“You really like gorillas? We've got just the pet for you/It's the way you're forced to act to survive our schools/Make your whole life revolve around sports. Walk tough, don't act too smart/Be a mean machine then we'll help you get ahead.” - Dead Kennedys
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| Horns Up |
New Horizons
Godflesh – PurgeSix years on from ‘Post Self’, Godflesh return to the fray with a record that combines the succinct attack of ‘Post Self’ with the post punk leanings of ‘A World Lit Only by Fire’. Songs like ‘Mythology of Self’ still bulldoze the listener into oblivion, but it’s the astonishing closer ‘You Are The Judge…’ which lingers longest in due to its hymn like passages that are both ethereal and disturbing.
The album will be available for streaming and purchasing here.
Khanate – To Be Cruel
For their first record since 2009, the notorious Khanate pick up where they left off, which means feedback laden doom stretched out over 20 minutes a track with Alan Durbin’s despair laden shrieking about how “things all around/they hide and are still/the faces are blank/stifled their shrill stab of the voice.” Powerful material for the brave, and thumbs up to the Swans referencing title.
The album can be streamed and purchased here.
Neil Gaiman & FourPlay String Quartet - Signs of Life
Collaborations of this ilk are often weighed down with expectations and the seeming incompatibility of spoken word and an orchestra. However, with this emerging from an abandoned concept based around the Zodiac, as well as Gaiman’s lyrical voice achieving the fine effect of being both intimate and grandiose in the same sentence, this is a thrilling and enchanting collaboration.
The album can be streamed and purchased here.
SQURL – Silver Haze
The fourth album from noted film director Jim Jarmusch’s avant-rock outfit, this is a succinct and deeply invigorating mix of Earth style post-rock and Galaxie 500 style dream pop, with tunes that are both beautiful in all their griminess and with a sinister undertone, as if waiting for something awful to happen. Guest spots from Charlotte Gainsbourg and Marc Ribot add light and shade to the mix.
The album can be streamed and purchased here.
Eijra Woon - Sophia
An achingly beautiful cover perfectly depicts this collection of drone, folk, doom, broken electronics and black metal vocals. Feeling like it was recorded in a cave in the Himalayas during a severe snowstorm, it will be the perfect soundtrack for winter, especially the title track which sounds like a eulogy for all of those whose bodies are still up on Mount Everest. Evocative and striking.
The album can be streamed and purchased here.
Volk Soup - Incompetent Hits: The Singles Vol 1
Operating somewhere in between the controlled humour of Pere Ubu and the structured mayhem of Bilge Pump, this compilation demonstrates that they’re one of the finest new acts on the circuit. ‘Beware an Ancient Door’ genuinely sounds like a mental breakdown while the jaunty new wave style melody on ‘I Shot Him and I Ran’ gives way to a percussion battle. Genius!
The album can be streamed and purchased here.
Golden Oldies
Derided at the time for supposedly being
Joy Division copyists (in spite of the fact that they sound nothing like them),
time has been kind to this 1982 LP. A gorgeous, atmospheric record that flirts
with krautrock, post rock and industrial, it flies by in glorious fashion and
leaves the listener breathless at the scale of the band's ambition. Songs like
'Travel Time' and 'Federation' are particular highlights.
Corrosion of Conformity - s/t
Released at a time whenever the band's
early crossover sound was heralded as an influence on a new generation of
thrashers, the Raleigh crew could have cashed in. Instead, they delivered an LP
that hinted at various aspects of their past (crossover, metal, stoner rock)
but chose to plough forward, with songs like 'Time of Trials' showcasing a more
off-kilter sound and 'El Lamento De Las Cabras' a moody slab of post-rock.
Elliott Smith – Figure 8
The last album made by Smith before his
suicide in 2003 may not reach the heights of his 1995 s/t record, but 'Figure
8' is a bold attempt to broaden out his sound into upbeat, Beatlesesque pop and
psychedelia reminiscent of Spiritualized. As a result, the music isn't as
intimate or as confessional as what you'd expect. Still, who can argue with
songs like 'L.A' and 'Stupidity Tries'?
Funkadelic - Free Your Mind...And Your Ass Will Follow
Often overlooked in favour of 1971's
'Maggot Brain', 'Free Your Mind...' remains the better record owing to their
psychedelic space rock hitting noisier frequencies on the title track (proving
that Eddie Hazel should be as highly regarded as Hendrix) and the seamless
blending of blues, psychedelia and heavy hitting drums. Whatever they were on,
I want some of it!
⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist.
Enjoyed this. I got into Elliot Smith after reading that Peaches Geldoff had been listening to him as she overdosed on heroin.
ReplyDeleteSad what happened to Smith. He was quite a talent.
I didn't get into him until 2010 as, when I was at uni, the likes of him and Damien Rice were idolised by indie kids who wore blazers over t-shirts and incessantly discussed the scene in The Royal Tenenbaums that uses 'Needle in the Hay'.
DeleteLuckily, I saw the light and realised what an amazing songwriter he was.