Narrows - New Distances

Narrows is a band composed of various members of the hardcore scene, including members from These Arms Are Snakes, Some Girls and Botch's vocalist Dave Verellen. mainly due to the vocalist, this sounds like Botch if they didn't break up and matured their sound a bit.

MP3 V0

MERZBOW FUCK YEAH

(this is not an excuse to make up for not uploading anything, i swear)

so after reading a thread on /mu/ (lol) that involved listening only to an artist for a month straight, i have decided that starting june 1 i am going to listen to the MERZBOX, 50 CDs of noise. FUN

i value my sanity so i'm not spreading it out over a month, but instead a week. judging by my calculations this means roughly 3.5 hours of merzbow per day (something tells me i'm not going to go over this amount). since i am gay and also value my scrobbles feel free to check my updates at http://last.fm/user/MERZBOW_FAN and also chronicling my adventures (for when i look back at my 15 year old self and laugh) at http://ifuckinglovemerzbow.blogspot.com

i will keep updating this blog assuming i don't go absolutely insane and kill myself or something

if for some reason you want to listen along feel free to download it here, uploaded by some crazy individual.

Stars Like Fleas - Sun Lights Down on the Fence

the only way i can think of describing this band is 'ambient glitch folk', which sounds terrible but is pretty accurate. the glitchiness is similar in ways to World's End Girlfriend, but rather than going for an orchestral feel the music is subdued and relaxed.

MP3 V0 (the quality is awful for v0 but i think it's the best quality rip on the internet)

This Song Is A Mess But So Am I - Church Point, L.A.

this guy makes music that is, in more ways than one, similar to Xiu Xiu's noisier outings. the vocals in particular sound a lot like Jamie Stewart. however, he distances himself from Xiu Xiu's often chiptune-oriented works by making Church Point, L.A. noisy and similar to IDM, albeit simpler. the vocals are not the only part of the music similar to Xiu Xiu, though. this album creates an often frightening and always depressing atmosphere, due to the artist creating music to cope with his mother's death.

MP3 V0

Time To Burn - Island

this record is ridiculously loud. it is a sludge album, so it's expected to be loud and heavy, but this outclasses most bands in the genre. extremely heavy distorted guitars work together with crashing drums and screamed / growled vocals to make this album one of the most crushing in the genre. there are some restrained, ambient moments but for the most part they're few and far between.

MP3 V2

O! The Joy - Zen Mode

relatively unknown math rock / progressive rock, similar to The Fall of Troy or Tera Melos except a lot more mellow. the vocalist works perfectly with the band, adding dynamics to the 'harder' sections of the album. unfortunately this is the only album they made, would've liked another one as they are certainly technically proficient and creative.

MP3 V0

Melvins - A Senile Animal

the first of their albums with Big Business and in my opinion one of their best (quite a feat considering the number of albums they've released). buzz's guitarwork is at its absolute peak here, creating riffs that are both ridiculously heavy and catchy. the second vocalist and drummer creat brilliant harmonies and some crazy drum solos respectively.

MP3 320

Höyry-Kone - Huono Parturi

finnish experimental progressive rock band. similar to Miasma & The Carousel of Headless Horses. guitar solos and cellos and shit! also, according to last.fm, their vocalist is 'one of the most sought after lyrical tenors in the world', which i guess explains why he is FUCKING AMAZING.

MP3 320

Hrvatski - Irrevocably Overdriven Break Freakout Megamix

this is a live breakcore album, and it's still more versatile and insane than most studio albums. it contains 91 tracks yet barely goes for longer than 40 minutes. because of this you end up on track 20 before you know it. the sheer number of tracks makes sense, however - this album cycles through a variety of sounds so quickly that every track has something different going on. the whole album remains distorted and noisy throughout, though, so it's not an easy listen.

MP3 V0

toe - The Book About My Idle Plot On A Vague Anxiety

not much else to say that i didn't a couple posts down. aside from maybe "who thinks up these album names?"

MP3 V0

Isis - Mosquito Control

Isis were a sludge metal / post-rock band that disbanded yesterday or something. they made some great music so i'm posting my personal favourite. the Mosquito Control EP didn't stuff around with clean vocals or post-rock interludes unlike their latter albums. half an hour of sludge with killer riffs that barely stop throughout the album and maniacal vocals that alternate between growling and screaming, which Aaron Turner was definitely suited to.

MP3 V0

toe - Songs, Ideas We Forgot

toe are a japanese math rock band that flit between relaxing acoustic melodies and smooth jams complete with a dynamic drummer. people have called them the japanese Tera Melos but i don't really see that, this is relaxing for math rock. this is also just an EP but i'll post one of their full-lengths tomorrow.

MP3 V0

Rome - Nos Chants Perdus

Nos Chants Perdus is the recently released 5th album by neofolk / martial industrial artist Rome. this album is probably his most relaxing work yet, yet it still retains the sound of his previous albums. this doesn't have a standout track, so it's best to listen to it all the way through.

MP3 V2

Midori - First

this EP is nuts. noise rock with a weird female vocalist (who goes from singing to screaming to death growls) and a piano thrown in the mix, used in both the calm melodious songs and the cacophonous ones.

MP3 V0

Tortoise - TNT

an absolute classic of the post-rock genre, Tortoise were one of the first bands that used electronic / krautrock influences in their music. the result is a laid-back, jazzy album that is great fun to listen to.

MP3 V0

Daniel Striped Tiger - Condition

more screamo. riffs are very similar to math rock and not as heavy as bands like Orchid and Pg.99, though the vocals add to the aggressive nature of the band. brilliant drummer too.

MP3 V2

Brasstronaut - Mt. Chimaera

i was kind of expecting this album to have more brass... it's still pretty good, though! nice little album of 'chamber pop' or whatever it's called.

MP3 320

Melvins - The Bride Screamed Murder

the third of their collaborative albums with Big Business, this one is weird even for the Melvins. it's very... stop-start, i guess. they play a riff, then they stop, and play another riff, and then they stop again and the vocals kick in. and that's just the first track.

for the most part it's as heavy as ever (except for the confusing last track), and the influence of BB is clear, two drummers being the highlight of the album. of all the albums where they've worked with Big Business this is probably the second best, beating out Nude With Boots.

MP3 V2

I Would Set Myself On Fire For You

not to be confused with I Set My Friends On Fire, IWSMOFFY are a screamo / post-rock band. they are comparable to Circle Takes The Square in many ways, most notably the use of both a male and female vocalist. they also incorporate various instruments such as a cello, trumpet, saxophone etc. which gives some of the songs a jazzy style.

V0

s/t
...Believes In Patterns

The Blood of Heroes - s/t

Justin Broadrick of Jesu / Godflesh fame, breakcore artist Enduser, Bill Laswell from avant-garde jazz band Painkiller and a multitude of other artists worked together to create this unique album. doomy riffs from Broadrick alongside almost equally heavy breaks with some hip-hop thrown in. it's truly an eclectic mix and i'm somewhat surprised it worked so well.

MP3 V0

Polvo - Today's Active Lifestyles

Polvo are an indie rock band that formed in the early 1990s. along with Slint and a handful of other bands, they pioneered the math rock genre and basically did what Modest Mouse did, only 5 years earlier. there is even some chiptune thrown in on Time Isn't On My Side, in an album from goddamn 1993.

MP3 V0

Orchid - Chaos Is Me

there's a reason why this band is considered one of the best in the genre. truly brilliant and ferocious screamo, you won't find many songs that are better than Aesthetic Dialetic.

MP3 256

Discordance Axis - The Inalienable Dreamness

if you think that grindcore is an irredeemable genre then i recommend listening to this, it is actually good.

MP3 V0

65daysofstatic - We Were Exploding Anyway

this doesn't sound like any of their other albums. just wanted to put that out there. it takes a more electronic approach, and not the gritty IDM sound heard on The Fall Of Math, it's much more synthy. but i still enjoy it, it's better than most albums i've heard this year.

MP3 V0

The Birthday Party - Prayers On Fire

so recently i have discovered that post-punk is a lot better than i gave it credit for. i am particularly enjoying this album; it reminds me more of noise rock than Joy Division. bizarre vocals over dissonant guitar chords and tribal rhythms, with horns, piano and an organ making appearances on various songs. the whole thing is catchy as hell and songs like Capers are hilariously awesome.

MP3 V0

Pg. 99 - Document #8

amazing screamo band. this album doesn't screw around, it's a handful of songs that are pretty much perfect when it comes to the genre. they're kind of well known so i don't know what else to write.

also holy shit they have 8 members, i only just found that out.

MP3 V0

i got bored and made a playlist

...yeah. it's a shoegaze / post rock-y mix i guess, though it spans a fair few genres.

tracklist:

Sweet Trip - Tekka (3:09)
A Place To Bury Strangers - My Weakness (2:41)
SonVer - Last Thursday (3:31)
MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS - I F A Surfer (3:39)
LSD And The Search For God - I Don't Care (4:02)
Laura - Every Light (3:40)
The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - Twisted Horizons (4:37)
Efterklang - Chapter 6 (6:28)
Infidel?/Castro! - (In)Voluntary Emotional Response (9:29)

Total playtime: 41:15

so yeah if you see anything you like there then you can download it...

242 kpbs average

(100th post!)