Music
Top 5: Melechesh
Melechesh, a Sumerian/Mesopotamian-themed black metal band that originated in Jerusalem in 1993 and relocated to the Netherlands in 1998, have always been a favorite artist of mine. The Epigenesis is Melechesh’s fifth full-length album, and easily their best. The record pushes hard on the boundaries of what black metal is, going well beyond the typical blast and scream fare. … read more
Top 5: Black Keys
Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have crafted something rare and beautiful with the release of Brothers. It’s interesting and engaging from beginning to end and actually seems to have captured the same raw energy that was so exhilarating on their early albums. That isn’t to say Brothers is simply a rehashing. Instead, it’s as if they’ve captured that grit, but polished it up a bit with what they learned working with Danger Mouse on Attack & Release. … read more
Top 5: Beats Antique
Music sometimes described as “belly dance” can be immediately off-putting to listeners bred on a steady diet of rock or dance. Fortunately for fans of the unique, San Fransisco’s Beats Antique carry everything you need in their packs: touches of North African Raï, Bedouin melodies and healthy doses of dubstep. Blind Threshold lends itself to breakdance moves more than any other form of old school technique. … read more
Top 5: Baths
When Cerulean came out on Anticon earlier this year, critics were quick to lump the 21-year-old Californian’s debut into the burgeoning (and largely made up) chillwave microgenre. Baths took offense to this—it is easy to see why. Instead of being ostensibly effects-driven and wrapped under a gauze of lo-fi consumer electronics, Cerulean is all beats. Crisp, sparkling, low-end rumbling beats are looped with such complexity that they are easy to lose in the shuffle. … read more
Top 5: Autolux
Being an Autolux fan takes patience. Their first LP, Future Perfect, was an underground staple after its release in 2004. Four years later they finally revealed the Kid A-esque “Audience No. 2” as a single, which served to satisfy my Autolove for a while. After two additional years of delays and more plays than I can count generated on their Myspace player, Transit Transit saw the light of day. … read more
Top 5: Ariel Pink
Ariel Pink is a scary, bat-shit insane homeless man residing in an old abandoned tunnel of reverb. His albums have always been speckled with moments of lucidity and genius, but good portions were just homeless rambling. This time he was given a budget and a producer, who took a cheesecloth and chinois and strained out all of the bad acid vibes. … read more
Top 5: Acid Tiger
What initially strikes me about Acid Tiger is the unity it exudes between different forces in the world of underground rock music. Since Acid Tiger self-proclaims that they play a “progressive rock/punk hybrid” on their Myspace, but sound akin to stoner metal, they linguistically interrupt a current (and unfortunate) punk criteria, which enables them to act as a sort of cultural black hole where all that has or ever been is free game to be mauled by the tiger. … read more
Napalm Flesh – Re-Issue/Re-Master Chopping list
This week is all CD reviews, in particular CD re-issue and re-master reviews. Every year albums upon albums are re-issued and re-released, some are worth picking up and some aren’t. The reviews of the albums here are more themed around the quality of the re-issue than the quality of the album because if it’s getting released by another label or released again in some form the music doesn’t need to be judged, but is package does. … read more
Who the FUCK is Circa Survive? A review of Dredg...
Dredg has been one of my favorite bands since a suitemate introduced me to them in college back in ’04. Their Live at the Filmore album proves they’re the kind of band that can reproduce intricate prog rock as fluently live as in the studio, which is more than can be said for the general gamut of post-TOOL prog rock groups. … read more
Lyrics Born @ The State Room
Though he’s venturing even further into the realms of power funk, Lyrics Born still remains important for conscious hip hop heads (yes, we still exist). After the show I approached him, told him what a great time I had and he was very cordial back. The venue was literally shaking during the performance from excitement and the bass funk his band was pumping out. … read more