Week Of 7/3 - Symphonic Metal, A Capella, Hip-Hop, Clasical (Modern)

Late this week, due to a number of factors, partially just got overly busy and behind. Without any more fanfare:

New & Recent Releases:

Delain
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.

Murs w/ Foundation
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:

The Bobs
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.

The Bobs
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.

Hans Zimmer
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...)

Week Ending 5/7 - Metal, Pop-Punk, Rock, Darkwave

This week contains the last of the I:Scintilla discog, an unexpected find, and some other filler. On Tuesday I wandered down to my local indie-store and checked out their New Release end-cap. Half of it was releases from the previous week. I thought about the new Beastie Boys album, I thought about saying 'fuck it' and going home albumless. But I knew there was more out (there always is) and wondered why they showcased a whole 6 albums. Out of hundreds. Wandering back into the metal section I located the stores only copy of Leave's Eyes new album, even then it's not NEW - it's just New In The US. Inside, I'm a little sad.

New Releases:
Leaves' Eyes - Meredead
Label: Napalm Records
Released: 4/20 2011 (5/4 2011 US)
Genre: Metal (Symphonic Metal/Epic Metal)
Female lead vocals fronting angry Nordic men playing heavy metal. Sounds silly put that way, but this really good stuff. I don't like calling this genre "Symphonic" because it doesn't involve a Symphony - though one track has an orchestra and they add in a plethora of instruments. So Epic Metal - and they really do make the songs sound Epic - larger than the speakers. Liv sings in English, Old English, and Norwegian. They even toss in a cover of Mike Oldfield's 'To France'. Thankfully only one song felt the need to mix the excellent vocals with death-metal-grunts. I really am not a fan of that particular combo so often employed by the genre.

Filling Out The Collection:
Pizzicato Five - Quickie EP
Label: Matador Records
Released: 1995
Genre: Rock, Jazz
Pizzicato Five is one of the few acts to get out of Japan and into the US that isn't some form of Punk, Classical, or preceded by "J-". A jazz-rock duo, they easily slide between a solid jazz sound and a good rock swing, sometimes feeling a bit 1960s about the whole thing. I ran across this little single almost accidentally in the used section. A four track EP with some edited, and remixed, tracks off of the Made In The USA album. It's a nice little taste of the whole album, they even include a karaoke version of "Magic Carpet Ride" (along with a radio edit), which removes everything but the chorus. And they bring in an MC to put down a rap on a remix of I Wanna Be Like You.

Avril Lavigne - Let Go
Label: Arista Records
Released: 2002
Genre: Pop-Punk
Yes, I'm a fan of Avril Lavigne. She's a bit pop, a bit punk, and she keeps her clothes on for album covers. There's nothing particularly spectacular about her debut album - how it skyrocketed to such levels I'm not sure I can really say. It is pretty grounded, and Avril is an excellent singer. The songs are definitely teenage fodder, but not vapidly so, and she isn't G-Rated nor is she about sex appeal. Which, as I write it, is probably why it made it so hi up the charts. There's just no bullshit here, it's clean fun pop-punk rock. Enough attitude mixed in with enough actual life. A good opening album.

Avril Lavigne - The Best Damn Thing
Label: RCA Records
Released: 2007
Genre: pop-punk
Her third album, better than the first not as crunchy as the second. Something interesting I discovered - the normal release of this album is clean, there is no Explicit Release. The Deluxe Release (which I didn't get) has the Explicit words put back in (and there is no Clean Deluxe Release). Kind of annoying, because I don't need the DVD, but I really don't like edited music. It's only four tracks with the swears removed (Bitch, I'll note, is not edited out anywhere). This one is a little more rock, few more ballads on it too, not as dark as 'Under My Skin' was.

I:Scintilla - Dying & Falling (plus Remix album)
Label: Alfa-Matrix
Released: 2010
Genre: Darkwave
The last of the I:Scintilla discog (almost, see the end). Dying & Falling is their full sophmore release album. It's good, solid gothic-rock/darkwave type stuff. Not quite industrial, not quite stripped down enough to be Gothic-Rock; hence 'Darkwave' which it kind of is and isn't, genre labels... fuck 'em. The album though, is good. Nothing on it stands out quite like some of the tracks on Optics though, nothing really caught me. Though, just like on the single preceding it, Ammunition really is catchy.

Resuscitation The Remix Album
It's another remix album, basically this has turned into a Label Gimmick, they put out a 'Deluxe' release with a second disc of other bands remixing some album tracks. Sometimes you pull out some real gems, sometimes it's just some industrial/variants you can toss into a mix and let run all night. Thus is the case here, I put this through a few listens and may not ever really come back to it for that One Track.

Now, the 'complete discography' of I:scintilla is loaded. It came on a 2GB USB Flash drive with a neat I:Scintilla logo on it (tiny flash drive actually). Which is cool, and cost 30$ for all six releases (2 EPs, 2 Albums, 2 Remix Albums). Normally all that would cost around 80$, making it a great deal if you're missing most (or all) of their discog. BUT - it's not complete, it should have been called the "Alfa-Matrix Flash" because it is missing their first self-released 6-track EP. That would have, in all honesty, been awesome to include. It's out of print, never coming back in print I'd wager, and would make this little gem of a buy Perfect. As is, I filled out a bands discography sooner rather than later, without regrets. Now I just have to figure out how to file a two-inch Flash Drive in my CD shelves. . .