Jucifer / Show of Bedlam split

I dig it when a split has a "famous" and a new band facing each other. Though both collectives are "new" for me, as this is the first time I'm exposed to either of them. Two 'girly' bands. "Female fronted metal". You know, like Nightwish and Evanescence.
Jucifer deliever a fair dose of harsh punkish sludge(core). Now, Show of Bedlam is a promising newcomer, with a mix of retro, psychedelic sound, doom and twisted female vocals. My personal favourite is "Miss Johnny Shirt", where the vocal palette includes spoken word, 70's singing and screams.

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Einstürzende Neubauten - Tabula Rasa

Strangely enough, I used to dislike Einstürzende Neubauten. Then I learned German, got my hands on a discography, had a few murky, night-time listening sessions, opened up a dictionary or two, and, well, now I'm a fan. "Tabula Rasa" is a great album, it has all these spoken word stuff, various drones and quite interesting arrangements.
Also, I have a fuckin' slow internet, so
updates are going to be sporadic --- as always. Have fun!

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The Devil's Blood - Come, Reap EP

Long time, no posts. Sorry guys... I had/have all kinds of computer & internet access problems, work, study, you know the drill. Right now I'm exploiting my girlfriend's fast broadband connection, so here's a quick one, the total 70's worship "occult rock" EP by The Devil's Blood. It's all epic riffs, driving beats, choruses, with a dark atmosphere and sometimes a nifty touch of kitsch. Not the kind of thing I usually go for, but this 5-song record is a masterpiece. Great compositions, catchy melodies, a nice female voice; music reaching straight-ahead rock songs to more psychedelic jams (e.g. closer "Voodoo Dust", a 10-minute monster). Hard rock has never been so soft. It's a pity their 2009 full-length kinda sucks, it's just mehh, lame and bland.

<<< ünk-a-o >>>

Skeleton of God - Primordial Dominion

A weird one. Skeleton of God released an EP "Urine Garden" ages ago, then vanished, only to reappear in 2008 with this kick-ass mix of psychedelia and brutal death metal. Yepp, and it's indeed psychedelic, it's not just a tag. I don't usually listen to death metal, but this album I like a lot.
<<< hear >>>

Horseback - The Invisible Moutain

A very decent release. I'm tired to write an overview... so
<<< fires burning >>>

Skullflower - Form Destroyer

A classic album by a classic band. Tons of feedback and noise but somehow it organizes itself into a sonic entity that really just swallows you whole and doesn't let go. Whirling and swirling around, it's awesome!! Opening track "Elephant's Graveyard" give me shivers each time I hear it.
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Burning Star Core - Operator Dead...Post Abandoned

Description to come.
<<< link >>>

Burning Star Core - The Very Heart of the World

As promised, some more Burning Star Core. This release is different. The frist two tracks are more eclectic, with occassional drumming, more varied violin-effects, sometimes in a dark ambient vein, but mostly just very psychedelic, trance-inducing. Third track "Benjamin" in more along the lines of "Amelia" and "Nyarlathotep" (mm, Lovecraft) is just a bunch of weird noises and modulated human voice.
More to come? Possibly. He has some more good stuff, from the eclectic style.

<<< link >>>

Burning Star Core - Amelia

A guy with the name C. Spencer Yeh can't do wrong. Especially if he's working in the field of (mostly) improvised noise and is holding a violin in his hand. His musical output is impossible to keep track of. Too much releases on too much underground labels. Whatever. Let's just stick to nice and cosy tip of the iceberg here. This is a CDr/10" release, featuring three tracks, displaying mostly the minimalistic drone-electronics sound of his project (there are other sides as well, to be featured in following posts). "Supersonic Woman" is spacey ambient, "Homing Pigeon" (Worms is all I think of...) is a mish-mash of weird sounds, always reminds me of being inside a ship, by the way, all that crackling and waving and cockroaches chewing their way through the wood. Then there's the lengthy "Point of Departure etc", which is almost like a Reich composition.

<<< link >>>

Dragonauta - Cabramacabra

Yet another doomy greatness!! This time from Argentina, singing in their native Spanish and kicking ass the stoner way. I highly reccomend this album becaue it doesn't represent your standard stoner sound, but offers a unique way of smokin' and rockin'. And great songwriting skills! Not a single unneeded sound, everything HAS to be there, each riff, each break, each solo. Great vocals. Get it, I'm not capable of writing a better overview right now. Believe me, this is great shit.

<<< psycho link destroyer morphobot >>>

PAROM - На краю

This record is a real hit, out of the blue. More precisely - out of Minsk, Belarus. These guys mix bluesy stoner rock with some hardcore, throw in some saxophone and other tasty things here or there. I seriously didn't expect "На краю"/"On the Edge" to be so fuckin cool. Energetic, raw, non-trivial music. Lyrics are mostly shouted in a hardcore manner, there are some gang vocals, more standard up-beat rock singing... Get this. You can also download it from their myspace's blog. Even if you don't like the previews, get the album, it works better when listened to as a whole. The songs just flow into each other. And the opening track, which is probably my personal favourite, is not featured on myspace. So. Go.
<<< link me up >>>

The Book of Knots - The Book of Knots

"The First Book of Knots Project. Featuring the founding quatro of Tony Maimone, Joel Hamilton, Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi. Joining them are Luminaries: Jon Langford, Brandon Seabrook, Catherine Oberg, Matthew Waugh, Megan Reilly, Jason Mills, Norman Westberg, Dave Curran, Alice Lee and Cassis. Loosely inspired by growing up in a small depressed fishing community."
An amazingly atmospheric, varied and interesting record. I don't even know to what it could possibly be likened. Just get it and listen.

<<< lünk >>>

Letargy Dream - 2

One of my favourites from 2008... and 2009, as this album was released on 29th of December. So obviously I only got it in 2009. Yeah. Three lengthy compositions are presented here, a mix of death-doom, doom, traditional, with psychedelic overtones, great quality, good musicianship. And great lyrics (in Russian). A truly talented band. Get this album from Solitude Productions, it's totally worth it.
<<< link >>>

earthlings? - Human Beans

Second album of the earthlings? at your service. Maybe not as great as their debute, but still an amazing piece of psychedelic space rock. Space musically and space thematically.
<<< link >>>
(link updated. Should word normally)

earthlings? - earthlings?

When I found this album, I felt like the luckiest man on Earth. And not only on Earth. In the whole Universe! And more!! Yeah!! Space is no limit!
Actually, I fell in love with this space/desert rock supergroup without hearing a single track. The list of contributors was enough for me, especially back in that time (a year ago I was gay for the Palm Desert Scene. I still am, actually). This s/t album by the earthlings? is great!! Very psychedelic, lots of interesting beeps and spacey sound layers over the tiight, hypnotic drumming... Yeah. Okay, I admit, sometimes they go too far: I mean, every single track has those wooowooooo spaceship!! sound effects BUT WHATEVER!! I love wooowooo spaceship!! sound effects.
I hope there's intelligent life out there. And I hope it's portayed well by the earthlings?.
<<< link >>>