Every bullet that Ritual of the Savage dodged must have flown past and lodged itself in Hypnotique instead. Ritual used its south // east touches to make something cool, this just doubles down and makes something kinda hokey and gross, it's the difference between wearing pendant from China and using your fingers to make your eyes slanty.
Maybe I'm overreacting, maybe I'm blaming the originator for associations I make to things that came 50+ years later, but I found none of the loungy grace of Ritual here, this is an album that literally uses that CHINGA, CHINGA, CHING-CHING: CHING! CHING! CHING! CHING! Chinese cliche.
You know the one I'm talking about.
Maybe he invented it, but it sounds fucking ridiculous in 2015. And then he does the blues with a flute and eastern malletwork. No, fuck that, benefit of the doubt lost. Hacky bullshit 2/5
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
#1729 Metz - II
I've been reading too much Pitchfork lately. Just laziness I guess, it's a quick way to feel like you've got your finger somewhere within arm's reach of the pulse when you're 34 and gettin older.
I mention it because I totally screwed myself this time, can't escape from Paul Thomson's dead-on review of this album, specifically the line about how it feels like "falling down the same set of stairs ten times in a row". Fuck, that's perfect: this is an exciting, harrowing, numbing listen 3.5/5
I mention it because I totally screwed myself this time, can't escape from Paul Thomson's dead-on review of this album, specifically the line about how it feels like "falling down the same set of stairs ten times in a row". Fuck, that's perfect: this is an exciting, harrowing, numbing listen 3.5/5
#1728 Girl Band - The Early Years
That bristling guitar.
Those undying drums.
That seething patience, boiling with bottled intent.
Why
Do
They
Hide
Their
Bodies
Under
My
Garage!
That song, the way it rides its title hook to death for 8 minutes like a long-lost Liars B-side. It's almost great.
But there's the problem rightthere: this sounds like a B-sides collection, like runts that suckled meekly at the sound. It's too samey and brittle and aimless, whip this sound into actual songs and you might be onto something 2.5/5
Those undying drums.
That seething patience, boiling with bottled intent.
Why
Do
They
Hide
Their
Bodies
Under
My
Garage!
That song, the way it rides its title hook to death for 8 minutes like a long-lost Liars B-side. It's almost great.
But there's the problem rightthere: this sounds like a B-sides collection, like runts that suckled meekly at the sound. It's too samey and brittle and aimless, whip this sound into actual songs and you might be onto something 2.5/5
#1727 Calexico - Edge Of The Sun
My Morning Jacket
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this album
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Mumford and Sons
That brew of dusty folkism, funky pulse, anthemic grasping, topped with pop whip. I feel like Calexico used to have a bit more soul, this is mostly pleasant // just pleasant, all a bit forgettable3/5
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this album
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Mumford and Sons
That brew of dusty folkism, funky pulse, anthemic grasping, topped with pop whip. I feel like Calexico used to have a bit more soul, this is mostly pleasant // just pleasant, all a bit forgettable3/5
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
#1726 Serena-Maneesh - S-M 2: Abyss In B Minor
This shit's wild enough that maybe Rundgren doesn't get all the credit for just-reviewed Runndans' trippiness after all - SM songwriter/guitarist Emil Nikolaisen's got some good weird flow going on.
Where SM's debut was just pure Placebo shoegaze, this is a wild, wooly, ramshackle piece of searing chopsage, a moving castle of guitars, distorted vocals. The way-too-Bloody Melody for Jaana aside, this is actually pretty exciting stuff, tearing shoegaze apart and putting it back together at cranky angles 4/5
Where SM's debut was just pure Placebo shoegaze, this is a wild, wooly, ramshackle piece of searing chopsage, a moving castle of guitars, distorted vocals. The way-too-Bloody Melody for Jaana aside, this is actually pretty exciting stuff, tearing shoegaze apart and putting it back together at cranky angles 4/5
#1725 Marilyn Manson - The Pale Emperor
There's a stern confidence to Manson's latest, a bit like NiN circa Ghosts. He's not out to shock you or otherwise grab your attention by the scruff - whatever audience he's gonna get that way, it's been got.
This is just songs. Each one rides a bluesy mantra and a thunderous // rumbling beat of choice, and in the first minute you know more or less what's coming in the next 4 or 5. Watching the little details creep in, letting the groove seep into your head unnoticed has its small pleasures.
The Pale Emperor is about the right title: Manson's the ex-berzerker, and now he sits and surveys his kingdom bathed in white flame impassively, no one left to conquer or impress 3/5
This is just songs. Each one rides a bluesy mantra and a thunderous // rumbling beat of choice, and in the first minute you know more or less what's coming in the next 4 or 5. Watching the little details creep in, letting the groove seep into your head unnoticed has its small pleasures.
The Pale Emperor is about the right title: Manson's the ex-berzerker, and now he sits and surveys his kingdom bathed in white flame impassively, no one left to conquer or impress 3/5
#1724 Todd Rundgren/Emil Nikolaisen/Hans-Peter Lindstrøm - Runddans
What a wonderfully weird album. Lindstøm's unbeatable space disco pulse provides backbone to Rundgren's meandering, scattorshot ideas, and Nikolaisen's choppery. The starship wheels from ambient to throbbing groovability with ease, doubling back on its themes in ways that feel right even as they catch you off guard like a kink you didn't know you had.
Uneven in places? Sure. But that's outerspace man, you don't get to see the backside of the galaxy without working through some wormholes. Bracing stuff 4.5/5
Uneven in places? Sure. But that's outerspace man, you don't get to see the backside of the galaxy without working through some wormholes. Bracing stuff 4.5/5
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