New & Recent Releases:
We Are The Others
Label: Sesnory (Laser's Edge)
Released: 7/3 2012
Genre: Metal, Symphonic Metal
Symphonic Metal likes to the toe the line between the heavy thrash/death metal sounds and light classical sounds. Both Classical and Metal can be extremely hard sounding, between the crunch of guitars and the power of a good string section the blending is basically made for each other. Yet, most symphonic metal bands like to waffle back and forth, which is why I don't listen to much of it. Delain found a nice middle ground here, it doesn't swoop back and forth between the two, it blends them into a pretty cool middle ground - guitars and violins I'd guess (though the symphonic part is entirely electronic, organic sound though. Charlotte's voice is good, she doesn't soar into highs that usually make me roll my eyes - a rock voice instead of operatic one. And they very sparingly use male death-metal singing, another bonus. So, solid album, solid sounding band, good composition, and very listenable. I recommend it for rock and metal fans alike.
Yumiko: Curse Of The Merch Girl
Label: self-released (http://www.devilsdue.net/yumiko/)
Released: July / Late June 2012
Genre: Hip-Hop
The album is a tag along to go with the 124 page graphic novel, and aren't available separately to my knowledge. Which isn't so bad, the graphic novel is decent enough, and helps explain the story in the songs in more detail. The concept is pretty simple: jilted love. The execution, musically, is pretty standard hip-hop fair, some of the language was a little more vulgar than I go in for, but not overly so. It's a solid piece of production, and some pretty decent story telling through music.
Adding To The Archives:
I Brow Club
Label: Rounder Records
Released: 1997
Genre: A Capella, Pop
The Bobs have always been an interesting group to me. I think they're usually at their best doing A Cappella covers honestly, the I Brow Club confirms that a little bit. Not quite funny enough to get a chuckle, not quite serious enough for me to enjoy the harmonies. It's kind of musical humor gone wrong honestly. They certainly have some serious talent, always have. It just feels like they kind of ran out of ideas here. They have many better albums to choose from.
Plugged
Label: Rounder Records
Released: 1995
Genre: A Capella
Speaking of better albums, there's the previous release from them, Plugged. Which does include some accompaniment (in the form of toy drums) and voice effects (to get 'guitar' sounds). But the song selection is much better. This one sounds like a solid extension of the album before that, without retreading ground. This one is a genuinely fun album, and I definitely recommend finding it and picking it up if you like A Capella groups, or even if you don't this is a good place to start with on that front.
Inception musical score
Label: Reprise Records
Released: 2010
Genre: modern classical, classical
Hans Zimmer knows soundscapes, and Inception is a movie built of big expansive ideas, and the music follows suit. I don't normally go in for musical scores to movies, if I want something ambient I know plenty of musicians who create ambient works not attached to specific imagery. But, we found this one on sale, and the sounds in the movie really are amazing. The soundtrack stands on its own quite nicely, everything here builds or works with tension of some kind. If you're a table top gamer (RPGs) then this is a great collection of sound to have on hand. It's good enough to put on and just listen through as well.
Next Week:
More classical (Beethoven), new music from Serj Tankian and Ego Likeness, and an old BT single I found in a bin looking for a home (ah, that old school rave music...)
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