelt?) was pretty surf punk/rock and played a decent set, a few songs were actually eye openingly decent... but Mac was something else.

I think what really sealed it for me were that they were out to have a good live show. When playing a lot of their old or slower songs, the band sped it up and transformed both the song and the audience into an absolute boogie fest and it really gave off the vibe that this would have been fantastic at a festival. Other highlights include Mac and his bass player making out on the stage, flashing of penises, flashing of Mac's penis, a giant medley jam of various artists - Tool, Led Zepplin, Limp Bizkit and more, dragging punters on stage, the list goes on.

The crowd were a bit placid, unfortunately. I think it's safe to say though that the band would have been amazing at Meredith festival the previous weekend - Mac also hinted at a possible return to Australian shores, and my buddy reckons 6 months tops and he'll be back. If you get the chance to go see him, drive to Sydney! Drive to Melbourne! Just do it! 10/10 performance and you will not be disappointed! Unless you're a pessimistic fuck-wad in which case you shouldn't be leaving the house anyway.



Side note - Only one issue with the gig is that the one time I got to meet the guy was when I was running to the toilet. He was hiding in the corner of an alleyway and instead of saying something about how it was good seeing his popularity shoot up because of hits on my blog, I pretty much dorked out and said 'OH HAY MAN' and then went off to piss in shame while I talked to another awe struck punter who jokingly said he nearly told him he loved him.

Love Of Diagrams - Nowhere Forever

2009 saw the release of Love Of Diagrams' 3rd studio album - Nowhere Forever. The album is a palpable feast of indie jams and spaced out dynamics, but I can't help but think it could have been something more.

Instrumentally, the band has a great sound going on. They've given the bass guitar more of a presence than your average band and it pays off, giving the guitar time to go off into these airy solos or set up some grungy backing noise. You also hear a lot of different drumming styles varying from normal rock to a deep jungle like rhythm depending on the track. Overall, you end up getting a sound can be really involving, mosh friendly indie, a summery art punk vibe holding similarities to Sonic Youth, 90's era grunge and a tinge of that signature noise the Australian folk indie scene was making back around the early to mid 00s.

However, while it's apparent that these guys are talented musicians, there seems to be a real inconsistency in the quality of tracks across the whole album. There are points where I found myself listening through the whole thing and feeling that some of the slower songs lacked a certain 'dynamic' - the lyrics wouldn't be memorable, the jams would be rolling on for too long - it'd feel like nothing was actually happening with the music.You'd start to wonder if the better songs on the album were the result of some sort of fluke, before another strong track would come on and remind you why the album is good.

Like I said though, they are talented musicians and despite the way the album seems to draw on in places,  it still opens strongly with a lot of catchy, in your face tracks like Forever, Mountain and Static Information. Even though the album does draw on, if you nitpick a few tracks from Nowhere Forever and give those a listen then they'll make a good addition to any indie rock enthusiast's playlist.

Listen to the whole thing here: http://loveofdiagrams.bandcamp.com/album/nowhere-forever

Reccomended for: Lovers of Sonic Youth, Bloc Party, The Ex.

Side note - 2013 was scheduled to hold a new release from Love of Diagrams with Steve Albini doing the production work. While it's unlikely we'll see the release until 2014, Albini has produced albums for smaller bands who have then sky-rocketed to fame and critical acclaim. Three examples being The Pixies first album, Cloud Nothing's 'Attack on Memory' from last year, and McLusky's quintiesstial rock album 'Mcklusky Do Dallas'. As a band, Love of Diagrams shows as much potential as any of these three and if Albini's track record is anything to go by, their next album *will* be a masterpiece... assuming it gets released. Watch this space, guys.

New 'Have A Nice Life' - Defenestration Song revisited

Connecticut's most independent, strange and progressive band are at it again. With a new release set for February 4, 2014, this is the first teaser we're getting off the album, a revisit to their track Defenestration song which was released back on their Voids EP.

As for the track? I'm undecided on it so far. I'm super excited for new HANL, but Defenestration song was one of those ones I would just hammer out every day (still is) and I really liked that raw noise it had. The polish is cool but it's missing a certain oomph. Probably through the change in vocals and the mellowing of the percussion.

You can find it here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2013/12/10/250002714/vikings-choice-this-song-is-literally-for-throwing-stuff-out-the-window?sc=tw&cc=twmp

Future Of The Left - How To Stop Your Brain In An Accident

Good news people! I submitted this to an upcoming streetpress magazine and they liked it! The bad news is that they only want reviews of Melbourne bands. That's pretty cool however.

Anyway on to the review!

The end of 2013 sees Welsh band Future Of The Left returning once more with the release of their fourth studio album, 'How To Stop Your Brain In An Accident'. After what some consider a lacklustre album that preceded it, it's good to say that the band is back to fine form with this hard hitting release of obscene noise rock.

One of the great things about this album, and maybe of Future Of The Left in general, is that they keep their music interesting. The band isn't afraid to mess around with a few styles in order to stop an album from going stale - the album starting off to heavy riffs, unpredictable vocals and a thunderous finish with the track 'Bread, Cheese, Bow and Arrow', - after this, however, the second track conveys a vastly different sound - both catchy and a little bit poppy with zero trace of the thump and distortion of the previous track. It's these kind of curve-balls that keep the album interesting, and beyond this we get more tracks that mimic the musical styles of metal, folk, post-grunge and even finishing on a blues track.

The other thing that the band does right is that lead singer Andy Falkous goes the extra mile in order to separate himself from the other vocalists. He's not afraid to get weird with the delivery of his already weird lyrics, screams of 'Her cock is so hard', Elvis style warbles of 'He was good with his hands' amongst many other obscenities are dotted all over the album, and might make it a little hard for the conventional listener to enjoy. However, he has his serious moments too, a particularly good lyric from 'French Lessons' goes along the lines of saying 'You could kid yourself that your dreams amount to more than counting backwards from four' as if to attack a perceived feigning of ambition in those who really only look forward to the weekend.

I can't say that I think this album is for everyone. At times it's abrasive, confronting and noisy - but for those of us who took the time to appreciate those louder, weirder and ultimately more unique albums, this is an absolute gem for the noise-rock/post hardcore enthusiast and a solid middle finger to most of the conventional rock that dominates the pop music market today.

Give this a spin if you're into At The Drive-In, The Men, or Shellac.
Do not give this a spin if you are elderly, easily offended, or listen to Nickelback.

Johnny Borell Afterlife - second track off the album. 

See what I mean about the weird but poppy sound? Great track.

Pavement (and why you should listen to them)

Back in the 90s when the grunge scene was erupting and everyone was wearing stupid amounts of denim, a bunch of stoners formed a band by the name of Pavement. Low-fi, Punk, Blues, Country, Rock - the band incorporated a multitude of styles throughout their work while still having a very distinctive sound, which I'm willing to attribute to Steven Malkmus' boyish voice. Post 90s, the indie scene erupted and took over normal radio, even being criticised as the new 'pop' by some cynics - and I'd like to believe that Pavement had a hand in shaping the modern indie sound as we know it.

Strangely enough though, most of my sources say that they were never big in the mainstream and gathered a relatively large underground following. They had one big hit with the song 'Cut Your Hair' but that was about all the attention they received through conventional channels while other bands such as Smashing Pumpkins and other bands that would score big on most critics lists were taking that attention for them.

In many ways I consider Pavement an equal (if not better), and that's mainly because they were a fun band to listen to while still being talented and never sticking to a pre-set convention. Most of their albums are similar, but they don't sound much like other bands of the time, save for their first album which held a distinctive 'grunge-rock 90's' kind of vibe.

It's very easy listening for the most part, the kind of thing you can slap on anywhere and feel comfortable listening to it. The earlier albums are more experimental and noisy, while the last two albums are very well constructed and more like indie with a little bit of pop. One of my favourite bands out there. Have a listen!

Shady Lane, off Brighten the Corners, their 4th album of 5.

It's a fun, simple riff. Super catchy.

You are a Light, off Terror Twilight, their final album.

That end riffwork is fucking brilliant, stuff like that is why I've ended up really appreciating the band.

Cut Your Hair, off Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.

This was their 'big hit'. I remember seeing this video clip as a kid but never got into the band until this year which was a bit of a shock when I finally heard it on the album.

There's plenty more. Go hit youtube!

Mark Kolezek & Jimmy LaValle - Perils From the Sea

Somehow the Wonder of Life Prevails - Mark Kolezek & Jimmy LaValle

Long song. Listen if you get a chance.

Really highlights both Kolezek's strengths and weaknesses. Opens very strong, and you should at least listen up until the first chorus.

Soft spoken folkster Mark Kolezek has returned once again to serve up interesting stories and soulful musical memoirs, but this time he's teamed up with Jimmy LaValle (of a band called The Album Leaf) to create an album with a twist - Folk-Electronica. While bizarre it might sound, it works. I know, I'm confused too.

I'm always a little half and half with Mark Kolezek. On one hand he's brilliant at telling stories and always has been - Gustavo, What Happened to My Brother, Somehow the Wonder of Life Prevails are three shining examples from the record. He's got a habit of making these strange stories from his life seem human, beautiful, highlighting the damage that the subject of his songs has suffered and the way it moved him.

Problem is though, his lyrics are simple, his rhyming ability is weak in places, and the songs he spends talking about his travel damage the record by creating uninspiring tales of how he's been to all over the world and can't create a human emotion from the trip, the absolute polar opposite of the songs he spends talking about people he knows. I swear to god, if I have to hear him sing about Copenhagen one more time, I'm going to go Dutch on his ass. Whatever that means.

Now the interesting and somewhat ground-breaking aspect of the album comes from the usage of electronic music to back Kolezek instead of his usual guitar, which is a folk standard. This hasn't really been done to the length of a whole album before but it works. It's simple, but beautiful.

I can't help but think, however, that it could have been done better. They've definitely broken ground with the combination but the music might be a little too simple and Kolezek's writing trailed off in places. Watch this album though. I guarantee this is going to set a little guy somewhere up to big things. Get on it.

Run the Jewels

Came across this album the other day whilst looking for new music and only once I’d hit the website was it that I realised that Killer Mike, responsible for making R.A.P. Music last year (pretty sure I reviewed it? Was AWESOME) had teamed up with producer EL-P in order to make a new, free to download boom rap record. I was in rap heaven. Completely stoked. On top of this the album was fantastic, which is why I’m reviewing it. Free amazing rap record? People NEED to know.

Now there’s multiple reasons this album works. I like to think of Killer Mike as Kanye for people who don’t listen to Kanye. Killer Mike is about delivering heavy raps with a strong sound behind him. He's got a way of handling lyrics which has a certain cleverness that GZA knew how to exploit, and that's  the how and when of it - he knows the exact thing to say at the exact time, in the exact way. It makes him sound louder than he really is.

EL-P's contribution - the music - is full on. Big beats. Really big beats. My bass speaker was pumping out elephant footsteps and my housemates were loving it. The rest of the music was really different from what I expected from any sort of rap record. It was more, I dunno, trance? Very electro, focused on good synths and not so much what you’d expect from your typical rap album which usually relies on instruments and samples. This almost seems like the antithesis of the surge of club-hop that artists like Dizzy Rascal (and unfortunately, Roots Manuva too. Way to sell out.) have been putting out lately. As in Run The Jewels isn’t terrible and a fucking insult to music. Quite the opposite.

Anyway, here’s a link to it. You're 20 something and poor. Just do it.

http://foolsgoldrecs.com/runthejewels/ 

Finally! Updates.

Before you dig in, two things.

First - this blog is a pain in the ass to format. If I get back into doing it seriously, I'm going to consider trying wordpress or some other crap. I'll bring over all the old reviews, for sure.

Second - These last six reviews are oldddd. I chalked them up at work but my busy schedule* prevented me from posting them. Added bonus for this? I've got post scripts on some of them to let you know if the album is still good or not after listening to it a couple of times. Boom.









*thinking up of dumb ideas for T.V. Shows such as Crime Dog (copyright TB 2013).

Raekwon - Only Built for Cuban Linx (feat Ghostface Killah)

Rainy Dayz - Raekwon ft. Ghostface Killah/Blue Raspberry

Freakin tune! Check those beats. Ghostface's opening lines pretty much highlight my point as to why he works so well on this album.

I want to preface this review by saying that there’s also a bit in here about ‘Cuban Linx 2’, the follow up to this album, and how I’m interpreting the importance of the interplay between good MCs and producers. Let’s have a chat if you’ve got any ideas or think I’m full of shit.

I’ve been getting into a big Wu-Tang hip-hop phase lately and my adventures have taken my ears down some new and exciting avenues. So far I’ve gone through Enter the Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang Forever, GZA’s Liquid Swords, Ghostface’s most recent 12 reasons to die, half way through Ghostface’s Supreme Clientele and got through Only Built 4 Cuban Linx pt.2… along with this album.

Now before I started listening to it, I read that it received rave reviews, and was comparatable to GZA’s Liquid Swords as a strong competitor for one of the greatest Wu-Tang solo efforts, if not hip-hop albums of the 90s. A lot of reviewers, magazines and the like will confirm this, both reviews that were contemporary to the album’s release and several retrospective reviews.

But shit man, I don’t know! I really don’t know.

Honestly, a lot of what I found good on this album came from Ghostface’s work on the album. Every song where he featured, every line he spat, absolute gold. Now there’s a lot of his input, he’s a major collaborator on the album, but I think it fell a little bit short compared to the rest of the Wu-Tang stuff I’ve been hearing.

The album sprawls for a lengthy 18 tracks and a lot of it is good, well produced and full of interesting lyrical themes, other featured Wu-Tang artists and was considered ground-breaking at the time, but I can’t enjoy Raekwon’s rapping as much as other Wu-Tang artists. I think he’s good at what he does, but half the brilliance of the other Wu-Tang artists comes from the fact that they work really well with each-other, but above all with RZA’s heavy drum and smooth sampling approach to production. Maybe what really got me here is the length of the album – 18 tracks is difficult to sling while keeping fresh and original, and while the start and the finish of the album has some solid tracks, there’s a bit in the middle that I couldn’t enjoy. I also wasn’t too sure that ‘Can it be all so simple’ really needed that remix.

That said, there’s some tracks where it all works really well. Incarcerated Scarfaces is a smooth track and Raekwon hit the nail on the head with that one. Rainy Dayz is well produced, catchy as hell and Ghostface’s opening rap is smoothly delivered. There’s a reason this album is considered a classic, I just don’t believe it’s on the same level as Liquid Swords.

Now that said, go check out Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2. It was actually a really good, albeit different (thanks to the difference in 90s and late 2000s production) album. What’s more, Rae’s rapping is way easier to get, either he’s learned out to enunciate or the production was so well done that it made him more audible than this album. Maybe both! Sadly though, not a lot of people heard the album and while critically it deserves the praise it got, Hip-hop has taken an ugly turn in the space between the release of both albums meaning it got largely ignored.

American Football - Self Titled LP

American Football - Never Meant

Sigh.

Mike Kinsella of Capt’n Jazz fame went on after the band dissolved and created American Football, an indie/Midwest emo band which featured floaty guitars, songs about goodbye and odd drumming rhythms. They only released an album and an EP (as far as I know?), both of which were self titled. This review concerns the album, one that’s slowly crawling in as a standout and a favourite in my books.

The album is a healthy crossover of intricate guitar work exhibitioned by acoustic folk artists such as Elliot Smith, mixed with indie-rock band ethic, the strange rhythms similar to unwound in a way. Kinsella’s voice isn’t about yelling as it was with cap’n jazz, but more about floating smoothly over the rest of the song, creating an effect that has been described as ‘ethereal’ by other listeners.

The album sticks close to a single style and doesn’t really change around much from track to track, although the songs are pretty varied in terms of timing. there’s short and catchy songs such as ‘Honestly’ or drawn out tracks such as ‘Leave Home’, a build-up of layered guitar and drumming. As far as song structure goes, it’s all very aesthetically pleasing, calm, and fresh – a brilliant sound that should be replicated but may have gone unheard by many. Give this album a listen if you’re into calmer music and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.