All right! Time to rock, AND worship Satan (what else is new?), 'cause the debut full-length from Holland's The Devil's Blood is finally here, released a few months back as an import but now also available through domestic distribution channels, although it's really still the import digipack on Germany's excellent Van label (who also just unleashed in the US the latest Ruins Of Beverast, as well as the massive/morose debut from Swedish doomsters Griftegard, both of which we'll be reviewing next time). Lots of folks (including us, and Darkthrone's Fenriz) were really into the 5-song Come, Reap ep by this female-fronted "occult rock" act, which made a big splash via the Profound Lore label back in 2008, and the alluring promise of that ep is borne out by the eleven tracks of this album. As before, they've got a '70s, doom metal-ly vibe, playing psychedelic heavy rock that draws from the same well of inspiration share by bands like Witchcraft (e.g. Roky Erickson, Black Sabbath, Pentagram, early Scorpions, to cite some they'd mention, or that we think we hear), with ripping guitars and wailing vocals that push all our buttons for this sort of thing. But, we don't know if we'd really call 'em doom metal, they're almost more in full on classic rock mode, these songs uptempo and rockin', bombastic and downright anthemic, buxom singer "The Mouth" in possession of a powerful voice, one that's loud and proud (of Satan!). Delivering the goods across this album, The Devil's Blood come on like an unholy mix of funky Led Zeppelin, Heart, Thin Lizzy, and a bit of Mercyful Fate (for their love of Lucifer, and also the dual guitar action, like some of those others).
THE killer jam here is "Queen Of My Burning Heart", a super groovy number with an incredibly infectious twin guitar riff, it's like Jex Thoth jamming with Birds Of Avalon! Another band we could mention is, believe it or not, the Dead Weather, this kicks ass on them though by being more metal and '70s and devil worshipful. And by the way, we're pretty sure The Devil's Blood are fairly serious about the Satan stuff, heck one of the songs here was co-written by one of the dudes from bloody black metal masters Watain (though this isn't at all black metal like them, maybe black classic hard rock would fit).
We've been trying to track down some Devillock for ages, and while we've yet managed to get any cds, we have finally gotten a batch of this super limited lp. The solo ambient drone project of Tone Filth label head honcho Justin Chris Meyers (who also performs as Panther Skull), Devillock is a lot more dreamy and blissful than the name might lead you to believe.
Deep, dark distant sonic clouds rolling in at a snail's pace, tones are stretched out into long sinewy smears, bits of glitch and electronic skitter, bob along like detritus floating in some black stream. Everything enveloped in warm billowy buzz, eventually all tangled up with stuttering streaks of upper register skree, while in the background, the constant ebb and flow of cavernous churning industrial rumbles.
The flip side is similar, but if anything, even more abstract and minimal, sounding almost like a black ambient Niblock, all looooooooong tones, subtly shifting overtones, some super creepy slowed down monkey like growls and guttural vocalizations, and little chunks of gritty electronic static and muted buzzing interference. Haunting and serene, yet subtly fierce and intense.
Packaged in super subtle, hand painted chipboard sleeves, every one different, the front adorned with a super abstract bit of Pollock-y paint, LIMITED TO 333 COPIES, each copy hand numbered.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Gonna try to keep this relatively short. 'Cause it would be easy to go on and on and on about what an amazing band Devo were back in the day and how absolutely ESSENTIAL these newly reissued collections of the earliest recorded Devo music are. Never before released on vinyl in the States, the original two volumes of Hardcore Devo came out on cd and cassette on Rykodisc in 1990 and 1991 respectively, and have been out of print (and sought after by fans) for many years. Now at last they've been reissued, as separate volumes on vinyl (one a single lp, the other double) and together as a double cd set.
Those of you already into Devo, who don't already have this, NEED this - and even if you do have it, you might want it again, either to get the vinyl versions, and/or for the 4 previously unreleased bonus tracks now included (on disc two / Volume Two). For others, well this is our opportunity to proselytize for the cult of Devo. Some folks out there who aren't that familiar with Devo might think of 'em as just some novelty new wave nerd-rock band doing goofy songs and wearing silly hats, one-hit wonders with 1980's "Whip It!". And while they did wear silly hats and were plenty goofy, they were also super subversive and bizarre, both sonically and ideologically, true pioneers in the realm of synth-punk and new wave, coming up with a sound that somehow grafted Kraftwerk to punk rock before either were popular, promoting their own anticapitalist, antiestablishment agenda couched in irony and Dadaism. These early recordings, demos and rarities recorded on a 4-track in Akron, Ohio circa 1974-1977, reveal Devo at their most underground, raw and stripped down, but already possessed of both catchy songwriting brilliance and conceptual originality. Definitely not the hippie boogie rock popular at the time!
It's worth noting that both future Devo members Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh had been students at Kent State, SDS activists in fact, and Casale personally witnessed the shocking National Guard shooting of anti-war demonstrators there in 1970. In some ways, Devo was the direct result. It's just that their idea of "protest music" was a bit different that the norm up to that point.
These DIY recordings sound pretty darn good - Devo knew what they were doing, even before they hooked up with producer Brian Eno for their 1977 debut Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! recorded at Conny Plank's studio in Germany. In fact, these are the recordings that got Eno interested in working with them in the first place.
On Volume One there's early versions of such Devo classics as "Jocko Homo", "Mongoloid", and their brilliant cover of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", but otherwise it's a plenitude of (sub)genius tracks never re-recorded for any of their studio albums, though some were released as singles on their own Booji Boy label, or later as B sides. It's a treasure trove of prime Devo at their purest and most urgently devolved!!! It contains one of our all time favorite Devo toons: "Auto Modown", a simple slice of proto-no-wave funk with a stinging guitar riff and Mark Mothersbaugh crooning ghoulish lyrics about how "an acid head goon in a '55 Dodge didn't mean to do it / but a sidewalk run in the noonday sun ten to one he had to lose it". Similar traits are shared by most of the tracks on here - the distorted synth-ed out soundz, the trebly bug zapper guitar, the absurd lyrical content, the robotically rhythmic catchiness. If you're a spud who hasn't heard "Social Fools", "Buttered Beauties", "Mechanical Man", "I'm A Potato", or "Ono" (and the list goes on), you haven't lived. EVERYTHING on here is great, all 15 cuts. Like we said, we could go on and on, about such treats as the blissed out, moody "Golden Energy" or the perversely humorous "Midget", who has the body of a 2 and half year old baby but the brain of a man, and takes advantage of the situation - deviant, juvenile, and sometimes frustrated sexual humor being one foundation of Devo's aesthetic for sure, with an ironic misogyny certainly being a component of the band's radical and often misunderstood critique of American culture.
Meanwhile disc two / Volume Two is even more packed with tracks, 25 of 'em, including the rather un-PC "Bamboo Bimbo", the anthemic "Be Stiff", the raunchy "I Need A Chick", and the electronically spazzed "U Got Me Bugged" (sung by Booji Boy himself), among many other weirdass classics. Overall Volume Two tends towards the slightly hit-and-miss in comparison to the totally solid start-to-finish Volume One, the Volume Two material not always as tightly on target, but after all there's more here, and even the lesser tracks are still worth absorbing repeatedly. Again, there's only a few songs that surfaced again later on their studio albums, like "Clockout" and their cover of "Working In A Coal Mine", otherwise it's mostly stuff only dedicated Devo-tees have heard before. And maybe hardly anyone has ever heard the four bonus tracks now tacked on to the end of Volume Two, but they're a worthy, weird bunch, including a couple of that sound like twisted, tweaked blues, in particular the the electronics-invaded and lyrically crude "Hubert House".
If you couldn't tell, we're so thrilled this is back in print, what can we say: BUY IT!! It might not change your life, but it could. It should. Kudos to the Superior Viaduct label, they've been putting out all kinds of cool reissues lately, but for us, this is the biggest deal yet, even if these albums aren't the rarest that they've reissued. They're nicely done, of course, including amusingly enthused liner notes by Henry Rollins, someone who has quite obviously drunk deeply of Devo's Kool-Aid. Heed his words: "Spud, prepare to be amazed!"
Gonna try to keep this relatively short. 'Cause it would be easy to go on and on and on about what an amazing band Devo were back in the day and how absolutely ESSENTIAL these newly reissued collections of the earliest recorded Devo music are. Never before released on vinyl in the States, the original two volumes of Hardcore Devo came out on cd and cassette on Rykodisc in 1990 and 1991 respectively, and have been out of print (and sought after by fans) for many years. Now at last they've been reissued, as separate volumes on vinyl (one a single lp, the other double) and together as a double cd set.
Those of you already into Devo, who don't already have this, NEED this - and even if you do have it, you might want it again, either to get the vinyl versions, and/or for the 4 previously unreleased bonus tracks now included (on disc two / Volume Two). For others, well this is our opportunity to proselytize for the cult of Devo. Some folks out there who aren't that familiar with Devo might think of 'em as just some novelty new wave nerd-rock band doing goofy songs and wearing silly hats, one-hit wonders with 1980's "Whip It!". And while they did wear silly hats and were plenty goofy, they were also super subversive and bizarre, both sonically and ideologically, true pioneers in the realm of synth-punk and new wave, coming up with a sound that somehow grafted Kraftwerk to punk rock before either were popular, promoting their own anticapitalist, antiestablishment agenda couched in irony and Dadaism. These early recordings, demos and rarities recorded on a 4-track in Akron, Ohio circa 1974-1977, reveal Devo at their most underground, raw and stripped down, but already possessed of both catchy songwriting brilliance and conceptual originality. Definitely not the hippie boogie rock popular at the time!
It's worth noting that both future Devo members Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh had been students at Kent State, SDS activists in fact, and Casale personally witnessed the shocking National Guard shooting of anti-war demonstrators there in 1970. In some ways, Devo was the direct result. It's just that their idea of "protest music" was a bit different that the norm up to that point.
These DIY recordings sound pretty darn good - Devo knew what they were doing, even before they hooked up with producer Brian Eno for their 1977 debut Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! recorded at Conny Plank's studio in Germany. In fact, these are the recordings that got Eno interested in working with them in the first place.
On Volume One there's early versions of such Devo classics as "Jocko Homo", "Mongoloid", and their brilliant cover of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", but otherwise it's a plenitude of (sub)genius tracks never re-recorded for any of their studio albums, though some were released as singles on their own Booji Boy label, or later as B sides. It's a treasure trove of prime Devo at their purest and most urgently devolved!!! It contains one of our all time favorite Devo toons: "Auto Modown", a simple slice of proto-no-wave funk with a stinging guitar riff and Mark Mothersbaugh crooning ghoulish lyrics about how "an acid head goon in a '55 Dodge didn't mean to do it / but a sidewalk run in the noonday sun ten to one he had to lose it". Similar traits are shared by most of the tracks on here - the distorted synth-ed out soundz, the trebly bug zapper guitar, the absurd lyrical content, the robotically rhythmic catchiness. If you're a spud who hasn't heard "Social Fools", "Buttered Beauties", "Mechanical Man", "I'm A Potato", or "Ono" (and the list goes on), you haven't lived. EVERYTHING on here is great, all 15 cuts. Like we said, we could go on and on, about such treats as the blissed out, moody "Golden Energy" or the perversely humorous "Midget", who has the body of a 2 and half year old baby but the brain of a man, and takes advantage of the situation - deviant, juvenile, and sometimes frustrated sexual humor being one foundation of Devo's aesthetic for sure, with an ironic misogyny certainly being a component of the band's radical and often misunderstood critique of American culture.
Meanwhile disc two / Volume Two is even more packed with tracks, 25 of 'em, including the rather un-PC "Bamboo Bimbo", the anthemic "Be Stiff", the raunchy "I Need A Chick", and the electronically spazzed "U Got Me Bugged" (sung by Booji Boy himself), among many other weirdass classics. Overall Volume Two tends towards the slightly hit-and-miss in comparison to the totally solid start-to-finish Volume One, the Volume Two material not always as tightly on target, but after all there's more here, and even the lesser tracks are still worth absorbing repeatedly. Again, there's only a few songs that surfaced again later on their studio albums, like "Clockout" and their cover of "Working In A Coal Mine", otherwise it's mostly stuff only dedicated Devo-tees have heard before. And maybe hardly anyone has ever heard the four bonus tracks now tacked on to the end of Volume Two, but they're a worthy, weird bunch, including a couple of that sound like twisted, tweaked blues, in particular the the electronics-invaded and lyrically crude "Hubert House".
If you couldn't tell, we're so thrilled this is back in print, what can we say: BUY IT!! It might not change your life, but it could. It should. Kudos to the Superior Viaduct label, they've been putting out all kinds of cool reissues lately, but for us, this is the biggest deal yet, even if these albums aren't the rarest that they've reissued. They're nicely done, of course, including amusingly enthused liner notes by Henry Rollins, someone who has quite obviously drunk deeply of Devo's Kool-Aid. Heed his words: "Spud, prepare to be amazed!"
Gonna try to keep this relatively short. 'Cause it would be easy to go on and on and on about what an amazing band Devo were back in the day and how absolutely ESSENTIAL these newly reissued collections of the earliest recorded Devo music are. Never before released on vinyl in the States, the original two volumes of Hardcore Devo came out on cd and cassette on Rykodisc in 1990 and 1991 respectively, and have been out of print (and sought after by fans) for many years. Now at last they've been reissued, as separate volumes on vinyl (one a single lp, the other double) and together as a double cd set.
Those of you already into Devo, who don't already have this, NEED this - and even if you do have it, you might want it again, either to get the vinyl versions, and/or for the 4 previously unreleased bonus tracks now included (on disc two / Volume Two). For others, well this is our opportunity to proselytize for the cult of Devo. Some folks out there who aren't that familiar with Devo might think of 'em as just some novelty new wave nerd-rock band doing goofy songs and wearing silly hats, one-hit wonders with 1980's "Whip It!". And while they did wear silly hats and were plenty goofy, they were also super subversive and bizarre, both sonically and ideologically, true pioneers in the realm of synth-punk and new wave, coming up with a sound that somehow grafted Kraftwerk to punk rock before either were popular, promoting their own anticapitalist, antiestablishment agenda couched in irony and Dadaism. These early recordings, demos and rarities recorded on a 4-track in Akron, Ohio circa 1974-1977, reveal Devo at their most underground, raw and stripped down, but already possessed of both catchy songwriting brilliance and conceptual originality. Definitely not the hippie boogie rock popular at the time!
It's worth noting that both future Devo members Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh had been students at Kent State, SDS activists in fact, and Casale personally witnessed the shocking National Guard shooting of anti-war demonstrators there in 1970. In some ways, Devo was the direct result. It's just that their idea of "protest music" was a bit different that the norm up to that point.
These DIY recordings sound pretty darn good - Devo knew what they were doing, even before they hooked up with producer Brian Eno for their 1977 debut Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! recorded at Conny Plank's studio in Germany. In fact, these are the recordings that got Eno interested in working with them in the first place.
On Volume One there's early versions of such Devo classics as "Jocko Homo", "Mongoloid", and their brilliant cover of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", but otherwise it's a plenitude of (sub)genius tracks never re-recorded for any of their studio albums, though some were released as singles on their own Booji Boy label, or later as B sides. It's a treasure trove of prime Devo at their purest and most urgently devolved!!! It contains one of our all time favorite Devo toons: "Auto Modown", a simple slice of proto-no-wave funk with a stinging guitar riff and Mark Mothersbaugh crooning ghoulish lyrics about how "an acid head goon in a '55 Dodge didn't mean to do it / but a sidewalk run in the noonday sun ten to one he had to lose it". Similar traits are shared by most of the tracks on here - the distorted synth-ed out soundz, the trebly bug zapper guitar, the absurd lyrical content, the robotically rhythmic catchiness. If you're a spud who hasn't heard "Social Fools", "Buttered Beauties", "Mechanical Man", "I'm A Potato", or "Ono" (and the list goes on), you haven't lived. EVERYTHING on here is great, all 15 cuts. Like we said, we could go on and on, about such treats as the blissed out, moody "Golden Energy" or the perversely humorous "Midget", who has the body of a 2 and half year old baby but the brain of a man, and takes advantage of the situation - deviant, juvenile, and sometimes frustrated sexual humor being one foundation of Devo's aesthetic for sure, with an ironic misogyny certainly being a component of the band's radical and often misunderstood critique of American culture.
Meanwhile disc two / Volume Two is even more packed with tracks, 25 of 'em, including the rather un-PC "Bamboo Bimbo", the anthemic "Be Stiff", the raunchy "I Need A Chick", and the electronically spazzed "U Got Me Bugged" (sung by Booji Boy himself), among many other weirdass classics. Overall Volume Two tends towards the slightly hit-and-miss in comparison to the totally solid start-to-finish Volume One, the Volume Two material not always as tightly on target, but after all there's more here, and even the lesser tracks are still worth absorbing repeatedly. Again, there's only a few songs that surfaced again later on their studio albums, like "Clockout" and their cover of "Working In A Coal Mine", otherwise it's mostly stuff only dedicated Devo-tees have heard before. And maybe hardly anyone has ever heard the four bonus tracks now tacked on to the end of Volume Two, but they're a worthy, weird bunch, including a couple of that sound like twisted, tweaked blues, in particular the the electronics-invaded and lyrically crude "Hubert House".
If you couldn't tell, we're so thrilled this is back in print, what can we say: BUY IT!! It might not change your life, but it could. It should. Kudos to the Superior Viaduct label, they've been putting out all kinds of cool reissues lately, but for us, this is the biggest deal yet, even if these albums aren't the rarest that they've reissued. They're nicely done, of course, including amusingly enthused liner notes by Henry Rollins, someone who has quite obviously drunk deeply of Devo's Kool-Aid. Heed his words: "Spud, prepare to be amazed!"
Whoo-hoo. Live Devo. Wait...live in 1996? Can these aged spuds still whip it like they used to back in the '70s and '80s? Well you gotta get this dvd to find out, though we can tell you we didn't not enjoy screening it, all the songs here are classics after all ("Girl U Want", "Mongoloid", "Uncontrollable Urge", "Jocko Homo" and a bunch more). Though it was a bit strange seeing 'em doing their thing in the daytime (in bright California sunshine even!) at an outdoor festival in front of a huge crowd. Most other Devo documents we've seen are more, shall we say, mediated by the band's unique, fucked aesthetic. Here they have less control over the presentation. Which reminds us, this dvd has the multiple camera angles feature. Also supposedly there's a band interview on here, but we couldn't locate it in the menu.
Spuds rejoice: it's live Devo, 1980! One of the best bands ever at the height of their powers, playing their "hit" songs to a stand-offish audience at the Phoenix theatre in Petaluma, California. However, spuds also bewarned: with an insanely abrasive edit of scrappy video footage, it's hard to watch this baby all the way through in one sitting -- even for us die-hard fans! Despite this, and the fact that you can tell the band takes awhile to warm up on stage, when they do, holy spudboy, watch them go! A high note is their cover of "[I Can't Get No] Satisfaction". This particular performance reaffirms that it may possibly be the most amazing cover of all time. Also great performances of "Pink Pussycat", "Girl U Want" and "Freedom of Choice"... Instrument note-worthy are Bob Mothersbaugh's cloud-shaped guitar and Gerald Casale's custom bass.
This is in the dualdisc format, meaning you get the video on the dvd side of the disc, as well as an audio-only version on the cd flipside. And, as a bonus, there's footage of Dove, The Band of Love (Devo's easy listening alter-ego that a lot of Devo fans didn't seem to "get", somehow) performing three songs live, also from 1980!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Impressive and all-encompassing anthology of Devo (only the best band of the late 20th century!!) spanning their inception in Akron, Ohio in the mid '70s all the way through "Smoothnoodlemaps" and then some (sigh... yeah, I know, they probably could have stopped after "Oh No! It's Devo"). All in all this is a nice set though, and includes plenty of "unreleased" tracks and rare songs recorded for soundtracks throughout the years (including a song that Mark Mothersbaugh recorded for the game Interstate '82). Comes with a 50 page color booklet with a history of Devo and lots of wonderful pictures. Cool 3-D cover effect as well.
We've reviewed a bunch of fine DVD releases over these last few lists, but out of 'em all, my pick for the raddest has gotta be this Devo DVD. Of course, they're probably in my (Allan's) top five bands of all time list, so I'm somewhat biased already.
Lots of Devo fans may have seen much of this already on video tape or even laserdisc (there's several clips included here of the Devo boys explaining the virtues of the futuristic laserdisc format) but now you can see that stuff again, and more besides, on this DVD. You get the original Kent State post-graduate student film In The Beginning Was The End: The Truth About De-Evolution, that started it all and introduced the world to such characters as Booji Boy and General Boy and some mighty odd and awesome pop tuneage. Then there's pretty much all of Devo's pioneering, wigged-out music videos, from Come Back Jonee and Satisfaction through Whip It and Girl U Want to Through Being Cool, Love Without Anger, and Peek-A-Boo. And more. All amazing, fairly low-budget (rubber masks galore), and completely cracked. A couple of the songs from the tail end of their recording career aren't so hot but that's a small fraction of the mostly-genius-stuff on here. Then there's the special features, which include an historic b&w video clip from the first ever Devo gig (1972!), a bonus video (Bruce Connor's Mongoloid), an interview with Devo video collaborator/instigator Chuck Statler, still photo galleries of Devo memorabilia that are so extensive you have to watch 'em in slow motion, and -- perhaps best of all -- a bonus audio commentary track for the majority of the disc done by chief Devo spuds Gerald V. Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh! That alone makes this pretty much essential to all true Devo fans, even if you already have the original stuff on video cassette. Hours of de-evolved fascination and fun await, an incredible dose of Devo philosophy, history, music and visuals.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Colorado quartet Devotchka do a lively jig down the path between the tweaked baroque pop of The Arcade Fire and the nouveau Balkan gypsy stylings of Beirut and Gogol Bordello. A Mad & Faithful Telling is a beauty capturing the band at its best, brisky tempo'd and impassioned with very Adrian Belew-esque swooping vocals and sweeping horns and strings following suit. This is music that'll leave your ears fevered and your cheeks flushed!
What a very strange strange sonic stew DFI have made! This self-titled album on Lance J Church' s label offers up stretches of hardcore and metal heaviness (lots of guitar riffage a la Fucking Champs), cyclical post-rock patterns and some prog-ish moments too. Tempos and styles change at the whims of this one man band, as does the sound quality -- a bit murky at times -- which may be attributed more to the fact that these fifteen songs were recorded at six different locations. Punkish shred-metal silliness that totally keeps the listener on his/her toes to the very last track -- a cover of Norwegian black metal act Ulver's "Wolf And Passion"! The track before that: a drum-machine & guitar version of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight Of The Bumblebee"! Bonus points, also, for the cool Devo "New Traditionalists" inspired artwork on the inside of the cd insert.
Three years or so on from their debut, here at last is more bombastic mostly instrumental prog from this hotshot young British outfit, in the grand tradition of great ye olde bands from their land of the seventies like Yes, King Crimson, Van Der Graaf, Genesis and even Comus (who weren't all instrumental of course, but sure excelled in that dep't as do Diagonal). A complex blend of powerful grooves and lovely moody bits, Diagonal deliver the prog rock goods for any fan of this style.
Diagonal, come to think of it, is a good name for a prog band - going off in their own direction, not aligned with either the X or the Y axis y'know, but still operating with straight-line precision. Well zig zagging a bit actually, when you think about it. But with precision, that's for sure. Lotsa moving parts (organ, heavy bass lines, horn-laced freakouts, etc.) but everything locking together TIGHT. Heck they should go play in Japan with one of Tatsuya Yoshida's bands like Koenjihyakkei, they'd for sure go down a storm (as they say in England when something goes over well).
Aside from some wordless ahh-ahh-ahh vocals on track 2, "These Yellow Sands", it's not until track 4 of 5, "Hulks", that we really notice Diagonal busting out any singing here, and it's melodic and gentle, again quite in the tradition of Yes and the like, with female backing vox. "Hulks" features some stirring sax as well, as it builds over the course of ten-plus-minutes into quite the majestic opus, and could have remained instrumental without really any lessening of impact, though the vocals are nice.
While, like so many fellow Rise Abovers, such as Astra, Diagonal are rather deliberately retro-minded and thus more circumscribed in approach than, say, Circle (who have a much more WTF? attitude to prog and everything else), nonetheless Diagonal's The Second Mechanism is an impressive exercise in prog-music-making that's quite exciting and vital.
The other day we happened to have a used copy of a 1972 Nektar album called A Tab In the Ocean playing on the store stereo. (Nektar being a prog rocking band of Brits who had transplanted themselves into the krautrock scene of Germany in the '70s.) There was a customer in the shop who was digging it, who then said something to the effect of, "too bad they don't make music like this anymore". Of course, we were happy to inform him otherwise, that he needn't lament, and as proof we immediately directed him to this record by Diagonal that we had just installed on our New Arrivals shelf.
These guys are from Brighton, and might as well also be from the '70s, though in fact this album is their brand new, debut album, and the members of this seven-piece band are all 20-something years old. But if we played this for you and told you it was some "hairy funk" released on the Vertigo label circa '73 you just might be fooled. Diagonal display plenty of virtuosity on their various instruments, in the service of complex, programmatic song structures. There's some nice, melodic singing heard here and there, but much more in the way of long, instrumental passages, at turns moody and dramatic. Spaced out synths and jazzy organ jamming and fluttering flute (yes!) all figure into the mix, though with two guitarists and a crack rhythm section, Diagonal don't neglect to rock out upon occasion, sometimes in a fairly heavy (and precise) fashion. And as complicated as their material gets, these are indeed *songs*, not merely technical exercises for showing off their considerable chops.
They're obviously influenced by the likes of King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Genesis, Yes, Van Der Graaf Generator, and many much more obscure acts of the era (Gracious, anyone? Gnidrolog?)... but just as surely they're not unaware of today's mathrock scene (cf. Battles) though these guys do seem consciously retro, looking the part in long hair, beards, and vintage shop clothing (actually, that's not such an unusual style for kids these days, is it?).
Right on, there's been more cool modern-day prog showing up at Aquarius these past couple weeks than you can shake a Chapman Stick at! Crime In Choir, last list, and now Diagonal, well that's two anyway. (And neither use the Stick, don't get the wrong idea, as sometimes that's taking the prog thing just a little too far.)
Available on cd or as an import gatefold LP.
Jacqui Ham may still be best known for her work in the band UT, who operated throughout the '80s in NYC and spilled out of the Glenn Branca / Sonic Youth / Live Skull morass of angular yet droning, art-rock damage. That project dissolved sometime around 1990, with Ham re-emerging with a self-released first album of radically deconstructed songs under the moniker Dial. That first album was a primitive churn of bleak-as-fuck electronics, codeine laced vocal slur, and lots of destroyed amp distortion; it was equal parts industrial abjection, classic NYC grime, and the No Wave pursuit of the transgressive. Since 1996, Dial have only released 4 albums, but all stand as minor masterpieces of visions from the depths of the underground. The Western Front is the first on beloved label Ektro, which is not all that strange a home for Dial, especially with Ektro reissuing the Rat At Rat R record not that long ago. Rat At Rat R being an obscure '80s gloomy, pig-fuck band from bowels of the Lower East Side with connections to Live Skull and Missing Foundation.
Production wise, Dial have got the nicotine stain cloud that hangs over every single Michael Morley production (Gate, Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos, and of course The Dead C). And just like in those projects, this is not lo-fi for the sake of being lo-fi. The grit, the noise, and the grime are all very intentionally applied to these hypnotically reductivist tracks of wheezing drum machine or motorik churn from a live drummer with abused guitar noises, deformed guitar riffs, and violently ripped basslines added into the mix. Ham's vocal snarl is much as it was in Ut, but it makes much more sense here as punctuations amidst her narcotized stream of consciousness that spills through the dirge and grind. "Helium" is certainly a standout track and is straight out of the Pussy Galore playbook with a groovy-hate riff of serrated blues repeating ad nauseam through the hypno-rock damage. In contrast, there's "Silent Way" with its slinky drum machine and quietly tense piano notes and agitated guitar bursts. The album's finale "Let's Forget" is a terse ditty of percolating programmed drums, atonally child-like electronics, and some heroin blooziness bleeding through the guitars. This is the sound of NYC way back when, with the aura of stagnant sewage, spent condoms, rusty needles, and lots of bum trash strewn about. Pretty, this ain't. Compelling? Fuck yeah!
Not to be confused with the Dial from NYC, this is crazy chaotic female fronted math grind metal craziness that RULES.
Here's a question that gets tossed around here more and more in recent months: Is this new or old? Given how many bands who make druggy, atmospheric ritualism could have produced those sounds in 1972 or 2009 with equal aplomb. The Amen Dunes record Dia (2009) and Warlus' Songs album (1975) make for an interesting case study. Over the past twelve months, there's been another resurgence of black clad, post-punk thanks to some of the dour Goth reissues from Sacred Bones, which fit neatly next to the spunky Joy Divisionisms of Blank Dogs and the moping, black eyeliner tunes of this weeks ROTW Soror Dolorosa. Those could also be addressed with that same question: is this old or new? In the case of the dark, moody sounds of Dial M For Murder, the answer is, as hard as it might be to believe, "new."
Citing Joy Division and the Chameleons as their references, Dial M For Murder end up in a place remarkably close to Interpol. The vocalist David Ortenlof really does come across like Interpol's Paul Banks on a good chunk of the tracks, and almost like Mark Edwards from My Dad Is Dead on the others. Musically, the dark jangliness of the guitar and the punchy basslines situates around tight drum machine programming coming across like Ratatat reworking Joy Division singles. Gothic and haunting, but propulsive and poppy, really really cool stuff for sure.
Hmm. What hath The Darkness wrought? Bands that think it's ok to bust out the falsetto -- bands like Diamond Nights. To be fair, these guys are not nearly as over the top as The Darkness (whom we love by the way). And their singer's use of the higher pitch isn't any more pronounced than that of a bunch of current emo scene bands either. But, like the Darkness, the Diamond Nights guys seem to wear their retro influences proudly on their sleeves. And with a name like that, you might wonder how serious they are. Well we don't know, but we do like these five songs. You might too if you like good ol' classic rock. Track one, "Destination Diamonds", comes off like The Fucking Champs (or to be more accurate, Thin Lizzy) fronted by the guy from The Darkness. The subsequent tracks are less metal, more keyboardy and '80s new wavey really, reminding us of The Cars, Billy Idol and even Power Station! 18 minutes and 26 seconds of good times here, people.
Damn, this has been in stock for a little while now -- some months now, in fact! -- but for some reason we didn't get around to checking it out 'til just the other day (even though we liked this band's previous ep, Once We Were Diamonds, reviewed here last year). Like we've said before, it's hard to keep up with everything... But better late than never. Everything that was cool about that ep is even cooler here on the full-length, which actually includes the two best songs from the ep, would-be/should-be hits "That Girl's Attractive" and "Destination Diamonds". If the latter track were the only thing you ever heard by Diamond Nghts you'd think they were fully trying to emulate both The Fucking Champs (and/or Thin Lizzy) and The Darkness. But DN have more tricks up their sleeves than just that -- the rest of Popsicle isn't all (ironic?) metal like that... though the adrenalized "It's A Shokka" definitely demonstrates a maybe tongue-in-cheek Judas Priest influence, and also sounds a heckuva lot like Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy". But other tracks here show that besides the Thin Lizzy and Queen albums that these guys undoubtedly love (there's no denying it), they have other influences too that aren't classic rock/metal. On tracks like "Drip Drip" (not the Comus song!) they've got a dancey '80s new wavey thing (hmm, also like Queen got into) going on. And at other moments the hooks and the vocals remind us of the White Stripes, and the chops underlying the pop make us think of 31 Knots... So while Diamond Nights can't lay claim to being the most original band ever, they're definitely talented and have managed to meld their collective influences together in some unexpected ways. Basically, this is everything that we wished the second, disappointing Darkness album would have been.
Scott Herren has shown over the years he's a man of many musical hats. Creating a wide range of sounds with his projects Prefuse 73, Savath & Savalas, Piano Overlord, etc. Diamond Watch Wrist finds him exploring warmly textured songs with moody and ghostly undertones. In fact this record would fit so nicely near Warp label-mates Grizzly Bear. Joined by Zach Hill of Hella on drums who plays in the most restrained and atmospheric fashion we've heard from him, Herren shows he's much more then an electronics wizard as he plays guitar, bass, pedal steel, clarinet and sings so nicely throughout the record, too. We hear the influence of late '90s lush indie bands like Bedhead and Red Stars Theory. Nice to find yet another side to Herren's multitalented musical leanings, same goes for Hill as well.
This is the first we'd heard from these guys, but holy shit were we thrown for a loop. The fact that the record is on Top Shelf, home to former Record Of The Week-ers Piano Become The Teeth, had us expecting some sort of frenzied post-metal screamo heaviosity, but when we threw it on, it was anything but. Total catchy as fuck, super produced heavy pop that RULES. In fact the first track here, "Cannonball" is one of those rare jams, that immediately become the only thing we wanted to listen to (full disclosure, we being mostly Andee, but you probably figured that out). And thus, we've listened to that song, and this ep, 5 or 6 times a day, every day, for the last two weeks, basically since we first discovered it. And while this is not the group's newest (a new ep JUST came out), it is the first we heard, and it's still just about all we can listen to. Somewhere between the bombastic prog pop of Muse, the fuzzy post-stoner arena rock of Queens Of The Stone Age, and the poppiest parts of later Cave-In records (or maybe more accurately, any of CI frontman Stephen Brodsky's solo records), but maybe more than anything, we're reminded of a long ago aQ fave and previous Record Of The Week from a band called Open Hand, and like that band, Diamond Youth manage the impossible task of balancing impeccable, super polished pop-smithery, with some serious metallic heft, and hard rocking punk rock bombast. But metalheads and punks will most likely find Orange WAY too poppy, the rest of us though, just might have ANOTHER new favorite band. Every song here practically perfect, from the aforementioned opener, to the woozy, softly psychedelic, insanely catchy "Come Down", to the fuzzed out crunch of the title track, that almost sounds like Rocket From The Crypt, given a power pop makeover, to the broody, lilting minor key closer, that sounds like it could have been a Posies B-side. So good.
And we're psyched there's another new Diamond Youth record to obsess over once we've finally played this one to death... which doesn't seem likely to happen anytime soon!
Neil Diamond at AQ??!! What is the world coming to? But before you start nodding your head and thinking the end has come, guess what? This is actually a really good record unlike anything else he's done in forever (Diamond fans just back off! No need to send us hate mail, we love Neil Diamond as much as you do, but you gotta admit it's been years since he did anything worthwhile). Thanks to the vision of Rick Rubin the world actually gets to hear Neil Diamond stripped down and raw for the first time. No multitrack schmaltzy vocal overdubs, no glossy production. Instead Rubin has actually stripped away all the bloat and corniness and gotten to the core of Neil Diamond, a performer you maybe never knew existed. At times it's almost like you're listening to Neil Diamond's take of a Giant Sand record! With a super solid cast of musicians playing on the record including the distinct organ sounds of Billy Preston, 12 Songs is not only by far the best thing Neil Diamond has maybe ever done, it's also a testament to the vision of Rick Rubin. Who else can say they've made great records with Johnny Cash, Run-DMC, Slayer and now Neil Diamond??
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If you adore the sounds of Be Good Tanyas and Jolie Holland, this gal is sweetly calling your name. You might already be familiar with Ms Alela Diane's captivating, earthy presence via her performances with pal Joanna Newsom.
While Joana Newsom is the best known export from the Nevada City/Grass Valley, California music scene, it's looking like her good pal Alela Diane has been getting a nice share of attention lately with her Rough Trade debut, To Be Still. You'd be hard pressed to find an album recorded with more warmth or richness then this one, Diane's sophomore outing. Recalling the magic of early Emmylou Harris and for sure echoing the lush arrangements and immaculate delivery of her old neighbor Joanna Newsom. With a fine cast of players including Matt Bauer and Espers percussionist Otto Hauser, these songs come pouring out with such ease and such an assured and natural warmth.
Chicago's Dianogah return with their second full length (their first for Southern) of warm post-rock melodies and sporadic polyrhythms. A little more structurally complex than their previous endeavors and much more melodic (read: Not as painfully boring as their last record). The recording -- a Steve Albini original -- is absolutely amazing. Overall this is by far Dianogah's best record yet. Falls right between the first Tortoise album and Don Caballero's "What Burns Never Returns."
Although they often fall into step with their mellow instrumental post-rock contemporaries such as San Diego's Tristeza, Dianogah seem restless sticking to that gentle pace as they shuffle their deck of time signatures and tempos. Solid, dynamic drumming
The psych/prog reissues label Akarma from Italy has begun a campaign of mid price repressings, with stuff they had previously put out in their usual mini gatefold LP sleeve style packaging now being issued in jewel cases with the price knocked down a few bucks (a good thing, considering that the falling US dollar is making so many imports much more pricey). So we'll be getting a few old faves back in... Here's one for the old school stoner rockers among you: Dias de Blues. Heavy psychedelic blues rock from Uruguay circa 1972, kind of a slightly more wasted Latin American take on something along the lines of Cream. This album ventures from uptempo fuzz rockers to wailing blues harp jams to backwards-effected dirges, all with killer guitar leads and Spanish vocals. Cool. And there's a severed head being brandished by an equally disembodied arm on the cover!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Apparently, the dudes and lady in Dick Diver once facetiously referred to their band as "Dolewave," (a reference to the Clean track "The Doledrums") and unknowingly and probably unwantedly put a genre fence around a whole group of musicians in the modern New Zealand/Australia scene. The term, at least among forum posters and Aussie and Kiwi music journalists, stuck, and many bands, Dick Diver included, have tried to distance themselves from the constant comparisons to the Clean. Here at aQ, we refuse to make the lazy, easy comparison to the geographically close but stylistically different jangle-pop masters.
No, the only comparison that is worth making is that both the Clean and Dick Diver write clever and fun pop tunes. But in that case, you might as well compare them to David Bowie or something (the Bowie comparison is actually a little bit apt on the track "Percentage Points"). On "Beat Me Up (Talk To A Counsellor)" Al Montfort (also of aQ favs Total Control) sings over a piano-driven, funky, and sassy track that's as much goofy as it is catchy. "Private Number," too has a similar laid back, loungy feel, complete with a sultry sax solo. "Boomer Class" and "Blue Time" have beautiful vocal duets, horns, and synth all thrown about, all elements that distinguish them from the simplistic pop of the old Flying Nun scene.
These are smart, well-crafted, and forward-thinking pop tracks - perfect for dipping your toes into the Dunedin pop scene (if you haven't dove in yet). A must listen! And this vinyl version includes a download, fyi.
James Luther Dickinson (yes, the same Jim Dickinson who produced Big Star -- that's where I recognized his name from) has enjoyed a long and fruitful career as a highly-respected Memphis session player with everyone from Bob Dylan to Dr. John, Little Richard, the Stones (he played piano on "Wild Horses"), Aretha Franklin, Sam & Dave, Taj Mahal, Brook Benton, and the list goes on and on, more recently including Mudhoney and Jon Spencer(!). The liner notes for this reissue go into great detail about his career; so I'll just say that this, his debut 1972 solo album, is a majorly sought-after collectors item (on vinyl that is), and is now finally available on disc from the fine archivists at Sepia Tone. The sound is a mix of swamp boogie a la Dr John, Jagger's swagger, and the twang rock of Gram Parsons on his upbeat numbers. This is a really good, tight, and fun unearthed find. Recommended.
For some strange reason, this has been sitting on the shelf, generally unacknowledged, for ages. Which makes no sense at all, the Dicks from Austin, TX are one of the most legendary and outrageous American punk bands from the early '80s. Their songs have been covered by the likes of Mudhoney and fellow Texas nutjobs Scratch Acid. Crossdressing lead singer Gary Floyd, along with Randy "Biscuit" Turner of the Big Boys and Dave Dictor of MDC, represented one of the most unusual and politically radical punk scenes in the country - hell, WORLD. All three singers were hulking madmen, all completely gay and proud, and completely capable of beating the living shit out of anyone who might cross their paths.
Hungry Butt contains two Dicks shows, one from 2005 and the main attraction, a show from 1980. The reunited Dicks, however, still sound unbelievable and as good as they did in their initial run. In both settings the energy level is beyond comprehension as Floyd spits out hateful but hilarious musings in front of the enamored audience. The band appears to be straddling that fine line between keeping it together and plunging into pure chaos, and GODDAMN does it sound good, not to mention surprisingly musical. The album also contains two outtakes from the band's mythical Hate The Police single, "Pigs Run Wild" and "Hate The Police" (one of the best songs EVER). You don't even need to know anything about the Dicks to appreciate the timeless punk rock on display here, and considering the difficulty in finding any of their stuff, we can't recommend this highly enough. We don't have too many copies and are kinda unsure whether we can get more (this was released five years ago...) but we figured it would be criminal not to let people in on this opportunity.
Kill From The Heart is the legendary debut from Texas / SF punks the Dicks, which featured a young Mr. Gary Floyd, who would later go on to form Sister Double Happiness. But back in 1980, in Austin Texas, Floyd was fronting the Dicks, a wild rambunctious band of political punks who terrorized and inspired in equal measure, Floyd was a seriously imposing frontman, the band confrontational and controversial, their first single a tale of a corrupt policeman abusing minorities ("The Dicks Hate The Police"), and songs featuring lyrics about homophobia and sexuality, amongst other charged topics. Their sound raw and feral, but still hooky and heavy, Floyd's voice super distinctive, their influence on other bands was immeasurable, even if some folks don't realize it. Mudhoney's "Hate The Police" is of course a Dicks cover, and Jesus Lizard covered the Dicks' "Wheelchair Epidemic", and the Butthole Surfers even wrote a song about Floyd called, of course "Gary Floyd".
This first incarnation of the band only lasted three years, with Floyd taking off for San Francisco, where he would reform the Dicks with a whole new lineup. Kill From The Heart was originally released in 1983 on SST and has been remastered by Jello Biafra, and for this reissue, the whole of the Dicks Hate The Police single has been tacked on as bonus tracks (they're included in the download with the lp version). We've been listening to this like crazy since it came out, and sort of forgot just how goddamn good this record was, and IS!
These People is record number two legendary debut from Texas / SF punks the Dicks, which featured a young Mr. Gary Floyd (and at this point drummer Lynn Perko), both of whom would later go on to form Sister Double Happiness, but in 1983, the Dicks Mk II had just formed in SF after Floyd's relocation, and the new band reimagined the Dicks sound as something much more melodic and poppy, hinting at what was to come in SDH, and while it was definitely still punk, it was crazy catchy too, Floyd's voice much more controlled, the songs surprisingly polished, a few of the tracks here sounding almost like Sugar at times, hooks galore, but for every blast of pretty poppiness, there's another chunk of swaggery noisy punkiness, often some hybrid of the two, which is what made this record such a killer. And Floyd remained an imposing frontman, the band not shying away at all from the subject matter that made their first record so charged and controversial, in fact, the band found all sort of other injustices to rail against, including murdered Black Panther George Jackson, whose story is told in the album closer "George Jackson". But the sound of the band definitely alienated a segment of the punk rock community, and most likely contributed to the band's eventual breakup, and Floyd and Perko heading for poppy climes, but even now, after all these years, this record sounds better than ever. And the funny thing is back when we first discovered the Dicks, we sort of considered this the wussier record, with Kill From The Heart being THEE Dicks record, but some of these songs are hitting the spot big time, and giving Kill a run for its reissue money!
Originally released in 1985, on Alternative Tentacles, These People has been remastered by Jello Biafra, and for this reissue, the whole of the Peace? 7" single has been tacked on as bonus tracks (on both the vinyl and the cd).
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Almost 50 years after its release and still as raw, pleasing, and perfect sounding as ever. In lots of ways it seems as though Bo Diddley never really got his due. Besides being an electric guitar pioneer and rock n' roll forefather, Diddley knew something about soul, bare-bone execution, and smiling-with-purpose delivery that made his best records able to stand the test of time. You can't listen to Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger without your foot constantly bouncing up and down. You can't listen to his rendition of "Sixteen Tons" without your eyebrows raising in pleasant curiosity. You can't listen to him do the crawdaddy without wanting to join right along. Bo Diddley knew about that totally pure and raw space where you can feel music hit you in the greatest and most physical way. One of those timeless records that belongs in any music lovers collection. Whether your stereo is usually filled with the sounds of Japanese noise or no wave intensity or singer songwriter statements; this is a record that you can turn to and get refreshed by all the time. Diddley is an amazing example of someone who had the gift of making music that could ooze into our bodies and under our skin and next thing you know your whole body is moving your face is grinning and it feels so damn good. Thank you Mr. Diddley!
If there's any artists that really deserves some sort of epic retrospective that digs deeeeep into the archives, it's Bo Diddley. All too often he's celebrated for his unique charisma, but it's sometimes forgotten how many great records he actually made. Originally released in 1970, The Black Gladiator shows a much more psychedelic rock/blues side to Diddley's sound. The songs pack such a punch, and there's so much energy and conviction that you can almost feel Diddley's sweat oozing from every note. The lyrics cut to the core, perfect for the music, so raw, dirty, and full of attitude. Like a way more fucked up Booker T. & The MG's or Meters, or maybe Hendrix and Black Merda doing a tutorial for Lux from the Cramps. We're even reminded of that amazing weird blip in Chubby Checker's career that was documented on the mind blowing Chubby Checker Goes Psychedelic album.
There's no doubt that many future garage psych/blues masterminds were influenced by these sounds. You can pretty much hear the origins of folks like the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Make Up, Dub Narcotic Sound System, The Gories, White Stripes and we even clocked a moment that The Beastie Boys sampled. And we're pretty sure that our favorite current garage rock artists like Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees either already treasure this album or would freak out if they were finally hearing it for the first time.
Hell yeah! We've been experiencing a pretty rad renaissance in fucked up (in a great way) music coming out of the Bay Area recently. Didimao are for sure way fucked up and that fucked up sound just hits the spot so right on. Dark and spastic, psychedelic and eccentric, creepy and crawling - this is one of those awesome bands that you really can't sum up with one quick line or a single easy reference. But of course it is our job to try, so what we will say, is that they remind us a bit of the really exploratory stuff that came out of the post-punk scene back in the day, you know, like Saccharine Trust or Butthole Surfers as well as nice hints of Nurse With Wound, Mr. Bungle/Secret Chiefs, Silver Daggers, early Boredoms, Faust, Caroliner, Sun City Girls, 7 Year Rabbit Cycle etc. Anyone can be weird and out there, but Didimao have a true psychedelic spirit that really makes this record an awesome tripped out adventure to listen to, moving through so many sonic spaces and exploring each of them in such interesting and organic ways. Their cover of The Urinals "Surfing With The Shah" is taking us to some pretty fucking epic place where punks get hijacked by psychedelic droners which is, for lack of a better word sooooo rad! Makes perfect sense that Didimao used to jam in the same space Wildildlife, the two share a similar disregard for genre and are constantly blurring and melding different styles and sounds. Totally refreshing, confusing and rewarding. This is one fried and fucked up musical missive that we highly recommend!
We've written a lot about super hyped YouTube phenoms, South African rave rappers Die Antwoord, do a quick search on the aQ site and check out the other DA reviews, we were pretty much obsessed with them from day one, as were most of our friends. It was hard not to be, especially after seeing the group's over the top videos, the tall gangly goofy tattooed redneck mainman, the impossibly cute elfin hype-girl, the over the top imagery, the ridiculous art design, the larger than life characters, the ridiculous rapping, the synth driven goofball anthems that actually KILLED, and were catchy as all get out. The band seemed to wear out their welcome, already dropped from their label, and with a sizable backlash, with people either proclaiming them stupid, or fakes, but as we mention in the other reviews, it doesn't matter. When we thought they were real South African ghetto rappers, we loved it, when we discovered it was a super well crafted musical art prank, we liked it even more. And you know what, the music STILL kills, the videos are still totally nuts, Yo-Landi, the elfin pixie with the coat made out of dead rats and the super severe (but impossibly hot) bleached white mullet, just gets more and more crush worthy, especially now what she's handling much of the vocal duties, before we go any further, take a second and watch the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uee_mcxvrw
How can you not be totally obsessed?! Still? Or AGAIN?! That's some total mindfuck / whatthefuck genius right there. And yeah, there is something to be said for Die Antwoord relying heavily on the visuals, and that removed from the videos, and without the larger than life characters, it's maybe not as immediate, but we defy folks who say the music sucks. Sure it's goofy and silly and dumb, puerile and ridiculous, but that's what makes it so goddamn fun. If you were in club, what would get your blood pumping more, a Rhianna song, some Lady Gaga hit, or "I Fink U Freeky", with that pulsing euro-rave synth, that inane but hypnotic chorus, that crazy rap, that speeds up weirdly midway through? No contest. And the record's pretty much overflowing with jams like that, huge buzzing synths, big dumb funky as fuck beats, bizarre vocals, over the top raps, if this was a record by some unknown producer, people would be flipping their shit, and rightfully so. Fuck the haters, and fuck the backlash, we love this shit, and it's pretty much all we want to listen to. And if we actually danced, you can bet this would be our JAM.
One of two great new reissues from Medical on this week's list, elsewhere you'll find a reissue of the Body 11 record (which reminds us of Pop Will Eat Itself and Suicide!), and then there's this, another one from Germany. It's the self titled debut from a group called Die Gesunden, a duo made up of Mabel Aschenneller and Eschi Rehm, who were one of the first Neu Deutsche Welle (New German Wave) bands, and who released their debut on the Innovative Communication label started in 1978 by none other than Klaus Schulze of Tangerine Dream. It is a weird one, right from the first track "Instru-Mental", which sounds like maniacal mad scientist electro, all skeletal and glitchy and buzzy, before the synths swoop in, and processed vocals, warped and carnivalesque, sounding like it could be the theme from some seventies or eighties low budget Z-movie, which means AMAZING. And while we were prepared to write "while nothing else is nearly as weird", the second track stopped us cold, a weird, buzzing, squiggly droned out, noisy industrial intro, gives way to some noisy, bloopy, bouncy, crunchy distorted synth pop, laced with whispered sinister vocals, the sound raw and lo-fi, it reminds us tonally of early Devo, especially when the second synth line comes in, all thick and fuzzy, the whole thing really dark and intense. Not at all what we were expecting. And the rest of the record is more of the glorious twisted same, a fucked up and freaky electro synth pop, all the sounds rough around the edges, lots of drone and buzz, crunchy crumbling distortion, lurching rhythms, even the poppier songs are twisted and tweaked, noisy and industrial, and just plain weird. After reviewing the Body 11, we were ready to proclaim it the weirdest Medical reissue yet, but this one is definitely giving it a run for its money. This and the Body 11 just might be our two favorite Medical reissues since either the Axxess or the Lou Champagne System, both of which were Records Of The Week, and now that we've reviewed both of these, we're thinking either or both could/should have been ROTW as well...
LIMITED TO 650 COPIES!! Pressed on heavy 180 gram pink vinyl.
