MP3 of the Moment

Artist: Godspeed You Black Emperor!
Album: Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada
Song: Moya
Genre: Post-Rock

Hands down, this is the greatest post-rock song ever. The climax at 8:27 almost made me wreck my car when I first heard it, and I'm not kidding.

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MP3 of the Moment

Artist: Nitrada
Album: We Don't Know Why But We Do It
Song: Old Love, New Idea
Genre: Electronic

I think my friend Brian will love this song. It's off an almost-impossible-to-purchase-in-America album by a German dude who makes music under the name Nitrada.

Great stuff, and the album is full of diversity; almost no two song sound alike. Definitely recommended.

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MP3 of the Moment

Artist: The Mars Volta
Album: Frances The Mute
Song: Cygnus....Vismund Cygnus: A. Sarcophagi/B. Umbilical Syllables/C. Facilis Descenus Averni/D. Con Safo
Genre: Magic

Was their first record amazing? Yes. Transcendental? Hard to argue with that. Was their second record a disappointing noise-fest? Yes. But there's still no denying this song. This song is full of so very many moments....the central breakdown and build is among the best things that The Mars Volta have ever done....I just can't get over the depth of that build....and the transition at 8:24 is worthy of metal.

I'm sorry, but this song is as good as anything they've ever done. First record included.

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MP3 of the Moment

Artist: White Rabbits
Album: Fort Nightly
Song: The Plot
Genre: Indie Rock

I'm way overdue with my SXSW Recap, but here's a little taste of one of my favorite SXSW discoveries....

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MP3 of the Moment

Artist: The Pineapple Thief
Album: What We Have Sown
Song: What Have We Sown?
Genre: Rock

Yes, this song is 27 minutes long.

If I can spare the bandwidth you can spare the time; put it on when you're gonna be at your computer for a spell.

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

Artist: The Big Sleep
Album: Sleep Forever
Song: Pinkies
Genre: Rock

The Big Sleep is back.

Big time.

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

Artist: The Jonbenet
Album: The Plot Thickens
Song: Eleventh Century Folklore (Chapter I)
Genre: Raunchy-Ass Emo Texas Metal



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MP3 of the Moment

Artist: Caribou
Album: Start Breaking My Heart
Song: Brandon
Genre: Electronic

It's been a bit too long since I've posted something here. I've really been digging Caribou lately; I'd checked this dude out a few times in the past but the music never quite grabbed me. For whatever reason I checked it one last time and was hooked. I really dig this song, although I really could have upped just about anything from the reissue of this album, which comes with a bonus disc that's better than most regular albums. I bought two more of his records the other day and am enjoying them just as much.

Buy It!

2007 - The Blender

Another year, another mix. Same deal as last year: mostly it's stuff that came out in 2007, but a portion of it is older stuff that I discovered this year. Going back to my 2002 and 2003 mixes, my timeline with Botch in particular has been comical; I somehow missed 'Worker Bees' for all these years but randomly discovered that gem of a song while working out one day. And let me tell you, 2:40 in that song is where fat girls go to die in mosh pits at metal shows.

Anyway, I think I ended up with a really good mix this year. It of course spans everything from super heavy screamy goodness to downtempo chilled out stuff, so if the first few songs put you off I will weep for you, but stick with it and I'm sure you'll find some stuff you'll like. It moves back and forth between loud & quiet, but the end of the mix trends toward a nice wind-down.

The track listing is below, along with short comments in parentheses. Mostly they're just mentions of my favorite lyrics or moments or thoughts about each song, because whatever, I felt like it.

Enjoy!

Download It!

1. Trap Them - Digital Dogs With Analog Collars (LET IT RIDE.)
2. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Lurch (I. DON'T. KNOW. YOUR. NAME.)
3. Every Time I Die - We'rewolf (I didn't put my hair in a ponytail for nuthin'.)
4. Clark - Ted (0:36 is it.)
5. Stateless - Running Out (How long before you crack?)
6. Fujiya & Miyagi - Ankle Injuries (Like pixelated scraps of jazz max in your head. Lights.)
7. Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass (Goes like this: Duty and Death.)
8. The Big Sleep - Brown Beauty (2:04, delicious noise.)
9. Cursed - The Hands Will Abide (BOREDOM. THE EYES IN THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD.)
10. Botch - Thank God For The Worker Bees (THAT'S WHY. WE DIE.)
11. The Minor Times - Casket City Lights (HANG. TWIST IN THE WIND.)
12. Holy F**k - Frenchy's (See these guys live.)
13. Buck 65 - Spread 'Em (Wider. Wider, now. That's right.)
14. Ion Dissonance - Void Of Conscience (WHAT GOES IN ONE EAR GOES OUT THE OTHER.)
15. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Fix Your Face (NOW YOU'LL PAY THE PRICE FOR HER. PRAY FOR HER.)
16. The Chariot - They Faced Each Other (WHAT IF WE CAN'T WAKE UP? I HOPE YOU ALL REST IN PEACE.)
17. Every Time I Die - Cities And Years (WAR, COME WITH US HOME.)
18. Queens Of The Stone Age - Sick, Sick, Sick (Lose the halo, don't need to resist.)
19. Do Make Say Think - The Universe! (It's all about building up to 4:02.)
20. Rosetta - Monument (RELEASE. REVOLVE.)
21. Poison The Well - Letter Thing (GIVE ME SUNSHINE, MAKE ME HAPPY. GIVE ME SUNSHINE.)
22. Every Time I Die - No Son Of Mine (STOP. THIEF.)
23. The Minor Times - This Is The Blues (Nah, nah nah nah nah.)
24. Peter Bjorn And John - Young Folks (Talking only me and you.)
25. Buck 65 - The Beatific (Everything belongs to me because I am poor.)
26. Yppah - I'll Hit The Breaks (1:30 = Gangster.)
27. Clark - Herzog (Welcome to the future.)
28. Intronaut - The Challenger (0:39 is destruction.)
29. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Horse Hunter (COMMERCE IS YOUR GOD. CANNIBALISTIC FLIES.)
30. Poison The Well - You Will Not Be Welcomed (YOU ARE SUSTENANCE.)
31. LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great (I wish that we could talk about it.)
32. Radiohead - All I Need (It's all wrong. It's all right.)
33. Boards Of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy (3:16 is what music is.)
34. The Cape May - Desert House (Who's that there over my shoulder? I don't want to look anymore.)
35. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Mouth Of Ghosts (You were a mouth without a heart, an action without meaning.)
36. Clark - The Autumnal Crush (And I....Still....Miss................You.)

MP3 of the Moment

Artist: The Cape May
Album: Glass Mountain Roads
Song: Desert House
Genre: Dirge?

You could knock me over with a feather right now. I was intrigued by the description of them posted on the fantabulous Regnyouth blog, but I expected that I'd download their record and delete it after listening to 2 songs. I couldn't have been more off base; holy hell, they've snared me.

This is not at all my type of music, but man oh man do I absolutely love this band. If it doesn't hook you right away, stick with it. If you don't feel it at 2:38 then there is something wrong with you.

Buy It!

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works

Edit: Oops, forgot that whole bit where I give the album 5 out of 5 stars!

I remember one time at a Buck 65 show, he introduced his hilarious and entertaining cover of The Jungle Brothers's 'I'm Gonna Do You' by saying, "When I was growing up, The Jungle Brothers made a record called Straight Out The Jungle. Now that album is a classic. And the reason that album is a classic is because every song on that record is amazing."

That's how I feel about Ire Works, which is probably my favorite album of 2007. At first I was lukewarm on a few songs, but heaven help me I even love 'Black Bubblegum' now; it's hard to resist the cheesy hook, and I finally gave up trying.

This album is a clear progression for Dillinger. It's got some of their best math metal ever, but there's so much diversity on the record that it really feels like three different bands, which could have turned out to be a bad thing if their signature stylistic elements didn't traverse the boundaries between songs so well. This album is 1/3 crazy math metal, 1/3 IDM glitch and 1/3 melodic rock. But even that doesn't do it justice, as the glitch songs include metal riffs and melodic vocals, while one of the rock tracks has a positively Latin vibe to it ('Mouth Of Ghosts', available below).

I don't feel like I have too much to say about the record, oddly. I love every single song, even the short ones. And where the short tracks on Clark's Body Riddle felt mostly like filler, the short interludes on Ire Works serve as great bridges between the songs. If you listen to the album straight through (something I rarely do in the age of mp3s and shuffled playlists) there's a cohesion and progression that feels well-planned.

The thing I really love about the album is how many memorable moments it has for me:

-Dmitri's guest vocals in 'Fix Your Face'
-Pretty much all of 'Lurch'
-The surprising vocal appearance at the end of 'Sick On Sunday'
-The swelling, swingin' horns in 'Milk Lizard'
-The surprisingly anthemic chorus riff in 'Party Smasher'
-The throwback/homage 80's trash metal vocals in 'Horse Hunter'
-Brent Hinds's guest vocals in 'Horse Hunter'
-The Latin vibe and piano rundowns in 'Mouth Of Ghosts'

And those are just the ones off the top of my head.

Greg's vocals have grown on me a lot. He's gotten past the obvious Patton/Reznor worship and has come into his own, displaying a huge range on the album; he handles everything from snarling screams to falsetto vocals with style. And Chris Pennie's departure, which could have been a huge disaster for the band, seems like a non-issue once you hear Gil Sharone positively murdering the drums. I don't know much at all about him, but the percussion he brings to the record, which hints at jazz from time to time, is amazing. He even finds a way to make the rock songs feel slightly off-kilter. And, of course, Ben Weinman has written some amazingly intricate guitar runs offset by crushing breakdowns. Everyone showed up for this one.

Okay, I lied, I actually did have a lot to say about the record. I just can't stop listening to it front to back, and I'd encourage you to do the same.

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Preview It!

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

Artist: The Dillinger Escape Plan
Album: Ire Works
Song: Mouth Of Ghosts
Genre: Versatility

This song comes from what is probably my album of the year. Ire Works is absolutely amazing; I wouldn't think of skipping a single song.

And if you have any sort of preconceived notion about Dillinger, you're officially wrong.

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

Artist: The Octopus Project
Album: One Ten Hundred Thousand Million
Song: Music Is Happiness
Genre: Quality

In honor of when The Octopus Project wrote fantastic songs....

....the song title says it all.

Buy It!

The Octopus Project - Hello, Avalanche

Hello, Avalanche of Boredom. It's not that this album is bad, it's just that it's not very good. I love their previous two records, but this one just spends 43 minutes going exactly nowhere. There are a few songs that show promise, but they fizzle out every time. Man, what a disappointment.

Rating: 2/5 Stars

MP3 of the Moment

Artist: Foo Fighters
Album: Foo Fighters
Song: Exhausted
Genre: Alternative

Remember back in 1995 when Foo Fighters didn't suck? I still love this song; it remains one of my favorite album-closers ever.

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

Artist: U.N.K.L.E.
Album: Psyence Fiction
Song: Rabbit In Your Headlights
Genre: Gold

DJ Shadow + Thom Yorke = Perfection

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

Artist: LCD Soundsystem
Album: Sound of Silver
Song: Someone Great
Genre: Not quite sure....

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

Artist: Do Make Say Think
Album: Goodbye Enemy Airship The Landlord Is Dead
Song: The Landlord Is Dead
Genre: Post-Rock

I'm about to head out for the weekend, but I figured I'd do a quick update. This is one of my favorite post-rock songs ever, from one of my favorite post-rock albums ever.

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

Artist: Smashing Pumpkins
Album: Siamese Dream
Song: Hummer
Genre: Alternative

If you don't like this song there's something wrong with you. That's all there is to say.

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

Artist: Aesop Rock
Album: None Shall Pass
Song: None Shall Pass
Genre: Hip-Hop

I was in a store and this song came on. I asked the clerk who it was and bought the album on the spot (Amazon Prime + web phone = glory). I've never listened to Aesop Rock much, but I'm enjoying the album so far.

Buy It!

MP3 of the Moment

Artist: Rosetta
Album: Wake/Lift
Song: Monument
Genre: Post-Rock / Metal

Don't be put off by the vocals and tone in the first minute; it quickly gets very ambient and post-rocky. And the vox are mixed fairly low throughout the song. In my mind they just add another texture to the crazy layering Rosetta has going on. I'm really in love with the builds in this track.

Buy It!

Clark - Body Riddle

Has it been a month? God, I'm so bad about updating my blog. Anyway, I have a towering album to tell you about.

This album is dirty.

And I'm talking about the good dirty. The dirty that makes you feel joy in your soul. The dirty that makes you happy that people are making music like this.

Chris Clark has been making music for a while, but I just recently found out about him (thanks Brian!). This album really punched me in the teeth, so I went back and checked out some of his previous work. Frankly it wasn't anything special, but on this one he really found his stride and then some.

Back to the whole dirty thing, Clark fuzzies up his samples and makes electronic music sound like it was played by a live but drunken noise orchestra....in a good way. This is probably the most organic-sounding electronic record I've ever heard. I know intellectually that it's all very intentional, calculated and planned, but that doesn't really alter the listening experience. When you're hearing this record you feel like you're hearing improvisation and exploration. I don't know if non-musicians will understand this, but I can see Chris Clark in a poorly lit room with his head down and bobbing slowly, playing the same measure over and over on the keyboard in order to find the perfect progression. Just doing it again and again until it's right. Over and over and over and over. Until it's right.

That's how music is written, for those of you who have never done it.

So back to the album....The first few songs are very strong, with their pseudo-jazz beats and intriguing melodies blending together nicely. The first two songs fade into track three quite well, eventually melting down into a nice decrescendo. The meltdown completes the first trio of songs, establishing the fact that on this record Clark isn't just throwing together a bunch of great songs but is in fact crafting an album.

Then comes track four, 'Herzog'.

Track four is from the future.

Though there are basically no drums, this synth-heavy track sounds like it's from the kind of future that I want to live in. There are huge climaxes and intricate melodies all wrapped up in the same analog, improv-heavy style that kicked the album off. Track four makes you realize that this album is something special. It has fantastic dynamics and beautiful distortion. Yum.

When track four fades out you figure that it's melting down, but as soon as you're lulled to sleep track five slams in with the groove that got me to check out the album in the first place. Though it's only, 2:54 long, 'Ted' has all of the intensity and intricacy that IDM should be all about. The song is gone almost as soon as it came, but damn if it doesn't leave a lasting impression.

Tracks 6, 7 and 8 are all great. Yep. Check them out and enjoy them. They rock. But they're basically (really good) filler before the closing triptych of triptychs.

Man oh man, 'Matthew Unburdened' is a great track. It's got a hauntingly off-beat rhythm that lulls you to sleep before throwing you off again, once again in a good way. It fades in and out with ease, switching melodies in a deft attempt to create a song that could have easily been a completely satisfactory album-closer had Clark not written two more songs that truly shut the album all the way down. Seriously, 'Matthew Unburdened' could have ended things and I would have been happy.

But holy crap, 'Night Knuckles'. You really just need to hear this song. It's the most beautifully frenetic song ever. This song is what Four Tet has been trying to do all along. It uses bells and melodies and what sounds suspiciously like a bunch of spoons to craft a driving, intensely beautiful experience. It goes a million miles an hour but never sounds like it's a hurry, because the undercurrent of melody proceeds at just the right pace. There are some melodic transitions that just kill me. Just when you think it's over the song comes back and just hits you in the face with driving melody and wonderfully intricate percussion. Man oh man.

Then comes the last track, 'The Autumnal Crush'. At this point you should have already bought the album just from reading about it, but if you haven't then this song will heal your soul. Holy crap. It starts with a bittersweet melody that makes you close your eyes and try to find the melody inside the melody. Then the beat drops. And just when you think that beat has built into something special, the real beat drops. Again, holy crap. And when that one is done, another layer gets put on top. This song has a simple melody that just keeps cycling and cycling, getting distorted more and more until it works its way into your soul.

Yeah yeah, whatever, it's just music. But hey, listen to this record and you will be amazingly moved. Seriously. Buy it. Listen to it. Close your eyes and get carried away.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Buy It!

Poison The Well - Versions

Holy crap. I've been listening to these guys for 5 years now, and they've always been a band that I liked but never loved. Until now.

With their latest album, Poison The Well has blown all expectations out of the water. They've progressed from fairly standard whiny hardcore to somewhat progressive songwriting to promising-but-flawed experimentation to this album's near-perfection. From what I understand, it's come at a high cost; the band has gone from being a tight-knit five-piece to being a bare-bones three-piece, which must have been heart-wrenching after doing four albums as a full band of close friends.

But I digress.

What makes this album stand above the rest?....

....the inclusion of country influences.

No, I'm not kidding.

This record blasts out of the gate with face-melting intensity on the opener 'Letter Thing', but Poison The Well has done intensity before. The magic comes from their new sound, which takes brutal hardcore and layers in country stylings without a hint of irony. They use twang, they use slide guitar, they use banjo. And it all works. You can still hear the classic elements of their sound (punk rock drum beats, dry lung vocals, energetic/erratic guitar), but it's all been centered by the outstanding production and unified vision of this album.

PTW's clean singing has never done it for me in the past, because it's always seemed way too safe and formulaic. It's been emo suckiness, frankly. On this record, however, vocalist Jeffrey Moreira has really found his stride, and his vocal performance is worthy of good indie rock. The drums and guitar both rip as hard as ever, and the songwriting is incredibly solid. It took a year and a half to record this album, and it shows. The songs have excellent structure and tons of patience; even the burners take the time to break things up. Not a lot of bands know how to do that.

This is a hardcore/metal/heavy album with texture, heart, maturity, talent, growth, balance and atmosphere. This one isn't going to be forgotten. It's not waiting for the next big scene record to knock it out of your consciousness. Music fans are going to remember this one for a long, long time. I can't urge you to check it out strongly enough.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Buy It!

SXSW 2007 Recap

Yep, it's been forever since my last post. Been busy, blah blah blah.

Anyway, SXSW 2007 ended a few days ago, so I thought I'd do a quick recap and point out some of my favorite shows (along with mentioning a few big disappointments). I've probably forgotten some of the shows I've seen, but hey, I'm only human. So without further ado....

The Great

Buck 65 - I first learned about Buck 65 two years ago, when I saw him without knowing anything about him, and while this year's show wasn't as magical as that one (this time he performed a lot of new unreleased material) it was still top notch entertainment. His stage presence, facial expressions and flow were in top form, as was his DJ. His remixed version of 'Blood of a Young Wolf' (which was represented on my 2006 mix) was enjoyable, and it sounds like the new material is great. I can't wait to hear what he's got coming next.

Galactic w/ Gift of Gab, Lyrics Born & Boots - Holy crap, this show came out of nowhere and rocked my socks off! Galactic is a New Orleans jazz/jam type band, and normally I'd never listen to them (I find their style a bit cheesy for my tastes), but fronted by three top-notch MC's they really came alive (plus their drummer is the most excitable, funkiest nerdy-looking dude ever). Gab kicked things off and just killed it from the get-go, bringing the crowd intensity to a peak early on during his 3 songs. Lyrics Born then kept the momentum going with his sing-song style, doing 4 tracks if memory serves. He had a lot of fun with it, dancing and singing with the crowd. Then came Boots (from the classic rap group The Coup), who was a bit of a dark horse. His first song was a downtempo funk song, and I thought that he'd positively lost the crowd (especially following Gab & Lyrics Born). But then his second song tore the place down. I can still hear the chorus in my head, backed by distorted guitar and crash cymbals ("We! We are the ones!"). The show closed with all 3 MC's on stage. At first they took turns rhyming, but when they all went off at the same time the crowd blew up like The Dillinger Escape Plan had just hit the outtro of '43% Burnt'. Holy crap, what a fun show!

Girl Talk - Speaking of fun shows, this dude is insane. He basically does a laptop set that's one long, super-intricate mashup. Instead of settling for 3-minute songs with rap lyrics, he changes samples every 20 seconds or so. But what makes his set so fun is that he just goes nuts. As soon as the beat kicks in he's jumping around like crazy, doing handstands on the table, diving into the crowd and even doing a conga line through the whole venue. This is a guy who knows how to take a laptop show and make it 3x as exciting as half of the live bands out there.

Holy F**k - Great band, lame name. So lame, in fact, that I'm using asterisks (or referring to them as "Holy F-Bomb, Batman!" for fear that my mom will read this post). I heard that they were great last year, so I was excited to check them out this year. Needless to say, I was really impressed. They put on a great, energetic show. Their music really comes off better live than in the studio, though their new EP is a real step forward for them. If you get a chance to see them, check them out. They look really excited to be playing music, and their energy makes it all the better live.

Kid Koala - I pretty much showed up for this one to get in line for Amon Tobin and hear Koala's staggeringly beautiful triple-deck remix of 'Moon River', and I got that plus so much more. There's no one single thing that stood out for me at this show; it was just consistently fun throughout. Other than the 'Moon River' interlude he never let up with the upbeat intensity and the fun blends. All I can say is that if you get a chance to see him live you should; he's fun, he's energetic, he interacts with the crowd and he just plays a fun set.

These Arms Are Snakes - As my best friend Steve pointed out, a lot of things came together at this 1am show: we were hammered drunk, we had a lot of energy, the venue was small but crowded, the band was on point, they played a great selection of songs and the singer dialed his normally way-too-self-aware-and-pretentious stage presence down a few notches. So many things came together, in fact, that my boy Steve, who is mainly into indie rock and hip-hop, was moshing and shoving like an animal! It was super fun, just rocking out like completely un-self-conscious idiots to a badass heavy set at the front of the stage. By the end of this one we were spent, but it was totally worth it. Super fun.

Yppah - If I had just been rating their/his live show (Yppah is one dude, but at SXSW he went the live band route) I would have just called it good, but I got their record today and it's phenomenal. I'd describe it as a more upbeat Boards of Canada with a touch of glitch & Bonobo, but not afraid to drop a dirty old-school hip-hop beat. Beautiful and grimy, I can't recommend this album enough. Buy it!

The Good

Nick Butcher - His music is ambient and atmospheric, so it was a great start to the festival. I heard it from the next room as Kristine and Brian and I talked about our plans for the night, but my ears kept perking up at Nick Butcher's sound. Definitely worth checking out if you can find out where to get it (a quick look at his website turned up no options).

Drumcorps - The break at 1:25 in 'Botch Up and Die' pretty much ensured before the fact that the show would at least be good, but I can't say that it was great. If there had been more people there (and more people rocking out like the idiotic yours truly) it would have been more fun, but I still enjoyed it. His crazy blend of glitchy drum & bass with badass hardcore/grindcore is super unique, and he pulled it off very well live. The live guitar was mediocre, but his energy and tightness were quite impressive.

The Mediocre

Daedelus - I'm a huge fan of his most recent album, Daedelus Denies The Day's Demise, but this live show was pretty underwhelming. It was too quiet, he didn't play any of his recognizable songs and the live elements that he and his partner performed were pretty sloppy. Oh well.

The Bad

Amon Tobin - He used way way way way too much bass (my left ear is still screwed up) and he only played a few things that were remotely recognizable from his albums. If he were just a party DJ his set would have been great, but I came to hear the songs I love so much from his impressive discography.

Bonde De Role - They had decent beats at times, but the changes were way too frenetic. They've got pretty crappy flows, too. They did do a great break with 'The Final Countdown', but it's gonna take more than shameless pandering to pull off a great live set. I hear they're good when they play with a band, but if you go to see them and find that they've just got a DJ you're in for some disappointment.

Amon Tobin - Foley Room

This record is like every Amon Tobin record other than the exceptional (and basically flawless) score he did for Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory: it's about 35% mind-blowing songs, 35% average songs and 30% complete and utter crap. That makes it a hard record to review, since the final score could probably swing +/- 1.5 points depending on what song's currently playing.

The album opens very strongly. At first I was a bit thrown by the motorcycle sounds in 'Esther's', but ultimately I was won over by the sheer beauty of the recording quality; I sincerely hope he releases this album in DVD-A like he did with the Splinter Cell score. I don't care if I sound like some sort of die-hard vinyl purist: the bike sounds are incredibly warm.

The next track, 'Keep Your Distance', is one of my favorites. I don't know if he's using tympani, but the in-tune drums really add a lot of badass swagger to the song. It's got all the atmosphere I've come to expect from Tobin, and at this point the record's going swimmingly. The next track is a bit of a slow jam meltdown, but it's all good. It's got a nice groove (almost reminiscent of Supermodified's 'Chocolate Lovely'), so I'm still with it.

So far so good.

Then comes 'Kitchen Sink' and the beginning of the end. Oh my God, congratulations on discovering....microphones. This record is aptly, literally and uninspiringly named, as Tobin has been moving more and more toward live instrumentation and "found sounds" recently. For those who don't know, a foley room is a room in which sound engineers record sound effects for films and the like. Tobin lives up to his reputation as a prolific weed-smoker here; I'll honestly say that 'Kitchen Sink' is probably pretty rad when you're high. But when you're sober (or even merely drunk) it's just an uncompelling show-off session where he tries to forge a song with non-conventional sound effects and fails. I can't skip this audio masturbation session fast enough.

The next track, 'Horsefish', is a nice and relaxing atmospheric drum-free interlude, but it's immediately followed by 'Foley Room', which is basically 'Kitchen Sink' on steroids and no more enjoyable.

Thank God that he's done with the really out-there stuff, as the rest of the album is comprised of enjoyable but uninspiring songs up until the very last track, 'At The End Of The Day'. Clocking in at only 3:12, it feels like a much longer song (in a good way). It has all the grand epic feel that Tobin's capable of, and it closes the record in fine style. It's a nice endcap to an ambitious but ultimately flawed effort.

Let me say this: I predict that Amon Tobin's next album is going to be The One.

He's gotten his "OH MY GOD I DISCOVERED MICROPHONES" stage out of the way, and now that he's powered through an inconsistent but promising record he's ready for perfection. I feel like his next effort is going to be much more measured. There's nothing wrong with using interesting sounds and live instrumentation, but it's like he was bipolar on this one, throwing most of the "found sounds" onto two tracks and leaving the rest of the songs standard and old-school. Now that mics are just one piece of his impressive repertoire, I bet that his next one is going to be his masterpiece, the one that brings it all together and executes with delicacy what he tried to do somewhat clumsily here.

Rating: 3/5

Buy It!

Do Make Say Think - You, You're A History In Rust

Being an elitist music snob, I was able to snag a leak of Do Make Say Think's 2007 album You, You're A History In Rust back last year. It's been sitting in my "new music" shuffle mix for over a month now, and every time a song from it comes up I perk up and think to myself, "Damn, that's good."

It should come as no surprise. In 2000 DMST released what I think is one of the best post-rock albums ever created; in fact, the vinyl version of Goodbye Enemy Airship The Landlord Is Dead is hanging on the wall behind me right now. It's one of only two albums that I've ever framed, if that says anything.

But once again, I digress.

This album is brilliant. In many ways it's really the culmination of what they've been building toward up until this point. While Goodbye Enemy Airship was brilliant, it was also a bit of a downer. Their next two records were much more upbeat, but they each lacked the same immediacy as Airship. & Yet & Yet felt like a misstep to me and still does (I don't really think any of the songs are memorable), and while Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn opened and closed with two of my favorite DMST songs ever (the absolutely timeless 'Fredericia' and 'Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!'), the middle of the album was entirely forgettable.

Not so with Rust. Do Make's latest album is the total package, all things considered. It has the upbeat, everything's-gonna-be-okay tone of their last few releases, yet it retains the loose performance and live tone of their earlier work. This feels like a group of happy people playing the music of their hearts one night at a friend's 200-year-old creaking wooden house. This record is just. Freaking. Good. It's got a consistency they haven't had since Airship, as every single song is a winner. You could put this album on at any occasion and be happy with your choice.

The only thing I can knock it for is that DMST's trademark production does detract from one of the album's best songs, the energetic 'The Universe!'. I saw them perform this song live a few months back, and it was absolutely monstrous (in the good way). They set it up as a dynamite closer and delivered on everything they'd promised, but on the album it just doesn't have the same punch. It feels like they're just going through the motions, which no doubt they aren't, but you can't change what's laid down on tape.

Anyway, that's basically my only complaint. This is a ridiculously good album. It makes me happy just listening to it and writing about it. God bless these people for creating it.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

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2006 - All Together Now!

Ever since 2001 I've finished the year by making a mix CD containing all of my favorite songs from that year. While most of the music on these mixes was released the same year as the mix, I've never been shy about putting on bands from previous years that I'd just gotten into; my 2002 rock mix (one of my favorite mixes ever) had some songs by bands that had broken up half a decade prior. This year is no different, as about 1/6 of the songs were released before 2006.

But I digress....

....here's my 2006 mix!

For the first year ever I've completely skipped the CD stage and have done it all in mp3, though 1) all but one of the songs were personally ripped by me from CDs that I own 2) I trimmed and edited the tracks to get the transitions nice (especially if you have a gapless mp3 program) and 3) I encoded the mp3's at a ridiculously-slow-to-process uber-HQ 320 kbps setting.

Another departure for this year's mix is putting all of the genres together in one tracklist. In past years I'd do different CDs for different genres, but this year I decided to put it all together (hence the name of the mix). I did that for a few reasons. For one, when listening to big playlists on shuffle I noticed that it's entirely possible to transition in a cool way between screamy hardcore and, say, Daedelus.

Secondly, and even more pretentiously, I got sick of worrying about genre lines. I give out my mixes to my friends each year, and on a certain level I split out the metal from the rest to "protect" their tender sensibilities. But this year was quite a watershed for good heavy music, as bands like Mastodon, Converge and Intronaut released staggeringly good albums that a ton of my previously metal-hating friends really enjoy; I was glad to see so many converts embrace the glory of "the screamy screamy," as I call it from time to time.

Thus, I figured I'd take on the challenge of doing a mix that contains everything from face-melting hardcore to progressive hip-hop to IDM to almost-ambient. I'm really happy with how it all turned out, despite the hair I pulled out trying to wrestle the track listing and whittle the number down, and I hope you'll enjoy it too.

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Track Listing:

1. Mogwai - Glasgow Mega-Snake
2. Mastodon - The Wolf Is Loose
3. These Arms Are Snakes - Horse Girl
4. Intronaut - Gleamer
5. Daedelus - Our Last Stand
6. Converge - Versus
7. Buck 65 - Le 65isme
8. Intronaut - Fragments Of Character
9. Cyne - Running Water
10. Mastodon - Circle Of Cysquatch
11. Beck - We Dance Alone
12. Gnarls Barkley - Transformer
13. The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza - Daddy's Coming Up
14. Mastodon - Capillarian Crest
15. Loka - Beginningless
16. Jega - Geometry
17. Converge - Bare My Teeth
18. mewithoutYou - Wolf Am I! (And Shadow)
19. Intronaut - Sores Will Weep
20. Deftones - Rapture
21. zero dB - Conga Madness
22. Mastodon - Blood And Thunder
23. The Roots - Take It There
24. Norma Jean - A Grand Scene For A Color Film
25. Buck 65 - Blood Of A Young Wolf
26. Bonobo - If You Stayed Over
27. Converge - No Heroes
28. Mastodon - Island
29. DJ Krush - Duality (2006K Mix)
30. Intronaut - Fault Lines
31. Thom Yorke - Black Swan
32. Beck - New Round
33. Helios - Paper Tiger
34. DJ Krush - Day's End (After-Dusk Mix)
35. Converge - Grim Heart / Black Rose

Rating: 5/5 Stars

DJ Krush - Stepping Stones: The Self-Remixed Best (Soundscapes)

In the pantheon of great ideas, this one falls somewhere between Google and the wheel: Pick a selection of DJ Krush's best songs and have them remixed by....DJ Krush. How can you go wrong when that's your jumping-off point?

This album is as good as the concept sounds, though to be clear I'm only reviewing the second disc of this 2 CD set. The first CD is comprised of remixes of tracks that Krush did with rappers, and I've never been a fan of Krush's work with lyricists; having a rapper over some of the best, most textured downtempo beats in the business just seems like an unnecessary distraction. Whether that makes me a heretic or a purist is up for debate, but I'd like to believe that I'm the latter.

The selection of songs is skewed fairly heavily toward his later stuff (lots of representation from Jaku, Zen and Kakusei), but the selections from his early work are stellar, notably Meiso's 'Duality' (with a classic guest performance from a pre-Endtroducing DJ Shadow) and Strictly Turntablized's 'Kemuri'; I'd be hard-pressed to think of a better song off each album. I would have loved to have seen at least one track from Ki-Oku, but for all I know that collaborative album is tied up in a rights battle.

For an album with songs covering such a long time period it feels surprisingly cohesive. I've seen Krush live a few times, and this record seems to really capture his live sound. While the songs are mostly downtempo, the methodical pacing and dense atmospherics give the collection a very unified vibe. Surprisingly, one of the highlights of the album is a song almost entirely without drums, the ultra-mellow 'Day's End (After-Dusk Mix)'. Though it originally appeared on Zen, the track's off-kilter trumpet work could have easily been from Toshinori Kondo's performances on Ki-Oku.

'Drum' and 'Duck Chase (Double-Up Mix)' are the album's only truly up-tempo songs, and while they're okay they detract from the overall moody vibe of the record; at least they're next to each other in the track listing and thus only disrupt the flow once. 'Kemuri (Untouchable Mix)' is frankly a bit of a letdown, but then again the original is one of Krush's best songs ever, so maybe improving it is too lofty a goal even for the Zen master himself.

Aside from 'Day's End (After-Dusk Mix)', the album's other standout track is clearly 'Duality (2006K Mix)'. The original, like 'Kemuri', is one of Krush's most classic moments, though to be brutally honest the 2nd half of the song (created by DJ Shadow) blows Krush's half out of the water. Thus, you've gotta give credit to Krush for recognizing greatness and highlighting the 2nd half of the song in the remix, getting to it quickly and letting its original brilliance shine with some added texture that never strays too far from the original track's intent.

At the end of the day I'd recommend this album to any DJ Krush fan and to any fan of downtempo music in general, though that recommendation is honestly based on the highlights of the album, as some of the filler tracks are skippers. You can buy the Soundscapes CD by itself as an import, but it's actually cheaper just to get the 2 CD set and throw the first disc in the trash can.

3.75/5 Stars

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Converge - No Heroes

I have a lot of respect for this band. For the last 15 or so years they've been playing heavy music, and at this point I believe in everything they do. You can't play this kind of music and tear yourself apart on stage every night for that long and not love the hardcore lifestyle, and with No Heroes they reiterate why they're one of the most respected heavy bands out there.

The album takes a while to find its stride, mainly because it starts off with 5 songs that range from 0:58 to 1:43 long. The tracks are all great, but they're over almost before you get a chance to experience them. I would have appreciated at least one set of songs that were clearly meant to go together, like the 'Drop Out' / 'Hope Street' combo off the band's previous album You Fail Me, but when the title track kicks off in the 6 spot you know it's a full-on Converge album.

Despite the fact that the main riff could come from a mid-term project in a Metal Riffs 101 class, the unflinching intensity of the song, which bounces from chorus to bridge to verse to breakdown in a nonstop flurry, ultimately drives it home as a song worthy of the album's title. The next track, 'Plagues', serves as a sludgy meltdown after the craziness that preceded it. While it's a surprisingly effective opener live, the greatness of the following track basically turns it into a skipper; when you know that 'Grim Heart / Black Rose' is just around the corner there's no reason to wait through a 5-minute meltdown.

I'll say right now that 'Grim Heart / Black Rose' is one of the best songs Converge has ever written. The first half of the song is a slow, dark dirge sung by guest vocalist Jonah Jenkins. What?! Clean vocals on a Converge album? Yep, and it works. While I find the first portion of the song a little cookie cutter due to the lack of variation in the vocal line, the riff at 3:48 hits you like a sledgehammer in the chest, and the fact that the clean vocals continue instead of breaking into screams only highlights the power of the song. From here on there's no turning back. The song melts down into a minimalist mix of guitar and bass with just a touch of cymbals before the build of builds begins. While not quite on par with the greatest of GYBE!'s climaxes, the final third of 'Grim Heart / Black Rose' is pure post-rock. And it's unreal. It's hard to believe that the same band that started the album with 5 tracks shorter than a commercial break has the patience to let a song grow to a boil like this, but they do. And when the bottom finally drops out the closing explosion is ridiculously brutal. I get excited just typing about it.

The next two tracks, 'Orphaned' and 'Lonewolves', are standard Converge songs, which is fine since a filler track on a Converge album would be the crowning achievement of some wannabe band's career. Once those two are out of the way, 'Versus' comes out of the gate with burning intensity and never lets up. Even the measure-ending triplets are on fire, and the time-cycling chorus riff at 0:49 incorporates a high note that I can only describe as crazy. It's not any sort of virtuoso performance, it's just a super-interesting choice that somehow makes the high/low metal riff thing sound fresh again. Every time I hear that note I wince in pleasure and tilt my head, trying to get inside the note. It's a good thing they did something interesting with 'Versus', because the next song is a disappointment.

Along with 'Plagues', I feel like 'Trophy Scars' is the album's only other misstep. It starts off well enough, but as soon as it devolves into the way-too-emo palm-muted all-out whining I have to skip to the next track. The lyrics are just too trite. Later parts of the song are quite good, but the constant returns to the seemingly never-ending emo-whining are just too much to overcome. It's just not good.

Luckily the song is followed by 'Bare My Teeth', which reminds me of a longer version of 'Hope Street' from You Fail Me. It's got a great melodic hardcore opening riff and a brutal stop/start bridge, but it's also longer than a minute long and is thus a nice gem found toward the end of the record. 'To The Lions' is a perfectly competent closer (and it gets extra points for the gratuitous use of the pick slide), but on some level the entire second half of the album feels like the afterglow of 'Grim Heart / Black Rose'. On previous albums, 'To The Lions' would have been a standout, but on No Heroes it's merely a very good song, which is really just a credit to how amazing the high points of the album are. By the time the song fades out with what can only be described as a guitar lead edging suspiciously close to guitar solo territory (I think of it as a pseudo-solo) you feel chewed up and spit out. But in a good way.

Production-wise, this is the best-sounding album that the band's guitarist, Kurt Ballou, has ever turned out. He's produced and engineered numerous albums at his own GodCity Studios, but this is the first time that he's taken the reigns on a Converge album. Maybe that's what it took to finally nail the sound that showed promise on Jane Doe but sounded a little too thin and noisy on that outing. You Fail Me got closer to the signature Converge sound, but Ballou finally nailed it on No Heroes. Every element of the music is well-represented, and this is hands-down the best that Ben Koller's drums have ever sounded; the bass drum finally sounds thundering but tight, and the snare and cymbals have all sorts of crispness. The guitars and Nate Newton's bass of course sound wonderfully dirty, and the vocals are as raspy and brutal as always. Put together, the distortion and blending of the elements makes the entire band sound like one huge angry instrument, not a collection of 4 guys each doing their own thing. It's amazing.

Lyrically there's not much to say. Jacob Bannon has apparently had some unfortunate experiences with women, and the track names alone should be enough of a clue that Converge is still singing about pain, failure and betrayal. The album art is also classic Converge; Bannon went nuts with the muted colors, dark imagery and Photoshop filters. It works, but it seems a little too well-composed when compared to the group's ultra-raw sound.

All in all this is a fantastic, powerful album, and if it weren't for a few throwaway songs I would give it 5 stars in a heartbeat, since the best songs on the album are life-changers. The centerpiece songs really give the album a heart that I've never experienced this fully on a Converge record; it doesn't just feel like brutality for the sake of it, which is what helps this album transcend into the land of the classics.

4.5/5 Stars

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