Saturday, February 25, 2012

X - The Unheard Music (re-release)






Originally released in 1985 The Unheard Music covers the LA band X, who on the reissue’s back cover are credited with changing the face of punk music with their original and vibrant style. The film is more than just a product of its time due to the music and the style of filmmaking.

The background and formation of the band are covered with Billy Zoom and John Doe both speaking about an advertisement for band members that both put in LA’s paper, The Recycler and how they called each other due to the similarity of the wording of their advertisements. Billy Zoom, John Doe and D.J. Bonebrake all speak about their musical experiences before the formation of the band and how they all had musical knowledge. Billy Zoom speaks also speaks reading a review of a Ramones record where the critic trashed it due to their only being three chords, dumb lyrics and short songs that were over too fast. All the other members musical experience Exene Cervena’s lack of music background although her background in poetry helped to provide song lyrics.

The film uses a lot of short clips from fifties TV and utilizes both programs and commercials. There’s a montage which uses shots of news-clippings whilst one of the band’s songs plays over. Sure, now this homemade music video is now commonplace on YouTube but this was made many years before the internet. There’s a clip made from a guy from a huge record corporation talking about signing a band and then the head of Slash records contrasting the two very different points of view using some quick editing. The head of Arista is then spoken to after X have signed with them and the first head of the huge record company talks about regretting missing out on the signing.

A Young DJ called Rodney Bingemheimer who had a show without a playlist on FM station KROQ is contrasted with the more commercial radio stations. A young Jello Biafra also in the studio, shows how this movie is a product of its time as does the covering of the closure of LA’s Whisky A-go-go venue which broke a number of bands from the particular time period and a lot of the graffiti helps when Exene points to it. The first venue X played, The Masque, is also closed and the owner gives the viewer a tour.

Not only is this an excellent piece of counter-culture from the Reagan era but X may well win new fans with this re-release as the collage technique in the film puts it above many other band biopics. The extras are enjoyable and worthwhile with recent interviews with John Doe and Exene Cervena and revealing old footage of interviews with film-makers.

5/5

Originally written by yours truly for Cinemania

Friday, February 24, 2012

Balls - Chameleon






Balls - “Chameleon” , 2008 (BLP)

When this digipak fell out of my review packet I couldn’t tell whether the band name was Chameleon or Balls.  Either way I didn’t have high hopes as both names seem equally uninspired and immediately decided this would be the last review CD I listen to.  Then a look at the press sheet reveals that Balls are Swedish.  My hopes are up as in recent years Sweden has produced a great many quality rock, punk and metal bands.

I shove this Balls  album and unfortunately my initial instinct is confirmed.  The album opens with the AC/DC inspired “Camper” and Björn Lodin does a reasonable Brian Johnson imitation for 2 minutes but then his voice breaks into sounding like a man with the flu in need of blowing his nose.  He’s the major deficit on “Chameleon”.  The press sheet writer’s thesaurus must have listed terrible as a synonym for distinctive.  That’s how his voice is described.  Balls play W inspired hard rock so the awful voice is too often just not suited to the music.  The second song “Chameleon” has King's X backing harmonies which only serve to point out how awful this guy’s voice.  They’re really good.  There is a punchy guitar sound here and there all over the album but it’s not present enough to give the listener a needed rest from those awful vocals.  “Jealousy” sounds like it could have been a mid eighties hard rock radio hit.  There is some great soloing and backing vocals on “Locked Up and Crazy”.

Looking at the band photo, the  bass player and drummer are about twenty years younger than the rest of the band who should have known better than release this album. The drum and bass sounds are often inaudible or just plain missing.  Like those Idol television shows this album offers the challenge to see how much you can listen to without wincing.

1/5


Balls on myspace



Thursday, February 23, 2012

Fuzz Mantra - Smoke Rings




Fuzz Manta “Smoke Rings”, 2009

The band’s chosen handle and the orange album cover with the girl holding what appears to be a musician’s cigarette surrounded by swirling circles gives a good indication that Denmark’s Fuzz Manta have their feet placed firmly in the psychedelic/stoner rock camp.  Unlike a lot of their contemporaries, in Lene Kjær Hvillum, they have a female singer who has a strong voice reminiscent of the L7 front woman that punches through the smoke clouds demanding to be heard.   The rest of the band plays workmanlike hard rock with tasty guitar solos breathing through now and again.   Strangely the title track is a slow ballad and is weakened compared to a number of the other tracks.  Its follower “Mysterious Thoughts” is a much stronger track with a punchy chorus and guitar licks flowing in and out.  “The Killer” builds up slowly and like a number of the Fuzz Manta songs has a definite rock radio single potential but really that’s where the problems of this album lie.    The band’s sound blasts through the speakers clearly but there’s an absense of grittiness and a lack of willingness to bask in filth.

2.5/5


Fuzz Manta's official site



Fuzz Manta have released  two more albums since this one the Ripple Effect recently reviewed their second one, Opus II.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Cramps - Bad Music For Bad People






The Cramps – “Bad Music For Bad People”, 1984

Compilations often serve as a great introduction to a band and “Bad Music for Bad People” is no exception.  This album gathers the early Cramps material from previously released albums and b-sides.  The recording quality of the songs varies and some like “Love Me” have an underproduced sound.  Lux Interior sounds more possessed and evokes more danger than a Kool-aid carrying Jim Jones when he sings like a rabid evangelical preacher on LSD on the cover songs.    The Cramps ride the surf guitar on “Goo Goo Muck”.  As The Cramps put their identity stamp on another cover song.  The perfection of the screeching guitar, rockabilly horror b-movie soundtrackvibe in “Human Fly” has caused the investing in many large fly swats.  There’s free education here too as The Cramps give a lesson on how to get aboard “The Drug Train”.   Watch your head because psychoticness with murderous tendencies never sounded as appealing as it does on “TV Set”. Purists would argue that this isn’t an album.  There’s no doubt that The Cramps would balk at the thought of ever being considered pure.  “Bad Music for Bad People” is a dirty collection of mind-soiled songs and there’s no denying that the album cover makes for a great poster.

3.5/5

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Skullflower - Strange Keys to God's






Skullfower “Strange Keys to God’s Firmament”, 2009
(neuorot)
Exercises in excess aren’t necessarily a bad thing.  That extra burger, for example, will taste as good as the first and ensure the hunger is filled and that your stomach stops rumbling at potentially embarrassing moments.   Skullflower have taken a huge risk releasing a double drone album with the hope of quenching a listener’s thirst for more of their music.

The music consists of feedback loops and monotonous guitar fuzz not miles stylistically away from the dirge of Sunn 00))).  Even with the differing song lengths, it’s incredibly difficult to discern one song from another over the course of the two discs. “Blackened Angel Wings Scythe the Blowing Void” will take up back if you can remember the days before 24 hour television as it sounds TV static turned up as loud but with cement mixers churning in the background.  Water being blasted to clean a decade of gunk build up off concrete as holes are powerdrilled is what comes to mind listening to “Chaotic Demons Fly Into My Eyes”.    There’s a feeling that something might actually happen is conjured in the fourteen minute “Gateway to Blasphemous Light” with its Iommi tone and sparse drumming.  However I’m left twiddling my thumbs.

While “IIIrd Gatekeeper” had a captivating drum and bass sound and the tracks had definite beginnings and ends.  murky monotony of sound buried deeper than necessary on “Strange Key’s to God’s Firmament”.   The drum sound is barely present as it has been muffled into oblivion and the tracks just go on for far too long without any real changes This album really only proved useful after a day of  drinking about fifteen cups of coffee plus more than a few Cokes, I reached for this album knowing that it  would be the ideal antidote to a sleepless night. On the negative side, the two discs are near impossible for anyone to digest in one sitting.  If Skullfower’s goal was to make an album very few would manage to listen to right through this album is a success story.

1/5


Monday, February 20, 2012

One Master - The Quiet Eye of Eternity




One Master “The Quiet Eye of Eternity”, 2009
(Pleasant Void)

On the surface a lot of black metal sounds like a box of bumblebees carried through the Sahara Desert by camel in the midst of a sandstorm.  Some of it doesn’t require scratching deeper to sniff below the murky depths.  Below the surface of the hellish buzzing of One Master is a gothic underbelly complete with a beating black metallic heart.  Tinges of Sisters of Mercy and Joy Division riffs barely raise their ever present bowed cloaked heads but are hidden amongst tempo changes from sluggish doom to blastbeat requiring rapidfire in “The Infinite Void”.  The slothened doom chugging of “The Destroyer Part 1” is reminiscent of Paradise Lost’s metal output, however the song grinds to a halt with blastbeats which lead into the song’s sequel.   The time signature variations throughout the album ensure the long songs aren’t just a lengthy waste of listening time and CD space.

As with a lot of black metal bands I’ve heard the music shadows the vocals so much that the lyrics are border upon impossible to make out without the assistance of a lyric sheet.  The back of the CD cover seperates this album into Side 1 and Side 2 it’s clear that some thought has gone into song order as One Master made this album with a vinyl pressing in mind.   Similar processes went into their music which makes it more than a possibility to consider this to be “thinking man’s black metal”.

3.5/5

One Master on myspace


Sunday, February 19, 2012

Leprous Tall Poppy Syndrome






Leprous “Tall Poppy Syndrome”
(Sensory)

Most of us try and block the awkward adolescent phase of when our voices went from a soprano to deep and throaty within an instant.  It’s a curiosity that there are a number of vocalists fronting metal bands that need to relive memories that most of would rather not reminded of.    Norwegian band Leprous treads the same progressive metal waters as OPETH.  There are those long tracks with structures all over the place and alternating clean/death vocal approach.

“Phantom Pain” starts as a jazzy piece with quietly sung vocals and quickly metamorphorsizes into a more metalish sound complete with death grunts.  The band proudly show off their driving skills with a number of reverses while the keyboard hangs the song together.  “Dare you” has a promising metallic intro and after some shrill vocals turns into a pulsating instrumental.  Gears are often shifted this way and that nearing the song’s ending.  Leprous totally ignore the death vocals and enter ballad territory with “Fate”.   Einer Solberg’s softer vocal tracks fit this song like a glove. “He Will Kill Again” annoys where the pretentiousness of the vocal showmanship borders on “Phantom of the Opera”.  Sorry but the traded off use of death type grunts isn’t a case for redemption from the unforgivable Andrew Lloyd Webber sneak attack.  Brutal riffing opens “Not Even White” but it’s interspersed with jazzy keyboards, death grunts, more metal riffs and even a few short moments reminiscent of  “The Real Thing”’s quieter moments.   The title track is tidy in comparison with its spoken part by a guest vocalist over the keyboard and slow yet swirling rhythm and string section.

 There’s no argument that Leprous are higly competent musicians, whom are more than capable of running the gamut of musical styles. Too often though, the vast array of styles crammed into a single track is to the band’s detriment as so many structures mean the songs lack a real bruising wallop to the face factor.  

2.5/5

Leprous official site

Beastwars - IV

After over a year off for various reasons, we have returned solely because we wanted to review the new Beastwars album. I really w...