Klaus Schulze,
Live @ Klangart (1 & 2) -- if you're familiar with this guy, you know what to expect. I, however, can never have enough.
Chris Meloche,
Wireless -- not the best by him, but still good.
Venetian Snares + Speedranch,
Making Orange Things -- noise.
Venetian Snares,
Winter in the Belly of a Snake -- this is deep, for glitch. It's going to require repeated listenings, I can hear it now.
Also,
Find Candace
Sealey/Oddie/Spybey -- very cool abstract ambient collage stuff.
Girl Eats Boy,
Thrilled by Velocity & Distortion -- a bit teutonic/Detroit techno (whatever that means).
Kmputor,
Implant -- not to be confused with Komputor, this is also a bit teutonic.
Firewater,
The Man on the Burning Tightrope -- I read a review that described this as "...
wanting to be Swordfishtrombones." I don't hear it, but I'm not a big Tom Waits fan. I
do hear the Tom Waits comparison, though.
Devin Townsend,
Infinity -- his "happiest" album.
Razed In Black,
...damaged -- nice variety for the genre, which is beginning to become a bit generic, what with the glut that Cleopatra laid upon us several years ago. I predict this band will "survive" (along with Cruxshadows).
HIM,
Love Metal -- not their best album.
Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666 -- one of my favourite albums by them, purely on guitar tones.
Also listened to the Sacrament single and
Razorblade Romance
ohGr,
SynnPsyOp -- (great pun on the title, BTW. "sunny side up", anyone?) I wasn't even sure Mark Walk was on this album, I had to double-check the credits. Gets better with every listen.
cEvin Key/Ken Hiwatt Marshall,
The Dragon Experience -- sounds like instrumental early Skinny Puppy, with some weird stuff thrown in to keep things interesting instead of Ogre's vocals. Very cool, melikes.
Merzbow/Pan Sonic/V -- not sure what this is called. Very good, though.
Skepticism,
The Process of Farmakon -- simple little 2-3 song EP, will pursure this band further. (See "Darkest Desires II" thread.)
v/a,
Synthetic Broadway -- synth-pop bands, some obscure, cover show tunes. Familiar tracks like "The Impossible Dream" and "Walking In Space"/"Flesh Failures" (aka "Let The Sunshine In") get discofied. Great fun. Ends with the penultimately Muzak-y "Theme from A Summer Place".
Classic FM Discovery Guide: Opera -- meh, I still don't like Opera. Too much. This was tolerable, but I'm not about to become a big afficianado.
Assemblage, Vol. Two -- all over the place, but the good tracks are
real good. This is from the Extreme label, usually famous for their ambient/sound collage artists, and this one includes dub, amongst things usually from their stable of artists, just to give you an idea.
Guitar Zone -- some way cool shredders. Andy Summers pulls off a surf tune, Buckethead, Gary Moore, Pat Metheny, et al.
Selected Vibes, Part 1 -- shrug. Good, I guess, I haven't been doing too badly in the arena of various artists electronica compilations, lately, so the competition is fierce, and I don't have the memory nor the attention span to tell you how they all differ.
King Crimson,
Larks' Tongues in Aspic -- because I had to.
Antimatter,
Lights Out -- very cool. I think I like the fidelity on this one better, but the music on the first one better. Not sure, will have to listen to them back to back.
Sigur Ros (sic), DVD/single thingy. The new track isn't exactly fantastic, not like some of the tracks on the last album, however it's still worth getting if you're a completist, like me (though I still haven't gotten the first album), plus it's got all the videos on the DVD part. If you're not into videos (and I'm usually not, but I'm into these), then just get the little 3" jobby.
godhead,
Evolver -- still good, I still like their earlier, with-The-Method stuff the best (
Nothingness and
Power Tool Stigmata). It's certainly better than
2000 Years of Human Error.
Naglfar,
Sheol -- blasting heaviness. Sort of The Crown meets Dimmu Borgir?
Steve Hackett,
To Watch The Storm -- great for the proggers. Nice variety. Some interesting Pro-Tools modern-ness combined with classic 70's proggy-ness. It was LOTW one of the last few weeks.
Lacrimas Profundere -- really digging these guys. Gothic melodic metal.
Memorandum is probably their least good -- rather cliche'-ridden, but still enjoyable.
Burning: A Wish and
Fall, I Will Follow are both highly recommended.
Redeye,
Arizona Tracks...hmmm...don't remember. Fax, if that tells you anything (which, lately, it doesn't necessarily).
The Rip Off Artist,
In Through The Out Door -- more wacky glitchy weirdness from the master.
Mike Oldfield,
The Killing Fields -- I should probably add this to my top 3-5 soundtracks ever.
Sonna,
Kept Luminesce/Mirameko -- should have been flavour of the week amongst the indie hipsters recently, but I have a feeling there aren't enough weeks for every single different flavour of the week, so a few get lost through the cracks. I will be pursuing other albums by this artist.
John Foxx,
Cathedral Oceans -- if you like things like Lisa Gerrard's
Whalerider soundtrack, definitely get this -- much better example of that beatless, amorphous, ambient style of music, IMHO.
Christopher Franke,
Babylon 5, Vol. 2: Messages from Earth -- another great scorer.
Haujobb,
Vertical Theory -- LOTW! Great stuff. Could put electro-industrial back on the map, if life was fair. It's going to be one of my favourite releases of this year, I can tell already.
Ryuichi Sakamoto,
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, Soundtrack from the Original Motion Picture -- probably my favourite recording by Ryuichi Sakamoto, culminating with the David Sylvian collaboration, "Forbidden Colours".
Bill Withers,
Live at Carnegie Hall -- I can see why this is at the forefront of Tuberoller's mind, what with the parallels between the time when this was recorded, and now. Tough act to follow.
Auditory Sculpture,
Merge -- why aren't these guys bigger? Techno/electronica/whatever you want to call it (not House, though).
Lisa Carbon,
Standards --
Lights of Euphoria,
Blood Brothers -- I thought these guys were instrumental, what are all those vocals doing in there? I really like it, almost EBM. I'll have to see if these guys did anything else like this.
Lustmord,
Zoetrope -- great dark ambient.
Android Lust,
The Dividing -- Projekt's "big" "mysterious" signing. Who? Well, she's a chick, you see, and she does all her own music...and it shows. Personally, I kind of like it, it just sounds a little "home-made" for a "big" signing. PS Doesn't sound anything like a typical Projekt recording -- lots of energy, it actually "rawks" throughout, EBM-y.
Lamb of God,
As The Palaces Burn -- kind of Opeth meets Dimmu Borgir? Highly recommended to fans of either. LOTW at one point.
Mogwai,
Happy Songs for Happy People -- stupid title for a good record, more like it. Without listening to the others, this may be my favourite album by them. "Fear Satan" is still their best song, though.
Skeleton Key,
Obtainium -- funk metal (well, hard rock, anyway). Fun, in a nu-metal-no-it's-not kind of way.
Voyager One,
From The New Nation of Long Shadows -- contemporary indie shoegazer. Worth it for the cover of "Daytripper" alone (which they slow down to half...no, quarter speed, and give it a totally ludes-and-psychedelics feel).
Panic Strikes A Chord,
I Can See Electricity at the Proper Distance -- great title, doesn't quite live up to it. They're spending too much time being clever, not enough time being interesting. Still recommended.
Thighpaulsandra,
I, Thighpaulsandra -- very cool. All over the place. RIYL World Serpent, etc.
Also, the
Some Head EP.
Zoar,
Clouds without Water -- lots of guest vocalists, which is an interesting change of pace. I like their first album a lot, and I have a feeling this project could have worked better if it wasn't the "difficult sophomore" album. That second album is just really hard to right something that's as good as the first, yet being different enough to be worth it to the people who don't want to hear something that's been done before.
Soft Cell,
The Twelve Inch Singles -- you know what this sounds like, if you're as old as I am.
Ilya,
Poise is the Greater Architect -- kind of Sade meets Portishead. Very cool, melikes.
Passenger -- very cool! Metal with keyboards! Finally!
Plumb,
Beatiful Lumps of Coal -- a little too croony, and she's not up to par with recent excellent croony albums by Annie Lennox and Alison Moyet.
Out of Phase,
Machine Head 2001 -- he strikes again. The only track really worth the price of entry is his cover of "Smoke On The Water", which he somehow makes like sprockets.
Anymore,
Umani -- earlier band from the members of Halou. Adds guitar, takes away originality, but still a very excellent example of the genre -- shoegazer with guitars and electronics.
Halou,
We Only Love You -- excellent! In some ways, I like it better than
Wiser -- it's edgier, more psychedelic, more "indie". The first track is downright
hard. Several of the tracks were re-recorded for
Wiser, but in at least one case ("I'll Carry You"), this one "makes more sense", if that makes any sense.
Manual,
Ascend -- I'm just going to have to pick up everything on the Morr Music label.
Led Zeppelin,
How The West Was Won -- overhyped.
Kraftwerk,
Tour De France 03 -- had to get it. Not as good as "classic" Kraftwerk, but neither was that Expo thing.
Third Eye Foundation,
In Version -- excellent! I now have all of his "important" releases. Anyone into D&B, clever electronica, ambient, whatever, should get this. Or at least something by this guy (Matt Elliott). Anyone already into this guy should definitely track down this single. ****! Just did a search and somewhere along the line, Matt Elliott released an album as Matt Elliott, and I forgot that that's the name of the guy behind Third Eye Foundation. Just got bumped to the top of my wishlist. Boy, I sure do have a lot of things up there.
Pale Saints,
The Comforts of Madness -- been having trouble finding
anything by these guys, ever since a friend recommended them to me. It's okay, but nothing like some of the best albums of the genre.
Spock's Beard,
Feel Euphoria -- great! Second only to
Snow.
Elliott,
U.S. Songs -- what I like about these guys is that every album sounds different. Song in the Air is still my favourite, but False Cathedrals was a "grower", a "slow burn" as it were, so I have a feeling this one will take several listens before I reach its full depth.
Versus, Shangri-La EP -- bunch of covers of different songs called "Shangri-La" (and one original, also called "Shangri-La", the only one with which I'm familiar is the one by ELO. What next, "Xanadu" (Rush, Jeff Lynne, Versus)?
David Bowie, Aladdin Sane remaster, book version -- pretty cool. Didn't realize how un-familiar I am with this as an album.
Mars Volta, Tremulant EP and De-Loused in the Comatorium -- LOTW, definitely! Very cool stuff, recommended to anyone who likes to rock hard, interspersed with great stretches of weirdness. Hooky as all get-out, too.
Newt, 37 degrees Celsius -- sounds cold, doesn't it? It's not. EBM. Good.
Natalie Imbruglia, Beauty on the Fire -- I got this one for the cover. No, I'm serious:
The music's actually pretty good, too.
Saga, Money Talks/Don't Give Up single.
Disco Inferno, D.I. Go Pop -- weird. I'd like to hear more by them. Strange use of samplers in an "indie" band.
Shalabi Effect -- very cool. Total space out from a distant relative of GYBE.
Frankie Sparo, Welcome Crummy Mystics -- vocal music from another distant relative.
Set Fire To Flames, Telgraphs in Negative/Mouths Trapped in Static -- yet another distant relative.
Karate, The Bed is in the Ocean -- pretty cool, but it's more "indie" than shoegazer. I'll be checking them out further.
