[Music] The Grand Music Discussion Thread [3]

[Blue Monday]

Some thingies I've been listening to lately:


Swan Dive are a noise rock outfit hailing from the UK and US composed of members of now defunct hardcore punk bands Dead Swans, Horror Show and my current favourite shoegazers Nothing. Wearing their influences on their sleeves, Fly Toward the Sun 7” EP showcases the band’s ability to meld sombre, almost bleak, lyrical content with upbeat tempo and catchy riffs flavoured by Brit-pop sensibilities. This came out late last year and hasn’t ever been far from heavy rotation, their sound is that addictive. I listen to the title track at least two/three times before moving on with rest.

Play loud, EGF: http://swandive13.bandcamp.com/



The Cure – Wish

Uh, why are The Cure so good? This album, along with forerunning Disintegration, are damn near flawless records - equal in brilliance and perfection.

I love me some Oathbreaker. I posted a bit about these guys last year and their sophomore release Eros|Anteros, and as incredible that album is, I think I can safely say I enjoy their debut Mælstrøm a lot more. The riffs are just that much more punishing, crisp and downright ear-splittingly infectious (see tracks like ‘Hierophant’, ‘Fate is Nigh’ and ‘Sink into Sin – I’). Things start to get a whole lot more “grand” and dark towards the end, the songs taking the form of slow and ponderous introspective dirges, giving the record a cool dynamic overall.

Caro Tanghe has probably become my favourite female vocalist in a sonically aggressive act.

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Something about hearing the sludgy stuff mashed together with more folk-like sounds just does something to my mind.

You don't happen to be an Isis fan are you, Bard?

[pwhodges]

Well, I mentioned my recent concert elsewhere, so here's a link for you to hear it:

[url]http://cassland.org/Herbert.html[/url]

The first of the Roth pieces at the end was a first public performance.

[AngelNo13Bardiel]

You don't happen to be an Isis fan are you, Bard?

I've got a copy of Oceanic. Does that answer your question?

Currently (as in right this minute), I'm listening to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Greatest Hits (it's from 1994, but this is the 2008 re-release, which substitutes "Something in the Air" with the much better "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around"). Still one of my favorite official compilations, there's just so many great singles on there. Hey, I grew up on this stuff.

[Blue Monday]

Every now and then my partner sets me onto some new music. I find some of her tastes questionable but have to admit I've picked up a lot of good shit from her over the years. Case in point; Kurt Vile "Wakin' On a Pretty Daze". I've listened this through five times at least this weekend - it's that good. Now I've been aware of this artist name for a while now but have never actually heard his music. Whimsical acoustic and soft electric guitar hymns; 'Never Run Away' personifies the sound of the album I reckon, vocals barely ever rising above an energetic whisper. Dream-laden and warm whilst featuring parts that are desolate and reflective. Serious Neil Young and Tom Petty vibes here, folks (maybe even a smidgen of Beck). Favourite tracks are 'Was All Talk', 'Shame Chamber' and 'Pure Pain'.



Shook Ones - Sixteen: This record is kind of a big deal for me. I chanced upon it back in 2008, my one year of university which was a crazy and turbulent time in my life, and it acted for me as a soundtrack of sorts for that period (along with a handful of other albums). I always have a really hard time describing the Shooks' sound. It's basically a perfect combination of 90s pop-punk and emo with a splattering of contemporary hardcore - kind of like Kid Dynamite, but of kind of not. 'Crunch Time in Tooth Town' and 'Attitude is the Agent' are stand-outs and are a good example of what I'm trying to describe in terms of the music. Every time I put it on the turntable these days it fills with me such an energy that I rock out unashamedly. It's a shame the albums that followed Sixteen have never done anything for me, which is funny/odd, because other fans of hardcore/punk usually rate their other albums higher.

[caragnafog dog]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7BapgYOh1I

Milo dropping names EVERYWHERE.

[Blue Monday]

Radiohead to 'make a plan' for new album this Summer



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Cloud Nothings – Here and Nowhere Else: Third album from CN is really good. It’s not as diverse nor dynamic as Attack on Memory but is much a more rambunctious outing focusing more on traits of theirs I find much more enjoyable. Oddly enough, it has about the same runtime as its predecessor yet feels considerably shorter in length. It does lull in the middle with a degree of sameness but I’d put that down to simply not having listened to it enough yet. My favourite track is probably the opener ‘Now Hear In’, followed by ‘Psychic Trauma’ and the noisy ‘Pattern Walks’. Also, single ‘I’m not Part of Me’ feels much better in context of the album and as the closing song.



This film sounds as good as it looks - and if you’ve seen Only God Forgives, you’ll know then just how much of a visual orgasm/feast it is. In-movie, ‘Wanna Fight’, the air-rending synth track was the major stand-out for me, an awe-inducing piece used during the film’s penultimate crescendo; the Muay Thai fight between Julian and Chang. However, upon delving into the soundtrack I’m more taken with the harrowing percussion of ‘Bride of Chang’ and moved-to-tears atmosphere of ‘Sister, Pt 1’ (a reprise of one of Martinez’ recurring mouvements in Drive, though far more effectively executed) which is probably one of the most heartbreaking songs I’ve heard in a long while.



Another soundtrack. I just recently finished Les Revenants and the music resonated perfectly with the idea and content. I’ve never really paid much attention to Mogwai before and this is the first instance where’ve I’ve rather enjoyed their work. Perfect listen on an overcast or rainy day. The track titles seem randomly retarded, though.



Prurient – Rose Pillar: This release is incredible, and probably the only other thing of Fernow’s that I’ve since enjoyed outside of Bermuda Drain and its sister EP; Time’s Arrow. An hour of dark, haunting and soul-wrenching ambience. This is the funeral dirge for civilisation after the world has ended. Even still, some of the trademark Prurient noise makes itself known in ‘Hammer with Forty Names’ (as apt a title if ever there were one). ‘Custer Claims his Arrow’ and ‘Gardener of the Broken Arm’ are both brilliant, too. Need to put the feelers out into Fernow’s enormous back-catalogue and find similar releases (Lily of the Valley / Return of Happiness is the only other I’ve found so far).

[Ornette]

So over the last 3 weeks or so I've been going through my records and giving a listen to all of the classical LP's that I have (a fringe benefit of working from home). Not a "listen" listen, but putting it in the background so I can gauge the condition of the disc. For a while now, I've been mostly neglecting all the classical music I have on vinyl because probably foremost with these kinds of recordings, you want clarity of sound and no noise. I've got a lot of classical music on vinyl that's in really terrible shape, and it doesn't even need to be that bad of shape to make it unlistenable. Visual assessments are hit and miss as some LPs look pretty pristine except for one scratch, but that scratch is deep enough to make a loud pop at regular intervals throughout the entire playback, making the listening experience complete crap (the SL-1200mk2 is especially unforgiving of irregularities on the grooves so anything like that will be loud and noticeable). Then you have some that look like they've been dragged around on the sidewalk but sound perfectly fine because none of the damage is deep enough to make a difference.

So I've been slowly going through them all and marking the playback conditions per side on a little sheet of paper that I slip between the sleeve and the plastic cover. So when I want to listen to one of them, I'll know immediately whether it's worth it, or how much noise I can expect. The upside is finding a couple of pristine copies of some albums. Almost all of these albums are pretty old, as the market for classical music on vinyl was one of the first to immediately adopt the DDD of CD's; most of them are probably over 50 years old. So after cleaning any of the discs that looked like they needed them, then running them through the carbon fiber/velvet static brush, there's a couple that looked literally brand new, and sound great:


1965 Decca release of Mendelssohn and Shubert with the original inner sleeve.


1961 Everest release of Brahms.

Neither are cheap pressings either.

Still have a ton to go through but these two where perfect. Not that they're worth anything, but it's a treat to listen to a perfectly clean LP of classical music.

[pwhodges]

I like to see other people's LPs - it makes me all nostalgic! Of course, I grew up with only LPs (and some 78s), and I built up a large collection. I have kept just the LPs that still have some value to me now that loads of stuff is on CDs.  But I still have a hundred-odd, most of which are recordings not otherwise available, but also of little interest to most people.

Here are a few LPs. 


The Tavener is probably the most valuable (it can fetch a couple of hundred pounds).  Sgt Pepper is just there to show I still have the cutout sheet, untouched - but I didn't buy it early enough to get the coloured inner sleeve.  The White Album has the original sleeve design which opens at the top instead of the ends (it was bought on the day of release).  The picture book is called "The Beatles Get Back" and came with the original release of Let It Be (also bought on the day of release).

And here I present every recording* of Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle ever commercially released anywhere,  plus a few bootlegs.  All but two made it to CD at some time:




* (This is a copy of a post I made elsewhere several years ago; there have been a couple more versions since those pictures were taken - which I also have, of course.)

[Shinoyami65]

Another soundtrack. I just recently finished Les Revenants and the music resonated perfectly with the idea and content. I’ve never really paid much attention to Mogwai before and this is the first instance where’ve I’ve rather enjoyed their work. Perfect listen on an overcast or rainy day. The track titles seem randomly retarded, though.

Aw sweet, you found Mogwai too. I remember this was one of the albums on my 'best of 2013' list. I also loved their album The Hawk is Howling but you're right in that they have very...interesting song title choices. Such as I Love You, I'm Going to Blow Up Your School.

[MJL]

For all you synth lovers.

[Ornette]

New pickup. 1974 UK MCA release, one of the better Budgie albums IMO:


And some other neat stuff. The Miles is not vintage, it was a re-release 2 record set that combined "Workin'" and "Steamin'" that was released in 1974.

[AngelNo13Bardiel]

Picked up the 20th Anniversary Edition a couple of days ago. Still one of my favorite heavy albums ever, it's just so...crushing. Simply no shortage of killer riffs or solos, an impressive groove to the rhythm section, and lyrics so venomous and delivered in such a harsh tone that one could probably kill somebody with this album alone...given a loud enough stereo. The mellow, reverent take on Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan" that closes it is an abrupt about-face, but it's also the much-needed comedown after such brutality. If you don't already have a copy, now is the perfect opportunity. Trust me on this one.

And, as a neat bonus, it came with a free T-shirt. It's an XL, so it's a bit small on me...but it looks great on Ash's petite frame.

[Blue Monday]

The only Pantera song I still listen to it 'Floods'.
But FBD and Trendkill were the only albums of theirs I could ever get into.

[Ornette]

And another classic

It's too bad the Paul Di'anno/Clive Burr era of Iron Maiden was so short-lived. I preferred his vocals over Bruce Dickenson's but most of the best songwriting IMO was post Di'anno (and pre-7th son). There was much more of a blues influence in the writing back then, eventhough it was still pretty much all Steve Harris.

[AngelNo13Bardiel]

The only Pantera song I still listen to it 'Floods'.
But FBD and Trendkill were the only albums of theirs I could ever get into.

"Floods" is killer, easily the best song on Trendkill. Love that solo.

You should look into Cowboys from Hell and Vulgar Display of Power if you haven't, though: they're also damn good albums. Reinventing the Steel falls somewhere between "fairly good" and "meh", but just don't bother with the three albums prior to CfH (the glam metal ones).

[Sachi]

And another classic

It's too bad the Paul Di'anno/Clive Burr era of Iron Maiden was so short-lived. I preferred his vocals over Bruce Dickenson's but most of the best songwriting IMO was post Di'anno (and pre-7th son). There was much more of a blues influence in the writing back then, eventhough it was still pretty much all Steve Harris.

I very much agree with this. The first two albums had a simple, yet effective energy about them that was very punk rock (as much as Steve Harris might hate that comparison). After that it seems the compositions become more neo-classical and metal to suit Bruce Dickinson's vocal style. I would love to get me some Iron Maiden on vinyl, but they're out of my price range.

I do have Judas Priest's Screaming For Vengeance on record, and that's one of my prized possessions.

[soul.assassin]

For those into jazz, this is a completely fascinating read that I'm saving it to a PDF.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/13/magazine/blues.html?smid=fb-nytimes&WT.z_sma=MG_TBO_20140414&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1388552400000&bicmet=1420088400000&_r=3

[Azathoth]

Need to put the feelers out into Fernow’s enormous back-catalogue and find similar releases (Lily of the Valley / Return of Happiness is the only other I’ve found so far).

Fossil is good. Nice mix of the softer ambient stuff and the real harsh shit. Through the Window is another non-noise Prurient release I kind of like, more EDM influenced.

[Blue Monday]

Nick from Whirl is possibly the best dude ever: http://noisey.vice.com/blog/whirr-wants-you-to-fuck-off

[Joy Evangelion]

Nick from Whirl is possibly the best dude ever: http://noisey.vice.com/blog/whirr-wants-you-to-fuck-off

I really love how he says the dude that does those needle drop videos looks like Bobby Hill; that was a sick insult.
Seriously though, it's always nice to see artists doing their thing regardless of what the world wants.