A stunning moment

I may talk occasionally on this blog about my friend Andy.  He and I are musical soul mates.  There's never been a time when he's suggested a piece of music to me when I've responded with revulsion or contempt.  Even with cases like Gasp, when I'm presented with it and completely not in the mood, the music eventually smacks me right in the gob and makes me listen.

Gasp where power violence before power violence was power violence.  They seem to have erupted like a subdermal infection from SoCal and ooozed out into the world.  I'd never heard of these guys until I was on the road to see Agalloch in Chicago and Andy popped them in.  I was driving, and honestly not really paying attention to the stereo.  I'd heard a lot of PV in my life, and this was standard fare.  But it somehow segued into a solemn, mournful melody without me knowing it.  This whole album is an exercise in the narrative craft.  From peak to valley, trough and ebb, to monstrous rage and all the points betwixt.  It's phenomenal, and complete in its own right.  Enjoy.

Author and Punisher

I'm going to try to do a couple of posts tonight since I've been slacking for a few weeks. 

First up is a track off of a CD I just got in the mail last week.  "The Painted Army" really divided me, but only because it wasn't exactly what I was expecting.  Honestly, this is a good thing (hear me out).  It has a big post-rock/doom-ish influence to it, with touches of industrial and a strong melodic sense.  Now, as I was introduced to A&P and Tristan Shone through this video, I had expected something more ambient/doom, almost power electronics.  I was initially intrigued by his mechanisms and his approach.  The combination of technical prowess and artistic passion really gets my gears going (so to speak).  "The Painted Army" has hints of these flavors, with an overtone that might be fresh basil or melody.  One of the two.

Anyways, I've been passing kidney stones for a week and I'm all doped up on Vicodin and drinking an Old Guardian Barley Wine.  How I feel now is how A&P sounds.  Check it here.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Here's audio for the shitty YouTube video I posted earlier. I love this song with all my heart.

Crayon the Red

I only have 4 songs from this dude, but they're all super-sick/weird drum machine grind. I'm assuming this guy is really into aliens and marijuana, and probably has a sizeable collection of bongs and/or butt plugs and sex dolls. Weird shit.

Get "Perception" by Crayon the Red

so this is how freedom feels

When I was in high school I was really into the whole British crust scene (I include in this bands up to and including the early 90s) because it felt genuinely more authentic than the American Punk I had grown up listening to. It was darker, more introverted, and didn't pull any punches in what it had to say whereas most American Punk of the 90s consisted of whining about relationships and how nobody understood them. Amebix was pretty damn experimental and dark for that scene, and I love this song. "Largactly" was one of their first songs I ever heard, and I still go back to it as an example of that crusty sound.

get it