Tag: Reviews

Reviews of music, movies, art, etc.

REVIEW: Pram – Across The Meridian (2018)

Their first album in their discography since The Moving Frontier 11 years prior, Pram’s Across The Meridian is a beautiful record that revels in the exploration of sonic space. 

Much like their domino record label mates Clinic, Pram fulfill the post-punk school’s vision of electronic and acoustic instrumentation in a stylistic melting pot. 

Prams’ sampling of library music acts as a sort of warp room of the 20th century, creating distinct textural layers on any given verse. Combining the hauntological with playful interpretation, Across The Meridian is an exotica work around an idea of time (specifically the 20th century), not place.

Pram have a cinematic versatility. Jazz, psychedelic guitar fuzz, ambient- really there’s too much to name here- build in strange ways around light and agile percussion. They’re playing with a toy box full of thematic and stylized sounds in a really fun way. 

Even at it’s darkest, a childlike sense of awe permeates. A myriad of instrumentation, sometimes crystal clear and sometimes veiled in overdrive show the listener a musical collective at play. There’s no real rules with music, no genre or social structures adhered to, and Pram have embraced this in the advancement of their work.

Across The Meridian is dark and haunting in its own way- not grim. It really is a musical iSpy book more than anything: A healthy balance of fun and beauty. 

For fans of: Clinic, Gang Gang Dance, German Army

Like Pram? Give these a listen: Iosu Vakerizzo, Steroid Maximus, Malakas

REVIEW: Spiritual Cramp – Here Comes More Bad News (2021)

The musician credits on the album allude me, but if we’re to believe the band photos posted elsewhere there’s 6 people in this band. No way. Not that a band needs to ‘justify’ the existence of their members but if you’re having that many people in your orbit there’s a lot more ways to get better bang for your buck. Add an organ or saxophone or something! Something if not dynamic range or energy.

If that hasn’t said enough, track Small Man Big House is insufferable- a Dead Milkmen’s Bitchin’ Camero minus the humor or even musicianship. In the canon of rock songs about being a musician, it rivals Bob Seeger in mindlessness. 

The guitar riffs and tones are completely indistinct, the skits are corny and uninspired. It’s all attitude abuse and 8th notes. I’m only surprised they’re not famous.

Lacking, flat and drowned in vocal put-ons, Here Comes More Bad News is all ornamental Punk tropes atop an alt rock chassis that, whether justified or not, fell out of fashion 10 years ago.

For fans of: Frankie and The Witch Fingers, Wavves, Thee Oh Sees

Like Spiritual Cramp? Give these a listen: Shark?, Crack Cloud, Dead Milkmen

REVIEW: The Caretaker – An empty bliss beyond this World (2011)

If the concept of this album hasn’t already been beaten into you by a dozens of other bloggers, let me explain:

It’s a bunch of old ballroom music samples that are looped, and the ware, dust, etc. of the sampled material depicts the degradation and repetition of memory, especially as an affect of Alzheimer’s disease and/or dementia. Slather on spacious reverb to depict the darkness on the edge of memory, yadda yadda yadda and you have An empty bliss beyond this World.

Some perverse way of interacting with the past like making puppets out of corpses, as all sampling in a way is. But at its core The Caretaker- given name Leyland James Kirby- seems to hold a great reverence for time and a respect for its victims (as we all are).

While it does at times feel as if a Nurse With Wound record took itself way too seriously, The Caretaker strikes a fine line of dark conceptual music while being sonically approachable and accessible to a wider swath of people than NWW or other dark ambient works, for which Kirby should be commended.

Anyone who has seen Kubrick’s The Shining or a Jiri Barta film and thought ‘I want to go to there’ will revel in this album. Play it for them, or play it for yourself- It’s a worthwhile listen. Then you can always keep this record in the back of your mind, for when quaintness fades to black you’ll have a good record to recommend.

For fans of: Nurse With Wound, David Lynch, Arthur Fields

Like The Caretaker? Give these a listen: Music for Sleep, Lower Level Bureau, Slow Blink

REVIEW: Witch Vomit – Buried Deep In A Bottomless Grave (2019)

Nothing is new under the sun, and that includes this record. But regardless it’s a delightful show of character across 27 minutes of thrashing grind (or is that grinding thrash?).

Clamoring kick-snare pitter-patter interspersed between blast beats give ‘Buried Deep’ a unmistakable Thrash tinge, while the string instruments’ heavy emphasis on downbeats hearkens back to early Metal innovators like Autopsy and Cremation. 

Littered with wild false harmonic wails reminiscent of banshee yells (or more appropriately, witch cackles), ‘Buried Deep’ shows a lot of character which I personally love.

It’s your standard thoroughfare of claustrophobic grind sessions and more ‘breathable’ groove-centric open space, single note synth interludes with rain and horror movie samples shuttling the listener from song to song (Listen to second track Despoilment to hear what I mean).

That’s not to say it’s a bad album though. The songs are strong. Fun band name, fun art, fun titling across the album. ‘Buried Deep’ ends strong, and as musicians Witch Vomit certainly bring the chops necessary for what they’re trying to pull off. 

There’s a dynamic range missing that if added could really elevate the group’s current strengths. I’d encourage all creatives to further experiment outside of the studio. Editing is the creative’s friend, and no one has to know what was cut from a final album. I’d also like to recommend a band like Witch Vomit to listen to something really out of their wheelhouse- Mr. Bungle, Petula Clark, doesn’t matter so long as it jars open new paths of music experience. See what it can rattle out of the creative mind. Serve yourself, serve your art, and keep shredding.

For fans of: Autopsy, Cremation, Regurgitate.

Like Witch Vomit? Give these a listen: Liquid Flesh, Concrete Winds, Pariiah

REVIEW: Thriftwicker Audio Society – VOLUME IV – HOW TO LIVE A ZESTY LIFE (2021)

Like Kraftwerk at a lower bit-rate, this crunchy lil’ synth piece was self-released by Thriftwicker Audio Society in 2021. How To Live A Zesty Life (like a lot of art-brutish music) doesn’t attract the listener with any particular song as well as it functions as a background mood piece to play [insert activity] to.

For me, this might be playing a video game I’ve played a million times before. For others this could be anything. Too distracting to be ‘ambience’, too aloof to be engaging.

Thriftwicker Audio Society’s own take on plunderphonic’ absurdist humor is textbook, but not ineffective (track Thinker’s Milk and TURBOPUKE definitely got a chuckle out of me on the first two listens). Absurdist lyrics- phrases such as ‘drink your oatmeal and often’- are looped and manipulated over cellphone-sounding rhythms. How To Live A Zesty Life is fun and light on cynicism, which helps it stand out from more dense or pretentious punderphonic works emulating the genre’s classics.

These songs revel in a holdover of what we expect ‘digital’ to sound like- a holdover of oversimplified synth lines and looped drum machine rhythms that could easily be a false memory of the music on Bill Nye the Science Guy. More Chick Vekters than Macintosh Plus- it’s an interesting take on the 80s/90s nostalgia that has otherwise been played to death (and now feels insincere) within vaporwave.

If they wanted to, I have a feeling Thiftwicker Audio Society could handle an album of more typically written of songs while remaining true to their sonic palette, and create a very memorable album in the process.

For fans of: Men’s Recovery Project, John Oswald, Strawberry Blonde

Like Thriftwicker Audio Society? Give these a listen: Acetantina, Nostalgianoid, Will Powers

REVIEW: Client_03 – Ur_Luv / Interpersonal Relationship Assessment (2021)

“It sounds a lot like you’re the one assessing us”, the ‘interviewer’ says. So what does that make this?

B-side track Interpersonal Relationship Assessment is a 12 minute sound play of the character that is Client_03 being ‘assessed’; a therapy-like interplay in which a feminine robotic voice answers a down pitched interviewer’s questions. All and all, it’s a not-so veiled comment on Neo-liberal capitalism (or ‘late-stage’ capitalism as Mark Fisher put it) in which ‘the artist as character’ acts as a comment on our collective humanity drowned out in the pursuit of productivity.

There isn’t much out there on the ‘sentient computer program’ character that is Client_03, and that’s probably how Charlie Fieber intends it to be.

Screenshot taken on 4/08/2022 from video 'Client_03 - Ur_Luv' uploaded 9/12/2021 on Youtube by Supermarkt.
Screenshot taken on 4/08/2022 from video ‘Client_03 – Ur_Luv’ uploaded 9/12/2021 on Youtube by Supermarkt.

Fieber, better known as Fracture, is an electronic musician from the UK and is one of the founders of the Astrophonica label. And while it isn’t immediately confirmable, it seems pretty likely that they’re one and the same. You didn’t really believe AI music programs were flippin’ samples this well, did you?

Nevermind all that.

A-side track Ur_Luv is an absolute Electro jam. Pitched out and glitched out, Client_03’s flip of Collapse’s Hold Me in Your Arms vocal track grabs the listener’s attention by the ears and never lets go. Swishy drum machine rhythms and punchy kicks keep on stepping as a fat synth acts as the minimal but deep groove needed to push this track to perfection.

Ur_Luv is complete Electro bliss.

Go grab it while it’s still online.

For fans of: Fracture, Adam F, DJ Solo

Like Client_03? Give these a listen: A_GIM, Siu Mata, Phasmid

REVIEW: Slow Blink – Time Constant (2022)

In a buzzy glow of lo-fi warmth comes Slow Blink’s Time Constant. Released last week on April 1st, 2022, Time Constant is the 4th full-length album by Chattanooga, TN’s Amanda Haswell through their Ambient project Slow Blink.

Performed live at Stove Works in Chattanooga on March 18th, and while less doom-laden than their former live album Pangea, Time Constant manages to enchant and haunt the listener in a doom spell of earthly contemplation.

The warmth of the analog tape loops mimic the environmental noise that one comes across in nature- be it deep in the woods, up in the mountains, by the ocean, or standing in a median of a parking lot looking at little strands of grass. Chords warp and swell past. Live instrumentation atop tape loops, like glockenspiel on the titular closing track Time Constant, is classic Haswell modus operandi.

In its exploration of time, Time Constant displays an absolutely mature, haunting beauty. If you enjoy lo-fi Ambient, you absolutely need to hear this album.

For fans of: Tim Hecker, Grouper, Susumu Yokota

Like Slow Blink? Give these a listen: Robert Chamberlain, Music For Sleep, Brian J Davis

REVIEW: Christian Mistress – To Your Death (2015)

One thing that contemporary Rock never shed from its predecessors was overt-cheesiness. So a Hard Rock / Heavy Metal retro act coming out of Olympia, Washington in 2008? An element of cheesiness is a certainty.

Released on Relapse Records in 2015, To Your Death immediately embraces such cheese on opening track Neon, containing lyrical moments like “can’t escape the knife of the neon lights burnin’ out the stars” and “…just a teenage dream lookin’ for a scene and falling apart.” But the vocals wail, the solos shred, and the rhythm section chugs along as Christian Mistress carve their groove.

The album opens up new territory, daring to break away from its retro reservations. Songs like Eclipse and Open Road are absolute standout tracks. Hefty and vivid songs with which Christian Mistress provides vigorous performances. As praised elsewhere, vocalist Christine Davis is excellent, and delivers a powerful and dynamic performance.

With exception to a slight gothic element on Lone Wild, To Your Death is a Hard Rock / Heavy Metal album and the guitars want you to know it. Little flairs and outbursts decorate otherwise rhythmic-centric sections, where the instrumental track titled ‘III’ displays a profane excess of guitar overdubbing- no one guitar standing out or particularly saying anything. There is nothing left to be implied, and certainly no room for it.

To Your Death understates Christian Mistress’s rhythm section. If you’ve spent any time drumming or playing bass than you can can tell Reuben Storey (drums) and Jonny Wulf (bass) have a wealth of talent that isn’t even close to being explored.

Ultimately, To Your Death is a fun and debaucherous Rock record otherwise held back by an imbalance of its rhythmic core and melodic ornamentation. To Your Death …by a million guitar licks.

For fans of: Heart, Queens of The Stone Age, Acid King

Like Christian Mistress? Give these a listen: Bundle of Hiss, Raging Slab, Lions

REVIEW: Primeval Well – Talkin’ in Tongues with Mountain Spirits (2021)

Metal is one of those precious genres that can be dropped into any culture across the world and it will just work. Egyptian Black Metal? Brad Sanders wrote about it. Extreme Metal in China? Josh Feola got you covered.

But never had I heard something so uniquely Southern in the Metal genre until now. Nor had I expected to hear an ol’ time snare shuffle on a Black Metal album. But let me tell you, I’m glad I did.

Talkin’ in Tongues with Mountain Spirits is the second full-length album by Nasheville, TN outfit Primeval Well. Taking the more raw, atmospheric sound that is Black Metal’s specialty, Primeval Well experiment with Post-Punk guitar melodies, shuffled Country/Folk jaunts which break out into full blast beats, and plenty of twang. This band is the Wire of Appalachian Black Metal and I’ve never been happier.

Nearly every track is a hefty 8-10 minutes, but how Primeval Well weaves through movements keeps each composition feeling engaging and lively (not a term usually associated with Black Metal, but it’s time). The second half of the album incorporates certain elements of Stoner Metal, fuzzed out thick riffs and a faint wah-wah element.

Talkin’ in Tongues with Mountain Spirits is melodic in unexpected ways, blending and bleeding soul with haunting atmosphere. If you’re looking for something different, Primeval Well is for you.

For fans of: Negură Bunget, Bathory, Windhand

Like Primeval Well? Give these a listen: Batushka, Vile Haint, Colin Stetson / Sarah Neufeld Duo

REVIEW: Lower Level Bureau – Innerworld (2015)

Released on the Italian label Vollmer Industries in 2015, Innerworld is the 2015 debut album by the Eunice, Louisiana-based recording project Lower Level Bureau.

Recorded at Reverb Studio in Cuneo, TX, Innerworld kicks off with the massive 10+ minute track Rose’s Theme. Taking its Badalamenti influence straight, Lower Level Bureau otherwise connect the ominous link between Doom Jazz and Southern Gothic. This instrumental album is incredibly cinematic, with an impressive faux-natural drum machine sound, thick layers of synth strings, and audio samples serving as an effectively haunting human element.

Innerworld more or less exists as a Lynchian representation of the JFK-conspiracy within music. The album artwork and opening track Rose’s Theme refer to Rose Cheramie, a somewhat tangential character in the mythology surrounding the John F. Kennedy assassination. The music across the album is scattered with samples of the event’s news coverage.

A younger me, deeply into anything remotely spooky and arguably ‘real’ (unlike, say, creepypasta), would have fawned over Innerworld without hesitation. But now our societal climate lacks any practical social cohesion.

Since the album’s release in 2015 we’ve seen first hand the political manipulation, the tearing of societal fabric, and its devastating toll that have become the real world baggage to an interest in conspiracy theories, something that years ago could have been considered the interest of the gumshoe’s hubris, oddity nuts (such as myself), or just plain old weirdos.

Speaking of Twin Peak’s influence and conspiracy theories, does anyone remember X-Files?

All of this said, the JFK assassination and its mythology are, to put grimly, as American as apple pie. Perhaps Innerworld is a last call for our more playful collective interest in such topics. It’s a beautiful album, and one that expands upon both Noir and Southern Gothic themes within music. Maybe one day we’ll come to find it ‘fun’ again.

For fans of: The Killmanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, Angelo Badalamenti, Dale Cooper Quartet

Like Lower Level Bureau? Give these a listen: Malakas, Iosu Vakerizzo, Music For Sleep