Katatonia: Live Conternation (2007) 12/28/2009
Posted by scrambledface in Metal.Tags: Doom Metal, Progressive, Shoegaze
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Most live metal albums are worthless contract filler. Improvisation is not a big factor in music based upon precision, so the songs are usually identical to the album versions, with some crowd noise and variations on “Thank you!” and “Come on, you sick fuckers, let’s see you bang your fucking heads!” mixed in, maybe an extended call-and-response section if it’s power metal. Therefore, the only live metal albums I get are from bands I really like who haven’t already released a ton of them (I’m looking at you, Iron Maiden). Katatonia, my favorite band in the world right now, has only released this one, which was recorded during Germany’s 2006 Summer Breeze Festival and comes with a DVD of the same set. At just over 50 minutes, it’s not a true representation of their normal headlining set, an opinion with which cofounding guitarist Anders Nyström agreed when I interviewed him around the time of its release. Despite having the name of a song off their previous album (The Great Cold Distance) in its title, the CD does not include “Consternation,” nor the album’s first single, “My Twin,” nor anything off the Last Fair Deal Gone Down album, my personal favorite, and from what I gather, that of a lot of other fans. It goes without saying that none of Katatonia’s early doom/death tunes appear, either. You do, however, get a decent helping of songs from Distance and 2003’s Viva Emptiness, which are excellently rendered, enough to make up for what’s not there. I particularly like the included renditions of “Soil’s Song,” which benefits from Jonas Renkse’s delicate vocalization and from Fredrik Norrman’s surging riff ringing out loud during the chorus, and the titanic “Wealth,” its alternately spastic and ambient segments helmed by bassist Mattias Norrman (Fred’s bro) and drummer Daniel Liljekvist. These two are the tightest, most astute rhythm section in Swedish metal. When they joined the band before Last Fair Deal, they enabled the astounding feat of a great band becoming greater, and that magic continues to this day. Also worth mentioning is “Ghost of the Sun,” one of Katatonia’s relatively average tunes taken to intense heights here by Nyström’s sick black metal backup vocals as well as the entire band’s remarkably aggressive attack. “Cold Ways,” from 1998’s Discouraged Ones, and “Had To (Leave)” and “Right Into the Bliss” from 1999’s Tonight’s Decision, are the oldest tracks aired, and you can hear Katatonia’s current professionalism oozing from every crevice of what still sound like experiments on those albums. At such a short length, Live Consternation is bound to leave the most obsessive fans slightly frustrated because we know how many great songs these guys have, but that’s bound to be true no matter how long it is. However, this is a release I strongly recommend to die-hards who will find the type of joy I do in the subtle differences from the studio versions. As a snapshot of this particular show, it’s impeccable. However, if you want a better overview of why this band means so much to so many, try The Black Sessions, which includes a two-disc compilation of album cuts and rarities as well as a live DVD of a headlining set that more capably spotlights their career’s diversity.
“Soil’s Song” (live at Summer Breeze Festival, Dinkelsbühl, 8/17/06)
Sigh: Hangman’s Hymn: Musikalische Exequien (2007) 09/03/2009
Posted by scrambledface in Metal.Tags: Black Metal, Orchestral, Progressive
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Sigh is Japan’s most batshit insane metal band, and this is the most “normal” album they’ve done since their very early days. The previous three Sigh discs were genre-hopping feasts that featured psychedelic keyboards, woozy orchestral segments, snippets of marching band, country rock, show tunes, ’70s boogie, reggae, smooth jazz, lullabies, metalcore/sitar breakdowns, you name it – all fastened to a framework of Celtic Frost-y thrash and classic metal, punctuated with the increasingly Muppet-like howl of bizarro scene gadabout Mirai Kawashima. When I first heard it, Hangman’s Hymn was shockingly uniform in its blend of symphonic black/thrash, which despite the band’s eccentricities is not a million miles away from the style plied by thousands of Dimmu Borgir worshippers across the globe. To be fair, Sigh’s second album, Infidel Art, flirted with the synth-black genre back in 1995, so the trio wasn’t just wagging their weiners at the Cradle of Filth kids. Plus, “eccentricities” definitely sells Sigh short. The memorability with which they imbue their unusual concoctions elevates them over many of their experi-metal peers, the strange shifts and juxtapositions built seamlessly into tunes that would stick with you regardless of the bells and whistles and handclaps. This is what saves Hangman’s Hymn from the pile of generic goth/black pifflers. The songs here are consistently exciting and engaging, every pompous swell of synth horns propelling Shinichi Ishikawa’s rabid German thrash riffs further into the Technicolor darkness. Because the disc adheres to a concept structure, musical segments are repeated, revived and revamped in various songs, a sonic narrative device of which I am inherently a fan. Mirai has brought back his frantic black metal scream, which appears alongside his charmingly nasal clean singing and intermittent outbursts of crazed cackling, all adding to the disc’s King Diamond-ish horror show vibe. A choir also graces the proceedings, its voices comprised of fans who sent in home recordings to Mirai (one was the vocalist for unfortunately disbanded Chicago death metallers Enforsaken). Drummer Junichi Harashima benefits from the best production Sigh has ever enjoyed, as this is their fastest material to date and Harashima’s blasts thump and kick exactly where they should. Yes, in most respects, it’s a “proper” metal album, one that would certainly appeal to a more general metal audience than their previous few masterpieces would. Yet, I must agree with other reviews I’ve read where the writer thought it sounded too normal at first, only to grasp its curious intricacies once they found themselves unable to stop listening to it. It’s not my absolute favorite of the catalog (that would be Imaginary Sonicscape), but it confidently maintained Sigh’s spot as Asia’s most fascinating and talented metal act. In the two years since its release, they’ve put out an EP of straightforward Venom covers, added Mirai’s saxophone-playing girlfriend to the lineup and toured the States. However, if their forthcoming Scenes from Hell retains the energy and professional sound of Hangman’s Hymn but delivers the variety of Gallows Gallery, their best work has yet to come.
“Death With Dishonor” (at Damnation Festival, Leeds, 11/22/08)
Goblin: Contamination (1980) 03/10/2009
Posted by scrambledface in Soundtrack.Tags: Jazz, Progressive, Rarities
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At long last, we return to productivity with a lesser-known creation of Italian soundtrack mavens Goblin. The progressive rockers formerly known as Cherry Five are, of course, best known for their collaborations with giallo/horror legend Dario Argento, most famously on his masterpieces “Profondo Rosso” and “Suspiria,” as well as his production of George A. Romero’s epochal “Dawn of the Dead” — although Romero largely removed their work from the American version, it’s all in the European cut entitled “Zombi.” This selection, however, is the score to the 1980 film “Contamination” by Luigi Cozzi, the director of the Lou Ferrigno “Hercules” flicks as well as the hugely entertaining “Star Wars” knock-off “Scontri Stellari Oltre la Terza Dimensione” (aka “Starcrash”). Incidentally, Cozzi himself worked with Argento on several early ’70s projects, two of which have finally seen U.S. DVD release in recent months: the great murder mystery “4 Mosche di Velluto Grigio” (“Four Flies on Grey Velvet”) and the TV anthology “La Porta sul Buio” (“Door Into Darkness”). “Contamination” was ostensibly a rip-off of Ridley Scott’s blockbuster from the previous year, “Alien,” in that it’s a sci-fi/horror crossover featuring ominous giant eggs, only it’s set on Earth and these eggs exude slime which causes people’s guts to explode. Typical of Goblin’s work, the soundtrack combines ominous Floydian prog (“Withy”), groovy funk rhythms (The Carver”), atmospheric jazz (“Ogre”) and vintage electronic touches (“Connexion”). It’s far classier and more exotically diverse than its roots as a Spaghetti splatter score would suggest to the uninitiated. It’s also a good example of the labyrinthine nature of the group’s recording history, fraught with revolving members and recycled tracks. While “Contamination” features the familiar rhythm section of bassist Fabio Pignatelli and drummer Agostino Marangolo, by the time of its recording, the core group had splintered, with both keyboardist Claudio Simonetti and guitarist Massimo Morante having moved on. Also, four of its eleven tracks actually come from Goblin’s score for Aristide Massaccesi’s 1979 necrophilia sleazefest “Buio Omega.” The link provided here takes you to the 2000 Cinevox reissue, which beefs up the original content with three alternate takes and two excellent “suites.” As for the film, it’s now widely available in its uncut form and is pure lurid fun, a must-see for all golden-age Italian gore afficionados or “Video Nasty” completists.
“Contamination” [theatrical trailer, featuring “Connexion”… by “The Goblin” ;)]
Aesop Rock: Bazooka Tooth (2003) 02/23/2009
Posted by scrambledface in Hip-Hop.Tags: Backpacker, Progressive
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I get pissed if a “music fan” dismisses the entirety of hip-hop based on the limited impressions provided by the genre’s superstars. Wouldn’t these same people in turn be rightly offended if someone were to equate all punk with Green Day, all electronic music with Moby, all country with Faith Hill, all indie rock with The Strokes or all heavy metal with Slipknot? The truth is that when you have only passing familiarity with a type of music, you’ve probably only heard the popular stuff that is formulated to appeal to dabblers, and thus the most watered-down, lowest-common-denominator examples of the form at hand. Everyone who thinks they don’t like hip-hop should try Aesop Rock’s third widely-released album, Bazooka Tooth. The disc’s first point of departure is the New York MC’s delivery, which is utterly unlike the “Yo, my name is ____ and I’m here to say…” strain of rhyming popularized by 1980s TV commercials. Aes’ meter typically alternates between a rapid-fire flow and a punch-drunk drawl, sometimes within a single line, flitting around his tracks’ central rhythms like a stoned hummingbird. Similarly, his lyrics rarely stoop to the crassly direct approach of radio rappers. Even when bluntly dealing with a particular subject, he dips, dives, and dances around his descriptions, employing abstract details amid jargon-dense disses, boasts and personal revelations. He employs alliteration, consonance, assonance and other language-lover’s tools so enthusiastically that it’s hard to imagine any type of writer objecting. Plus, while Aesop Rock’s unique style is evident in all of his work, Bazooka differs from his earlier catalog as well as 2007’s follow-up, None Shall Pass, because its pointillist musical foundation is so utterly bizarre. It was where he branched off from longtime producer Blockhead, who only provided the beats for a few tracks here, and Aes’ own stuttering funk shards are among the most fascinating of the warped electronic bedrocks championed by foward-thinking rapper/producer El-P’s Definitive Jux label. Polarizing upon release, Bazooka Tooth remains so atypical that even Aesop Rock hasn’t replicated its oddball aesthetic. It’s the kind of album that drives most traditional hip-hop fans nuts, yet its peculiar, homemade collages are just the sort of building blocks that sparked hip-hop in the first place. For evidence, see the two-disc set dubbed Build Your Own Bazooka Tooth, released expressly to allow listeners to assemble their own songs from its parts.
“No Jumper Cables” (official video)
Sleepy Eyes of Death: Dark Signals (2008) 02/22/2009
Posted by scrambledface in Post-Rock.Tags: Electronic, Progressive, Shoegaze
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Sure, post-rock should be spacious and ethereal, but if it’s going to live up to its name, it should ideally sound like music from the future. Most post-rock acts are instead content with aping the rise-and-fall guitar suites Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Mogwai were constructing a decade ago. Meanwhile, Seattle’s Sleepy Eyes of Death (named after the American title of a series 1960s samurai pictures), do not actually promote themselves with this dodgy term, but they might as well, since they approximate what you might hear in a nightclub circa 2109. The quintet’s latest EP, Dark Signals, is one seriously trippy jaunt through alien soundscapes. A couple of the tracks offer minimal vocals, heavily processed robot-ghost transmissions which bleed into the band’s neon ether. Primarily, though, they keep it instrumental, melding lockstep krautrock, keening shoegaze textures and delicious analog synths into an electro-prog haze redolent of monochrome laser patterns and glowing cocktails which billow fog about patrons’ glittering unitards. Dark Signals resembles a glorious collaboration between Cosmos-era Zombi and Before the Dawn Heals Us-era M83, and shows Sleepy Eyes of Death working toward a more powerful identity than evidenced by their already entrancing 2007 full-length, Street Lights for a Ribcage. Turn on, tune in, blast the fuck off.
“Pulse from Breath” (at Nectar Lounge, Seattle, 11/8/08)
Scrambled Face 