The Knife - Tomorrow, In a Year

Based on the life of Charles Darwin, Tomorrow, In a Year is an epic, tense buildup of all kinds of scary/awesome. Some of the coolest, most unique music I've heard in a while. The album is not without some flaws, though. For instance, Tomorrow uses mezzo-soprano opera-style singing throughout many of the songs. Sometimes this singing works fine and sometimes it doesn't. The album has kind of a rough start as well. The first two songs are actually really cool, and act as a really cool intense comeup for this jagged, powerful trip. Unfortunately, the songs that come after make the whole album fall flat... Here, the band is mostly just dicking around with noise and opera vocals.

But there is sweet redemption. Once the song Schoal Swarm Orchestra kicks in, you're reminded what exactly this band is trying to do in the first place - create an epic that recreates the gravity of Charles Darwin and his discovery of the theory of evolution. What better way to start back on this journey than to be treated to various field noises -wind blowing, birds and bugs- mixed with unrecognizable buzzes and whatnot. In short, its really cool and wild, and I dig it. I mean, if you're making an album about Darwin, you kind of have to use some abrasive field noises, or else its not doing the man justice. Darwin wasn't a softie about this shit.

So, the album thunders on with much better attempts at capturing the essence of Darwin and his ideas. Intense and absorbing. What's impressive is how they allude with such power and intensity, while keeping it all under control. They never really go wild with what they have on their hands here. They present it, in full force, but they never get too carried away with the glory and the insanity, and that's what shows true musicianship.

In short, the last chunk of the album is some of the coolest stuff I've heard in 2010. A must-listen for those inclined. The song Colouring of Pigeons is one of the very few songs I know that gives me goosebumps throughout.

But even with some great songs finally, these guys misstep with the album again by having two songs that, as cool as they are, just don't really fit with the dark, restrained intensity they finally got their hands on here. Songs like Seeds and The Height of Summer are just too happy sounding, and though they are great songs, they tarnish what what just created here. Exactly what was created here, though, I can only say with uncertainty. Something really powerful and unique. A tribal, animalistic force that's at once beautiful and scary. When these guys possessed it during these jams, it was not abused. They used it effectively. They knew that if they let it all out like a bunch of amateurs, it would've been such an assault on our sensibilities that we probably wouldn't have even recognized what was being used. A waste. Too high a frequency. Maybe that's what was going on with the beginning of the album. I hated it/didn't hear it until they toned it down and brought it to our level.

But, like the atomic elements synthesized by man (like Einsteinium and Americanium and whatnot) it's nearly impossible to have the particles of these atoms to stay attracted for more than a second before the whole thing scatters into the more natural molecular structures. The same can be said about this album. Yes it's a flawed, scattershot piece, but just think about what they were trying to tame here. Fire is even prettier if you could hold it in your hands, but could you?? These guys didn't just have Darwin to deal with here. They had something that shouldn't be held, at least not in this form. It can't be. For one thing, it's intangible, maybe even nonexistent. But they had it. For a second.

Best Songs (and believe me, these ones are good)

Colouring of Pigeons

Tomorrow In a Year

Schoal Swarm Orchestra

The Height of Summer

Here's the album

Colouring of Pigeons: Best song ever made?

Tycho - Past is Prologue

Past is Prologue is Tycho's, aka Scott Hansen's, first album, and it's electronica dripping with delicious, shimmering soundscapes. Like the gorgeous artwork he has personally done for all his albums (he used to be a graphic designer), Past is impressively meticulous and beautiful.

The familiar, dark dreaminess of Boards of Canada echoes through various avenues of the album, but Scott Hansen sets himself apart from their work by livening the dreamy soundscapes with beats and grooves that have your foot tapping throughout. Including a strong presence of tempo was a smart move on his part; the tempo keeps the listener on his feet as the spaciness goes on, whereas other ambient works leave you floating aimlessly. That sort of floating can sound/feel amazing, but somehow having some sort of a beat thrown in the dreamy melodies make the tracks more... clear, or fresh.

Skillfully, Hansen stays safely away from a Techno/dance-club ecstasy sound. That sort of music tends to be far too one-track and in-your-face. Scott Hansen knows that the delicate tracks of Past (and of Tycho's entire discography) would be mangled and shredded like ribbons if he were to use a fat, stupid Techno beat. What he does use to enforce rhythm is a cool, sleek snare/bass affair that fits right in with the gentle, entrancing melodies.

Past is Prologue is not strikingly different from other ambient/electronic works, but it stands out by being groovy and mesmerizing as hell. Funky, refreshing, dreamy, hypnotizing. If you liked the Boards of Canada album that I posted, or if you like electronica stuff in general, you should definitely give this album a try. If you like it, I urge you to support this guy by buying his stuff. The artwork/ presentation of his CDs and LPs is probably the best tangible work made by a band/artist. On top of that, Tycho is not very well known, and I wanna see him make more music.

Best track to start out with:

Dictaphone's Lament

Pbs

Past is Prologue

The Disconnect

A Circular Reeducation

Ohkami no Jikan

This is not an actual album of theirs that I am posting... merely three songs that I scraped off the internet (searched all night, its ALL I can find). There's one actual album of theirs called Mort Nuit, and as soon as I get that album (which may be never) I'll be sure to post it.

But yes, three long trippy jams by one of the best bands from the Japanese Psychedelia era... these guys are really chill and beautiful; the guitars are full of feedback and wonder and the whole thing kinda jazzes out into this awesome spacey noisy jam. Some of the best Psychedelic/Rock/ Garage/ whatever. You know who you are, if this is you're kind of thing, then don't wait any longer and grab what little you can of this precious band, because trust me, there's not a lot of them out there. They're a diamond in the rough for sure.

狼の時間

Stalaggh - Projekt Misanthropia

Woah... how to put Stalaggh into words... Well, its unlike anything I've ever heard before. Its one of the most disturbing and frightening things I've ever listened to.

I guess if you had to describe it, Stalaggh plays noise/drone/freak, with recordings of actual patients from a mental hospital screaming and crying. It's like listening to the mass electrocution of a room full of people. Really just totally fucking disturbing. Apparently, one of the used patients, a guy who stabbed his mother over 30 times, almost killed one of the anonymous band members during recording.

For the most part, if you're into brutal music, this is fucking it. There's no substitute. Everything else pales in comparison. Cannibal Corpse and other bands that call themselves brutal and have blood on their album covers are just a joke compared to this. Seriously, this album spooks me more than most of the horror movies I've seen.

Depending on your tastes in music, this is either absolutely essential to have, or something you want to avoid at all costs.

Oh, it's also great for Halloween parties.

Merzbow - Minazo

The Noise "artist" Masami Akita, aka Merzbow, made this 2-song album in memory of the late elephant seal Minazo (aka, the lolrus that achieved some internet fame.), who Merzbow befriended and often visited with at the Tokyo Aquarium. Merzbow was never amused by the tricks Minazo was routinely forced to perform, including his trademark act of holding a bucket and sticking out his tongue.

To most normal people, Minazo's acts were adorable and charming, but to Merzbow, this sort of shit bordered on animal cruelty, and when Minazo died in 2005 for unknown reasons, Merzbow set out to make two tribute albums "not to mourn the death of Minazo, but to avenge it."

Thus, he has recorded two albums of absolute ferocity. Long, bloody scree-scrawls of noise that leave you dazed. Headaches are to be expected for sure after about 5 minutes of this, if not less. Merzbow wasn't kidding when he said he wanted to avenge Minazo's death. These albums are weapons aimed at the ears of anyone brave or stupid enough to partake. A stunning embodiment of grief and frustration. I would say this tribute to the Beautiful Male Elephant is a damn good way to send off the gentle giant.　さよなら、美男象。

美男象一番

美男象二番

Sun City Girls - Napoleon & Josephine 7"

just a funny ten-minute interaction between some nutty mystic who rambles on about stupid conspiracies and a growingly-impatient shop-store owner. Made me laugh. This isn't typical Sun City Girls stuff, I'll be sure to post some of their actual music on this blog. I just found this amusing, and felt like sharing this lesser-known piece of funny.


Fuck you, man, you listen to my shit.

V/A - Oz Days Live

sick compilation of Japanese underground Psych-rock from 1973. Its called "Oz Days" because it's a compilation of the last few shows The Oz Rock Cafe hosted before it got shut down.

Some particularly great jams from Les Rallizes Dénudés that are just really laid-back and trippy. Kind of a "must hear" for anyone who's into stoner-rock awesomeness. There's also a really cool 22 minute-long song by Taj Mahal Travelers that's an eerie swirl of Eastern-sounding violin and droning voices. Just downright creepy and really fucking cool. I would have loved to actually see Taj Mahal play this song live. There are other bands on this album, and though they should be listened to, they're not as impressive. One of these bands, Miyako Ochi, plays some pretty fun 50's and 60's rock and bop shit, if u know what I mean, and its pretty fun to listen to. They even do a pretty sick cover of Twist and Shout.

All in all, this is a really interesting (and rare) slice of 1970s Japanese underground psychedelia, and should definitely be listened to.

Part 1

Part 2

Ground Zero - Revolutionary Pekinese Orchestra

One of the best things to come out of Japan, the unforgivably unsung Ground Zero is Otomo Yoshihide's first experimental band before he went solo. I think this is some of the best shit he's ever worked on. Revolutionary Pekinese Orchestra is simply amazing. Really good atmospheric pieces comprised of Japanese radio clips, advertisements and soundbits, as well as various other instruments and genres of weirdness. Trust me, this album is a lot more accessible than the other "noise/experimental" albums I've posted. This is just straight-up good. Everything is perfectly blended to the tune of insanity. At times beautiful and at other times disturbing, sometimes humorous, and always fascinating. An absolute fucking Trip. Download this.

best songs to start out with: Crossing Frankfurt Four Times, Paraiso 1, Grand Pink Junction Ballard, Triumphant Junction (Grand Finale).

Later, try listening to the whole album start to finish. A mindfuck for sure.

CONSUME MAO

Hella - Hold Your Horse Is

Holy shit. Really spastic and incredible spazz-rock, lots of really awesome instrumental free-form rock jams. Really intense and well-done. Some of the best drumming I've ever fucking heard. No joke. I don't even need to explain how good this is. Get it, like, NOW.

Best tracks: fucking all of 'em. download this now.

CLICK ON THIS. SERIOUSLY.

Black Lips - We Did Not Know The Forest Spirit Made The Flowers Grow

Ah... what an album. The Black Lips is a pretty popular band nowadays, but this trashy gem of theirs is often overlooked by the public. Damn them. In my opinion, this album is their greatest work.

For those not in the know, The Black Lips are a merry band of hooligans that play some of the best damn rock music in Our 21st Century. Their sleazy, groovy Garage-Rock is loud, loose, and soaked in sweat, sex and booze. I guess if this band was a person, it'd be a drunk hobo dancing and stomping on a knocked-over dumpster. And that's not too far of a depiction of the band members themselves, whose live performances include smashing their equipment, making out with one another, pissing onstage, and running around the stage naked like a bunch of drunk toddlers on a sugar high... the product of an irresponsible drunkard of a parent.

Its all in good fun, though. And its not what make these guys shine. We all know the notorious antics of the late GG Allin were fun and all, but his onstage shit-eating didn't make his music any less, um... shitty. The Black Lips, fortunately, are actually really good. Their music is fun and full of energy. The overdriven, 'recorded-in-a-basement-with-a-tape-player' sound just adds to the thundering madness of these jams. This band exemplifies a part of Rock and Roll that's been missing for far too long. These trashy jams are super fun and awesome, and anyone who likes rock needs to give this album a try.

Best songs to start with: The first four tracks of the album, Ghetto Cross

I saw an inbred Jesus dyin' on the road today

Here's a pretty sweet performance of the song Juvenile (a song from this album).

Winter, and Sigur Rós

Today, it is snowing balls out. Fluffy snow is gently landing all over the ground. Its that type of snowy day when silence is amplified; every sound is muffled by the White, passively engulfing everything. The best part is that I can't hear any of those fucking cars whirring back and forth like remote-controlled toys on Wilmette Avenue. A rare time to happily accept nature's presence, and the unending peace that accompanies it. No more sounds of humans scratching on my dirt, writhing. The snow takes care of that nonsense.

I had to shovel this beautiful fluff off of my sidewalk so my Mom won't slip, fall and yell at me. She always has places to go. Always using that fucking concrete sidewalk to get to her car to go places. She refuses to accept nature's presence, at least not willingly. I happily start shoveling when she's out of the house.

I go out in my pajamas and grab a shovel. I don't have to work hard to glide this soft snow off my property, but I decide to work at it to burn off some energy. Tripping on my untied boots, I feel the cold sting of snowflakes landing on my bare neck. Its hard to distinguish this sting on my neck, and the sting I'm getting from looking around and simply being overwhelmed. That unnerving sense of a loss of control, a loss of familiarity.

Now I have to shovel the snow off my steps. The steps were pretty icy already, so the snow was a bit more resistant to my plastic shovel. I had to chisel and scrape at the steps. Every scrape I made echoed everywhere, cutting through the snow and the white and the silence. Every scrape I made felt like I was ruining something. Disturbing something that was too sacred and beautiful to be fucked around with by some faggot with a piece of plastic.

I was done now. I had successfully finger-painted over this beautiful snow. A perfect little path for my mom to get from her car to the steps to the house. I even shoveled a path on the main sidewalk cuz fuck, why not? I looked ahead, looked up, and saw all the snow that was still falling. My path didn't do shit. In about ten minutes, I realized, its gonna be swallowed up by the rest of the white, just like everything else. Its like the snow is mocking me, laughing at my silly attempt to domesticate the white. "Fuck you and your little path," it'd say. "Go ahead and keep trying to control this. Get it all out of your system."

I felt more of the sting and walked back into the house, grinning. I obviously got in way over my head with this shoveling shit. Good thing I've got a house with a top-notch insulation system. Good thing I can hide from all this strange silence, this strange whiteness that creeps up and swallows everything. A man can't handle the cold white for too long. The silence would be so loud, you'd go crazy. The sights, the neural trauma of seeing everything so white, pretty soon everything would turn white and you'd go blind. A man gets goosebumps when in the presence of Winter, and its not just because he's cold. He's also nervous.

One of these days, i should get rid of this sidewalk. Just tear these slabs of concrete out of the grass and dirt. Just give up. Let Nature claim what it had all along. For now, though, I'll just let the White have its day. Soon, my Mom's gonna slip, fall and yell at me.

When I was writing this, I realized today would be a perfect day to blog about Sigur Rós.

Sigur Rós is a four-piece band from Iceland that captures the dreaminess and power of Winter better than any other band I know. Living in a place like Iceland, I assume they naturally picked up on the frequency, and became in-tune with their natural surroundings. These guys speak the language of Snow fluently.

Their music is never fast, but it is almost always powerful and staggering. Like winter, Sigur Rós doesn't have to stir up violent blizzards to be amazing. The guys of Sigur Rós also know how to make a forceful presence, like its beloved season. Oftentimes, their live act consists of 10 to 12 different musicians, (including the band leader Jónsi Þór Birgisson, who sings like a Eunuch and plays the guitar with a bow). They are an orchestra of majesty, and seeing them live is still something I need to do before I die.

Sigur Rós is the perfect music for winter. Last year, I listened to them nonstop between the months of January and April last year. Hopefully, you won't get as horribly addicted to these guys as I did, but they are one of the best things to listen to for this time of year. I'm posting my favorite albums of theirs for you to dig in on. Happy Kwanzaa

Ágætis Byrjun Really good album. Listen to the first 5 tracks of it.

( ) part 1 Probably my favorite Sigur Rós album. the last song is amazing.

( ) part 2

Takk... Great album... the first two songs are really good

P.S. You should also try to see Heima, a documentary about Sigur Rós and their hometown Reykjavic, Iceland. It has some of the best cinematography I have ever seen, and some terrific performances by the band. A really fascinating and beautiful film. Go see it on an HD tv or something. If you don't have the means though, here's the movie on Google Video:

Ravi Shankar - The Genius of

"The Genius of" indeed. Ravi Shankar is simply the master of sitar, and this album is a fine example of his brilliant work. This is mind-burning Indian-Classical at its finest; the songs are waterfalls of shimmering stringed instruments that envelop you with strange feelings. This sort of music tickles the parts of the brain that Western music never has been able to. Thus, bizarre things creep up when listening to this with an open mind. I don't think I have ever truly experienced Synesthesia, but Ravi Shankar's music has come closest to triggering the effects of this rare affliction; I can almost see colors when listening to this music.

Powerful effects for just some $5 record I borrowed from a friend.

I remember the first time I put on this splendid record. At first, none of it made sense. To my narrow perspective, the music seemed meandering and boring. I just didn't get it at the time.

Having a narrow mind has always been looked upon negatively in our society, but in actuality, the mind narrowing itself is perfectly normal. There's no biological point in human beings having a vast, versatile brain. We would all have such an open mind that we would probably have a difficult time perfecting certain skills needed to live. Also, an especially open mind is petty and unnecessary when it comes to survival. Although today we might wish we could learn five different languages with ease, our prehistoric ancestors had no need for such brainpower.

Children possess this brainpower, though, which is why they can master a language at age 5, effortlessly play an instrument and be incredibly creative individuals. This open mindedness was indeed needed for survival, because a child needed to be able to quickly adapt to his surroundings. Therefore, this skill has been luckily been preserved, and the children of modern millenia are still incredibly malleable beings. However, at around puberty, the child's brain weeds off the unneeded synapses and connections it has, thus, the brain loses its versatility, and learning and understanding become difficult.

This naturally-occurring narrow-mindedness applies to the understanding of music as well. Like the Indian language(s) itself, Indian music evolved completely separately from Western music. The two bear no similarities. Whereas Western music is strongly focused on tempo and structure, the music of Ravi Shankar has no tempo, and instead focuses on the complexities of sounds. The percussion used in this album is not so much to keep tempo, but to create diverse sounds and rhythms to accompany the rest of the instrumentalists. The sitar, of course, is a wild beast that can roar or gently purr through the beautiful tracks, and follows no structure.

This type of free, loose music can be unstimulating to an audience that is used to structured, systematic music. Being part of this audience, I had a hard time appreciating Ravi Shankar. It was only until I sat down with the record with an open mind, did I realize how brilliant and beautiful this music was. And because it was so foreign, it was peculiar to all other music I have heard.

This music is simply at a different frequency. To be able to enjoy it, one must be able to have an open enough mind, an way to somehow expand the ability to appreciate and understand, to be able to pick up on this frequency Ravi Shankar makes. Go ahead and learn the new language of sitar. You will not regret it.

UPDATE: I canNOT find a link to this album. Usually, I can find a link for any album, no problem, but I have been madly searching for a good half-hour, and I can't find this album!! I'd post a link myself, but I don't have this album on my computer at all, I just have the LP. dammit. If I find or get a link, I'll be sure to post it immediately, but for now, I guess this is all fucked. hrmph... Well, here's some pretty sweet videos of him you might enjoy, sorry everybody .

Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind

Another album that I haven't been able to stop playing. Its an EP of only 5 tracks, but they are all so blissfully insane and amazing, I just felt I would be remiss as a blogger if I didn't post it.

Some of the songs play the same bursts of sound over and over again, a technique most noise/ambient/whatever bands use profusely and ineffectively, but in Fall Be Kind, this repetition is never boring or dull. This is probably because the melodies are so weird and interesting, you never get sick of them. Throw in some sweet lyrics that are sung as weirdly as they are written, and you have some really hypnotic, meditative material.

I am tempted to call this material pensive, dreamy, but I hesitate, because there's definitely an edge to this stuff. The whole thing clouds together as a dreamy beautiful sound, but there's plenty of sharp edges and harsh rhythms that make up the songs. I guess Aldous Huxley said it best when he listened to one of Gesualdo's madrigals with a head full of mescaline:

"The whole is disorganized. But each individual fragment is in order, is a representative of a Higher Order... The totality is present even in the broken pieces. More clearly present, perhaps, than in a completely coherent work."

I have never listened to Animal Collective's other stuff, but I'm gonna have to start now, because of this album. This is some beautiful music, straight up. Great driving music. Especially if you're driving into an ocean or something.

Favorite tracks: What Would I Want? Sky, On A Highway, I Think I Can

You Feelin Moldy, You're Not The Only

Hanatarash - 2

2 is not an easy album to withstand. I wouldn't be surprised if most people hated this album. In fact, I'd expect it. The rules that most sane-men follow when playing music (verses, choruses, the occasional solo/instrumental) are ignored in this album. So are all the standards of music we naturally have imposed on the concept and workings of music itself. Hanatarash tries to defy the very notion that this might even be music. And at first listen, I would say that they succeeded. But strangely, by the time I finished 2's second track, nonsensically-titled "we bite bollocks" (all lowercase), I realized that 2 is indeed music, because it provokes in a similar, yet different way, as "normal" music.

Music is able to instill us with all sorts of beautiful and twisted thoughts and emotions. it can relax us and make us feel energized and/or happy. It can make us contemplate about ourselves and life itself. Music is like a drug, as in it can manipulate and expand our minds to new creative highs or lows. Hanatarash does the same thing. The songs on this album give you the feeling of peaking on a handful of Amphetamines. I get an uneasy feeling, like I need to get up or something. My pulse literally quickens a little and I sense a little paranoia, if you could call it that. From second to second, the songs completely switch gears on you, going from piano-playing to crashing metal, or from the grind of a buzzsaw to jangling chimes and beeps. When you're listening, you're always on-edge, uncomfortably anticipating the next random switch-up, as if you're enduring Chinese water-torture and waiting for that next horrible drop of water.

The point is, Hanatarash has created Music, whether they wanted to or not. And that's what makes this album so amazing. It does to you what other forms of music can do, but because its under an artful facade of crashes, whirs, noises, beeps, screeches from the throat and the feedback, trashy strings and shattering glass, it doesn't appear so, and therefore, listening to it feels like an entirely new experience.

I couldn't blame you if you don't like it, though. It is weird to listen to music that bears absolutely no similarities to the boundaries that our minds have put on music. Over time, our brains have clearly defined what Music is, and what separates music from sounds and noises ("Sounds do not have structure, music does"). Hanatarash has now rendered this definition as an obsolete way to Listen. Everyday sounds and noises have always been known as unstructured and meaningless, but Hanatarash has done the impossible by provoking feelings and carefully orchestrating these noises. This band's work is a huge accomplishment for the evolution of Music, and humanity's perception of the medium, and what that medium exactly is. Unfortunately, it is so revolutionary, and so unfamiliar to us, that it is extremely alienating to most connoisseurs of music.

In short, 2 is utterly terrifying to the senses. It is chaos and insanity at light speed, and definitely NOT for the faint of heart.

Try starting out with we bite bollocks, my dad is car, pisshole surfers, and vortex shit.

ハナタラシ

Boards of Canada - The Campfire Headphase

Boards of Canada is a really cool cross between ambient and groovy. It's elevator music on acid. One can really get lost in some of the tracks here.

Ambient music is really tricky to pull off well. If you're not careful, it can be boring and dull. Unlike good music, it could numb rather than captivate. After 5 minutes of some really uninspiring Ambience, you just want to turn the boring shit off and listen to some real music.

Though Boards of Canada can teeter on the edge of this, (Ataronchronon, Sherbet Head), The Campfire Headphase has enough hooks and beats to really keep you sucked into some of its truly beautiful and profound soundscapes. This is a type of fog you actually want to be lost in.

some of the songs have a weird unnameable emotion to them (Chromakey Dreamcoat, Hey Saturday Sun) that makes this band unique.

This is seriously some cool stuff. I got this album two days ago, and since then, I haven't really been able to do any homework or do anything productive. Perfect music for daydreaming. If you try hard enough, you can really be somewhere else with this shit.

Best tracks to start out with:

Dayvan Cowboy

Chromakey Dreamcoat

Satellite Anthem Icarus

'84 Pontiac Dream

Peacock Tail

Hey Saturday Sun

PART 1

PART 2

Here's a video of Dayvan Cowboy, mixed with footage of a man skydiving at 102,800 feet. Totally amazing. The air was so thin at this altitude that the guy couldn't feel himself falling.