Reviews – Page 10 – The Resident Sound

REVIEW: Hazy Sour Cherry – Tour De Tokyo (2019)

If the members of either Frankie Cosmos (US) or Hazy Sour Cherry (Japan) ever see this, for the love of god, go on tour together. Your audiences may just see the best show of their lives.

Hazy Sour Cherry wastes no time getting into its melancholic, somewhat beach-y style of indie rock. Drums, guitar, bass and vocals hit the listener with immediate clarity on opening track I Need Your Heart, putting the band’s song-writing skills front and center. But don’t be confused by Tour De Tokyo’s clarity and delicate guitar work, this record is raw. Occasional chimes and vocal backing only enhance the already well written songs’ emotional communication atop its very warm instrumentals.

The emotions are forefront, and it’s perfectly-raw engineering opens the runway to any potential listener, even those whose listening habits may be a little intense.

Tour De Tokyo is, in a lot of ways, the perfect album. The use of light melancholy works as a cohesive bond between each songs’ varying intensities and slight stylistic changes. So what am I saying? Well, Hazy Sour Cherry manages to break free of the monotonous uniformity that befall most indie, punk, and rock acts, which is incredibly refreshing and hopeful.

I regularly listen to this record from start to finish, and I recommend you give it a try.

For fans of: Big Eyes, Haircut 100, Ginny Arnell

Like Hazy Sour Cherry? Give these a listen: Frankie Cosmos, The Temptators, Palm

REVIEW: Acetantina – Temple of Null (2020)

Acetantina, now working as Kaiso Slumber, is the name of a Libyan-German electronic producer working out of Khartoum, Sudan (according to their Bandcamp bio).

Temple of Null full-heartedly embraces the visual and sonic aesthetics of vaporwave while working at a much more frenetic tempo and energy than their vaporwave counterparts. At 35 minutes, this 11-track album is about as professional and polished sounding you’ll ever hear in vaporwave music. Well mixed, well mastered, while managing to keep volume dynamics present in each individual song. While I’m always tempted to put on opening track Puddle of Nitrogen on repeat, Temple of Null works incredibly well as one coherent piece. Tracks like Puddle of Nitrogen, Lonely Network, and Foot Cramp propel the listener forward, throwing the listener into a digital wind tunnel of rolling hi-hats, atmospheric pads and strange digital blips and glitches. The melancholy prevalent in most vaporwave releases is front and center, but Acetantina knows when and where to pull away (Foot Cramp) and when to double down (Lonely Network). If you were to own any vaporwave-adjacent album, make it Temple of Null by Acetantina.

For fans of: Chris†††, Leftfield, Macintosh Plus

Like Acetantina? Give these a listen: Lord Lorenz, MegaZoneEx, Nocera

REVIEW: Veruschka – The Secret (2001)

Released in 2001 on Ant.Zen Records out of Lappersdorf, Germany, The Secret is a 5 song EP by Australian singer Veruschka and producer David Thrussell (Snog, Soma, Black Lung).

The Secret thrives in its cinematic-centricity, degrees of warmth are faintly revealed with vinyl fuzz layers and occasional hand percussion. Slow swelling orchestral synths loom heavily behind the otherwise minimal instrumentation, topped with Veruschka’s neoclassical darkwave vocal styling. Where The Secret falters is in the end with vocal-forward tracks Boredom Kills and The Fruits. This isn’t to say Veruschka’s singing is bad, simply that the vocals aren’t utilized in a way that ultimately enhances the cinematic element as much as they could, which leaves the set-up of opening tracks The Secret and The Department unfulfilled.

What could be accountable for this a lack of post-production focus on vocal tracks, or simply a disconnect from producer to performer. Sure, this thinking may reek of cliche label-control, but what I propose is that when the artist is the producer, the producer needs to play a stronger roll in direction if the artistic vision can’t be reached in the already highly-synthetic post-production process that we hear in trip-hop, sampledelia, and other musique concrète adjacent genres.

Alternatively, it can be hard to say what the business arrangement was for this album and how that effected it. Maybe producer David Thrussell played a secondary roll, maybe there were financial or time restraints with having the album produced. Unfortunately we haven’t seen a second release from this duo, which could very well right the course with a stronger follow-up.

While The Secret may lack the vocal prowess of Portishead’s Beth Gibbons, the cold, cinematic production and ethereal Dead Can Dance-esque vocals should win over most fans of Portishead’s Dummy or Tricky’s Maxinquaye.

For fans of: Portishead, Dead Can Dance, Dido

Like Veruschka? Give these a listen: Cold Choir, Theft Design Firm, Haircuts For Men

REVIEW: Self Deconstruction – Virtue (2014)

This post originally appeared on the 10th Dentist blog on Friday, February 5th, 2021.

Japan has been the new frontier for Western metal audiences looking for something fresh.

Self Deconstruction’s chaotic punk microclipses and occasional 3/4 timing may bring a hint of familiarity for Rudimentary Peni fans, but its ultimate grindcore sensibilities make this a strong contender for any metal fan’s music collection.

Virtue presents a fully formed idea without succumbing to overindulgence. Each motif is given an equal sliver of time to present itself and exit stage left. This not even 5-minute album of near pure-aggression presents itself like a frenzied attack from a monster coming out of the bushes, rather than the hellscaped demonic journey common among American and European bands.

A distinction should be made to separate the term ‘raw’ from the often synonymously used (but quite different) ‘shitty’ sound worshiped among metal heads, edge lords, and the uninformed alike. No, this album is raw, and it serves its frenzied nature well. Well mixed, well recorded, Virtue’s fanciest production trick is its use of occasionally panned vocals. This album brings back memories of seeing south-eastern weirdo power-violence and grindcore bands in North Carolina, or of hearing Minor Threat 7”s, early Pig Destroyer, or Bad Brain’s Black Dot album for the first time.

For fans of: Pig Destroyer, Rudimentary Peni, Sete Star Sept

Like Self Deconstruction? Give these a listen: Ents, Flagitious Idiosyncrasy in the Dilapidation,Cheap Art

Want more Self Deconstruction? Check out this interview at Lixiviat Records!

REVIEW: M.A.Z.E. – Tour Tape 2020 (2020)

This post originally appeared on the 10th Dentist blog on Monday, January 25th, 2021.

2020 was not the best year for tours, though it seems Japanese punk rockers M.A.Z.E. were able to make it under the wire, finishing the final American leg of their tour in early March. This 6 track EP is a muddied lo-fi romp of wobbly processed guitars that only features 1 d-beat (on ‘Typical Credit’). Raw and seemingly untouched in post, Tour Tape 2020 may appeal to certain garage-rock circles but never bows to Thee Oh Sees-level dry-as-dust monotony.

What leads to some internal conflict for this listener is the band’s ‘punk’ self-identity. They are far too interesting to be lumped in with current western ‘punk,’ a vapid term for commercialized, dummy-jock rock. Though in Japan it seems as if ‘punk’ is being explored and experienced, not worn and modeled. Which is the real ‘punk’? Is the true ‘punk’ the easily digestible, take-no-risks rock? Or the off-beat, entry-level-0 art form? Simply, it doesn’t matter. The grey swath of ‘punk rock’ sycophants and fetishists will continue to worship and make legend of a scene many people (including my parents) just lived.

Who should be rewarded are the simon-pure with vision built through craft. While the willing mousinauts may find new favorites in Japanese and other non-anglophonic punk scenes, Cro-Mags fans may have difficulty sitting through closing track ‘Pink Wall.’

For fans of: DEVO, Crack Cloud, The Fall

Like M.A.Z.E.? Give these a listen: XL-Fits, Men’s Recovery Project, Gossip,

REVIEW: Shorty Can’t Eat Books – Shorty Can’t Eat Books (2014)

This post originally appeared on the 10th Dentist blog on Friday, March 5th, 2021.

Back in pre-covid days, as I faintly recall, Shorty Can’t Eat Books was introduced to me through a local barista (and I believe former member of the band) one morning before work. There is not much to be found on Shorty Can’t Eat Books. An Asheville, NC band whose only release was this 2014 self-titled album recorded at Hi Z / Lo Z Studio (now defunct) located in the back of Static Age Records. A music video for instrumental ruckus-romp surf punk song Breakdown was made and posted on Youtube to little fanfare a week before the album’s release. A sense of camaraderie may or may not have been shared over the laborious process of stop-motion animating. Such interactions are seen through rose-colored glasses now.

Tracks like I Was That Guy and Baby Baby are perfect examples of a specific vein of punk music that thrives within southern DIY circuits. Too honest for for indie hipsters and too weird for punks nationwide (with exception to the Midwestern scene, godbless’em). Essentially, the musical equivalent to The Captain & Casey Show.

After three tracks of fake-jazz verses and patio lounging surf diddies, it could be best described as the meeting of The Minutemen and Southern Culture on The Skids. That is of course until the aggression and secret agent-pastiche of Breakdown and Dumb Town break up the albums seemingly established route. Breakdown may be the longest (2 mins, 20 secds) the album goes with out sleazy ska horns, clunky no wave piano smashing, or (quite honestly) goofy (but fitting) bongo percussion parts.

Shorty Can’t Eat Books may be the quintessential Asheville band. They released one self titled album that fell on deaf ears, remembered only by long-time locals and dedicated scene goers. Their influences range incredibly and pastiche may be one of the three main ingredients. But through this is a great sense of honesty. This album is almost unforgivably North Carolinian. Lazy days on the patio, weird folk influences, and a lack of direct aggression that shows itself instead through scorned (but never embittered) melancholy.

As Asheville city officials and the tourism industry continues to kill and run out its locals through neglect (“sacrifice zone”), lobbyist interference, and lack of accountability, it’s important that outsiders remember what actually makes Asheville special; the locals. The locals who have created a sense of community, who have created the art, albums, and cool spaces you inevitably run them out of.

This angst over the city was certainly felt by many around this time, and maybe now more than ever after the empty promises of reparations to Asheville’s black community and the lack of support for local businesses. All of this makes closing track Nuclear Doowop’s melancholic desperation feel more like an omen and less a feeling of its time.

For fans of: The Minutemen, Polvo, The Big Boys

Like Shorty Can’t Eat Books? Give these a listen: Nature Boys,Pleasures of The Ultraviolent,The Krektones

REVIEW: MegaZoneEx – SEAPUNK’D (2021)

This post originally appeared on the 10th Dentist blog on Sunday, January 24th, 2021.

Released through Australian “Post-internet” label Sunset Grid on January 24th of 2021, MegaZoneEx’s SEAPUNK’D serves as a hopeful refresher of the vaporwave genre. While weaving their way through vaporwave and sister genres, MegaZoneEx explores but never falls victim to the cliches of those genres. Track highlights include the more accessible Ladytron-esque ‘The Shuffle,’ and industrial-nod ‘On My Mind’ built of a surprisingly soothing mix of vaporwave and industrial sonic aesthetics. SEAPUNK’D should be worked into casual rotation for the more particular vaporwave and future funk connoisseurs who may find themselves overwhelmed with quantity and underwhelmed with quality.

Unfortunately, where SEAPUNK’D ultimately suffers is in its inability to distinguish itself as a fully realized album. From smaller details such as directionless track naming to a much more jarring max volume inconsistency, this effort at times can feel more like a mix-CD. Its 16 track, 29 minute runtime can feel very bloated, but hopefully going forward MegaZoneEx can enforce a stricter self-editorial approach.

As stated in the album closing manifesto ‘PSA,’ “…[vaporwave] is still young. Its pioneers come and go, leaving it astray with no rules or guidelines. Vaporwave keeps dying because no one is here to save it.” While vaporwave is far from saved, MegaZoneEx is keeping it alive with yet another breath.

For fans of: Ladytron, Macintosh Plus, Ventech97

Like MegaZoneEx? Give these a listen: Acetantina, vice*AIRバイス*空気自然の愛, False Tropics

REVIEW: Snuff – There’s a Lot of It About (2019)

This post originally appeared on the 10th Dentist blog on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2020.

Have the UK melodic punk greats been ‘snuffed’ by their commercial American label-mates?

   Snuff have constantly been underappreciated and overlooked for their commercial North American label mates, and this should be added to an ever growing list of crimes ‘punk’ fans have committed to themselves. In a label scene of punk rock aesthetics, Snuff stands out like a sore thumb. Seems ironic that punks would like conformity, right?? but alas, Snuff’s non-sarcastic humor, bald heads, and lack of fake Irish paraphernalia have most likely kept them from being as big as their Fat Wreck Chords label mates.
   Where Burt Bacharach swaggered in, Snuff barged through with grit and boyish charm. The 30+ years running band delivers music that feels genuine, caring, and fun. Drummer/singer Duncan Redmonds’ unique approach to drumming comes through with his signature swung snare and kick hits, something I’ve only ever heard so frequently in the work of The Cardiacs and Madness. Simultaneously Loz Wong’s approach to guitar hasn’t changed much either, yet stays fresh. Wong roars and rips over rhythm and chord changes while staying open enough for Redmond’s dynamic drum work to come through without making any one track too busy.
   This album aggressively rivals what is sometimes considered the band’s late ’90s glory days of Demmamussabebonk (1996) and Tweet Tweet My Lovely (1998), though I find the album’s trappings in the occasionally dry songwriting and vocally centered mixing. Unfortunately, ‘Lot About’ ends in a weak manner with the track ‘Job and Knock’, an acoustic, low-energy track. While not a bad song in it’s own, I would have loved to see the preceding track ‘Gyoza’ swapped in the listing. ‘Gyoza’ is this special type of grand melancholic songwriting that only Snuff and Duncan Redmond’s solo material have ever been able to pull off so well.

For fans of: Marginal Man, Madness, Hard Skin

Like Snuff? Give these a listen: Nature Boys, Pleasures of The Ultraviolent, Drinking Boys & Girls Choir

REVIEW: Frustration – So Cold Streams (2019)

This post originally appeared on the 10th Dentist blog on Tuesday, June 30th, 2020.

Parisian punks living in a post-Devo world.

So Cold Streams, the 5th full length studio release by French post-punk band Frustration loses distinctiveness in an ever growing faux-goth world. Where influences of Wire, Devo, and Warsaw were more prominent, the band’s rigid originality gives to the standardized faux-nostalgia/goth worship era of post-punk.

The album opens with Insane, an aggravated synth-disco track more reminiscent of LCD-Soundsystem than that of Frustration’s earlier rigidity. So Cold Streams brings with it an immediately noticeable built up and polished sound, a glaring departure from their previous dry and stripped production work. In turn, Frustration’s previously angular, minimalist approach to melody has been substituted for a more ethereal, layered melodic approach that has become the rampant go-to for newly found goth worship bands.

This effort doesn’t fall completely flat though. Tracks such as ‘Brume’ and ‘La Grand Soir’ find Frustration’s vocalist and front man Fabrice Gilbert singing in the band’s native French; a rarity in their discography and a nice break for those looking to find non-anglophonic music. And notably, ‘Slave Market’ features a spoken bridge by Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods. So Cold Streams ends with its strongest track, La Grand Soir, a dynamic 5 minute piece shifting solely between verse and chorus, slowly building in grandiosity before disintegrating back into a void of silence.

Maybe with the recent increase of Joy Division fetishization (a band who Frustration have been compared to way too often) punk bands have lost faith in their influences for a sound that’s retrofit hip. Overall the 5th installment in the Frustration saga has been a welcomed break in western punk uniformity, even if it nears ever so slightly to it.

For fans of: Joy Division, Malaria!, Killing Joke
Like Frustration? Give these a listen: Dame, Crack Cloud, L.O.T.I.O.N. Multinational Corporation