Week Of 7/10 - Darkwave, Rock, House, Classical

Despite the week being a minor disaster causing me to miss the Sunday post (it'll be a week late), I did manage to get to the normal musical load... Keeping it diverse this week, and two new releases.

New Releases:

Ego Likeness
East
Label: self released (www.egolikeness.com)
Released: Early July 2012
Genre: Darkwave

The new EP with a few new tracks, and a lot of remixes. The real gem here is the cover of Tea In The Sarah, an amazingly dark rendition of the song, putting a whole new spin on it. The two new tracks are good as well, hoping for a full length in a similar style soon. The remixes, which take up seven of the ten tracks, deconstruct Ego Likeness across a multitude of genres. From harsh electro to standard club cut. The CD copy is a limited edition EP, but the digital release is good high quality audio.

Serj Tankian
Harakiri
Label: Reprise Records / Serjical Strike
Released: 7/10 2012
Genre: Rock, Metal

Serj has always been an interesting force in music. With a wide vocal range, and a diversity of delivery from rapid to slow, he never fails to change it up. His third solo album since the hiatus of System Of A Down (now off hiatus) is even stranger. It's all over the place. From songs the remind me greatly of the last so SOAD albums, to stuff that's just really new and weird. He doesn't let rock'n'roll sit around doing the same old thing. He just takes it and runs and goes such awesome places with it. From political activism to irreverent whatevers, it's an amazing and sonically awesome album. Go get this immediately, you won't regret it.

Adding To The Archives:

BT
Never Gonna Come Back Down - Remixes
Label: Nettwerk
Released: 2000
Genre: House, Techno

Five remixes of the title track off BTs 2001 album "Movement In Still Life". And that's where the interesting part stops. BT himself is a pretty solid producer, making some great late 90s house, and going into the 2000s some decent club albums. But this single, is pure hyped trash. All the boring parts of 90s House. With some big names behind it there's absolutely nothing imaginative about the remixes here. It was worth the whole dollar I paid for it as a curiosity of the age. Leaving me wondering why we tolerated a billion remixes of every big song.

Rough Guide To Classical: Beethoven
w/ Conductor Matthew Best "Mass In C Major"
Label: World Music Network
Released: 2011
Genre: Classical

Always curious to see what movements are placed in a collection, and that Beethoven wrote so much it's hard to duplicate your collection. Ten tracks, from a good wide range of compositions. Honestly, the opening piece of Bagatelle No. 6 on piano is both a good opener, and my favorite piece. A few symphonies, some string quartets, and several piano concerto's make it on. Like every rough guide, some serious (and good) thought went into this compilation and it's both a good start for newbies and a good addition to fans.

And the bonus disk, starts out with more piano. I like symphonies just fine, but classical piano is such an amazing art form, something about that instrument captures music so well. And we get all 6 movements  (they split movement 4 Sanctus into that and Benedictus). It's nice and chill, and well done. After that four more works are given, as chorus, but I have to say the recording quality was lacking. It's a little too quiet, I had to adjust the sound levels on the track because turning up the volume just made whatever I played next blast the speakers. Still, nice to have one of the lesser played works done.

Next Week:
Some Psychobilly, some Punk, some Reggae... all wildly different and yet all so connected to each other. Also, some Classical Indian and something up from my vinyl collection needing to be digitalized. Plus, a surprise!