#216 Johnny Cash - Live at Folsom Prison

This was part of the Cash kick I went on back in the day, just recently got around to this one.

I'm not normally one for live albums, but because of its setting, this resonates in a way all its own. For one, the setlist choices carry bonus significance, and tales of imprisonment and freedom and execution abound. Plus, you get the experience of listening to the songs and imagining what it would be like to hear them as a prisoner, as opposed to, you know, as you, at some concert venue.

The setting also accounts for some of the brilliant tension in the first half of the album, the easy/uneasy banter, the ad libs and crackups, the unpredictable energy. The songs on the first half are the better of the lot too, climaxing with the rambling Orange Blossom Special and haunting Long Black Shawl; the latter putting the aging voice of Cash on full, gloriously rumbling display. The latter half seems to settle into more of a groove though, and loses some of its spark as a result. Maybe its the two Jack Clement-penned novelty clunkers, or the fact that two of the later songs came from a different performance than the rest, or simply the fact that the rush of the setting had worn off; for whatever reason, the second half didn't crackle for me. Still, the energy the album starts with is unmatched, and at least good enough for 3.5/5

#215 White Denim - Last Day of Summer

I really liked Fits, and this is a free download of oddities. Sounds great!

And in practice, it is actually pretty great. These guys are all over the map. Here, they're bristly, fast, and actually kinda sunny, leaving behind the menace that wound through Fits, sounding like an actually-exciting Dr. Dog. Or maybe a double-speed, indie rock Steely Dan, which I don't actually mean in a bad way. Regardless, this collection serves as a reminder that these guys, wherever they are on the map, are super talented, mixing overall hookcraft, twangy authenticity, proggy intricacy (Incaviglia!), and straight up songwriting chops (Champ!) from here to I don't know where.

That said, this album falls into that old trap of not really having a role. Its probably too complex to be legitimate summery music, and it wants for an extra gear of rock a lot of the time. Still, a worthwhile listen, likely good for a long road trip some day, and if nothing else it serves as inspiration to check out these guys' back catalog and eagerly await whatever they make next. Could be a grower, too, I suspect... 4/5

#214 Chappo - Plastique Universe EP

I got this because I heard a song on an iphone commercial, I guess it happens to all of us eventually. Damn those guys with their ear for hooks!

What can I say, Come Home's catchy, fraught with jangle and bounce and late-Beck fuzz. And actually the next two songs on this EP are similarly promising, featuring hooks, great atmosphere and twisty song structures. Sweet Sigh's is a pleasant meanderer that does a pretty good impression of TV on the Radio on the vocal front, and Rouse it Up is glammy, neon Bloc Party jam.

But then it gets ridiculous. As in, is this a joke? Space Shoes offloads Rage Against the Machine riffage and "UH!!"s, and preposterous lyrics, climaxing with the chorus, shouted repeatedly and with much angst: "We've got to shapeshift! Why the attitude? Lay off my space shoes!" What? Similarly, closer Sci-Fi Bandits sounds like someone took Blitzen Trapper's Sci-Fi Kid and completely ruined it with Flaming Lips style overproduction and sub-Jamiroquai fake funk. Reference combo bonus!

Unfortunately, I'm guessing its not a joke. In retrospect, the clues are all over the first few tracks: these guys are actually trying way too hard to be spacey and weird and relevant and intense, and doing it in a really forced, plastic way. It's a shame, they're hooky and fun in between the dumbs. With any luck they won't be successful: whatever they do next will either be lo-fi and great or even more overproduced and completely unlistenable. One great song, two good songs, two bad songs 2.5/5

#213 Dibiase - Up the Joystick

Another one from the lo-fi glitch hop thread, which seems to have a lot of stuff on it that I'm in the mood for lately.

This is a hip hop album that is built almost entirely on nintendo game samples. I didn't actually know that going in (though the song titles were an early tip), but that tells you most of what you need to know. Well, I guess the question is, is it any good? It doesn't start off promisingly, the instrumental opener's a little too "Lol this stuff's from nintendo", and track two is in the same vein, but starts mixing in hip hop shouts and samples from the Super Mario Brothers tv show (double lol). But then comes the actual rapping over the tinkling arpeggios of the Final Fantasy load screen, and you realize that those first two tracks were just an intro, not a declaration of purpose. This is a rap album, not an electronica album; its just taking its nintendo-themed gimmick really, really far.

Code of Life is the other highlight, thoroughly working dozens of NES-era references into a legitimate rap package.

I swear I didn't set this up in the last review just to use it here, but lets return to that checklist:

- Leverages pop culture familiarity to create emotional impact? Yep.
- Combines the best hooks of rock with the rhythms and impact of hip hop? Its video game music hooks, but yep.
- Expertly controls pace and flow on a record-long scale? Kinda.

2 and a half out of three aint bad; on paper, this is actually a lot more Girl Talk than Ample Mammal. That said, it doesn't quite blow up; its a little too slow paced, not quite ambitious enough, and its actually sort of boring at times. Still, its a gimmick done well, and totally worth hearing once 3.5/5

#212 Ample Mammal - Mating Season

Someone on facebook liked or added or friended or whatever this guy, which caused his bio to come up. Something about "Ample Mammal is quickly becoming the West Coast, more sophisticated version of Girl Talk" but uses primarily original materials - I have some suspicions, but ok, I'll bite.

Having heard the album, I call bull shit on that. Whoever wrote that thing has no idea what they're talking about. First of all, saying you're kind of like Girl Talk, but you use original material is like like saying you're like Jackson Pollock, but instead you create meticulously detailed landscape paintings. Let's run down the checklist:

- Leverages pop culture familiarity to create emotional impact? Nope.
- Combines the best hooks of rock with the rhythms and impact of hip hop? Nope.
- Expertly controls pace and flow on a record-long scale? Nope.

I don't see it.

Ok, what is this then? On paper I should like it. Squonky synths, high-energy synths, and chopped vocals are all hot points for me. Chopped vocals especially, but this guy does it so hackily, using the same basic accelerating chop / pitch bend trick over and over again. See Mouse on Mars' Actionist Response or Prefuse 73's Plastic for this trick done right, his variation on it just gets one note and annoying, sticking out like a sore thumb on nearly every track.

One last difference with Girl Talk illustrates the problem with this album. Girl Talk knows exactly what he's trying to achieve, and crafts his music to accomplish it. All his tricks and samples and structures are just means to the end of rocking bodies. This guy seems to think that the tricks are the point, slathering tracks with samples, IDM burbles, midi arpeggios, and chopping things up seemingly just for the sake of it. I'll keep an eye on this guy, maybe he'll settle down and decide what he wants to do, and he'll do it. For now, this is too amateur to spend time on when there's so much better, similar stuff out there 2.5/5

#211 Nasty Nasty - Puke Paint

Another one off the lo-fi glitch hop thread.

I kind of like this, but I can see why its an EP. There's a whumwhumwhummmmmm bass warping stutter sound that sounds awesome at first, but has gotten a little stale by the end of the first track, and has really gotten old by the time its been beaten to death on the 3rd track. I also am not to big on the hyper-pitch-bent approach to vocals - not that I'm against that trick in general, but I just don't like the way its done here, maybe its something about the underlying guy's voice or just the particular parameters. I've basically described the songs by now though, super warped bass sound, some warbled vocals, minimal stuttery beat, and some extra synth lines over top for complexity.

Sore Loser is the standout here, and listening to that will give you the idea. I'm intrigued enough to want to see what this guy does next, and I do like this on a one-song scale, but even for an EP, this is too one-note to warrant better than 2.5/5

#210 The Glitch Mob - Drink the Sea

I think Ivan recommended this to me the other night, and then I came across it on the same search for listenable glitch that lead me to the last one.

This isn't actually all that glitch (though I hear their earlier stuff was), what it is is a Ratatat / Justice esque exercise in texture and riffage. For the most part it works. There's just enough funky twists, interesting crannies, and propulsive energy to make the whole thing enjoyable in small doses, especially on late game standouts like We Swarm (great surprising synth break-in), and (cringworthily named, but pleasantly meditative) Starve the Ego, Feed the Soul. As an album, it drags a bit, and some of the live drums and clean bass moments sound kind of cheesy. Its much better when it embraces its buzzy future sound wholeheartedly.

I think it would be better if the whole thing was about 10 BPM faster, and a little less concerned with being epic, and a little more concerned with rocking asses. Still, 3.5/5

#209 Mr. Oizo - Analog Worms Attack

I was having a seizure from all this foreign psychedelia, so I went searching for some compelling, more listenable, more backgroundable music. I'm way into texture lately, so started by trying to rummage up some listenable glitch, and came across a thread looking for "lo-fi glitch hop", which lead to a guy who linked to Ozio's Monophonic Shit. I listened to it. Promising shit.

This is pretty simple techno on some level, a riff/groove/melodic synth line, but its buzzed, fuzzed, trashed out to hell, with the chips out of the snares and chunks out of the bass hits, and static sticking out of the seams. Which is rad.

I don't know why I like all this lo-fi, glitch stuff so much, but I sure do. It just is exciting in some basic way. It sounds dirty, physical, menacing. I actually wish this was more bent out of shape, and its oversimple at times, but its got a good enough groove to it that I will surely keep it around and blast it as needed, at least until I find something that does this better 4/5

#208 VA - Shadow Music of Thailand

Another one from the Sublime Frequencies series, I happened across this one in particular more or less by chance.

Man, there was a whole lot of great music being made outside of Americain the 60's, I can't believe I'm just coming across it now. This is another good one, mostly instrumental, vaguely surfey, fairly lo-fi, super cool. This features the flourish-laden, head-bobbing repetition I've come to expect from the Sublime Frequencies series, but with a double dose of organ, and a slightly sloppier playing style. This is also more directly western-sounding than some of the other SF albums I've reviewed, but the occasional vocals, adventures in accompaniment, and subtly rhythm tricks keep it from sounding all that familiar.

On an album scale, the variety here isn't as vibrant as on the other recent SF albums I've listened to, and the overall energy level isn't quite as high, but there are also some real standouts, like the driving surge of Koisun Ching and Plaeng Yiepoun, the moonlit force of Lao Kratob Mai, and the seaside drift of Bangkok by Night. Not quite as virtuoso as the Peruvian stuff (see below), and not quite as unhinged as the Nigerian stuff (see below), but good enough for 3.5/5

#207 Group Inerane - Guitars from Agadez (Music of Niger)

Another Sublime Frequencies offering, I basically picked this one from the catalog of 40 or so because it has "guitar" in the name, which so far has been the key to my enjoyment of otherwise fairly inaccessible, non-English-language music from here and there.

Good gamble! This is a style hatched in the 90's and this particular album was recorded in 2004 and 2007, so its a lot more recent than the other stuff, but it mostly sounds outside of time. The songs are buzzy and lo-fi, built on texture and repetition first and foremost, sounding like The Velvet Underground at their jammiest, or occasionally like Deerhunter or No Age at their most meditative. A simple beat and guitar line lay the basis (sounding both like things I've recorded, and things my World's Largest Band app cooked up, actually), but then its lots of little guitar flourishes, subtle shifts in tone, and lots of singing, ululations and hissing (?) It's totally hypnotic, occasionally meditative, occasionally breaking out into madcap, furious energy - the overblown distortions of Nadan Al Kazawnin are particularly mindblowing.

Once again, though, the female vocals are kind of annoying - I'm not trying to be closed-minded, but the actual sound is unpleasant when you're singing that high, it just sounds tinny and shrill. That complaint aside, this is an interesting listen. It's utterly different, having almost nothing in common with Western music other than the electric guitar itself, but it's still totally accessible. The vocals will probably keep this from being a frequent listen, but this is easily good enough for a 4/5

#206 Mystikal - Let's Get Ready

Fighting back from the deficit! Staying on pace thanks to a long day of diagram-making. This guy was a rec from Kyle, if I'm not mistaken.

Want the gist? This guy sounds like a super angry Busta Rhymes. He is shouting constantly, and its kind of exhausting. This guy is super angry all the time, and rather than coolly boasting that he's going to shoot you, he is getting in your face and getting ready to kick your ass with his bare hands right now. So, yes, exhausting. You know, like someone shouting at you for an hour.

That said, there's some good stuff here. When I could actually understand the words, there were some legitimate gems ("you're like ten yards the way you're always first down" he taunts). And while I'm not a rap chorus guy, the hook on You Would if You Could is the cat's ass. That's a strong song. Towards the end, rather than petering out, the album branches out, trying on some less-aggressive angles. If nothing else the standard weed song provides a nice contrast in style, and the Outkast-featuring closer (not counting a couple bonus tracks) has a pretty damn smooth groove, even if the guest spots themselves sound like something of an afterthought.

I'll grant it this, its something new. Its not a style I've heard in hip hop before, and if the last two reviews didn't tip you off, I do like getting a new twist on an old theme. Despite the fact I don't see myself wanting to get shouted at like this often, the finer points earn it a 3.5/5

#205 VA - Cambodian Cassette Archives: Khmer Folk & Pop Music Vol. 1

I recently found, again indirectly via Dusted, a series called Sublime Frequencies that has a whole ton of music from all over the world, seemingly from a variety of eras. This album is from that series, and features Cambodian music that is largely from the 60's and 70's, but with some songs that pretty clearly seem to feature 80's-sounding synthesizers. Details on this album are delightfully difficult to come by - one theory is that the "unknown artist" tracks that make up the majority of the album are from the 60's and 70's, and that the eight named tracks are more recent. Regardless - impressions follow!

Once again, there is a garagey sound at the core here, with shuffling rhythms, guitars and horns in balances that I associate with Tropicalia. But this is different, far more otherworldly. It is a mysterious, intriguing album, with some serious musicianship on display. I am strangely fascinated by this. From the lack of information, to the subtle shifts in style, to the blending of the familiar and the foreign - I fear that I have stumbled upon some music nerd facet of my personality that I'm not wholly comfortable with, because I am into this stuff like Finn's into adventure.

I'm not even sure how to describe the actual music. Some of it sounds like 60's garage rock, again, with the lo-fi aesthetic and crunch guitars, but with some incredibly inventive twists here and there. The main downside is the nasal, twangy female vocals that come and go, which I associate with middle eastern music and older Asian music, and which I generally can't stand. But when you get past that, there's a lot to like, from the buzzy groove of track 15 ("Unknown") to the Tarantino-ready, strangely familiar, groove of track 6 ("Unknown (Intrumental)"). It sounds almost like a dub version of I Walk the Line. And then there's small details, like the maddeningly appealing distortion that wobbles out the bass groove at the end of Track 16 (again, marked simply Unknown).

I'd previously found my forays into far-flung cultures' music largely fruitless. I can deal with foreign-language music (there's not a lick of English on this disc), but I do like something I can hook into. This, seemingly based in emerging American rock and roll, provides a nice balance: mixing the rock crunch I love with a whole 'nother worldview. The role of horrifying oppression that underlies this music is more than I can get into here, but as music, it is another facet of the hidden creative explosion going on during this era that I'm slowly peeling back the veil on.

Despite some brilliant moments, I didn't find this to be nearly as enjoyable as #204, perhaps because of the vocals, and perhaps because its just not as even across the board. But its still good enough for the October special 4/5

#204 VA - The Roots of Chicha (Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru)

Again, I read about the 2nd disc in this series on Dusted, but ended up listening to this one. October is apparently also the month of indirect recs from that site.

Given that this was made in the 60's and 70's, in South America, its no wonder that this sounds like Brazilian Tropicalia, which I'm so very fond of. Lots of Salsa/Samba-esque rhythms, guitar lines, shouted vocals, the occaisional horns, and an overall rough, high-energy, garagey sound. But this is a lot more guitar-driven, more intricate and surfey in its guitar lines, and a lot more organ-drenched, while being lighter on horns. The overall impression, relative to Tropicalia, is that this is less arty, more 50's-influenced, more down in the grit, and very nearly as awesome.

If you haven't heard any Tropicalia stuff, get you A Brazilian Revolution in Sound, and then listen to this, and then rest your ass, because you probably just rocked it off. Ok, ok, or don't. Relative to Nuggets-style 60's garage rock, this is more diverse, more intricate, more communal, and often better. If you haven't heard that either, it sounds like a rad bunch of guys making super inventive music, full of great guitars and organ textures and hooks and energy.

Expect to see the other album in this series reviewed here soon, since I'll be hitting that, plus finding out what other awesome shit was going on in the world in the 60's, since it totally rivals what was happening in America.

If you hadn't gathered, I liked this 4.5/5

#203 Truckasaurus - Tea Parties, Guns and Valor

I randomly had this on my mp3 player, I think I got it a while back and never hit it. Lets see what it does.

"Video game music" is the first descriptor that comes to mind, but that comes with a bunch of cousin indicators that are vaguely related: glitchy beats, Nintendo references, an obsession with 80's culture (check the cover of the airwolf theme), and a formidably sense of irony. Its actually really entertaining in its technicolor, spazzy, buzzy kind of way.

Through the first 10 actual album tracks, its a pretty great album, even if I wished that the hip hop undertones came to the surface more often. Its complex and high-energy - and while its all game-boy-sequenced, these guys' willingness to use more advanced synthesizers helps keep it unpredictable. The dark side is the seemingly endless set of remixes that close the album. Some are decent, but listening to the album proper, followed by the remixes, is numbing. I'm going to take the liberty of rating the core 10 tracks as an experience, since that's how I'll listen to this in the future. By that standard, this gets my October-signature 4/5

#202 2562 - Aerial

Continuing my recent trend of albums that were mentioned as better than the album being reviewed, in a review, this was described as "sounding like the future". I like the sound of that.

Does this sound more like the future than your average IDM-dusted techno album? Actually, I hear this is a techno-dusted dubstep album, if that's a helpful reference point for you. Regardless of the genre/dusting pair, sure, it sounds a bit like the future, at least at first. Early on, it is bewildering and energetic, full of simple beats and synth lines that squonk out from under you just as you decide what to expect. Its a delightful balance of listenable and interesting, and its tricks are just subtle enough to sound natural, while sounding unnatural, like they are from a future where this is what music sounds like.

But then it all just gets kind of slow and sounds like Amon Tobin's most meandering soundscapes. Maybe its just the progression this guy was going for, but its weird how something that started off with such a distinct rhythmic/melodic spine running through it so quickly turns so aimless and indulgent. It kind of just sounds like he frontloaded the album with all his best ideas, and then had to stretch it out to masterpiece length. Or maybe I just started getting bored. Its an album that started off feeling like (yet another!) four, but that by the end I wasn't nearly as amused by 3/5

#201 The Dead C - The White House

Once again, Dusted reviewed their new one, and said that it wasn't as good as their older ones. Ok, well lets start with the earlier, allegedly better, ones then. Plus, I've had a good track record with New Zealand bands.

This is noise rock, without a lot of the rock. The first fivetracks are muddy, tinny soundscapes that don't sound especially well-planned, and that don't have much of a sense of space, narrative, or emotion. Look, I like noisy stuff. I don't mind vocals and guitars warped to hell and back, but it needs to do something with all that noise, and most of this just sounds like lazy noodling to me. I kind of like the delay-time-dragging warble of Bitcher, but its a trick that doesn't justify the song's seven minutes.

Really, the draw here is the last track, which is a really great Pavement-from-hell shoegazey space to get lost in for seventeen minutes. I think I'll check out some of the rest of their (expansive!) discography, they sound experimental enough to be worth a second chance, but as far as this album? I don't like most of it much, but the last song singlehandedly knocks this up a point and a half or so to 3/5

#200 Demon's Claws - Satan's Little Pet Pig

Dusted reviewed their new one, but spoke highly of this one, so lets keep it chronological.

These guys put out some badly mixed, scuzzy, garagey noise that's still energetic, hooky and kinda fun. Not a bad mix, as they evoke The Mint Chicks, early Pixies, The Polysics, and occasionally Blitzen Trapper if they were playing down a hole halfway to hell. There's a great stomp to this, all churning metallic chords, overblown vocals, and rambling blues turned to 12. I suspect under all the clatter there's some more really catchy bits, looking forward to dislodging them 4/5

#199 Wally Badarou - Echoes

Another Miles rec from the night of many recs.

That was a fruitful night for albums that I ended up enjoying (or at least being glad that I'd heard), but this isn't a winner for me. It's some early synthesizer stuff, with some African or otherwise "world" rhythms mixed in, and I just don't know what I'm supposed to get out of it. It doesn't move me, doesn't make my heart beat faster, doesn't have any particular sense of attitude, of place, no particular soul that I can relate to. I think part of the problem is that it evokes 80's flirtations with synthesizers and African rhythms, most of which sucked so severely that I don't know if I can ever really truly be openminded about such things.

My suspicion is that this is kind of a muso album, for people who can appreciate its construction, and who can appreciate how technically impressive some of the synthesizer approaches on display here are. And I get the barest glimpse of that; there's some subtle tuning of the instrument, some efficient pitch bends, the occasional stroke of mathy perfection. But mostly it just sounds like In Your Eyes to me. It gets a bit of credit for some emotional resonance in Canyons and Rain, but it's largely a miss 1.5/5

#198 There Thaemlitz - Soil

Back to a Miles rec from the night of many recs.

This is ambient, experiemental stuff, with some little samples mixed in here and there, ringing in from across the void, sounding like Music for Airports meets The Books. My instinct is to call it minimal, and it kind of is on the surface, but its also very detailed, with seemingly infinite little nooks to find when you listen closely. Everything is expertly mixed so that your focus shifts subtly from part to part beyond your conscious control (especially on Elevatorium), and the sounds are well-crafted and textured, fractally crannied.

Most of the samples aren't actually used all that Books-ly; I felt like they were repeated not to achieve rhythm or evoke place, but to allow imposition into your subconscious. It actually reminds me of The Books (especially Thought for Food) because of the way that it seeks to engage you emotionally in roundabout ways. Its a very psychological album, worming its way around in ways your brain doesn't understand, often to disturbing effect: see the heartbeat-skipping bass punches of Yer Ass is Grass, the menacing pulse of words through walls that thump through Trucker, and the outright narrative violence of Cycles.

Its an album I respected and liked more than I enjoyed; its a pretty harrowing trek through 6, long, often subtly troubling tracks. But it does fascinate me at least a bit. Despite my recent run of fours, I think I land once again at 4/5

#197 The Velvet Underground - 1969: The Velvet Underground Live (aka Live 1 / Live 2)

One of the last of my set of Kyle recommendations. I obviously dig The Velvet Underground, but had never heard any of their live stuff. The legend is, this is better than on the albums.

Largely, I'm inclined to agree. On the album, some of these songs come across as hollow, if fascinating gestures, but these recordings really bring out their ragged energy, their simple cores, and their basic, actual "rock and rollness".

The live setting is stark and awkward and weird, in a seemingly small, seemingly empty space, as each song is greeted by a barest smattering of applause. At first I thought it was how the crowd was micced, but eventually the character of the sound left me to think that these guys were being barely tolerated by a coffee-shop worth of folks. Its surreal, but kind of intimate and appealing.

I do have complaints about some of the songs though, especially on the first disc. At times, the playing is just messy and disconnected, and Lou sounds awfully flat in places (especially on the disappointing first-disc version of Heroin, luckily redeemed by the second-disc version). But the second disc is mega solid by comparison. I'm tempted to split the discs into two reviews, especially since they were later split on CD, but I'll stick with the original intent of the release, and give the whole thing a 4/5

#196 Pharoahe Monch - Internal Affairs

Another Kyle rec - I liked his stuff with Organized Konfusion, and had heard mixed things about his solo stuff, but the rec pushed me over the edge.

This takes a much more hardcore turn than the O/K stuff would lead you to expect, with more violence, more dirty words, and a song called "Rape". Classy. That said, the rap is still complex, hard-edged, surprising and entertaining, with tons of off-kilter rhymes and entertaining turns of phrase, sounding at times like a harder-edged Busdriver, which is not a bad thing. Its dense enough that I feel like I need more time with it, but I suspect its only going to grow on me 4/5

#195 Twin Shadow - Forget

Saw a video of his that piqued my interest, and then he got a good Pitchfork review, so let's check it out.

This is kind of a cool album. Its all a bit discoey, kind of 80's revival, kind of mysterious, kind of catchy, kind of timeless, with its beats, harmonies and cushioney production. Its a hard one to pin down. The easiest reference point is Hot Chip, and it captures their mix of casiotone beats, slithery synths, and layered sentimental sentiments. I found it haunting, sensual and catchy at turns, keeping me on my toes every time I thought I had it figured out. Which is rad, and good enough for a 4/5

#194 Pete Rock - Soul Survivor

Another Kyle rec, who assured me that his rap-filled stuff is better than his instrumental stuff (see #167).

I've started to feel the outlines of a gangta-to-positive scale in hip hop, where the gangta end is far simpler and less pretentious, and the positive end is concerned with being refined and is self-consciously "good", in every sense of the word. Gangta is confident in what it is the the point of obnoxiousness, while positive hip hop sometimes seems desperate for you to like it. I don't like anything that falls too far in either direction, and I simply have no patience for stuff that's too positive (see Digable Planets, esp #78).

I have a long rant about why attitude matters in rap, but in short, you need to think the guys you're listening to are awesome, or the rap listening experience just doesn't work. Some of the positive stuff just comes across as self-conscious, and that's a deal breaker.

This album has a lot of the elements of too-positive rap, the melodic samples, the slightly singsong rapping that comes and goes, the showiness of the rapping. Despite that, it actually largely works for me; there's just enough grittiness in the production, just enough variation, and the rapping is just complex enough. And I actually like its approach to aggrandizing the producer, which as the album itself points out, isn't usually the focus in rap. Its a new variation on the "these guys are awesome" cornerstone.

But my heart just isn't quite in it somehow. It just doesn't quite pull off convincing me it's awesome. Also, I do better when I have one rapper at the helm, I've never loved ensembles with more than two dudes. Maybe I've got the wrong attitude about this, but I ended up feeling like this is at best a 3/5

#193 XTC - English Settlement

Man! Travel and an exploding computer hurt my progress good. I got 6 new ones that I've heard that need writing up, coming nowish, so brace yerselves. This one's Miles rec from the night of many recs. I had heard Skylarking before and liked it, but this one was new on me.

Its an intriguing one. In tone, it lands somewhere between Gang of Four and parklife-era Blur in the space of slightly off-kilter "modern life is rubbish" Brittish rock. Its not quite as angry as Gang of Four, not quite as snarky as Blur, lobbing a languid sneer that splits the difference. Musicwise, its pretty complex stuff for how poppy it is, combining repetetive stomp with intricate guitar noodles and structural swerves. Mix those last two bands, with a dash of the Kinks, and a touch of older Genesis (though maybe that's just the synth line on Ball and Chain talking).

The whole thing is a bit overlong, and some of the songs seem to think they're a lot smarter than they are; Melt the Guns as Miles pointed out, is really the best example, a go-nowhere sub-GoF ranting, limp raveup.

Its an interesting album though, abrassive but listenable, catchy but angular. I'm sure I'll put it on now and again, though it didn't blow me away enough for more than 3.5/5

#192 Sleep - Dopesmoker

Continuing the roll of stoner / doom metal classics recommended by Kyle.

While Dopethone was a masterpiece of texture on top of an insistent set of bass riffs, this is far simpler. For one, its one track. That goes on for an hour. That's the main thing you need to know here.

Within this song, there is a single bass riff, and half the time isn't a riff, just the same note "BRRROOOOAAAAMM..." over and over again. On top of that, we don't have finely balanced noise and texture, but rather far more distinct parts, guitar solos that come and go, vocals that come and go. The overall tone of the song ebbs and flows in subtle ways, the volume levels shift, the busyness nudges up and down, but eternally there is "BRRROOOOAAAAMM..." again and again. There are no tempo changes, nor style changes, an eastern flavored breakdown at the 40 or so minute mark being the only exception. This is more what I was expecting from the genre. It is unflinching and uninterested in entertaining you: it is interested in creating a space and thoroughly grinding it into your mind. Its like a six minute trance song slowed down to one tenth the speed, single-minded in its "BRRROOOOAAAAMM..."

So where does that leave it? The obvious comparison point to me is Metal Machine Music: both pieces are exercises in patience, whose main strength is the single-minded application of an idea so relentlessly that it becomes uniquely mind-altering. By comparison, this is downright listenable, but its still a slog, more interesting intellectually than it is enjoyable emotionally, more worth-having-heard than anything you want to hear again. And that's where I rest with it. I'm very glad I heard it. It echoed in my head as I went to sleep, and was still there in the morning, and shoot, that's worth something. But it is actually pretty boring, and I can't see revisiting it again any time soon. No score seems right, so I'll give it a "BRRROOOOAAAAMM..."

Ok, ok, fine 3/5

#191 Electric Wizard - Dopethrone

Recommended by Kyle on the night of a thousand recommendations (or eight, still!)

Word is this is Stoner Metal / Doom Metal, and accordingly, I was actually expecting something a lot darker and gloomier and more insistent in its desolation. In practice, sure, its really repetitive, and the vocals are screamy, and the guitars heavy and jagged, but I didn't actually find it all /that/ unpleasant.

There's two main elements here: 1) the bass groove, which is clear, insistent, and ever-present; and 2) everything else. The everything-else is all distorted guitars, drones, noise and vocals, though crucially, the latter is low in the mix. In most metal, the music lays down a foundation and the vocals are at the fore on top of it. In this, the vocals are buried in the mix, gasping to the surface here and there, in perfect balance with everything else. Its more shoegaze with an eternal bass groove heart than it is metal, and the effect is strangely hypnotic. The obvious reference point here is Bosis's Pink, and I'm certainly fond of that album.

Sure, its pretty dark. And at least a little unpleasant. And its not an everyday album by any stretch. But I found myself grinning while it was on, and thinking about it afterwards, so I'm going to call that a win, and a 4.5/5