Listening with an open mind. Writing about what I hear. Do you have something interesting you'd like to share? Write Mick at thasoundblog@gmail.com. Twitter @thasoundblog
I wrote a review of this really excellent black and death metal album from 1,000 Lakes lurkers Suffering Hour. They have a really unique sound within the genre. Unique in that they are willing to embrace both elements of post-punk and psychedelic rock as part of their sound. Like a devastating, death rattling Cure. Interesting stuff. Review is at New Noise. Link below:
Capra, the Lousiana-based metallic hardcore band, is fit to gore you and distribute your entrails like party favors on their debut LP In Transmission. Capra, of course, is the Latin name for the domesticated goat. A term that was often applied to herders or people who simply lived near goats as well. It's was not a term of endearment. The way this term was used, it is as if depending on a certain creature for one's livelihood, or merely living near one, will cause the properties of that animal to become transitive and rub off on their human caretakers. This often had the effect of providing an excuse for the exclusion of certain people from society due simply to their occupation.
Anyone who has worked as a janitor, or another menial service role, for any length of time, knows how this same discriminatory justification works in a modern industrial society. In the eyes of society, if your job is scrubbing shit off the walls, then you're about as disposable as the sponge in your hands, and not worthy of much more dignity than the excrement you're charged with eliminating. The rage that boils up in someone who finds themselves in this kind of relationship to society could not be captured better than on "Mutt," which begins with the line "Burn it all down!" over a ravaging, incendiary d-beat that scrapes and whirls while as if seeking to ignite indiscriminate fires, like a lawnmower blade sparking as it gnaws at concrete during a drought.
The obvious touchpoints for Capra in both style and themes are Converge and Discharge, exhibiting an earned indigency and all-consuming fury for the society that spurs its members accompanied by rage dizzied grooves and slicing guitars that hit like a chisel between the discs of your spine. There are also times when lead singer Crow Lotus appears to channel Meghan O'Neil of Punch in both lurching cadence and agonizing tone, which gives the music one more layer of unparalleled insurgency.
If you're not sure where to start with In Transmission, skip ahead to "The Locust Preacher" where an unquellable, cyclone of guitar melodies encircle and progressively collapse inwards toward Crow, a force of destruction kept from suffocating her completely only by virtue of her sheer spite, a rage that gives her the will to evade certain doom. The struggle for survival in this new age of barbarism has found its new rallying cry, and it is In Transmission.
Get In Transmission via Metal Blade here.
I had a really fantastic interview with UK-based vaporware and electronic producer desert sand feels warm at night for New Noise today. We talked about his new album 新世界の弟子たち the origins of his sound, what inspired him to learn Chinese, and the fluctuating definition of vaporwave and all of its various subgenres. You can read the full interview at the links below:
I wrote a review of the marvelous new record from Chicago folk singer Emily Jane Powers for New Noise today. She's gone full electric for Isometry and it could not have been a better decision for her. There is still a fair amount of whimsy to her music though and it's very cool to see how she integrates these dynamics. Links to the review and more below.
I wrote about the one and only LP from Japanese punk band Gomess for New Noise today. Somehow these folks ended up as obscure as they get. Thank god for reissues. My life is genuinely better after having heard this album. Links below:
It was the United States of America's birthday yesterday so I wrote about a Canadian artist who did an album last year about how this country is going down the shitter. I compared it to Bo Burnham: Inside. You may think this was all an unforced error, but I have no regrets. Links below:
Wrote about the second EP from hard to web-search, but easy to love punk and shoegaze rockers Worlds Worst. Every other DIY band these days is getting tagged as emo, and I understand why that is so annoying to people. I therefore tried to refrain from talking about Worlds Worst like they were solely an emo band. It became an impossible task. Worlds Worst is emo as fuck. Links to the review.
Wrote a review for this really sweet and unassuming Ukrainian psychedelic pop band's latest album for New Noise. I've encountered few bands who transparently love what they are doing as much as Sibirian Ambassador. Links below:
The JB Conspiracy is a ska band from the UK who are really reaching for the stars with their third album. And it's good. Make no mistake, I like it. It is totally outside of my wheelhouse but I do like it. Call it my pallet cleanser for June (published in July). Fun fact: The band tried to use my review to get on Patrick Stump's radar. True story. I hope it worked out for them. Links below:
I always get a little bit of imposter syndrome while writing about jazz records. Part of it is how seriously jazz is taken academically. Some terrified part of my psyche feels like I should have to obtain a master's degree in music theory or composition before I even inhale with the intent to utter a public thought about the genre. Another part of me feels disqualified due to my other interests: namely metal, hardcore, and weirdo experimental stuff. I know most jazz enthusiasts actively despise these things, and so I'm always a little afraid of a backlash for offering any kind of critique of something they do like. None of these concerns ever stop me, though. I just feel like it's a worthwhile insight to share because it helps explain why I felt compelled to say something about violinist Sana Nagano's new record, Smashing Humans.
This is an accessible release for me. Not only because it's very silly, but also because it's wildly unorthodox. For starters, Sana is a serious performer and composer. I don't think anyone could call her credentials into question without severely injuring their own credibility. Despite being a credentialed and demonstrably talented performer, she very clearly doesn't take herself too seriously. She's described Smashing Humans as both a kind of musical "Disney Land" and inspired by a video game her ex-boyfriend used to play. How many jazz albums can you name that match these specific criteria? Combining the strangely personal with the invitingly and diverting? I can only name one, Smashing Humans. In terms of career, Sana's trajectory has also been unusual, going from Berklee College of Music to NYC where she made a home for herself in the worlds of punk and noise. When it comes to technique, she likes to run her violin through a series of pedals, one of which is programmed with Hatsune Miku's voice (Korg Miku Stomp). She also seems extremely friendly, almost to a fault, while giving interviews. Truly, if there is a jazz performer who is as approachable as they are intriguing, it's Sana Nagano.
For Smashing Humans, Sana has assembled a band consisting of axman Keisuke Matsuno, tenor sax tamer Peter Apfelbaum, bass boss Ken Filiano, and drum master Joe Hertenstein. Together they create an indomitable current of sound, following both Sana's densely drafted compositions, while occasionally finding relief in improvisation departures, the latter of which helps to capture the dynamic and unpredictable state of flow present in live performances. This approach lends itself to some beautifully realized moments of intrigue and chaos, like with the sharp-toned psychedelia served up on "Loud Dinner Wanted," where lines of heady guitars fall before the toothy scythe of Sana's string arrangments, while the rest of the band tries to keep things on course by creating brackets of taught and snappy grooves in an attempt to keep civilian casualties to a minimum. "Humans in Grey" has a woozy sardonic role to its passage that conveys both a sense of inner ear disruption as well as a sunken-eyed weariness that is amusingly cartoonish while remaining defiantly grounded in the bustle of an urban borough. Also, notable is the noisy, scrap and squeeze of "Heavenly Evil Devil," where I swear Sana and her cohort are trying to wring juice out of their instruments before collapsing into whimpering exhaustion.
Is Smashing Humans weird as hell? You bet! Does that make it an essential listen in my book? If you've been following along, you should know the answer already- absolutely!
I did a write up of the sick new EP from Morocain punk band Taqbir's Victory Belongs To Those Who Fight For A Right Cause for New Noise. Anti-religious punk from a place where there are still repercussions for not bending the knee to the local religious authorities. Better than the subject matter though, the music absolutely rocks! Links below:
Ho99o9 have always interested me. I've felt there was a lot of potential in the project for a long time. I hope they still release solo albums, but I think this mixtape presents a really interesting new direction for the band. That is as a collective or crew rather than just OGM and Eaddy operating in isolation. Check out what I had to say about their new collaborative mixtape over on New Noise at the links below:
I stumbled on to Gaint Claw's music totally by accident around the time that he released Mutant Glamour... I should probably back up a bit. Giant Claw is the exhaust valve through which visual artist and Orange Milk label co-founder Keith Rankin vents the steam off his brain in the form of experimental music. While he's been doing it in fits and starts since 2010, I first encountered his music in 2012 with his playful, synth-jazz record Mutant Glamour. It was a little smart for me at the time and I admit that I had no reference point for what I was hearing. So, in a state of confusion, I wander off into the wilderness of the internet to see if I could find anything similar. My stumbling eventually caused me to fall down the well of Dan Deacon's discography, which was a real blessing, so I guess I have Keith to thank for that.
I hadn't been keeping up with Giant Claw since the early '10s, and I only took a passing interest in 2014's Dark Web before checking out again. For whatever reason, though, at the start of 2021, I became fixated on a desire to go back to Mutant Glamour. I can barely explain why, other than the fact that the music I listen to these days is increasingly synth-based, and I figured that I had finally acquired the right context for it. I have to say that Mutant Glamour has aged beautifully, but what's more, by revisiting that album, I discovered that Keith had a new one. It's also great, but in a completely different way.
Mirror Guide comes to us after a period of reflection by Keith. He had been busy enough with his design that he had completely shelved Giant Claw for a couple of years. When he did return to the project, he had decided that his next album was going to aim for a more mainstream, pop orientation. Roughly translated: "Papa's going to make some dough!" Nothing wrong with that. It just didn't happen. Before it was finished, Keith apparently decided that the direction the project was going was all wrong. So he scrapped it and made Mirror Guide instead. This is probably one of the more abstract albums in Giant Claw's catalog and mostly consists of sounds recorded on a cello and a smattering of other orchestral instruments, and manipulated magnificently in post. The aim for the release was to cultivate sounds that triggered a flow of overwhelming emotions, and reignite the awe Keith felt when listening to recorded sounds when he was younger. Results might vary, but I'm giving him points for both style and execution here. He's definitely stuck the landing.
Opener "Earther" bounces, hiccups, and back-flips like a frog that's accidentally licked a psychedelic mushroom, wallowing in a nutrient-rich pool of cinematic runoff and detritus, and particle of which could be its own thematic score, but here is only presented in a measure or a half measure at a time before shifting focus to the next. "Mir-Cam Online" strains with a warm but peculiar affection that if I didn't know any better, I'd think it was actually trying to tell some kind of a love story (I may not actually know better, btw). The album takes a curious spill through moods of triumph and crushing defeat, before ending with an ambiguous cliffhanger on the thrilling raft of "Disworld" featuring a hushed performance by avant-garde vocalist NTsKi. "Until Mirror" is both wiser sounding and more mischievous than its siblings, a feat helped greatly by the calm and steady elocution of Tamar Kamin, and "Mirror Guide, pt.1" sounds like the soundtrack to an afternoon weather report slowly upping the ante and raising the sonic stakes until it resembles the theme to an obtuse spy-thriller. The whole release is as serene as it is startling, like a free fall with a plot twist.
It's corny, but I'm just going to come out and say it, Mirror Guide shattered my expectations.
You can get a copy of Mirror Guide here from Orange Milke Records.
I decided to listen to this album because I like the doggo on the cover and then I really enjoyed the album so I wrote a review of it. You can read my review over on New Noise at the links below:
I read a profile the other night about a woman living in London and working as a cam girl. She had previously worked in health care and recruiting but had to quit due to mental health reasons. Within a few months of leaving her salaried job, she found herself behind on rent and other bills with few options. So she started camming.
According to the quotes provided in the article, she now makes around £150k ($207,966.75) a year, sets her own hours, goes on vacation to Continental Europe when she feels like it, and is already planning for retirement. She also no longer suffers the mental health issues that forced her to exit her office job. It kind of makes you think about what the fuck you're doing with your own life, doesn't it? Two significant takeaways from the profile that I think are worth noting: 1) Her mental health issues were the result of the conditions and pressures of a "normal" work environment, and 2) Camming (at least in the way the woman profiled was doing it) is less exploitative than her traditional 9-5, evidenced by both her improved mental health and the drastically increased take-home pay.
I think most people intuit that the jobs they are forced to take in order to earn money to live are only slightly preferable to the alternative, ie dying. I think this is why so many people try to make art their livelihood, or at least why the appeal of doing is so widespread. It's a way of doing meaningful work that isn't exploitative. It's a way of rending some semblance of control from the systems that run roughshod over you. There is a potential to earn more as an artist of some kind than in more traditional careers (if you're lucky). It's also a potential route towards doing work that you find fulfilling and don't mind staking your identity on. This flight from exploitation takes many forms. Whether it is painting, writing (yo!), camming, or... DJing!
DJ Camgirl is Georgian producer Jeff Cardinal rolls out his second album and Doom Trip release with the amusingly titled CANNON /Problems. Jeff seems to approach house and drum and bass with the same anarchic zeal as a breakcore producer- recklessly clashing beats and textures together to render new, beautiful, bastardization forms. This is definitely house music, but only after a fashion. One in which baselines are shot through an ethernet cable to spin like a cat on fire around a corrupted hard drive before being spit back out into the lobby sound system at a body hacker convention. Cool synths cross-firing with bratty circuit board power serges, shattering along with flash-frozen beats and aggressively imploding lines of nightclub-esque grooves, and rippling over a shivering cleave of body rotating, piston hip powering dance catalysts. Animating current of inhibition annihilating percussion shot through with enough licks of flavorful contra-melodies it will make you think you're skiing down the crystalline circumference of an enormous bubblegum flavored snowcone. This is soft-lipped, hard-biting electronic music deserving of the name techno in the most honorable sense in which that term can be applied.
You can get a copy of CANNON / Problems from Doom Trip Records here.
Fuck! This is good. Holy fuck. New Jersey's GEL just dropped a new EP through Conculse Records and you can read my review over on New Noise. I wasn't exactly stoked on the prospect of live shows resuming this year because I'm getting old and the prospect of being out all night, spending a bunch of money at the bar, and then schlepping my ass back home at 2am isn't as attractive of a prospect as it once was. But GEL may have turned me around on this issue. I'm warming up to seeing live bands again this year, especially if they can throw down like I'm hearing GEL throw down here.
Pride month is slipping into the rearview mirror as Summer presses ever forward, but if you still need a tune or two to fill out a multi-hued playlist to celebrate, consider picking something up from Renee Goust and her latest album, Resister. I know next to nothing about Renee other than what is on her Bandcamp page and I only know about her because I saw that WBEW Vocalo in Chicago played one of her songs. However, I'm compelled to write about her work because I find what she's doing interesting and pretty unique as well.
Renee combines American and Mexican folk traditions to scatch wonderfully deep and lovingly embellished portraits of everyday people living their lives. Some men. Some women. Some gay. Some Mexican. Others are from parts unknown. And still, others may claim neither nationality nor gender as determinative of their identities. They're all part of the tapestry of humanity that blankets the Earth, a theme that is given life from the outset on bright and crisp opener "Diosa," where Renee pays homage to a universal being while delivering a sweet thrumming vocal melody atop a clip and shutter of Spanish guitars.
Beyond the theme of communion with the whole of the human family, Resistor also satisfies the slightly more narrow study of romantic love. Sometimes this love is between a man and a woman, like in the warm and wistful ballad, "A kiss in the mall." But as the video for that song makes clear, the normative binary of opposite sexes attracting is not generally Renee's focus. Love is where you find it, and Renne is enthusiastic in her ability to paint with the full pallet of possible human affinity and passion. And the passion she shares with other women is probably nowhere better exemplified than on the bendy steal backed, countryfied canzone, "Baltimore to Brooklyn," a charming song about a woman who will travel just about any distance to be with the one she loves.
In writing songs within this latter category, Renee pretty clearly draws from the understated, but perennial, heritage of lesbian folk music within the United States, and baths it in the textures and sounds of ranchera, as well as other Mexican folk traditions, until they are fully absorbed within it like milk and sugar soaking into the dough of pan dulce. It's an overlap of influences that is well overdue. Genre is historically permeable and it thrives on cross-pollination. Just like the Southern border between US and Mexico. No one whose interests intersects with those of common people's benefits whatsoever from lines being drawn where they do not need to be drawn. There are lots of things that you should be putting your whole back into resisting these days, but if there is one thing you should let slip past your guard, it's Renee Renee Goust's Resister.
ノイズの若大将 may be the most shocking grindcore album I've ever come across. I'm serious. Not shocking in a vulgar sense though. There are plenty of those. Instead, the band is doing something to my brain that I have never witnessed a dyed in the gore grind operation do before. They are tackling banal subject matter without a hint of irony- and it's really working for them.
The long suffered scourge of Japanese grindcore band Final Exit dates back to 1994, surviving most of that time as a two-man sonic slaughterhouse. They released their twenty-fifth album last year, titled ノイズの若大将 , or Young Guy of Noize in English. I don't read Japanese, so I needed to have it translated for me. But once I Googled their full name It became very apparent what they were going for- this album is an earnest tribute to a series of teen films from the '60s and '70s known as the Wakadaishō series, or Young Ace or Young Guy in English. I've heard of tribute albums before, but this is probably one of the more conceptually challenging ones. Light teen romps shouldn't make for good subject matter for a grindcore album. Thankfully, no one told this to Final Exit. And if they did, they were ignored.
The Wakadaishō series, which stared Yūzō Kayama as the "Young Guy," was wildly popular in Japan at one point. You can think of the series as akin to those old Elvis beach party films, where the protagonist is a well-healed and intentioned meaning but salt-of-the-earth kind of guy, who has to rise to the occasion when confronted by an ill-tempered and often litigious villain, in order to win the heart of the film's female lead.
These contests for the clasp and affection of Yūzō's true love usually took the form of a sports competition. However, there is one film (Ereki no Wakadaishō) where Yūzō had to learn to play the guitar to woo the girl (something that he did in real life, as well as the film), and it ended up rocketing him into a very successful music career with his backing band, literally called, The Launchers.
There are winks and nods to Wakadaishō patterned throughout Young Guy of Noize, mostly in the form of straight-face, surf-rock interludes and bookends, but also a cover of The Launchers' "Black Sand Beach," which feels like it gliding in from a luau two houses over. You can almost smell the pineapple on the grill as its warbling riffs drift beneath your nose, and the crash of the waves on the beach as it bustles between your ears. On the grindery side of things, songs like "Some "Waka" songs #1)" do a remarkably palatable job of thinly layering sunny, strolling guitar lines with gummy wads of gnashing blast parts, and the complex interchange of the stop-start structures and momentum building melodies of tracks like "Running Donkey" are charmingly reminiscent of such technically proficient, and similarly anarchic, output of enigmatic groups like Clown Core. Think of the Ventures in a meth lab fire or Repulsion tooling around with their instruments and feeling the vibe on a deck of a soon to be shipwrecked cruise liner, and you'll be in the right headspace when diving into this album,
As I said, it's kind of shocking how earnestly Final Exit undertakes the subject matter of the album and how thoroughly they integrate the themes of the source material into their joyful, irreverent, pleasantly repugnant approach. Shocking, I would say, but not disappointing. This record gets my highest recommendation!
 |
| Image courtesy of the band |
I had a great conversation with K and Ben late last year and I finally got around to transcribing it for New Noise. I think these two are doing something pretty great in the world of hardcore. Wishing them as much luck in seeking success as I've ever wished anyone. Check out our conversation at the links below:
Read interview with Matriachs on New Noise here.
Get a copy of Matriachs's new album Year of the Rat from Upstate here.
I wrote a review of the new LP Bugs from Indiana weirdo Erik Nervous for New Noise. Some great Devo worship here. Check it out at the links below:
 |
| Photo courtesy of Serge Bulat |
Check out the trailers for both Wurroom and Isolomus and then read my interview with Segre Bulat below.
Interview conducted over email on June 3, 2021. It has been edited slightly for the sake of clarity.
This interview is published in partnership with the Video Game Art Gallery.
What does your musical background look like and how did you develop your style?