#RV:gloomp

[albumswapping]

Cypher by Spektr [via nil]

Spektr are a French black metal act, and possess the requisite amount of weirdness and surreality to fit comfortably within the national scene. French black metal in general is known for some of the strangest and most impenetrable ever produced, full of projects that approach the genre from a perspective steeped in atonality and a very abstract sense of malevolence. Cypher is an extremely competent example of the form, sporting a very spiky guitar tone and frequent vocals samples (mostly in English, interestingly). It putters along in this way quite well for its 45 minute runtime, atmospheric dark ambient segments and other compositional quirks keeping it from becoming too flat and boring. Nothing spectacular, but an enjoyable listen.

» gloomp

[albumswapping]

Lawless Darkness by Watain [via mediate]

Another album of clean, professional black metal. Feh. I appreciate this stuff, but I'm not sure I really like it. The problem is how monochrome it comes off, another big grey expanse of "emotional" that inspires no feeling in me. I don't mean to be too harsh, it's an okay album, one of the better of this sort probably, with the last track actually fairly interesting, but I just feel so little about it. I don't mind music that doesn't move me emotionally, but only if it seems like it's trying to do something beside that, and this definitely doesn't. Yawn. Next.

>> gloomp

[albumswapping]

The B-52's by The B-52's [via TommyWiseau]

As opposed to most of the bands I'm recommended for this dumb thing, I have actually listened to The B-52's before. Like, not just Love Shack. The entire album Love Shack was on. Which was... less than good. It was pretty dreadful, honestly. B-52's at that point are a band only tolerable in small, single-sized doses, I guess. So I didn't go into this one with exactly high hopes, but it did come with a bit of a pedigree, and TW said it was fairly different from their later stuff. 

"And," you ask, leaning forward over the edge of your seat in rapt suspense, "was it?!" Well, yes, actually. The first B-52's record shows a much more interesting, thoughtful band than the one that made Love Shack. This is an album of slightly odd and skewed new wave; fun, catchy, but with an edge. It's not a remarkable album, but it is a perfectly decent one, that sounds to me like about a million other perfectly decent new wave albums. No regrets.

>> gloomp

[albumswapping]

Runaljod – gap var Ginnunga by Wardruna [via Tunc] Disappointed. Tunc usually has a pretty good idea of what I'll like, but I dunno, don't really feel this. "Runaljod – gap var Ginnunga" is the sole album by Norweign band Wardruna. The members have been in a whole bunch of other projects, none that I recognize, but I'm not up on the scene so that's fairly meaningless. Warduna play a very richly textured brand of extremely Nordic Neofolk. There's a lot of unconventional percussive sounds and instruments made from animal skin. I might like it more once I get a good snowfall, because it is, atmospherically, a very, very wintry album. A lot of it sounds like some sort of creepy, although not necessarily sinister, ritual on some great, snow-covered hilltop in the dead of night. Which you'd think would be fucking awesome, right? I would, at least. But it's not, weirdly enough. The thing's 50 minutes, which is usually a fair length for this sorta stuff, but I was getting very bored of it by like halfway through. I dunno. All of the tracks start to blend together into some sort of viscous slush of hymnal vocalizations and bowed strings. So, yeah, not awful, but disappointing.

>> gloomp

[albumswapping]

Trademark Ribbons of Gold by VHS Head [via xwd] So I did basically no research on this thing but RYM indicated it was a big deal back in 2010 and I remember hearing about this guy in Wire, so that's cool or whatever. Never really gotten much into IDM. Generally prefer what dance music I do listen to to be more direct and vicious. But this is a neat album I guess. My understanding is it's compiled entirely from samples off old VHS tapes, and I certainly dig that aesthetic. Most of the tracks have got a good velocity to them, like some sort of garish sports car bouncing down a dirt road. The big problem is it's far too long. I think I would've really liked it at 40-some minutes, but at 70 it gets waaay old, unfortunately. Not a bad listen, overall, but ultimately the gimmick can't sustain it for me. Someone more into the form might love it, I'm left fairly nonplussed.

>> gloomp

[albumswapping]

Seraphim by Irfan [via Rose]

Okay, silver lining: At least the first album of this new "season", if you will, isn't something I'm indifferent to. However, it's not something I liked either. Haha, oh, no, I did not like this at all. Straight up: this is one of the worst albums I've ever had the sorry fate of sitting through. I mean, this shit is fucking awful, oh my god.

"Seraphim" wholeheartedly embraces a number of my biggest musical turnoffs. Here is an album that is not only lifeless, but at the same time seeks to suck the life out of everything around it as well. It's an album of "ethereal ethnic" music, which apparently means some woman crooning meaningless "exotic" sounds over some washy mishmash of "exotic" instruments, probably of Arab origin, although they're used to so little of their potential that I couldn't possibly be sure. This is music for the waiting rooms of New Age societies that would be pyramid schemes expect the leaders are too fucking stupid to know how to run one.

I really want to emphasize: I fucking hate this album. Not "haha dude that was soooo bad", no, I seriously fucking hate this. Music this lazy, this lacking in imagination, with such a strong odor of "we don't need to try, people love this world music shit", makes me angry. My time on this planet is too preciously short to spend any of it on garbage like this. Fuck off, and die.

>> gloomp

[albumswapping]

Panzerfaust by Darkthrone [via mediate]

Sigh. What an utterly mediocre record. Can I just say that and be done with it?

No?

Well, fuck. Right then. Darkthrone. Classic black metal band, instrumental (har har) in developing the style. After an initial offering of death, they put out a trio of black LPs which are considered absolute essential listening for anyone interested in the style, and I've heard... none of them. I know, I know, I find it kind of inexplicable as well. The point I'm trying to convey is I went into this album being very familiar with Darkthrone's history, but not with their music. So, lucky me, my introduction to what they sound like is their first black metal album that isn't necessarily all that great, based upon my (light) reading.

My reading steered me well, because yeah, "Panzerfaust" isn't that great. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad, really, but mostly it just didn't leave much of an impression. Seven tracks of scratchy black metal with nothing much to them beyond that. This might, of course, be a bit of an Elvis situation, but they're four albums in, they aren't getting extra points for originality anymore. Still, though, I don't want to sound too harsh. It's an okay black metal album. There's just not really much to it to distinguish it from the fifty million other "okay black metal album"s out there. This would be the part where I say it's not really my thing, but I really like black metal, so, yeah, no cop out for you, "Panzerfaust". You're mediocre and that's all there is to it.

>> gloomp

[albumswapping]

Viscera by Jenny Hval [via Ste "Rincewind" phen]

Sorry, Stephen. I'm about to disappoint you.

Viscera came with very high praise. Having been placed at number one on Stephen's top 50 2011 albums list, obviously no small achievement, I was hoping to be blown away, or at least very impressed. Unfortunately, what I got was a very wispy 40ish minutes of little intrigue and less excitement. Maybe this is a flaw of my listening method, which favors general impressions and divided attention over close analysis and complete focus. Maybe there's some fantastic stanzas dropped over the sparse, subtle instrumentation that just passed me by, but I don't really believe a work can be carried on lyrics alone anyway. As it stands, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to launch into that all-to-common refrain: I mean it's okay I guess probably a lot of people would like it and I don't hate it but (say it with me now) it's not really my thing.

>> gloomp

[albumswapping]

DeathShow by Mörder Machine [via Tunco] Alright. Here is something that's up my alley. I knew that going in, because Tunc is like me, except focused totally on grim, noisy shit. And yes, believe it or not, something called "DeathShow" is grim as fuck. A textbook slab of 90s Italian industrial, by the guy who write the book, one Marco Corbelli, better known as Atrax Morgue. I've never actually listened to Atrax Morgue, but he's been on my radar a very long time. I'll definitely have to remedy that shortly. 'DeathShow' is more or less what I was expecting; twisted, primitive electronics and barely-decipherable ritualistic vocals. The utter technological crudeness of the whole affair often serves as a boon, atmospherically, but also can be an issue, with songs dulled by a lack of variety. That said, the final track of the album, Music for Dead Brains, while the simplest of the whole bunch, is also the strongest. Twelve minutes of a relentless, unchanging 'beat', if you can even call it that, flickering above a constant low hum. It's minimalism of a brutality shared only by the likes of Orthrelm's "OV" or Tony Conrad's "Fantastic Glissando". Save for that track, though, "DeathShow" isn't really anything more than good. Really something for those already familiar with the genre. Newcomers would probably mostly be bored. "DeathShow" sounds like something made in a damp basement by someone who wishes he could be a serial killer, but just doesn't have the guts for it. If that description doesn't sound appealing to you, look elsewhere first.

>> gloomp

[albumswapping]

Ein Sof by Nullsleep [via xwd]

So, xwd gave me a chipmusic EP from a netlabel. Can't say I'm surprised, that does seem to sort of be his thing. It's only one 15 minute track so I'm not sure how much I can say about it but here goes: Ein Sof is chipmusic that's pretty desperately trying to distance itself from anything resembling a Nintendo soundtrack, which is admirable if a bit gimmicky. It's one smooth, shifting soundscape, like something off a New Age-y cassette or maybe a more ambient Krautrock project, but with a constant rough edge, due to the limitations of the equipment I guess I know very little about this stuff. Mildly atmospheric, but not nearly long enough to be truly immersive. I didn't really imagine much of anything, though I was sort of tired when I listened to it. I don't dislike it, really, but I feel nothing for it. My emotions for Ein Sof are null. (see what i did there?!!?!?!?! :;dDD;dDD:Dd;dD::D;d)

>> gloomp

[albumswapping]

Dark Space III by Darkspace [via Rose]

Finally, finally I've gotten something I feel something for that I also don't feel distaste for. Darkspace are an atmospheric black metal project with dark ambient elements who I have looked up literally no info about, beyond basic album details, because that's how I roll. Because this is an album Rose likes, I was concerned I was going to get some lifeless proggy nonsense full of ambient interludes, but luckily I was mistaken. This is a band that goes wall of sound from minute one and rarely lets up. However, this is where I'm going to start rattling off criticisms. Now, Darkspace are a band whose chief thematic interest seems to be... space. Like, outer space. The place with stars? And that's really the opposite direction I like my guitar music, especially my black metal. My favorite black metal projects, at this time in my life, are all raw, noisy, and very subterranean-sounding. They sound like they're from the depths of hell, or a very Arctic ice cavern. Darkspace, on the other hand, take the vast openness of space and attempt to turn that into tremolo picking and keyboard lines, basically. And they do that pretty well. About as well as one could, really. But it doesn't move me nearly as much as a truly great slab of frozen buzz can. So, again, this is something that I basically have to say I can appreciate, but don't love. I appreciate this a lot more than most of the stuff I've gotten, though.

>> gloomp

[albumswapping]

Regeneration by The Divine Comedy [via Seneschal]

When giving this to me, Sen said it's one of his favorite albums ever. I can't say I feel anywhere near as strongly about it. Regeneration is an album of very classy baroque britpop. It's a highly enjoyable listen, but not a particularly intense one. This is really the sort of album should probably be approached with a track-by-track mindset, but I'm unfortunately not in the habit of paying attention to such stuff, unless it's one of my favorite albums ever, which this is not. Certainly worth a listen, though.

>> gloomp

[albumswapping]

Weekend EP by Atlas Sound [via Aidiera]

20-some minutes of proto-hypnogogic bedroom pop. 128kb/s free download off mediafire via the project's blogspot. Truly this is a wonderful age we live in. I listened to this EP around midnight, having been up ~17 hours, right before going to bed. I feel like the music would have been much better served if I were quite a bit more tired, and on horse tranquilizers. I dunno. It's very atmospheric, but insubstantial in a weird way. Like, if this album were a chocolate bunny, it would be hollow. Similar to the last album I got, I have no real quarrel with the sounds it made, but I can't say I really "liked" it either.

>> gloomp

[albumswapping]

Water 4 The Soul EP by Gramatik [via Universezero]

First off, the mantra of this society: This isn't really my thing. But it was still pleasant enough. An album (37 minutes is not EP length >:|) of jazzy instrumental hip-hop. I haven't really listened to much instrumental hip-hop because the concept doesn't appeal to me much at all. I can appreciate a great beat, sure, but it's sort of important for me that there's a black guy with gold teeth talking over top of it. Lacking that, I feel like I'm listening to half a song. That was definitely the case for me here. Gramatik can certainly craft a groovy, eminently listenable track, but I they don't really follow any sort of interesting progression. They just kinda go along linearly with a definite verse-chorus-verse-chorus sort of feel, which is not in and of itself is not something that holds my attention. If you're someone who already likes this stuff, you'll probably like it, but it never rose above pleasant background level for me.

>> gloomp

[albumswapping]

House Connection² by Bad Boy Bill & Richard "Humpty" Vission [via sidke]

I dunno, man. I mean, I appreciate the effort, but I just don't know what to do with an album like this. What am I supposed to be listening to? There's a bunch of different bits accredited to to like 50 different people and I know they're being... mixed or something? And I assume it's supposed to be impressive in some way but all it sounds like to me is a bunch of nearly identical beatscapes with different vocal samples. God, I hate vocal samples. If it were totally "instrumental" I might've at least gotten into some sort of groove with it, but as is I just sorta sat there for 56 minutes and a bunch of sounds happened and then they stopped. I didn't really dislike it, even, it just inspired no opinions whatsoever. Again, though, thanks for trying.

>> gloomp

[albumswapping]

Grace by Jeff Buckley [via flagmyidol]

You know, quite often I hate that the idea of a canon ever came about. Obviously, given the context, I'm referring to the musical canon, more specifically the rock canon. But I feel similarly with regards to film, literature, furniture, etc. A canon essentially gives you a list of examples from its given field and says, these are the best out there. Love them. In doing so, it automatically places a wealth of expectations upon its choices, and when one does eventually give one a try, the experience has been tarnished. Now, I understand that's not an especially promising lead-in, but hear me out. I actually like "Grace" quite a bit. It's a beautiful album. But it's also one of the most heavily canonized albums of the '90s. It's on a massive amount of lists, big and small, has had a book written about it, and has been issued at least seven times. All of this I was well aware of heading into the ghostly opening strums of Mojo Pin. Do you see the problem here? No one can go into an album truly unbiased, true, but "Grace" suffers an obscenely heavy load of bias. Positive bias, yes, but that's not really much better than negative. If an album has been shoved in my face repeatedly along with proclamations of life-changingness and supremitude, when it inevitably falls short of that and is merely quite good, I don't feel so much glad that I've discovered something quite good, as I do disappointed I haven't discovered a paragon of rock. But again, don't misunderstand me. "Grace" is a special album, of beauty and sorrow and a sort of quiet grandeur, and Buckley has a gorgeous voice (although not as impressive as that of his father). I just didn't find it as special as the world says.

>> gloomp