BACK!

I am BACK!

Sorry... After some pretty horrendous changes that happened in my life, I was so swamped with a million little things going on, that I just couldn't reach out to finish a post. Then my phone broke, which has kept me from doing a little at a time to make sure that i can write post reviews in spare time. But that time has now passed, and I'm getting back on the horse and riding again (phone is still busted though).

For my friends who supported me through my pain, thank you. For the people who haven't seen much here yet, come on in, and take a look around!

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First thing I'd like to say is that I missed doing this. I pretty much listened to this for at least a month, almost on repeat.



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Now that I have some time, I want to get back to doing some of what I love, so I'm going to  try to pack a few little projects in for the blog as things with life and work seem like they are stepping out of the way a little.

I'll get some posts worked on now.

Thanks for sticking with me!

(The other Yarn) Yarn - Live at The Willow Tree Coffee House and Music Room (February 8, 2014)

Band / Artist: Yarn
Year: 2014
Genre: Indie Folk, Indie Alternative, Live

My Review:
I decided, fuck it. If I'm gonna search through all this music to find info on one Yarn, may as well go ahead with the other as well. And it was very much enjoyable.

here is a writeup in them

Brooklyn-based Americana/Alt-Rock band Yarn‘s sound owes as much to Gram Parsons and Earl Scruggs as to Jerry Garcia and Exile On Main Street-era Rolling Stones. Following in a fine tradition that includes forward thinking roots bands like The Flying Burrito Brothers and New Riders of The Purple Sage, Yarn weaves roots music idioms into a fresh sound that turns on hipsters and fans of country music alike, with technically impressive song-crafting and universal tales from the road of life.

What I'd say, they have a pleasant "Grateful Dead meets Iron & Wine" kind of thing going on that I was really grooving to. I've been hoping to pick up more stuff that would fit within this point of my life. Alright, more music on the way soon.

Yarn - Live at The Willow Tree Coffee House and Music Room (February 8, 2014)

Yarn - Inner Expedition

Band / Artist: Yarn
Year: 2013
Genre: Ambient Psy, Psytrance, Ambient Techno

My Review:
A good little Chillout album that made me think of ambient psytrance. I used this for a relax album for my whole Christmas vacation, and for my plane trip to and from DC recently (great time).

The musicians are a producer duo from Budapest that have been making music since I'm not sure quite when. Apparently there is another band named yarn, so I can't get info from this version without some serious work.

I'm inspired by this album to work on a little project that I believe you might enjoy in the near future. I'll let you know about it when there is time to get it finished, but rest assured that it'll be a good one.


Yarn - Inner Expedition

Old Splendifolia - Utterly Heartbreaking (EP version)

 

Year: 2013
Genre: Acoustic, Indie Folk

My Review:
Despite the name, I can't say anything about this was utterly heartbreaking. It was calm, and maybe a little sad, but I was pleased. This band is a set of musicians under the La bèl netlabel. They are trying to grow and hope for support to build up a larger presence. I figure I'll give a shout out to them, because anything that brings more vibrance to the music scene is good in my book.

Here's the band describing the album.

During live sessions in the summer house, the woods of Brandenburg and the homes of friendly musicians delicate pieces evolved, capturing random environmental noises and exceptional interaction of the artists. 

The chamber music-ish pieces flow moment to moment painting scenes with tones. The Song Poems seek their fortune through poetic views of the world, leap to the Earth's perishable inhabitants' defense, for whom the consistent rational explanations for a world so compelling in its richness, in its confusion, in its complexities impregnable from comprehension give little satisfaction. So, let's cast light on the many small details, sense-nourishing observations, confusion, the fear that tears me, which overwhelmed you as well, and on the comfort that She granted you, so you now could come to my aid. Enter with the ears and not only with the latter, into the micro-extracts from rich litera- and orature, elocuted by the inner desire to keep the amazement and the breath of life, to light the inner warmth, which beards the global one, with filigree vehemence.

Yes.

So, yeah. Enjoy.

Old Splendifolia - Utterly Heartbreaking (EP version)

Busta Rhymes & Q-Tip - The Abstract & The Dragon

Year: 2013
Genre: Hip-Hop, Rap

My Review:
There are a ton of reviewers who already gave this their breakdown, so I'm gonna keep this simple.

Fresh stuff from Busta. He's still out there making work, and now he's working with Q-tip on this new mixtape. Good Shit.

Just like you'd expect, this isn't exactly the same as his old stuff,  but it is a mixtape, so its retro as fuck in some parts, even racing back to the very early style before the end. Busta Rhymes and Q-tip finally got together and made some shit happen. It was really good to hear them back on the scene.



Busta Rhymes & Q-Tip - The Abstract & The Dragon

Post schedule

Personal things are going to be getting in the way of my yearly Vday mixtapes, so I'm going to wiggle the schedule of other posts for a bit. Thanks for the patience, and I hope that all of you who celebrate it have a wonderful time with your significant other.

Keep it real.

Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I

Band/Artist: Nine Inch Nails
Year: 2008
Genre: Score, Industrial, Ambient, Instrumental

My Review:
I'm pretty much sure that anyone who would be stopping by my site would have already had this release, but just to be sure, I figure I'll share.

About a year before the time that "The Slip" was released, Trent Reznor had gone somewhat silent while in the studio on an experiment with some collaborators. What came out of that experiment was this boxed set. It was just around the time of the "pay-as-you-will" experiments from radiohead and so forth, and long before Reznor went crawling back to the big record labels instead of really doing something revolutionary.

This is the first disk out of a set of 3 disks, so if you love it, spend the 5 dollars to get the full set. There is artwork that comes with the pack, and you aren't really being mislead, the free download is a good quality one.

This album is a gigantic step away from the rest of the Nine Inch Nails discography or radio hits. There are no lyrics except for humming or singing at any point during the full 3 CD set. They are all built like the scores to some non-existant film, and range in emotion and composition from rage filled industrial rock, to ambient pieces that sound nearly meditative.

 Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts

Neuro Trash - This Apocalypse Was Less Fun Than We Thought It Would Be

Year: 2013
Genre: Ambient, Downtempo, Instrumental, Neo-Folk

My Review:

After they had destroyed all the humans, the robots felt terribly alone

That quote is all to be said about this album by the band. As I've recently been doing a crap job of keeping up with singles posts and submitted albums for artists, this one slipped through the cracks for a while. I'm just now getting back to it, and realizing that I needed a good softer folky album to post on here. I wrote a whole review for this, and can't find it, which pisses me off.

The range of instruments used is very impressive, especially since I can't remember the last time I heard someone play a saw. The sound of this overall its a somber, melodic album that works great for a relaxing few minutes of your day, or trying to sit in that little gray corner of your mind for a while.

Neuro Trash - This Apocalypse Was Less Fun Than We Thought It Would Be

The melodies in this one are so hypnotizing to me, but I can feel a mental drive toward digital music after listening to it for a while. I guess it means I should listen to their earlier EP, which will balance it all out. You might want to as well, so here it is.

Neuro Trash - Blokoppy

Marsan - Music For Agoramaniacs

Band / Artist: Marsan

Year: 2014

Genre: Chillout, Ambient Techno, Electro-Acoustic

My Review:

I got a new email from a fresh friend. At least he's a friend now. He wanted to share his music with the blog. I listened through and I like it, so I'll let him describe it all, and I'll just share.

"I'm a 21 y/o Chicagoan who's performed in a few local DIY bands (shy guy says, acker). In late 2012, however, I decided to use the resources around me to write music on my own. All parts were written, performed, recorded and edited entirely by myself.

I began with some minimal repetitive pieces for a buddy's film. I recorded some ambient/IDM tracks, but used all live instrumentation, which, to my surprise, gave it a unique energetic or "live" feel. I got the idea to keep using this technique but with a larger variety styles (Post-punk drumming and vocals on "Strain Theory", pop melodies on "Linoleum", "Dominoes" or "Snow Day", saturated jazz/hip-hop on "reawaken", and so on). The result was an intricate, diverse album, which, thanks to my steady lineup of instruments & effects, managed to flow seamlessly.

The album art imposes a setting for the album: a shopping mall. The massive, labyrinth-like landscape is the perfect launch point. The songs navigate through the complex to different rooms and corridors - spaces of all different sizes, moods, attitudes... Really this album is for people who are, like me, obsessed with open space.

Thus the title - Agoramania: a mania for open spaces

Because the whole project began as an attempt to imitate electronic music with acoustic (or "live") instruments, I continued the theme with the artwork. The cover was made by printing out mall blueprints with different colors and photo effects. Then, inspired by the layer options in photoshop, I hand cut and pasted the prints. In the "alternate" cover, I held up the painting of the room, floorboards and background at varying distances and snapped a picture.

I was considering naming the album "Digital by hand" after the technique, but instead used the name for a track. In line with the theme of shopping malls, the lyrics deal with consumerism, contradictory media messages, manipulation, etc."

Alright, well I hope that clears it all up for you. I'm going to be listening to this one for a while. I'll keep a free version of the album online as long as he'd like.

Marsan - Music For Agoramaniacs

The Quick Brown Fox - SPEEDKORE 4 KIDZ!

Year: 2009
Genre: Speedcore

My Review:
HooooooooBOY! Maybe like 2% of the people checking this post out won't absolutely hate it. There are a ton of days where I would be turning this right the fuck off, but every once in a blue moon, I get the itch, and for a whole day I will listen to nothing but Harsh Noise, Speedcore, Freejazz, Frenchcore, Sludge Metal, and pretty much anything else that is dissonant, grinding, and likely to piss off anyone within the audible vicinity.

I'm always sad that so many of these genres have no way to sustain themselves, because the makers of each little subset usually can't stand members of the others. If we could all just get along, we could create the most aggravating and horrifyingly noisey live event on the planet. It should have a great name too, like BigBadFest, or COREFEST! *XxCoReFeSt!xX*, Where you mosh in mud all day, chill with Harsh Drone for sundown, and then dance horribly under strobe lights all night  .. Actually, that sounds like it would be kind of awesome, and THE WORST PLACE TO DO DRUGS ON THE PLANET.

Sorry if this one seems dissapointing to some, but I felt like I needed to spice up the mix a little. I might start doing at least one of these kinds of oddball posts every other month. I just wanted to warn you that this post isn't for everyone, but for the few that love this kind of ... stuff...  But I'll make a dare. If more than 5 people can actually listen to this thing from beginning to end without stopping it, and comment in the post, I will post at least 1 humiliating photo of myself.

Godspeed.

The Quick Brown Fox - SPEEDKORE 4 KIDZ!

Kaninchen - Broke up

Year: 2013
Genre: Field Recordings, Spoken Word., Post-Rock, Acoustic

My Review:
This one showed up in my email inbox quite a while ago. I promised to share it, and now, I'm going to keep my word. Hopefully better late than never.

An unusual album to get sent in an email. It feels like one part sound pieces and field recording, one part acoustic pieces that I might call sadcore, and one part spoken word. It's about failing relationships, and the feelings of those moments of breakup. I like how some of the field recordings tie into the music, and how the differences in style really bring out the point they were driving at emotionally.

I can definitely say that there has been a theme of sadder stuff on my playlist for a while, and I've picked this one up a few times. I hope you check it out, and thanks to the band for sharing it. If you guys want to do an interview with some more work, drop me a line.

 Kaninchen - Broke up

Singles Posts - Kitty Cash, K.Flay, Son Lux, Aesop Rock & Blockhead, SKOGSRÅ

Kitty Cash - Love The Free


A good mixtape that falls between glitchy Alt Pop and R&B. There are a lot of electronic influences in this, and it takes a song or two before it really gets rolling in my opinion. Once it gets going, I enjoyed it, except for the between-song sample that would remind you that Kitty Cash made the mixetape. Advice for all the mixers out there, if you need to remind people who made the set, then you are definitely doing something wrong.

K.Flay - Seen it all (Jake Bugg cover)

This one is a bit different from the usual K.Flay hippityhop. Its a softer, sadder, slower song, which is obviously going much more for the alt-pop sound of The Knife, which is fitting, since its about someone seeing a guy get knifed by a gang at a house party. I like this, but it sucks for the dude getting knifed.

Son Lux - Easy (Arandel Remix)


Speaking of The Knife, this song sounds a whole lot like stuff you might hear from them if they stayed on the path that "Silent Shout" and "Deep Cuts" were headed. This would be a soft track you would hear somewhere in the middle, and it is the kind that you grow to appreciate even more than the bigger tracks around it.

Aesop Rock & Blockhead - Try not to die

Ah, good ol' Aesop Rock. This one is an older b-side that he and Blockhead made in the early 2000s. If you like "Float" and "Appleseed" then you are getting a track you'll like.

SKOGSRÅ - Now You See Me

What a great track to round out the post with. This one is sort of poppy, and really vibrant, funky, and just overall good for grooving. In fact, I'd say this track sounds a LOT like newer stuff you hear from Daft Punk, and who the hell doesn't love that? Whats best, is that it stays interesting and pleasing for nearly 7 minutes. I really enjoy it.


Alright. Dance like nobody is watching. Have fun.

Eddie Condon & His Orchestra - 30 Selected Works

Band / Artist: Eddie Condon & His Orchestra
Year: 1929-1944
Genre: Big Band, Jazz, Ragtime

My Review:
I shared a single recording from Eddie Condon a while back, and it was too dancey for me to pass up sharing more. 1930's Big Band Jazz really is some of the best jazz.

There are a ton of reasons I love old jazz, especially living in New Orleans, but I'd definitely say that it isn't hurting me that the music has all come into the public domain now. The downside with it is that you don't really have tracks numbered into an album, because often enough, it is a compendium of restored and digitized records. A lot of my friends have talked about how impressive this style of music is, and when they have such varied tastes, I'd say that means something.

Eddie Condon & His Orchestra - 30 Selected works

Pretty Lights - A Color Map of the Sun & A Color Map of the Sun Remixes

Band / Artist: Pretty Lights
Year: 2013
Genre: Electro, Nu Breaks, Jazz, Funk Techno, Hip-Hop, Neo-Soul

My Review:
"A Color Map Of The Sun has been nominated for the Best Dance/Electronica Album GRAMMY"

This is awesome news, because I've been listening to Pretty Lights for the past couple of years. I'm excited to see him blowing up the world with his music, AND HE'S STILL GIVING IT AWAY. Okay, to be fair, you can also buy it (and you probably should throw him a few bucks since he works so hard), and there are links to that on his website here, http://prettylightsmusic.com/

As far as the music goes, it is a different sound and approach than the last Pretty Lights works. I think that for this one, he had started with a beat, then had artists come in and make music over it, only for him to come back through, mix and process their work, then do his magic over top of the whole thing. The end result is a wobbly, glitchy, soulful album that teeters between sad and active, with big old style jazz elements throughout.

Pretty Lights - A Color Map of the Sun (Disc 1)


Here's the remix album.

Pretty Lights - A Color Map of the Sun Remixes

If you want solid old school jazz, definitely come back in 5 days, but if techno-jazz is your jam, then by all means, jam out. Personally, I think this post and the next would go well alongside one another, in an odd couple sort of way

Banned Books - Mission Creep

Band / Artist: Banned Books
Year: 2009, 2010
Genre: Experimental Rock, Indie Alternative, Avant-pop, Noise-Rock

My Review:
YEAAAAAAAAAAAH. Imagine you're an Indie-pop group, then get really pissed off and jaded with the shitshow of pop, and hanging out and listening to bands like Wolf Eyes, Merzbow, and Dog Fashion Disco, and The Blood Brothers for a little while. Start liking the idea of sounding that way, but don't quite be sure that you want to just make noise, after all, you do have nearly a whole album recorded. You go back to the drawing board with what you have, AND THIS COMES OUT OF THE SAUSAGE GRINDER.


That is what I'd imagine was going on with this album.

Aside from my BS description, lets talk about the band themselves.

They started out as a 3 man New Jersey band, lost a member, and moved to Philly. Now they call themselves a super-duo. They don't keep a lot of information out in the public about when they formed or when they moved.

Here is their exceptionally informative website.
http://www.bnndbks.net/


Anyhow, these albums are both a little short, so I thought it'd be best to share both of them.

Banned Books - Mission Creep

This one is Man Maker, a more groove laden album. They switch tempo a lot in this one.

Banned Books - Man Maker

And ON TO 2014! FFFFFFFFFFUCK YEAH!

(SHORT TIME ONLY) Kanye West - Yeezus & CHVRCHES - Bones of What You Believe

Band / Artist: Kanye West
Year: 2013
Genre: Hip Hop, R&B

My Review:
I guess something had to come of me talking about Kanye the other day. Google Play is offering free downloads of his album "Yeezus" Right now.

I don't need to say much, because the man is in the news every other day, and if you want to hear his work, you'll listen to it. If you don't, then you don't.

The other share is CHVRCHES. Obviously they are in the news less. They are a band not much unlike Cut Copy, or some of the New Wave Revival bands that bring back that 80s synthpop sound. I liked their work quite a bit.

If you are getting this one or that one, then you need to have a google play account, and then you add the item to your cart, then purchase it for no money, then you have to download it from your "google library", which I am sure that you will be continuing to use for many decades in the future (sarcasm).

I hope that you enjoy it, or that you can give it to somebody who does. Good downloading.

Kanye West - Yeezus & CHVRCHES - Bones of What You Believe

Burning of I - Nowhere is a Destination

Band / Artist: Burning of I
Year: 2013
Genre: Prog Metal, Death Metal, Metal

My Review:
I don't know much about them, and i was trying to do some quick searches, but not getting very far. I do know that they are on murder gore records, which you can visit here (http://murdergorerecords.weebly.com/releases.html), but really, they are worth it and you should just enjoy some decent metal.

An album with track names like these makes me think of fear factory, or at least I feel it should have elements of their digital sound. They do not, but that by no means should discount them as a solid Prog-metal band. They have softer, acoustic-electric parts that you would hear in newer Tool albums. Their sound is that of a vibrant, lamb of god style when on the harder parts of songs. There is about a 90/10 split between softer parts and the harder,.. actually, I can't describe this any better. I like it quite a lot. Go download it.... 

Also, to the fat dude sitting next to me on the plane who cannot refrain from wiggling in his seat the whole flight, thanks for irritating me for an hour and a half, dick.

Burning of I - Nowhere is a Destination

Chance the Rapper - Acidrap

Band / Artist: Chance the Rapper
Year: 2013
Genre: Mixtape, Rap, Alternative Hip-Hop, RnB, Chillout

My Review:
You have heard about Kanye a thousand times this year, and then he has been blowing up on tour and all... But was any of his new stuff really good? I'll let you argue about that one on your own time, but I will say this. You sure as hell didn't hear enough about Chancellor.



You may wonder why I mentioned Kanye at the start of this. It wasn't to bait the search engines. I just wanted to say that I loved "808's & Heartbreak", and it was a steady play for me, but I think I just got a replacement.

 Chancellor (or Chance the Rapper) is this dude that has been low on the attention scale, and that makes me sad, because he really is good, and he's a total bro for giving this away for free. Here is his website. http://chanceraps.com/

Enough Crap, you can find out more about the guy on his site, and you should grab this album. Also some guys are selling his album too, but he sees no money from it, and he hasn't been able to do anything about it since his stuff has been released as mixtapes. Fuck those guys.

Chance the Rapper - Acidrap

Volfoniq - Volfoniq Revisited

Band / Artist: Volfoniq
Year: 2012
Genre: Dub, Hyperdub, Reggae

My Review:
Hyperdub, that thing that happens when people fuck with dub, and mix it with things like Trip hop and Techno or any glitchy electronic music.

Volfoniq is a French electro-dub band, coming from Montpellier. Really pretty place, with mountains and trees galore. I'm also completely not surprised that they would be from France, because the french are totally goo-goo for Reggae and all of its versions. They had an official website.. once. Now its a wall of Japanese text.

All tracks on this were mixed versions of tracks from the album "Ernest", which came out not that long before this one. This isn't the longest album, but it is good, and makes for some nice stuff to throw on when you are out on a wander about town, or just kinda chilling out at home.


Volfoniq - Volfoniq Revisited

Moya - Honey Demo

Band / Artist: Moya
Year: 2007
Genre: Ambient, Experimental, Post-Rock, Classical

My Review:
You like Post-rock? Then have some. You like Classical? Then enjoy them both, at once. Here is their album description, which is as succinct as you need.

"Mozart + Mono, Chopin + Clann Zu, Dvorak + Do Make Say Think, Grieg + Godspeed You! Black Emperor = Moya"

Vasil Maronau makes the music, or made it, and released this at about 21 years old. He had a Google+ page with nothing on it other than the cover photo from this album. https://plus.google.com/106084273066833271369/posts
He also has a blank facebook page, and an empty twitter account. Not sure about much more on this album. It was enjoyable, but I don't know why he doesn't keep social if he made all these accounts.

You read Russian? I CAN'T, but if you can, then check out their website. http://www.moyaband.com/

Either way, if you enjoy the sound of a classical and post rock album, then you should enjoy this.

Moya - Honey Demo