Music
Local Reviews: The Tenants of Balthazar’s Castle/Stag Hare
I once watched a performer maintain a tricky, tempo-swaying drum roll using a stick in one hand and a rubber ball in the other. I was completely mesmerized by the performance, but letdown by the recording and unable to convince any who heard it how magnificent it had been. This is my beef with 90 percent of so-called noise music: you have to see it to appreciate it, otherwise, if you expect anyone to listen, you damned well better make the aural side really interesting. … read more
Local Reviews: Stag Hare
This album is nearly 42 minutes long � but feels like 10. Starting off slowly with an almost-tribal melody, Ahspen easily could have been the soundtrack to The Martian Chronicles, because all 42 minutes in this piece are an instrumentation of beautiful bliss that seem to follow an internal storyline. … read more
Local Reviews: Lewis
There’s nothing worse than having to give a local band � which represents you and your local musical community � a bad write-up. Nevertheless, nobody wins when a band continues on, ignorant of their lack of talent. Lewis is the epitome of the-pop punk sound a la Blink 182. Maybe they thought they’d fill the void for all the Blink fans who can’t get over Blink being gone. … read more
Local Reviews: Hew Mun
I’ve heard music like this described before as sculpture, and that really seems to fit this release. Though I do not mean a solid, statuesque figure�this is something far more abstract, almost void of shape, yet still symmetrical and meticulously crafted from every imaginable source of raw material. … read more
Local Reviews: Ghastly Hatchling
It seems that everyone and his leather-clad dog in Salt Lake is a “noise band” these days. As you may have experienced, half of these follow the “turn on machines, wave hands around, tweak knobs in an angry fashion, call it a piece of music” aesthetic. … read more
Local Reviews: Dreadnought
Dreadnought is back again to rock your face off. I had the distinct privilege of reviewing their first album and I wanted to see how the band had progressed in their heavy alternative sound. … read more
Local Reviews: Digital Lov/How to Get Down
What a team! Digital Lov and Tyler Sorensen’s How to Get Down get together to produce an album that most computer-literate people could make with the Fruity Loops program. When it comes to electronica, leave it to experts like Cut Copy and Daft Punk to put out hits. … read more
Local Reviews: Declaration
Declaration vacillates from Ben Folds Five piano-ballad quietude (“Half Inch Man”) to humdrum restless lethargy (“Headlines”) all while maintaining a melodically mellow, simple-yet-engaging tone. Perhaps the best compliment for Panic Button is that you will fast find yourself singing along to most of the album’s catchy refrains, naturally grafted onto the album’s crescendo-crashing guitar riffs and cymbal-heavy drum displays. … read more
Local Reviews: All Systems Fail/ Sarcasmo
This 7″ was two years in the making and unfortunately for fans of either band, the sound quality just doesn’t do them justice. Sarcasmo hails from Mexico and their four-song side of the 7″ features angry punk rock reminiscent of the 80s. … read more
Local Reviews: Written in Fire
There is a great progressive metal scene in Utah and Written in Fire is just one of the many bands showcasing that scene. This four-song demo isn’t a short one with lengthy tunes averaging over seven minutes each. Upon first listen one might think that the production is poor, but first listens are just that. The production reflects a huge old school metal style. … read more
Local Reviews: The VCR Quintet
Like much of Ikue Mori’s pre-laptop, dual drum-machine work and Autechre’s slowly deteriorating sequences on their Untilted album, Joe Greathouse’s (aka Thrillhouse) VCR5 project works in a rhizomic fashion. … read more
Local Reviews: S.S.
If you were to classify S.S. I Am The as a metal band, the first thing you’d have to realize is how much more melodic they are compared their wail-and-thrash brethren. They have a dark sound, but the melodies are almost ethereal: dreamy, and virtually intoxicating, even when the song turns heavy. … read more
