What's that? Music's too loud. NP

[Good Intentions]

Around here that push is 'winter'.

Last.fm tells me that I've listened to Transilvanian Hunger more than any other album over the past 18 months. I'd believe that. As you said, "Transilvanian Hunger" simply is the sound of kvlt.

[Killdozersnakeboy]

And winter has certainly arrived. I'm not going anywhere tonight. I'ma stay home and listen to records and watch some crap TV (america's top model, project runway).

np: The Mans - War Penis
Probably the weakest of the 3 7"s they've released but still real fucking cool. You'd think the guitarist/drummer two piece thing would be played out by now. Apparently not.

[alistarr*]

Around here that push is 'winter'.

it's interesting firstly how your winter is just starting and mine is just ending, and secondly how that change is inspiring metal listening in both of us. i mean, i know you listen to a lot of metal most all year round, so it's not a fully fledged "woah!", but it's still a pleasant thought that maybe there's just this patch of vacuum the earth passes through this time each year on its journey around the sun that's just that little bit more metal than all the other patches of vacuum.

[alistarr*]

[Andrew_TSKS]

Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger

Ever since Andrew mentioned how he hates the drumming because it's the same beat throughout the album, I've paid special attention to it, and you know what, the drumming is excellent. Dude isn't Hellhammer or Frost, of course, but he does the job very well, and this is the best drumming on any Darkthrone album I've heard. It is broadly the same beat used over the whole album, but throughout there are these small variations throughout that really bring it alive, like the different use of the high-hat at the end of "Graven Takeheimens Saler" or the occasional off-beat in "Transilvanian Hunger". Since the album consists of a series of songs, each built around a single driving riff supplemented by small, careful changes like an evil genius fine-tuning the steering of a missile as it inevitably brings nuclear winter to an entire world, this type of drumming is perfect for the album.

ok, fuck it. i will dig out my copy and listen again. you have convinced me that i might be missing a crucial detail.

[narlus]

Residual Echoes - California
http://www.holymountain.com/graphics/resX_california_color_thumb.jpg


holy mountain might be my favorite record label at the moment.

[Bubbachups]

Yeah Holy Mountain is pretty much consistantly great with their releases, nice mix of headliners (most notably Om and early Six Organs) and lesser known stuff, definitely a keen eye for talent. From their Residual Echoes releases I think "Phoenician Flu and Ancient Ocean" is my favourite. Not quite as fucked up as the self titled debut but more psych-rock and at some places even a bit folky. Awesome cover too I think:

[Bubbachups]

As for me, I'm listening to Philip Jeck's new one for the second time today:


Philip Jeck - Sand.

It's one of those albums on which in the beginning everything seems to blend together unrecognizably but that's nonetheless intriguing right from the start. It makes me want to unravel its mysteries with every consecutive listen as there appear to be many details hidden underneath the blur.

The inside of the artwork also quotes the following lines from Emily Dickinson’s The Chariot (Because I could not stop for Death):
“…the Day
I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were toward Eternity.”

So I’ve been reading that poem while listening to the album and it really makes a lot of sense. Time, mortality, it all returns in his music (and the title) in various ways. But just as with the poem I still haven’t really figured out yet what the overall sentiment is here. Although obviously it’s very personal as the album is dedicated to Phyllis May Jeck (1920-2008).

[Babar]

Eyehategod - Lack of Almost Everything

this shit groooooves

[DanielBurns11]

Ace of Base - The Sign

I'm five songs into it and y'know what? Besides those horrible faux-rap parts it's actually not that bad. Not near as bad as I thought it was gonna be.

EDIT: OK, it's starting to get bad...

[Killdozersnakeboy]

Bestie Boys - Egg Man
I haven't listened to them in an age cos frankly I started hating them with a passion. But I was reading something the other day where they were mentioned and remembered how much I used to love Paul's Boutique. Yep, it's still great.

[davy]

probably my favorite hip-hop album.

[Babar]

Ace of Base - The Sign

I'm five songs into it and y'know what? Besides those horrible faux-rap parts it's actually not that bad. Not near as bad as I thought it was gonna be.

EDIT: OK, it's starting to get bad...

it's one of those pop albums where the hit singles are great and the rest is pretty awful. But then again, I have only given it two listens.

[Nick Ink]

Paavoharju have a new EP out. Not exactly a departure, but I like their combination of crunchy electronics, operatic vocals, low-slung guitar riffs and vaguely medieval atmospheres.

[Killdozersnakeboy]

Fischerspooner - Circle (Vision Crreation New Sun)
Boredoms cover. And it's a wonderful thing.

[Nick Ink]

New Sun! 

[Killdozersnakeboy]

The Coup - Cars & Shoes
Still some funny shit.

[ellaguru]

So this song is a very happy six minutes. Especially this morning when it was playing as I was checking out the llamas in the park zoo by my house. Nearly a capella. The whole album (Music Hole) is pretty great, really.

Camille - "The Monk"

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power

The Bowie mix.  And it's one of those moments where you go, "Oh, the original mix wasn't bad, it was just really bizarre and interesting!  And the Iggy remix is horrific! I once was lost but now am found!"

[Maaik]

I've never heard the original mix--do you have an old vinyl or CD copy?  How could I get ahold of one?

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

I got it through illegal means.  I have no clue if recent vinyl pressings of the record have been the original mix or Iggy's remix (given the levels on the remix, I think it'd be impossible to press to vinyl, though).  The original CD release is pretty crappy because it was done early in the age of the CD and we know how that usually goes in terms of mastering.

The whole issue is summed up way more succinctly than I ever could in the first half of this article.

[difficult]

I'm playing Can's Mother Sky unfeasibly loudly - I wanted Michael Karoli's spiralling guitar leads to give the new tweeters a decent stretch, but as always with Can, its Jaki's drumming that really destroys me... Not that this track doesn't have moments of everybody at full stretch - like the organ that comes bearing down at 11.30 or so, Sister Ray style - but the drumming is so astonishing and alive - from the days when machine-like drummers weren't like machines, they were better...
And the early Can records were so beautifully recorded - a clean, detailed sound, defined usually through the dry, rubbery, mid-range sound of Holger's bass. When they shifted to 8-track with Soon Over Babaluma, it all went downhill, sound wise, real fast. The early ones are either 2 or 4 track, recorded in a really great room where they used to spend all day playing...

But also, Brad, you've given me some notion of what to play next. Interesting article - but I think it's not going to shift me from the pretty central tenet that Funhouse is pretty much the greatest rock album ever...
Maybe I'm just a Ron Asheton apologist...

[difficult]

Ha!
When iggy in 72 says "Look out honey cos Im using technology", you know standing clear is vital.

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

Oh man, yeah, no, I totally agree with Funhouse being the maybe the best thing to assault the senses since technicolor, and that it's marginally better than Raw Power (my justification for this opinion is that Raw Power is a collection of KILLER, UNFUCKWITHABLE SONGS, while Funhouse is a KILLER, UNFUCKWITHABLE EXPERIENCE, which, you know, both have their place, but I just prefer experiences).

[difficult]

hmmm. so RP: Unfuckwithable songs, being comprehensively fucked with?
And agreed about experiences over sounds.

But how different the Raw Power band sounds compared to Funhouse! The circular wah-filled riffs of Asheton compared to James Williamson's spazzier style.. and yeah, obviously the rhythm section of Funhouse is allowed in the same room, as opposed to JW sonically exiling the Asheton brothers for Raw Power. They really sound like a different band - still good, but not really "the Stooges" of Funhouse at all.