#art proggy

[dragon-ducky]

I get bored at work sometimes

Have a smol Leo head surrounded by bad puns

Also DANG whiteboard art is hard

[baylardian-1]

the new uniforms are a little tight >___>;;;;;;

[martianbugsbunny]

’Kay so Lobo and I are on the outs at the moment bc his eyes are really goshdarn hard to shape but here’s the proggy so far!

Next step is probably attaching the hand to the scythe blade, that to the robe, and then sticking the toe-claws on the other foot! (notice I am avoiding the face lol)

[aspiringhorrorauthor]

My toxic textile artist trait is thinking I can take up and be just as good at any craft I see made in a video online

[leonardcohenofficial]

Hearing about your vinyl stuff is so cool! How often do you buy records (and if you feel like sharing, what was the last one you purchased)?

i should be regarded as a cautionary tale because i cannot physically enter a record store without buying something it is a legitimate problem and close to 1000+ records later here we are; given i am at my favorite local shop for my sets on sundays i buy records at minimum once a week plus whenever my impulse control loses out and i end up ordering stuff online. i just bought a bunch of records on sale from light in the attic (HIGHLY recommended label they always have cool obscure releases and repressings) but here are the four i picked up this past sunday:

the 5th dimension, living together, growing together i love the 5th dimension and am slowly collecting all of their albums; the shop had a sealed copy for three bucks that i'd been looking at for a few weeks so i picked it up! a fun late career release, one highlight is their version of "day by day" from godspell which is very fun

laura nyro, season of lights…laura nyro in concert everything laura nyro every touched is gold and this album is no exception. i love hearing her perform live—especially the tender more introspective version of "sweet blindness" captured here—and highly recommend this album for rainy day listening

four tops, keeper of the castle i didn't know anything about this album besides the title track and the fact that "ain't no woman (like the one i got)" are on it and i embarrassingly had no four tops albums before picking this up so i'm delighted to have this in my collection! funnily enough of the sixties R&B motown groups like the temptations, four tops, the shirelles, the supremes, etc. i tend to like their early seventies soul-influenced albums more than either their earlier sound. solid listening all around!

jack bruce, songs for a tailor i knew nothing about this album either—i knew who jack bruce was given he was the most normal member of cream—but found it while digging in the new arrivals section of the shop! i was pleasantly surprised with how much i dug the art/jazz-rock, almost proggy-funk vibe of this album ("sunshine of your love" this is certainly not LOL) and this is quickly becoming one of my favorite random finds of late ("never tell your mother she's out of tune" is very fun—and ellen mcilwaine does a cool cover too)!

folks are always welcome to friend me on discogs to keep up with my vinyl adventures + mutuals can ask for my insta!

[outinthewastes]

So happy to see string theory still updating <3 Been reading since 2016 and love coming back to see fresh pages, your art always amazes and inspires. Years ago, you posted a link to some music that was something Orville might jam out to. It was a german, synthwavey cosmic-sounding vinyl piece that was like 40 mins long, I think it had two guys siting in front of a blue wall and bunch of synthesizers? I've been losing it trying to find it. Any chance you recall the name?

I found the post you're referring to, I think, but unfortunately the video was gone and past me didn't write down what it was in the post and current me has NO IDEA :(

way to go past me. I have no idea, I'm so sorry. I looked through all my youtube playlists and yeah. It's gone.

Here's something else that's maybe cool too that Orville would love

dear future me: this is Jürgen Ecke – Sound-Synthese

also Argo - Šviesa, more of a proggy 80s disco but he'd still love it, he can be versatile.

He also loves punk music, there's a Feeling B poster in his little lair on the same page as a Kraftwerk poster haha

[anti-psycomics]

DAY 24: HELIOS

Personally I think this is my favorite one I've made so far and I have a LOT to talk about with it. First off, the musical reference

The prompt (and image for that matter) is a reference to track 9 (The crucifixion of Helios) off of the album Praise the sun god, a dark souls jazz album(?) I don't know if it's actually dark souls related. The album is great to put on in the background for some chill vibes while you're doin stuff. And I realize at this point I'm starting to sound like the guy who's only ever listened to prog rock but I get some proggy vibes off of this one along with the jazz and ambient type stuff.

Ok, second part is the actual art itself. I had this drawing idea in my head since before inktober because the title "The Crucifixion of Helios" just conjures such a vivid image in my head. And to help with constructing that vision, I used the inspiration of an art piece that's I've been thinking about for like. 2 years at this point

THIS IMAGE IS NOT MINE

Ok right off the bat I wanna say I'm sorry because I forgot what the artist's tumblr was, I don't know how to reverse image search and "fiend" doesn't really give me a lot to work off of. So Fiend, if you're out there I'm sorry for posting your cool ass art without tagging you because I lost your tumblr to the sands of time. Also thanks for making this image it's really inspired my art over the last year

This image fuckin' rules and has served as an inspiration to both day 24 and Solos, god of energy.

In my original pencil-on-paper drawing solos also had those spirals on the body but that was scrapped because I couldn't get it to look right lol. I'm probably gonna end up redesigning solos at some point and I think I'm gonna reuse a few elements for my helios image when I do

[docilepillow]

MARCH 2024 MEDIA DIARY 2

I ran out of embed space on the first post i had slotted in for this!!! So i'm making two posts!!!!!!! They belong together!!!! Okay!!!!!!! PIZZA TOWER < this game is soggy goop >

Even though I cleared a good portion of this game nigh a year ago now, i still feel compelled to put it on my media diary now, as i've only just got around to finishing the game properly! I believe the point i dropped off the game before was at Pig City, which, i think , is kinda understandable given how big that level is, but, was probably a real bummer for the whole of my friend group who were super into the game when it was new and i probably missed out on talking about it alot with them... POOP!!!! just because this game is popular enough to actually warrant talking about it with my friends later, instead of saying stuff like how i enjoyed the silly cartoony art stlye and the games general charm, im just going to post a level tier list i made the second i beat the game at like near midnight kinda hazy-minded without thinking on it too hard without thinking too deeply in a way thatll be completely inflamitory bc im mostly satisfied with the experience i had and dont really feel the urge to P rank anything --

The stats are saying my total hours round up to 6 hours 50 and pepinno is pointing at me Aughh

My , , Errr, " CRITISISM " of this game is that the funny pizza man is a little, erm, STICKY? Kinda gross. a little weird. Partially my fault. I'm sowwy. I'm not very good at this game but i absolutely respect everyone's opinion on it . Go watch my friend @shoppncart's speedrun, by the way, it's cool :

Speedy! THE MARIO MOVIE < the bario boooby geheheheheheheh >

this is probably a tired opinion but since i was subjected to this movie for the fifth time in a voice call my take is thaat this is probably more enjoyablel then the safeass illumination film. like. yea. that films probably objectively better but. id rather watch something thats an actual adaptation. like this movie. where basically nothing mario happens outside names . Aw. i honestly think this movie has intrigue to it genuinely maybe im saying this bc its one of the movies ive actually watched repeatedly before, like roger rabbit, but i think the history behind this movie and the old anamocity turned-endearment are what make it worth watching. that and its a little goopy You Guys Wanna See Some MM2 Proggys? not a new piece of media technically but ive been playing a fuckton of MM2 recently still as of the end of the month and its absolutely dominating my time as of late, and i kinda wanna show off a small amount of the progress ive made on it, as much as the world map, at least --

It's a media diary. it exists to document MY gaming life. Deal. anyway in regards to it i'm almost finished with the world 4 castle, which is crazy, because before i hadn't even finished world 2, but now i got all of this creative energy in me... If i finish this soon enough, i'd be able to upload it on NSO, so keep your tumpler eyes peeled, mutrals :J I personally like it because theres a theme of aescending on the world map. The space theme in this looks the best, i think.. THE ALCHEMY OF US - HOW HUMANS AND MATTER TRANSFORMED ONE ANOTHER < what the fuck ????? a book ??????? >

yea thats right im reading books this ones actually pretty good apparently a 2020 bestseller though im not in the habit of reading those often so i'll just have to take their word for it on that aspect. i think lifes all about trying new things so around halfway through the month i picked up this cool book i found at my library and got a library card. After reading through it all, i think anecdotally that this book is a very neat read. theres a few sentences that're a little offputting to my young mind but overall the book is filled with alot of cool insight i reccomend checking out if youre the boooky type of person! i think its very good and im glad i picked it out :) i donnu how many of these will be going onto my media diary in the future or anything , but maybe i will if i end up reading more! I'll have to make it up to a friendd for waiting till now to put up something i read here first before that thing she likes. oops.

Volp. OUTSIDE of the traditional media format again, also, are things i largely started on this month but don't think i'll be making all too much more progress in, or if i'm unsure i'll finish what i was doing all in one month- CASTLEVANIA THE ADVENTURE- REBIRTH

POINT OF DROP OFF - STAGE 4 END BOSS REASON BEING - UMMM SORRY I GOT DISTRACTED AND DIED TOO MUCH

castlevania rebirth is a really really cool game. its really cool and im not typing this as fresh as everything else because it was something i picked up for one big sitting earlier in the month. i probably couldve finished it at any point during the week, but simply was too distracted and wanted to do other stuff. It's very cool though, i love the vector sprite art, and there ARE silly stock sound effects everywhere, which is always a big positive for me . I mostly just like how snug the wii classic controller is , and this is a cool game to play it with considering its one of the only non virtual console or old game collection style games available for wii in this exact style ( Not counting the good handful of games that choose to use the wiimote on its side instead. )

over all ill probably sit down and finish this someday soon i just gotta like find time for it whenever next my wii u is plugged in ( it fights for an hdmi slot with my switch and ps4 all the time...! ), and ill probably end up trying to play punch out wii at the same time, given one doesnt dominate my attention over the other. From my understanding they're both short, though, so it shouldnt be too big a deal or obstacle no matter how long i put this off. RANDOM TERRARIA PLAYTHROUGH terraria playthru 1million

ii just really want to see the new terraria update Waaaah... i stopped having fun because i self imposed myself to not use setbonus armor sets at the part of the game where that stops being acceptable anymore so im stopping i think i did get to make another terraria pet though that makes me happy POINT OF DROP OFF - the mechanical bosses

also the most recent thing is

i got too tense and needed to excuse myself after like an hour 30 i cant take too much tension in movies i was really uncomfortable and had to leave to take a breather bc the main character gets put in a really really shitty situation and it was getting hard to watch for my autistic ass

thats enough i think thanks for coming see you next month lol

[solradguy]

hey 7oby! any good heavy metal recommendations?

Always. I've been listening to a lot of 1970s-early '80s stuff again so I hope that's alright.

Mad Max's s/t (also sometimes titled Heavy Metal?) is really good. They're basically impossible to find anything about because of the movie series so here's their Discogs page. I like the last track on this album the most, Wheel of Fortune.

Heroes, Saints, & Fools - Saracen - Kinda proggy British heavy metal. By no standard to which I am capable of articulating, this album is great for driving around to. Slow, classic, heavy metal. Like ice cream made with real fresh vanilla beans. The album's title track is my favorite; the voice augmentation and story the lyrics tell remind me of one of those early 2000s point-and-click adventure games.

Uriah Heep - Demons & Wizards - 1970s English prog/heavy rock (it's proto-metal, ok??). I loooove the lyrics to this album so much. Pure optimistic fantasy nonsense. And that Roger Dean album art? Iconic. It's hard picking a favorite track off this one but it's probably either Traveler in Time or Rainbow Demon. I want this on vinyl really bad.

Thundersteel - Riot - I may have shared this one on here before but it's Riot so I can share them again. It's American 1980s speed metal. You know, from that comic:

Anyway, this is a great exercising album. It's fast, but it doesn't slap your brain around. I don't have a favorite track, the whole album is like a single favorite track to me. It's great. This is the band with the album art that often has a cute fuzzy seal on it or a jacked as hell seal anthro. They reincarnated as Riot V in the mid-2010s.

[reckonslepoisson]

Plastic Death, Glass Beach (2024)

Got to admire this sort of move, which will appease fans of the vibe and ethos of Glass Beach’s first album but not those who were specifically in it for the genre or scene. Instead of sounding like an art school Jeff Rosenstock, Glass Beach attempt hyperactive, colourful, shiny, slightly proggy alt-rock, often veering off towards sounds and styles previously ruled by the likes of The Dismemberment Plan and Radiohead.

Pick: ‘coelacanth’

[dragon-ducky]

Risetober Day 4: Amulet

Had to jump on the “I Might Be Invisible But I Still Look Good” train

Fic is by @dandylovesturtles and is seriously amazing, go check it out!

Hands are the bane of my existence

[baylardian-1]

i love philippa and amelia so muuuuchcghhhgg ;___; <3

they're sisters who fight a lot through the years and can come across as polar opposites in most areas, but they know each other better than anyone else and would do anything for one another.

things of note i guess is like, i imagine amelia as being the braver of the two, always the one to take initiative in dire situations while they're young and aboard voyager, and even into their teens; where philippa, especially when she's younger, relies on her sister's decisiveness. i think philippa's more prone to hesitate on making a decision where amelia acts more impulsively, but it comes across as bravery to pip. in actuality philippa's probably just contemplative and reflective, but it feels like being frozen by fear when she's younger. ummmm and a silly little thing from when theyre older is that amelia drinks coffee despite loathing its taste, and philippa LOVES coffee like her mother but drinks tea whenever she's around kathryn and amelia out of spite lol (she comes out of the closet as an avid coffee drinker eventually but she hates the association of her mother's taste in beverages for a while).

[burlveneer-music]

Mad Ship - Time Shift - proggy fusion & improv from Poland, RIYL RareNoise, Rune Grammofon

MAD SHIP explores the forefront of modern jazz, asking the question: What's the next step? Kuba Wójcik's group plays music that is free-spirited, concrete in form, and filled with original ideas. The musicians —Tomasz Licak, Grzegorz Tarwid, and Krzysztof Szmańda—collaborate to create fresh, unique soundscapes, delving into unexplored musical spaces. The results are delightful and surprising. Kuba Wójcik - guitar, electronics Tomasz Licak - tenor and soprano saxophone, Grzegorz Tarwid - grand piano, synthesizers Krzysztof Szmańda - drums, percussions All music by Kuba Wójcik except: „Carnival Diet” & „Stream” by Grzegorz Tarwid No.1,4,6,8,11,12 - improvisations - concept by Kuba Wójcik Cover Art by Ada Zielińska Produced by Kuba Wójcik

[rabbitechoes]

january is usually a pretty meh month when it comes to bunch of great records dropping, but this january might be an exception. plenty of amazing new albums here! especially that new glass beach record which i can already tell is going to be in my rotation for a long time to come. anyways, here are my thoughts on all the albums listed above! to check out my thoughts on some of the songs that dropped this month click here!!! also feel free to follow me on rate your music and twitter <3

plastic death - glass beach

🥇 ALBUM OF THE MONTH

◇ genres: indie rock, art rock, progressive rock I was very unfamiliar with glass beach. I was kinda aware of them, but never really got a chance to dive into the band's music. The hype both leading up to the album and from the first initial impressions of it when it dropped made me check this out. I'm so glad I did. Usually, I'm a bit weary of sprawling, genre-bending albums, but glass beach manages to execute it so perfectly. The band takes inspiration from tons of different places, most notably Radiohead with a lot of art rock instrumentation throughout as well as some of the vocal performances. These never come off as super derivative or anything, at least to my ears. The band manages to take these sounds and shape them into something uniquely theirs. Across the little over an hour runtime glass beach masterfully showcases their strong suits. Very rarely did this album ever lose my attention or ever feel disjointed. Each song had at least one "oh, I wasn't expecting that" moment too. Pretty much every sonic detour the band takes here is a welcome surprise. From the power pop stylings of "puppy" to the screamo-inspired vocals on “slip under the door", this album is full of so many surprises. Lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist J is a key reason why these shifts work so well. She's able to adapt her voice perfectly to everything. From the relatively smaller-scale catchy indie rock or the more grand proggy moments, they're matching it so well. The other members of the band also obviously deserve massive props for this as well. Pulling off an album this ambitious is a tall task, but even after multiple listens, I'm blown away at how cohesive it all sounds. plastic death is one of the finest rock (for lack of a better descriptor) albums in recent memory. I didn't even properly get into how great the lyricism is or just how good the band is at crafting memorable hooks. There is so much to love about this album. Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon, but I can see myself loving this more and more in future listens as the year rolls on. I'll probably also end up giving this a proper, in-depth write-up when it comes time to compile my favorite albums of the year list. I really wanna dive into the lyricism on the album because I think it’s really interesting, but I do need more time with it. Anyway, this album is great!

listen here: Apple Music Spotify Bandcamp SoundCloud YouTube ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Wall of Eyes - The Smile

◇ genres: art rock, post-rock

Not too long after The Smile's debut record, we're getting the follow-up. A lot of the things I loved about A Light for Attracting Attention also apply to Wall of Eyes. It sounds like Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood are having fun making music again. That's not to say the last Radiohead record was bad, I think it's a masterpiece actually, but there was grief and pain around every corner. It feels like they found the fun in making music again once they teamed up with former Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner and formed this band. The sounds featured on both The Smile records are a bit different than what you would hear from any of their previous work. As a MASSIVE Radiohead fan, this is so exciting. Hearing them dive into post-rock, math rock, krautrock, and many different other sounds is so cool. Are they the best representation of all these sounds? Not really, but there's just an air of excitement surrounding these songs. It feels like they're just following what feels right. The soft, bossa nova flavoring of the title track is a good example of that. Yorke's vocals just kinda bounce along in a very satisfying way. Lyrically the song doesn't exactly grab you, but it just feels so good. "Under Our Pillows" is one of my favorite tracks here and is one where you can hear the Krautrock influence. There are so many cool things the band explores here that it's hard to list all of my favorite moments. I love hearing them explore sounds that wouldn't be found on a Radiohead album. My favorite track here is "Bending Hectic" by a pretty wide margin. That's not a knock on the record at all, it's just a testament to how amazing this track is. When it first dropped last summer, I was obsessed with it, and hearing it in the context of this record makes it that much better. This was a really great album!

listen here: Apple Music Spotify Bandcamp SoundCloud YouTube ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

ORQUÍDEAS - Kali Uchis

◇ genres: contemporary R&B, latin pop

Like a lot of people, my first introduction to Kali Uchis was through Tyler, the Creator's Flower Boy. Her amazing feature on "See You Again", the album's biggest track, was incredible and one of the most standout things about the entire album. From there I listened to Isolation and have been keeping up with her new releases ever since. She has been incredibly consistent both with her English language albums and her Spanish albums. This new record is one of the latter and it honestly might be my favorite album of hers to date. Everything about this album is just intoxicating. From the hazy opener, "¿Cómo así?, to the bolero stylings of "Te mata", this album just pulls everything off so well. We also have her signature dreamy vocal delivery throughout and it's so beautiful. Most notable on the second song "Me pongo loca." She enlists the help of some other big Latin musicians here and their presence is very welcome here. I was especially impressed by Peso Pluma's feature on the third track. Overall, ORQUÍDEAS might be Kali Uchis' best record to date. Incredibly consistent, excellently produced, and so much fun to listen to.

listen here: Apple Music Spotify Bandcamp SoundCloud YouTube ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Obsidian Wreath - Infant Island

◇ genres: screamo, post-metal I always feel the need to make a disclaimer that I feel out of my depth when discussing metal or most other subgenres of it. No matter how much I explore this sound I always feel like I'm on the outside looking in. Anyway, the point is, I don't think I'm the right person to go to for metal opinions. However, I really enjoyed this new Infant Island record. The band shifts from thundering instrumentation with growled vocals to lush, almost atmospheric instrumentation at a moment's notice. I find myself being a big fan of the albums in this genre that offer a decent amount of variety in the instrumentation. It gives the album so much more depth and texture. The musicianship on here is really impressive, but I have to give a special shoutout to the band's drummer. He's doing some crazy things on this album and it made all of these tracks that much more compelling. The lyricism here is what you would expect, but they're delivered in such a way that hits hard. The moments where the band shift into a more blackgaze sound are particularly arresting. I thought this was really good and I enjoy it more every time I revisit it.

listen here: Apple Music Spotify Bandcamp SoundCloud YouTube ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Bicycle - Patricia Taxxon

◇ genre: IDM I'm not super familiar with Patricia Taxxon's music overall. I enjoyed Agnes & Hilda a decent amount, but besides that, I'm kinda clueless. From what I can gather, she's a pretty prolific artist with a ton of different projects to her name. After hearing Bicycle, I might be so inclined as to dive into some of those projects! There are some really cool and unique production choices here. Like the metallic clicks on the opener interwoven with some nice synths. That dynamic appears all over the album come to think of it. Thin-sounding snaps and crackles acting as the anchor of the track while something wild happens above it. "Frat Claws" is a great example of this. They also work well on the excellent closer "I Do." It's very lush and ties the album up in such a nice way. My only issues are that sometimes that sound would wear thin for me and the non-instrumental tracks didn't interest me all that much. I do appreciate the direction Taxxon was trying to take them in though. Check this one out if you like cool electronic music or if you're a furry (i may be both or neither, i'll never tell!!!)

listen here: Apple Music (not available) Spotify (not available) Bandcamp SoundCloud (not available) YouTube ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Keep It Goin Xav - Xaviersobased

genres: jerk rap, cloud rap, plugg

I found out about this mixtape from the really interesting Pitchfork review of the project by Alphonse Pierre. The way Pierre wrote about it had me interested even though I'm not really familiar with the jerk rap or the plugg scenes of hip hop. Fortunately, I found a lot to enjoy with this mixtape. The production choices were really interesting and created a cool dynamic with Xavier's often lackadaisical delivery. Sometimes that kind of style would wear thin for me, but I can see that being a me thing. This could be the perfect "vibe" album for some.

It's hard to single out a specific track for that reason. Everything kinda flows together in both good and bad ways. The just under 30-minute runtime works in the project's favor because of that. Xavier is really good at making earworms though. The hook on "Ascend" was stuck in my head for days after listening. Not every track has one of those super memorable hooks, which is disappointing, but plenty do. Overall, I didn't adore it as much as Pierre did in his review, but this is one to check out. I feel like Xavier has a ton of potential and is definitely someone to keep an eye on in the future. 

listen here: Apple Music (not available) Spotify (not available) Bandcamp (not available) SoundCloud YouTube ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Little Rope - Sleater-Kinney

◇ genre: indie rock To preface this, I adore Sleater-Kinney. Their run of albums from Dig Me Out through The Woods is some of the finest indie rock of all time. The band went on hiatus following that record and then returned in 2014 for the run they're on currently. I've heard very mixed things about these post-hiatus albums overall, but I hadn't heard any of them until Little Rope. I enjoyed some of the singles leading up to this record, like "Hell" and "Say It Like You Mean It", but the rest of the album fails to keep that energy going. It isn't a BAD album by any means, it's just ... fine. Occasionally good, but mostly fine and nothing more. You will get some glimpses of their former glory, but they just never take these songs in any new directions. Even the tracks I mentioned earlier don't really live up to the standards set by their best work. They still get super fuzzy and noisy, but they lack the immediacy and the tension of like "The Fox" for example. It feels like they're going through the motions, which sounds fine if you don't think about it too much. A bit disappointed by this one, but with its brief runtime it's worth a shot.

listen here: Apple Music Spotify Bandcamp SoundCloud YouTube ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

It's Sorted - Cheekface

◇ genres: geek rock, indie rock, new wave

I feel very conflicted about this album, to be honest. Everything on this album is painfully witty. Everything is a joke in some way which gets so exhausting. Most of the songs here are charming and well-performed, but you have to be very, very funny to pull off a full album of this stuff and I don’t think Cheekface pulled it off here. I understand that’s a very subjective thing and if you dig this late-millennial style of humor you’ll probably get a kick out of this!

Some of these songs are pretty amusing though. I really like “I Am Continuing to Do My Thing” which features a jerky, new-wave rhythm to it which I had fun with. I also enjoyed "Popular 2" which has a bit of a power pop thing going on. Most of these songs are structured decently well, but it's just the lyrics that make me roll my eyes. A good bit of this album meditates on fame and success which does provide a sense of cohesion, but I just find it hard for me to really connect with these songs. I realized a few songs in that I'm probably not the target audience for this. I'm sure if I was like 30 or so I would have a ball with this album, but as it stands now I would much rather listen to a They Might Be Giants album if I wanted to scratch the itch this record is attempting to. 

listen here: Apple Music Spotify Bandcamp SoundCloud (not available) YouTube ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

New Last Name - Courting

◇ genres: post-punk revival, indie rock

This is such a big step down from their last album. I only heard the single "Flex" going into New Last Name and it's easily the best track here. The rest of the album features the big choruses reminiscent of 90s alt-rock hits that were present on both the band's previous album Guitar Music and the aforementioned "Flex", but unlike those most of the songs on the whole are just one big mess. The verses usually sound bad, both because of the off-putting production and the weak writing. One of the worst offenders here is "We Look Good Together (Big Words)" which sounds like they're doing a parody of The 1975 and I really don't like The 1975!!! That track features one of the few forays into indietronica territory and it never sounds very good. Even if the song structure and almost everything else is lacking, the band can still pull off a really good chorus here and there. The problem is they aren't worth sitting through the rest of the tracks to get through. Besides "Flex", I did find some enjoyment in "Emily G" and the last two tracks. Mostly because they reminded me of their last album. I'm all for bands evolving and trying different things, but New Last Name just feels misguided. Hoping they can come together for a better follow-up.

listen here: Apple Music Spotify Bandcamp SoundCloud YouTube ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Saviors - Green Day

◇ genres: alternative rock, pop punk

Green Day has been in a very rough spot for quite a while now. They've been seemingly unable to recapture that "magic" that was present in their earlier work. They've been failing at diving into new sounds, failing to rehash the old ones in an interesting way, and failing to make a single great cohesive album ever since like 2009. Coming on the heels of perhaps their worst record to date, Father of All, the expectations for this album were in the mud and that's putting it nicely. Fortunately, this isn't the band at their worst, but it might be the band at their most boring. The instrumentation is a return to form compared to their last record, but that comes at the cost of rehashing old ideas. There are some decently clever songwriting moments here and a lot of the big choruses are enjoyable enough to at least remind me why middle school Caleb loved this band so much, but even that works against the album's favor. Why would I listen to this if I was in a Green Day mood and not Dookie or American Idiot or Insomniac? I will say there is some really good stuff here. "Dilemma", "Look Ma, No Brains!", and the title track are highlights and some of the best stuff they've done in years. 

listen here: Apple Music Spotify Bandcamp SoundCloud YouTube ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Letter to Self - Sprints

◇ genres: garage punk, post-punk Let me preface this by saying that I think Sprints has a ton of potential. Unfortunately their debut, for the most part, doesn't capitalize on that potential. This is for a variety of reasons. For starters, the production of this record really doesn't do them any favors. The songs that SHOULD have a punch don't have any whatsoever. The noisy guitars lack the bite that they should have and mostly just kinda whimper along. The vocals are mixed decently, but they still sound far too clean for what I think the band was going for. Another big issue is the actual songs themselves. They're either complete non-starters, or they abruptly end as they're picking up steam, or they drive a hook straight into the ground. The second track "Heavy" is a key example of a song being cut off way too abruptly. It's one of the standout tracks on the record, but it definitely still had some legs. "Adore Adore Adore" is pretty easily the biggest highlight here. It's groovy, the vocals are good, and the chorus is satisfying ... more of this, please!!! I wanted to love this album, but it has way too many flaws. Still, I have high hopes for the Dublin rockers. Saddle them up with a better producer for the next one and see how it goes!!!

listen here: Apple Music Spotify Bandcamp SoundCloud YouTube ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

INSANO - Kid Cudi

◇ genres: pop rap, trap

I really want the best for Kid Cudi. Man on the Moon: The End of Day is legitimately one of the most influential hip hop records of the 2000s. You can hear its influence throughout the 2010s, especially in the emo-rap scene. Unfortunately, pretty much every record he's released since then has been a massive step down from that record (besides the relatively big bright spot in KIDS SEE GHOSTS). INSANO continues that trend, but to an almost embarrassing degree. He enlists DJ Drama to try and hype these tracks up, but even he can't save this thing. The production and beats on this album are the exact opposite of what the album title suggests. They're so painfully boring and Cudi's writing here is, as I said earlier, embarrassing. Cudi proudly raps on the opener "Why they love these raps, haha, to most of these lames I'm Papa." which is just so fucking embarrassing. That's the one word I can use to describe this record. I hope the next one will be good, but judging by this album and his track record overall, that doesn't seem likely.

listen here: Apple Music Spotify Bandcamp SoundCloud YouTube ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ thank u for reading :3

[modernmanblues]

everyone please credit to Lol Creme for getting Jimmy Page into a fascinating little gadget he invented called the gizmotron. this mighty little device can be heard throughout many of LZ’s more proggy songs including, but not limited to, In The Evening.

one of the main reasons i love 10cc so much is that they were practically a self-sufficient group: two songwriting groups with very diverse musical styles- pop, soft ballads and American blues with Stewart & Gouldman and the wacky, art rock side of Godley & Creme. additionally, the group had Godley & Creme who are two bright and talented art school graduates who were responsible for creating and coming up with ideas for the album artwork for the first four 10cc albums. Lol Creme’s invention of the gizmotron was revolutionary and intrigued many 70s musicians looking to broaden their horizons as far as changing their musical styles in those days. truly, a device way ahead of its time.

Graham Gouldman- one of my top three favourite bassists next to John Paul Jones and Paul McCartney. A BRILLIANT songwriter alongside my beloved Eric and a man who i like to refer to as an honorary yardbird/hollies member because he wrote so many songs for those groups. His exquisite work as a songwriter is something I can’t help but admire deeply.

lastly, and most importantly, the group had a brilliant record producer/engineer, and i’m proud to say a Grammy recipient for his excellent contributions as a musical engineer. i am of course referring to the devastatingly handsome, my serotonin and the love of my life- Eric Stewart.

just- so SO many reasons to love this band. i constantly gush over them 🥰

[dustedmagazine]

Tomb Mold — The Enduring Spirit (20 Buck Spin)

Photo by Colin Medley

Brief excursus into the Biz: It may be a sign of how big Tomb Mold is getting that 20 Buck Spin had publicists hold off on widely distributing promotional materials for The Enduring Spirit until after the record had dropped into its wider markets for purchase and circulation (NB, this reviewer has no illusions about his relative significance in the Biz, thank goodness — but much juicier metal review venues like Grizzly Butts and No Clean Singing seem to be rushing text to press, having received their copies of the music relatively late in the game). Certainly it’s significant that Pitchfork has the death metal outfit on its radar, publishing a “band announces forthcoming record” notice for The Enduring Spirit and, more urgently, including it on a list of “9 New Albums You Should Listen to Now.” Yikes. Is Tomb Mold ready to be exhumed and exposed to the light?

The album art for The Enduring Spirit suggests that’s the case. A feminine, humanoid figure greets sunshine and verdant plant life, arising from vaguely mechanical and organic forms that root into a soppy, brown, slithering morass. Maybe it’s not meant to be allegorical, but check out these lyrics from album opener “The Perfect Memory (Phantasm of Aura)”: “We are given the heat and friction of light / To moult in our delirious memories / Now we dream only in familiar depths / What in the bitter night speaks to us?” That sure sounds like allegory: the “familiar depths” and “bitter night” of death metal, and a band that want “to moult” and change in “the heat and friction of light.” Sure, Max Klebanoff growls the words in death metal’s characteristically harsh fashion, but the song’s precise, musical riffage and super clean production project the tune toward brighter terrain.

There are listeners that will be drawn to and make much of the brightest moments on The Enduring Spirit: the breezy string work at the beginning and in the middle section of “Will of Whispers”; the guitar tone and most theatrical moments in “Servants of Possibility,” which may put some in the mind of Steve Howe, c. 1971; the long slide through melodic atmospherics in the second half of “The Enduring Spirit of Calamity.” This reviewer prefers the tougher stuff — like the signature riff of “Flesh as Armour” and the neck-snapping dynamics of “Angelic Fabrications.” But others will point to the clean, proggy elements of the record and comparisons to Dream Unending and Blood Incantation will surely abound.

In some ways, the comparisons are valid. Guitarist Derrick Vella is one half of Dream Unending, and that project’s experiments in “ambient death metal” (as we seem to be calling it) have no doubt influenced his contributions to Tomb Mold. And the SF concepts that Tomb Mold has worked through on previous records, like Planetary Clairvoyance (2019), resemble Blood Incantation’s space-opera sensibility. But inasmuch as all that is true, the culture industry is no doubt delighted at the prospect of death metal bands that are somehow more “musical,” or more “serious” — bands that Pitchfork can call purveyors of “Best New Music” alongside Boy Genius and Big Thief and Lana Del Rey. They can have it, and Tomb Mold can have the bright lights. I’ll stay in the dark, where things are moister and nastier, and generally more interesting.

Jonathan Shaw