Week Of 7/17 - Psychobilly, Reggae, Punk, Metal, Trad. Indian

Keeping it eclectic this week, and with little fanfare:

New Releases:

Jimmy Cliff
Rebirth
Label: Universal Music
Released: 7/17 2012
Genre: Reggae

The first album from this reggae master in seven years. I recently became a fan of Jimmy and I gotta say, this is a great album. His voice is awesome, a bit high pitched, but still amazing. It does contain a few of the tracks from the Record Store Day single, which is good. If you missed that you missed some awesome Clash and Rancid covers. It's quite a few tracks, all of them pretty short. Nothing rambles on, he cuts it short and quick - this is where punk got some of it's timing from. Definitely an album to go get, some great mellow reggae.

Adding To The Backcatalog:

Biohazard
No Holds Barred - Live In Europe
Label: Roadrunner Records
Released: 1997
Genre: Heavy Metal, Hardcore Punk

A straight off the board, unedited, live set from the hardcore-metal-punk band of the 90s. Pure thrash sitting right here, unrelenting. The early 80s attitude cut with a late 90s sensibility. Pulling from every album up to that point, it's a non-stop hour of hardcore. Caveat - it's pretty much just for fans of Biohazard. Some of the sound quality isn't great, no new tracks, or remixes or anything. Just a live show. What a live album should be really.

Dedashish Bhattacharya
O Shakuntala!
Label: Riverboat Records / World Music Network
Released: 2009
Genre: Traditional Indian, Modern Indian

Not content to just play classical music on traditional instruments, Debashish invented three new kinds of lap slide guitar and has mastered them. It shows on this recording, a slide guitar style to make any blues artist a little green with jealousy, playing classical Indian musics as well as some original recordings. This is pretty much a solo effort on his part but it's amazing. It's also very quiet and soft, and good for taking a nice nap to, or meditation. Very relaxing.

HorrorPops
Hell Yea!
Label: Hellcat Records
Released: 2004
Genre: Psychobilly, Rockabilly

Back up the other side of the energy scale. HorrorPops deliver a knock out of an album here. Their first studio effort, it's good in its own right. But once you compare it to the later two albums you hear them not quite together yet. Still putting their sound under them this is a bit of stock-standard psychobilly. And, well, it's good, some real power is emerging here. Definitely a must have for psychobilly fans, or just plain rock and swing fans too. This is straight up enough to fit onto a whole range of dance floors.

Iron Maiden
The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg (10")
Label: EMI Records
Released: 2006
Genre: Heavy Metal

Been sitting on this 10" single since it's release. It varies from the CD Single in that the b-side is two different tracks from the Radio-1 Sessions. The CD contained a massive rendition of Hollowed By Thy Name; this has The Trooper and Run To The Hills. The title track isn't the greatest cut from the album (A Matter Of Life And Death), and kind of drones on. The B-Sides are strictly for die-hard fans only. This is a fan item, I'm a huge fan so... of course I got it. Otherwise, it's just more Iron Maiden.

Hidden Tracks:
Unter Null
I Don't Belong Here
Label: Self-Released (www.Unter-Null.net)
Unter Null is putting out a new album soon, and this was put out to subscribers of her mailing list as a teaser. An instrumental track that goes very dark and rhythmic. A perfect extension of her past her, this one slows things down just a little, and grinds into the air with the same kind of audio-perfection you get from Noise Unit's sound. A fantastic teaser and you should go visit the website and fund the new album. You can also pick up this track by backing her next album on SellABand.

Next Week:
Some music from Vietnam, a long lost soundtrack finds its way back into my collection, some more hardcore from Biohazard, and some brand new Synthpop, plus a few surprises.

Week Of 2/21 - Synthpop, Psychobilly, Blues, Dubstep, Industrial, & music of the Congo

This weeks new music was a blind buy, picked it up without any knowledge of the artist at all, I knew the label usually put out music I liked, so I took a shot. And won. I also dove into my digital collection that has been gathering pixel-dust on my Hard Drive and loaded up several EPs. Plus some of the CDs sitting on my shelf waiting for attention. All together a good amount of music this week.

New Releases:
Grimes - Visions
Label: 4AD Records
Released: 2/21 2012
Genre: Synthpop, Experimental
Discogs - Visions US Release
Grimes is the project of Canadian artist Claire Boucher.Visions is full of pop melodies, her voice is in the same range as a lot of pop music. But, it stops just short of actually being pop, the rhythms aren't quite right, the songs ditch the hook, liberal bits of glitch and other exerimental ideas seep through constantly. Which is the best part of the album, it's very easy to listen to, very smooth, but it's not lost in banal commonality. It's different without being jarring. As a whole the album creates an environment, it's the kind of music you can listen to with headphones, or letting permeate the room as a whole. Loud or soft, it's just really nice to listen to. Visions is absolutely and album to go out and get, and Grimes is the kind of artist that should get mainstream exposure without needing to become a media spectacle. It does remind me a lot of Broken Bells in that it's at once very familiar and completely different from other music out there.

Recently Released:
KDrew - Free EP Vol. 4
Label: Dubstep.Net (Self Released)
Released: 2/1 2012
Genre: Dubstep
Dubstep.Net - KDrew Free EP
Dubstep.Net tossed out this 4-track EP at the start of the month, which is unfortunate since if you go to KDrew's Soundcloud it's a full 6-track EP. What we have in these 4 tracks are three-vocal dubstep tunes, and one instrumental. The first is a hard hitter, with fast lyrics from a traditional Hip-hop MC. After that the next two tracks are pop-vocals with dubstep backing. And the last one is a very chill piece, good for dancing, but not so frantic as to wear you out. Good stuff, really. I don't really have a lot to say about a 4-track banger, but it's solid dubstep, hard and soft alike. And it's free, so you can get into the genre without much effort.

Adding To The Collection:
Marc Broude - Cruel Society
Label: Sirona Records
Released: 2011
Genre: Industrial, Experimental
Sirona Records - Cruel Society
This is a two-track EP sent to me. The first song is a pretty standard, not very interesting industrial-rock song. The second one, one the other hand, is glitchy and different, a dark instrumental soundscape that reminds me of some older industrial styled tracks that work with sounds in different ways beyond trying to build a dance club hit. It's two tracks, and not available in the US.

Little Axe - Champagne & Grits
Label: Realworld Records
Released: 2004
Genre: Blues, Electric Blues
Discogs - Little Axe US Release
Little Axe is some very excellent modern electric blues. From a traditional blues of him singing and a guitar, to the slightly 'techno' infused electric blues this album spans a wide range of ideas and interprettions of 12-bar. A supremely excellent guitarist, his style is classic in every sense while his thinking is very forward. There realy isn't a lot to say here beyond Go Get This Album, honestly. it's excellent and proves that the blues never fades.

Nekromantix - What Happens In Hell, Stays In Hell!
Label: Hellcat Records
Released: August 2011
Genre: Psychobilly
Discogs - What Happens In Hell US Release
This excellent three-piece band puts the gas pedal down on their hot-rod herse and doesn't let up until after the crash. Full of off kilter horror and songs about girls (or ghouls in the case of I Kissed A Ghoul), the whole thing is a little disturbing, but the bass just keeps on humming. The entire album is a standard set of rockabilly rhythms you can dance to, with the classic psychobilly left-of-center attitude. You just bop right along to the entire album, even if the song topics are less than cheerful the musci really is. Nekromantix really have got the 50s era Rockabilly sound nailed down, and have easily infused it with a modern punk attitude and styling.

Rough Guide To Congo Gold
Label: World Music Network
Released: 2008
Genre: Congo Traditional, Rumba
Discogs - Congo Gold
The Congo, like a good bit of Central and South Africa, embracing Rumba music when it came over in the 60s and 70s. They even infused it into their local traditional musics, came up with new genres, and played straight Rumba like it never left it's home. And you can hear that all over this compilation, at least half the tracks are pure Rumba, some even sung in Spanish. The traditional music to the Congo is pretty good, very rhythmic. As a whole, this is a pretty average Rough Guide - good to get into a region, but nothing really amazing is going on here, you get the feeling the Congo music scene is moderately homogenous, though.

Bonus Track:
Whitenoise - Bang Bang! Remix
Label: Soundcloud Self Release
Released: 2011
Genre: Dubstep
I found this last year and fell in love with it, and then it got lost on a Hard Drive. And I refound it after organizing things. It takes Nancy Sinatra's Bang Bang and remixes it into a hard, dirty, lovely, dubstep pounder. It's just, well, it's great. Availalbe to listen on Soundcloud, go dance.

Next Week:
Industrial Rock, and plenty of it, some old school synthpop-electro, electroswing, a big dubstep mix, and a compilation of EBM/Industrial stuff.... very exciting, the whole week should just bop along.

Week Of 1/17 - J-pop/Trance, Brazilian Techno, Dubstep, Psychobilly

This week is a bunch of various electronica styles, and some Psychobilly.

New Releases:
Buck Satan And The 666 Shooters - Bikers Welcome Ladies Drink Free
Label: 13th Planet / Soulfoud
Released: 1/20 2012
Genre: Psychobilly
Al Jourgensen takes a break from industrial-rock songs about drugs to release an album of psychobilly songs about drugs. I didn't see Hank III in the credits anywhere, but it sounds like he should be on here. It's fast country beats with punk rock noise on top of it. A pretty good album, nice and quick. None of the songs linger around for too long, like proper punk infused anything. The country is fast, and full of fiddle and the occasional banjo, plus plenty of guitar and screaming vocals. Hopefully we see some more from Buck Satan in the future, as it's pretty good stuff - especially if you like your psychobilly with lots of country and your coutnry way too fast.
Adding To The Collection:
Rusko - O.M.G.!
Label: Mad Decent
Released: 2010
Genre: Dubstep
Reaching back just a little bit, right before dubstep exploded, is this album. It's got all the standard beats, drops, and wubs. Coupled with a few singers and several MCs, gives the tracks some depth beyond just trying to be dance-club only cuts. The album isn't a grouping of singles, but it's not quite the same as some of the 90s DJ mixes with nearly perfect flow between tracks. It's good, it's bouncy. You can pick out the evolution from the earlier stuff in the early 00s to the sound that caught mainstream success in the last year or so. All the really good tracks feature a vocalist, all the really basic, but decent, tracks are instrumental. As a producer Rusko has a good ear, but he really shines with vocals in the mix.

The Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica
Label: World Music Network
Released: 2003
Genre: various electronica
This one pulls from various electronic styles from the 90s in an almost haphazard way. You can tell that house music was really just starting to pick up in Brazil a little before this was compiled. There's Chicago, Big Beay, Ambient, and all kinds of ideas mixed in with the more traditional, and pop, music of Brazil. And some of it is amazing. All of this is pure experimentation, there's no concept of genre limitation involved. The only possible reason these artists didn't make it bigger in the US and Europe had to be because they came to the party a little too late. A lot of it is relaxed, not so frantic, lots of samba bossa nova in mixed in. This made itself one of my favorite Rough Guides so far, everything here wants to be danced to.

Song + Nation 2 Trance
Label: Avex
Released: 2002
Genre: J-Pop / Trance
This is the second volume of Song + Nation, a collection of J-Pop megastars. This volume remixes all of it with trance/rave style. The two genres mix extremely well, as they aren't musically too far apart. But it's also a little boring, there's no real creativity in any of this. Aside from the mega-stars vocal presence the music is very recycled, so much so I can pick out the over-used samples. Fun if you needed some more trance, especially with Japanese vocals on it, but otherwise, stick with the first volume only.

Next Week - several new releases caught my attention, so many I had to actually narrow down my choices before I broke my budget too badly. And some other older stuff pulled off the shelf. Listen Hard!

Week Of 12/6 - Rock, Metal, Dubstep, Psychobilly

This week a new Black Keys album lifts off with a solid rock sound to it, Korn mixes it up with a Metal-Dubstep collaboration album, I find an odd Dubstep compilation, and add some Psychobilly to the holiday music scene that is usually mind numblingly bad.

New Releases:
The Black Keys - El Camino
Label: Nonesuch
Released: 12/6 2011
Genre: Rock, Blues
Teaming up with producer Danger Mouse for this release, The Black Keys take their drum + guitar show and rock it out a little bit. With a sound that reminds me a little bit of the production quality on Danger Mouse's side project Broken Bells, but giving it a little more bluesy feel. The whole deal is very stripped down, understated, but with a big loud sound. There's a lot of rock and roll fun behind this album, very upbeat in a lot of parts. But the crowning gem on this one goes to Little Black Submarines, which starts off acoustic, before blaring on some heavy guitar and rhythm. I'm not sure I can actually explain the emotional connection I had with this song, but it's sad, longing, uplifting, and majestic all at once. The whole album is a good listen, enough variety in the songs to prevent them from sounding too similar, without gettign too far away from each other either.

Korn - The Path Of Totality
Label: Roadrunner Records
Released: 12/6 2011
Genre: Metal, Dubstep
For their latest effort Korn has decided to take a step a little further from traditional rock/metal albums by finding and working with a whole series of dubstep producers. It works amazingly well. The fuzzier heavy dubstep fits in nearly perfectly with heavy metal guitars and speed. Like most Korn albums I don't find all of it particularly good all the way through, bits and pieces at a time. There's always a few standout tracks though, Narcissistic Cannibal and Get Up! are two awesome songs. Overall the back half the album is much better than the front half. The Special Edition of the release has two bonus tracks and a DVD with the video Encounter, which is a live-shoot done in a crop circle, a sort of video best of. Dubstep producers that worked with then are Downlink, Kill The Noise, Skrillex, Noisia, Dastik, Excision, 12th Planet, and Feed Me.

Adding To The Collection:
Dubstep Madness
Label: Hypnotic Records
Released: 2011
Genre: Dubstep
Not sure where to really begin with this one. It's a two-disc set, almost all of it falling inbetween the older lighter stuff and the new heavier style. It also has a bunch of weird covers and remixes on it. About a third of it are original productions, all of which are excellent. The rest are some really good and some really odd choices to dubstep. By far the more interesting are Riders On The Storm (which is also the best cover of the song I've ever heard, replacing Jim with female vocals), Pass The Dutchie (which doesn't get all that far from its roots), Ice Ice Baby, Don't Stop The Rock, and Ghost Town. Thirty two tracks of decent dubstep, but nothing is particularly experimental, this whole thing is middle of the road filler for the most part.

Psychobilly Christmas
Label: Cleopatra Records
Released: 2008
Genre: Psychobilly
This one opens with a nice instrumental rendition of We Three Kings by The Reverend Horton Heat. After that, it goes off in a whole bunch of directions, all of which touch on holiday themes, but are decidedly not "traditional" holiday or christmas music. No one would play this in a mall, unfortunately. All of it great Pyschobilly in its own right, now with a Christmas theme. I Saw Mama Kissing Santa Claus goes from silly little ditty to excellent song with the addition of an upright bass. You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch gets a needed rock infusion. Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer likewise transforms from holiday cheese to an actual rocker. On more original somes I'm Getting Pissed For Christmas and Gunslingin' Santa are just the right touch to take the edge off family gatherings. There are nineteen tracks on here, all of which are a switft kick in the backend, unlike most "rock'n christmas" style songs or albums these really pour on the rock, hard.

Bonus Track:
The Razor Skyline - The Longest Night
I don't know when this was first released by the band, but it's been arounda few years. It feels like it might be a traditional christmas song, with a darkwave/goth rendition, but I'm pretty sure it isn't. A good little number to have in the holiday rotation to keep it all from being dull ballads and 'classics'. Released free to the public via Vampire Freaks.

Next Week:
I finally get to the Lou Reed and Metallica collaboration, some future jazz, some heavy blues-rock, and more dubstep, and maybe a little Moombahton thrown in the mix... maybe. Listen Hard!

Week Of 11/2 - Rock, House, Psychobilly, Traditional (Mali)

A little late this week, I got caught up in a bunch of stuff and had to make room for National Novel Writing Month. So, on with the show:


New Releases:
Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials
Label: Universal Republic
Released: 11/2 2011
Genre: Rock
Florence has one of those really big voices without sounding screechy or loud. It's just a volume of melody. And this album is full of drums and percussion, and this piano that sounds like it was crossed with church-bells. The whole thing is big, and spacious, and just amazing. The two songs I just kept coming back to are Shake It Out and No Light, No Light. But there isn't a bad track on here truth be told. The album is a contender for best release of the year I think.

Adding To The Collection:
Deadmau5 - Random Album Title
Label: Ultra Records
Released: 2008
Genre: House
A big, bouncy house album full of techno-bits and such. Actually... I found this album to be kind of boring. It's the kind of house I put on to sit firmly in the background and just provide the air with some rhythm to occupy my ears with. It's not bad, but, it's not great either. I'm not sure I could identify a single track off of this if it were played stand alone in a club. Except the repetitive first track, which comes off as annoying as I find "Around The World" by Daft Punk, which I also skip past.

HorrorPops - Kiss Kiss Kill Kill
Label: Hellcat Records
Released: 2008
Genre: Psychobilly
The HorrorPops have, in this short and sweet album, captured all that's fun about rock, punk, and rockabilly and mixed it liberally with oddly cheerful depictions of classic horror bits. The wonderfully upbeat Highway 55 about a girl buried off the side of the road, to the endearing Hitchcock Starlet. The top billing for rocking good time goes to Going To The Disco? and Missfit. But the title track steals the day, it's a perfect blend of all the elements. And Patricia's vocals are beautifully sung, never shouted.

The Rough Guide To The Music Of Mali
Label: World Music Network
Released: 2008
Genre: Traditional/Folk
This particular Rough Guide focuses on Mali and, while it's nice is, too low key. Either Mali produces a whole lot of slow, quiet music, or they just failed to find the upbeat stuff. It's not bad music, it's just very very mellow. The vocals stand out though, the singers found here all have amazing voices. Like any Rough Guide I recommend it as much for the cultural insight as for the musical interest.

Hidden Track:
Proper Villains - Bass Down Low
Label: none (find it on Dubstep.net)
Released: 2011
Genre: Dubstep
Proper Villains took The Cataracts little bumper "Bass Down Low' and made it very dirty. Indeed. The good: they ditched the autotuned crap, kept Dev's lyrics, and added some real bass and real drop to it. Much better ditty than the original.

Week Of 6/21 - Psychobilly, Blues, Pop-Techno, Electroswing

This week I loaded a 4-disc compilation, unintentionally ended up with two new releases instead of one, and threw down with some Hank 3rd. Pyschobilly is effectively the mash of Punk Rock with Country - and you can't go wrong with that, I've been sitting on Hank Williams III latest since it came out in May, only took me a month to load it up and really listen. I had intended to only buy one new release (based on some reviews no less) but while I was in the record store found myself browsing just so I could hear what they had playing in the overhead - bit of a sign that was. So I bought Dave Alvin's latest after sticking around for the first five tracks. Totally worth it. And then there's the 4-Disc box set, I didn't listen through it as many times as I'd have liked though, but it is 4 hours of music...

New Releases:
Dave Alvin - Eleven Eleven
Label: Yep Roc Records
Release: 6/21 2011
Genre: Blues, Americana
Dave Alvin is credited with helping to start up, Roots Americana. This album, though, is a pretty solid Blues album. In both music and feel. The slow opener 'Harlan County Line' is a basic lost-love song, and very catching. It speeds right up with 'Johnny Ace Is Dead', slows down for a few tracks, and rides through on a bit of a downtempo style to the end. Several tracks are of the more Americana style than straight Blues, the two that stick out the most are 'Gary, Indiana 1959' - a classic blue-collar hard luck story - and 'Two Lucky Bums' - a great upbeat tale of life being good despite some hard luck. As a bonus, there's an included download card for an extra bonus track that should have made the album itself. This is a great album, a worthy addition to modern Blues music.

The Japanese Popstars - Controlling Your Allegiance
Label: Astralwerks
Release: 6/21 2011
Genre: pop-techno, dance
I picked this up because several places pulled the nostalgia card and compared it to mid to late 90s records from Chemical Brothers, Juno Reactor, Crystal Method and their compatriots. Being a fan of that, I took a chance. Well - they lied. It misses in both feel and overall cohesiveness. One of the big things the really big names in Electronica did, and did well, were put together solidly cohesive albums. If you're going to compare something to Crytal Method's "Vegas" or (Gods help you) Juno Reactor's "Beyond The Infinite" it better step up. This, does not. It's not a bad album by any means - it's decent pop-techno you could toss onto the dance floor. But it's not great, and it's not cohesive. It's solid middle of the road listening here. A couple tracks really stand out though, the opener 'Let Go' is a really good kicker, and 'Destroy' really does capture the late 90s Electronica sound. 'Falcon Punch' almost makes it, but needed more solid surrounding tracks. Overall, it's good, and definitely listenable. But there's better out there.

Adding To The Collection:
Hank Williams III - Hillbilly Joker
Label: Sidewalk Records
Released: 5/17 2011
Genre: Psychobilly
I've always been a fan of Hank Williams, and Jr. And Now the III has caught my attention. I'd always held him out there, not disliking him, but not really interested enough to start collecting. But I caught a listen of part of this album and knew this was the place to start if you want so really cranked up country-rock. Psychobilly appeals to the punk rocker in me, in a big way. And this album feels like a great punk album, just a very country one. It just rips through things, short and sweet, and doesn't stop until the outro (which, could have been dropped - a minute of squealing pigs and that one line from Deliverance... bad choice). It's about 30 minutes of pure speed. I recommend it.

Electro Swing Fever
Label: Wagran Music
Released: 2010
Genre: Electroswing
This 4-Disc set is a massive collection, compromised of tracks from the labels "Electro Swing" series and a few other tracks. Each disc is 15 tracks, giving about 4 hours of nonstop swinging club bounce. You really could just throw it on for the night and not worry about the music for a while. Nothing in this genre slows down below Dancing. Some of the best stand outs are Nekta (you bet I'll be going to find their releases), two Rum & Coca Cola mixes made it on (I just like that song a lot), Funky DL adds a song "1947" which is heavily hip-hop influenced without losing the swing beat, and Rube & Dusty added "Big Band Jump" which is half electroswing half dubstep and all bounce. And there's more, lots of tracks in here, sixty of them! Yep, compilations are good for finding new bands, and this one is awesome.

Short this week, mostly due to that 4-disc monster, because I really try and give everything 2-4 listens through before forming opinions on it (though I only made it through the compilation twice.. but it made an impression). And that's the week in sound. On Tuesday Theivery Corporation releases a new album, and I can't wait for that.