Grey Daturahs/Monarch - Dawn of the Catalyst

Rapture

#154) Grey Daturahs/Monarch - Dawn of the Catalyst (2007)

 1. Grey Daturahs - Golden Tusk the Endearing
 2. Monarch - Rapture


i'd never heard Grey Daturahs before but i'm definitely gonna check out more of their stuff now. their track is instrumental and is some crushing, droning doom. very cool stuff.
i already covered a couple Monarch albums, which you can read about here. nothing's really changed. the track is heavy, slow and rad as hell. it sounds like there are some vocals or maybe it's just the singer making noises, not sure since there are no lyrics in the cd or anything. either way, it sounds awesome. i'm really loving these guys.

Un Festin Sagital - Epitafio A La Permanencia

#153) Un Festin Sagital - Epitafio A La Permanencia (2007)

 1. Epitafio A La Permanencia Part 1
 2. Epitafio A La Permanencia Part 2
 3. L'Age Delicieux (La Revolución Perenne)
 4. ¡No Hay Coristas!
 5. La Dignidad Del Espíritu Bestia
 6. Destierro

these guys are from Chile and play...experimental/avant-garde rock. they combine elements of ambient/noise, drone, progressive rock, traditional Latin sounds and folk, which makes for a bizarre but rad sound. i don't really know what else to say about this album but i'd definitely recommend checking it out. i know i'll be on the lookout for more from them.

Pyramids with Nadja

Into the Silent Waves

#152) Pyramids with Nadja (2009)
 1. Into the Silent Waves
 2. Another War
 3. Sound of Ice and Grass
 4. An Angel Was Heard to Cry Over the City of Rome

for May's End of Month Theme i'm going with "Collaborations"

i loved Pyramids' self titled debut so i don't know why it's taken me this long to get to this record. i've known about it since it came out, it's actually the first time i heard of Nadja, but for some reason i put off listening to it. it does not disappoint.

while there is definitely more of the Pyramids sound than Nadja's on the album there's also a lot that's unlike anything i've heard from either band. the sticker on the album (yeah, i'm still being lazy and using other people's quotes) says it's "Energized ambient, infused with an intelligent ear for avant-garde metal and an almost indiscernible adherence to a sort of pop sensibility" and sure. it's a very mellow, at times beautiful experimental metal album. definitely recommended.

Necrite - Sic Transit Gloria Mvndi

A Mass For the Harvest of Death

#151) Necrite - Sic Transit Gloria Mvndi (2010)

 1. A Mass For the Harvest of Death
 2. Bereft of Hope
 3. Bathing Open Wounds With Shards of Glass
 4. Sic Transit Gloria Mvndi
 5. Worship the Sunn ((O))

this is Necrite's debut full length. the album title translates to something like "Thus passes the glory of the world". i'm still really far behind on posts so i'm gonna be lazy and just reprint the band's statement from the inside of the cd case, it'll give you a pretty good idea of what's going on:

"FUCK OFF BLACK METAL HIPPIE CRYBABIES.
FUCK OFF BLACK METAL ELITIST SCENESTERS.
FUCK YOUR POLITICS AND FUCK YOUR FASHION STATEMENT BULLSHIT.

NECRITE PLAYS OPPRESSIVE BLACK METAL FROM THE ABYSS AND DELIVERS THE ANNIHILATION OF ALL  LIFE.
DIE."

can't argue with that. Flenser Records says the album fuses "elements of droning doom, funeral ambience and thrashing black metal" and that their "debut oozes tarry black hatred from every pore", can't argue with that either. 

Masturbatory Dysfunction - Getting Caught + My Diary

#150) Masturbatory Dysfunction - Getting Caught (2010)

 1. Think It Through
 2. Getting Caught
 3. It Was a Mistake
 4. Remnants of Rape
 5. Me Encountering Myself
 6. Late Night Filth
 7. You Blew It
 8. Bye Mom

Masturbatory Dysfunction - My Diary (2011)

 1. Week 1: My Diary
 2. Week 2: Birth Control
 3. Week 3: Sex Box
 4. Week 4: Death Basket

Masturbatory Dysfunction is a harsh noise act out of Seattle. according to Bloodlust!, the label that released Getting Caught, the girl behind the band recorded this album by going into a music equipment store with a recording device and then "trying out" the test synths at full volume until she got kicked out. she then transferred everything to a computer where she edited it and mastered it. overall, it's a pretty brutal record, i can't believe she captured this stuff in a store.

My Diary is a 3" cd that is limited to 28 copies and each copy is packaged in a hand made cover that's made from porn mags, sex toy catalogs and things of that nature. the pic above is from Bloodlust's site and represents some of the different covers. no 2 are alike. my copy came in a page advertising a "bling" series of vibrators. it seems to be a little less harsh than Getting Caught but it's still some rad noise. very cool stuff, i hope to hear more soon.

Nadja - Thaumogenesis + 2009.02.06

 

#149) Nadja - Thaumogenesis (2007)
 1. Thaumogenesis

Nadja - 2009.02.06 (2010)

 1. Untitled
 2. Untitled

Thaumogenesis has been reissued 4 times since its original release. in 2007 it was released as a limited edition of 600 cds. then in 2008 it was re-released in a limited edition of 500 cds. both editions were released on aRCHIVE. the only differences between the 2 were slightly different color in the artwork. also in 2008 Daymare Recordings released a 2 disc set that contained Thaumogenesis on the first disc and disc 2 was the Thaumoradiance album, which was a live album also released by aRCHIVE. as a bonus they also included a remix of Thaumogenesis done by James Plotkin called Thaumoremix. in 2010 the album was released on double vinyl by Important Records in an edition of 1000. this release includes the Plotkin remix as the D side of the set and it also came with a bonus live cd.  just recently Thaumogenesis was released on cd by Aidan Baker's own Broken Spine in the original single track format.

anyway, Thaumogenesis is a single, instrumental  track that clocks in around 62 minutes. the first 6 minutes are calm and almost serene before kicking into the hazy, glacier of Nadja riffing. and it pretty much stays that way for the whole track. towards the end some more serene moments sneak in but they're soon once again overpowered by some crushing riffs. by the end of the track there are so many layers of sounds and riffs that it basically becomes noise before going out on a bass drone. this was a really rad album. no real surprises but if you dig Nadja you won't care. i know i didn't.

the live album contains 2 tracks that are untitled. it sounds like they might be chunks of Thaumogenesis that they chopped into tracks so they could play them live but i'm not sure. i probably should've listened to them back to back to see but i didn't. wherever they're from they're both rad tracks and the sound quality is pretty good.

Ithi - The Persistance of Meaning

Caterpillar Fantasies for Post Larval Life

#148) Ithi - The Persistence of Meaning (2011)

 1. Caterpillar Fantasies for Post Larval Life
 2. Imagination Is the Ground of Being
 3. Go Forth and Die
 4. Excess Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
 5. Distance and Location
 6. From Caveman to Starflight

ok i'm still really behind on posts and feeling lazy so i'm going to let Utech Records describe this album:

New York duo of Joshua Convey and Luke Krnkr. Blistering, overdriven shards of noise obscure the almost entirely hidden melodies. These musical moments are few and far between, as The Persistence of Meaning is more about reveling in destruction and decay, emphasizing raw feedback and hollow, rhythmic loops that shamble like the walking dead. Dirges from the deepest ossuaries can almost be heard, pained notes buried by locust swarms of static. While occasionally the pair engage in erratic Krautrock rhythms and structures, they’re just as likely to blow the entire thing up into a burning crater.

it's noisy and rad as hell. Utech only released 300 copies, i recommend tracking one down.

Cynic - Carbon-Based Anatomy

I Could Be Eternity

#147) Cynic - Carbon-Based Anatomy (2011)

 1. Amidst the Coals
 2. Carbon-Based Anatomy
 3. Bija!
 4. Box Up My Bones
 5. Elves Beam Out
 6. Hieroglyph


on first listen i was pretty disappointed with this album. 3 of the tracks (Amidst the Coals, Bija! and Hieroglyph)  are "worldy" instrumentals, the other 3 tracks find Cynic once again removing the metal from their sound. the songs here are more like the re-imaginings found on Re-Traced. so like i said, first listen i was disappointed. to me half the album was bullshit filler and the 3 real songs weren't metal. then i listened to the album a couple more times and i really fucking dig it. i'm still not crazy about the instrumental tracks but the 3 "songs" are amazing. Masdival's voice sounds great and though there isn't as much proggery going on the songs still sound rad. while i hope they bring back the metal for future albums i wouldn't be horribly disappointed if this record represents the new sound of Cynic.

Scott Hull - Audiofilm I & II

#146a) Scott Hull - Audiofilm I (2008)

 1. Audiofilm I

#146b) Scott Hull - Audiofilm II (2010)

 1. Audiofilm II

the Audiofilm series finds Scott Hull venturing off into experimental electronics territory.
each installment is a single 12 and a half-ish minute track on a 3" cd and both installments were limited to 1000 copies apiece.

the 1st disc is a track of creepy ambient/soundscape work. weird voices float in and out of strange  noises and drones. very unsettling stuff that creates an atmosphere of tension and claustrophobia. it's a really rad track.

the 2nd disc is a bit more on the noise side. not quite as harsh as his work with Japanese Torture Comedy Hour but a lot nosier than the 1st Audiofilm. it was a cool track but i don't think it was as good as the 1st album.  still very cool though.

overall i think this is a really cool series and i hope Hull does more in the future.

Poison Idea - The Early Years

#145) Poison Idea - The Early Years (1994)

 1. Town Hall
 2. Motorhead
 3. Swallow It
 4. Death Pact
 5. Give It Up
 6. This Thing Called Progress/In My Headache
 7. Soldiers Junk
 8. Think
 9. This Thing Called Progress
 10. All Right
 11. Underage
 12. Castration
 13. Pure Hate
 14. Young Lord
 15. Typical
 16. Spy
 17. Reggae
 18. Ugly American
 19. This Thing Called Progress/All Right
 20. Rich Get Richer
 21. Pure Hate
 22. Thorn In My Side

Poison Idea's The Early Years collects...i have no fucking clue. there is zero information in the cd booklet. no lyrics, no liner notes, nothing about who is in the band or what they do, nothing. there are some pics from live shows but i have no idea if any of them relate to this album. i think the first 14 tracks are studio tracks, 15 to 22 are definitely live tracks. i don't know if it's a full show or not though because the tracks aren't continuous and there isn't anything in the fucking booklet. 

as for the music i don't really have anything to say that i didn't already say in my post on Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes. it's rad, old school American hardcore. some tracks sound better than others but overall it's pretty decent. final verdict, terrible packaging but a cool record.

Negative Entropy - City Open to the Nomad

Electric Air

#144) Negative Entropy - City Open to the Nomad (2001)

 1. City Open to the Nomad
 2. A Desert Realm of Rish
 3. Electric Air
 4. Phosphoric Water

i don't really know a lot about this project.  to be honest, i didn't really like it enough to do any research on it. it's not that it's bad, it has some cool parts, but overall it really didn't blow me away. it falls somewhere in the realm of experimental/electronic/avant-garde/noise/whatever.  like i said, there are some cool parts, and the track Electric Air is pretty rad, but as a whole i felt like it was lacking something to make it truly noteworthy.

Aluk Todolo - Descension

Burial Ground

#143) Aluk Todolo - Descension (2007)

 1. Obedience
 2. Burial Ground
 3. Woodchurch
 4. Disease

so i guess this band is made up of some dvdes from black metal bands that i've never heard of and their goal is to "create a timeless, organic mix of krautrock's strangeness and black metal's coldness". ok.  i don't really have a lot to say about this one but i definitely dug it. if you like dark, noisy, experimental stuff check it out.

Orthodox - Amanecer en Puerta Oscura

#142) Orthodox - Amanecer en Puerta Oscura (2007)

 1. Con Sangre de Quien te Ofenda
 2. Mesto Rigido e Ceremoniale
 3. Solemne Triduo
 4. Amanecer en Puerta Oscura
 5. Puerta Osario
 6. Templos
 7. Parte II: Apogeum

Orthodox are an experimental doom metal band from Spain that combine slow, heavy doom riffs with sort of free form jazz and more experimental instrumentals. this is their 2nd full length. it opens with a dark, jazzy track, moves into a couple metal tracks, goes into a few experimental parts and closes with another metal track. it's pretty much all instrumental other than 2 of the metal tracks. there's a ton of variety here and i really enjoyed that. at times it also has a very Spanish feel to it which i though was cool as well. this was a very rad album, i'm definitely gonna track down the rest of their stuff.

Cynic - Traced In Air & Re-Traced

Are You Expected Here?

#141a) Cynic - Traced In Air (2008)

 1. Nunc Fluens
 2. The Space For This
 3. Evolutionary Sleeper
 4. Integral Birth
 5. The Unknown Guest
 6. Adam's Murmur
 7. King of Those Who Know
 8. Nunc Stans

141b) Re-Traced (2010)

 1. Space
 2. Evolutionary
 3. King
 4. Integral
 5. Wheels Within Wheels

Cynic's 2nd album came out 15 years after their debut, Focus. thankfully it sounds nothing like the Portal Tapes. it's pretty much what you'd expect their 2nd album to sound like. it's a little less world/fusion-y and a little more progressive. for the most part they also got rid of the vocoder vocals, with Paul Masvidal doing a more natural high pitched falsetto thing. i really dug this album. it has a great flow, the vocals sound great and there are tons of great riffs. glad they went back to metal.

Re-Traced is 4 "re-interpretations" of tracks off Traced (tracks 1 - 4) and 1 new song.
they weren't kidding when they called them re-interpretations. they're very different, not only from how they originally sounded but from the Cynic sound in general.  i don't really know what genre they fall into. despite the fact that i'm unsure of how to classify this i really enjoyed it. 
Wheels Within Wheels goes back to the more metal sound and is a pretty cool track. it feels a little out of place after the other tracks but that's a pretty minor complaint.

overall i thought this was a great ep. if you dug Traced i'd definitely recommend checking this out.

Reaching Quiet - In the Shadow of the Living Room

#140) Reaching Quiet - In the Shadow of the Living Room (2002)

 1. Mother You're Long Gone
 2. She Ain't Gonna Call You Back
 3. Pier 39
 4. Your Fish
 5. Cabin Pressure
 6. Self Portrait Hand Puppet
 7. The Fly
 8. The Moth
 9. On Gummy Worms on Dental Floss
 10. Madame Rennevfski
 11. Salad Days
 12. Split Screen
 13. Housewife
 14. Her Little Office Watch
 15. Indecent Proposal
 16. The Vowels
 17. The Crush
 18. Slow Polaroid
 19. She Ain't Gonna Call You Back (Part 2)
 20. Me and the Pea Coat
 21. Out of Live Wires and Twisties
 22. Broken Crow
 23. Dead Man's Robin
 24. Jesse James' Thesaurusical Advice
 25. Lisa Carmichael (Alan Keyes)
 26. My Prayer Rug
 27. I Beer
 28. You Choke
 29. The Comfy Chair
 30. General Disturbance

crossover time. this time it was adam's choice. you can read his original post here.
this is another team up between Why? and Odd Nosdam. i've always liked Why?'s approach to hip hop. the easiest way for me to describe my take on it is that it's not hip hop but it's also very much not NOT hip hop. i'd say Odd Nosdam has a similar approach as well, at least here. the album has a very experimental feel and there are a lot of cool sound collage "instrumentals" in between the tracks that feature rapping/singing, though those tracks also feel really experimental.
i'm not super into hip hop but i always know i can expect something interesting and entertaining from these 2, especially when they're working together.

04/27/2012: The Flaming Lips - Gummy Song Fetus (2011)

04/27/2012: The Flaming Lips - Gummy Song Fetus (2011)

1. Enthusiasm for Life Defeats Existential Fear Part 2
2. Steven's Moonbow
3. Squishy Glass

     After listening to "The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends" I decided to dig deeper into all of the various EP's they released throughout 2011. Gummy Song Fetus was released early on in the year and features 3 songs by The Flaming Lips alone, which was a rarity throughout this year of EPs. It was released as a limited edition on a USB drive stuck inside of an edible gummy Fetus. The songs are trippy and experimental but are solid. Theres a touch of drone and a touch of Flaming Lips pop (118)

04/26/12: Reaching Quiet - In The Shadow of The Living Room (2002)

04/26/12: Reaching Quiet - In The Shadow of The Living Room (2002)

1. Mother You're Long Gone
2. She Ain't Gonna Call You Back (Part 1)
3. Pier 39
4. Your Fish
5. Cabin Pressure
6. Self Portrait Hand Puppet
7. The Fly
8. The Moth
9. On Gummy Worms on Dental Floss
10. Madame Rennevfski
11. Salad Days
12. Split Screen
13. Housewife
14. Her Little Office Watch
15. Indecent Proposal
16. The Vowels
17. The Crush
18. Slow Polaroid
19. She Ain't Gonna Call You Back (Part 2)
20. Me and the Pea Coat
21. Out of Live Wires and Twisties
22. Broken Crow
23. Dead Man's Robin
24. Jesse James' Thesaurusical Advice
25. Lisa Carmichael (Alan Keyes)
26. My Prayer Rug
27. I Beer
28. You Choke
29. The Comfy Chair
30. General Disturbance

     This album is a random buy from quite awhile back that I only purchased because Why? was listed as a contributor. I wish I would have read up on it much sooner. Its actually a collaboration between Why? and Odd Nosdam; my favorite two people from the Anticon label. It is a precursor to Anticon and to their experimental hip-hop group Clouddead. It is a really strange and experimental album itself but it still demonstrates snippets of why I love these guys in a fragmented patchwork fashion. If anything, I may prefer it to Clouddead in a lot of ways just because of the absence of DoseOne. They are mostly incredibly short tracks but it has a sound collage feel that really shows why I like Odd Nosdams production so much. There are a lot of instrumental tracks, but when Why? comes in and sing/raps it leads to some of the coolest moments on this album. He raps well, and suddenly sings like a Beach Boy and continues to be one of my favorites, even from this obscure album from years before I even knew he existed. This album is atmospheric, and poppy, and droning, and at times goofy as hell, but it is a super interesting and entertaining listen that shows some of my favorites at their earliest. (117)

04/25/12: Serengeti - Dennehy (Lights, Camera, Action) (2008)

04/25/12: Serengeti - Dennehy (Lights, Camera, Action) (2008)

1. I Don't Know
2. Dennehy
3. Teenager
4. Go Paint
5. Under the Underground
6. Weber Grill
7. Caucs
8. Juelie and Me
9. Don't Talk to Jueles
10. Love You But
11. IPOD
12. Ozzie Guillen
13. Lights Camera Action
14. Lehas
15. New Dodge
16. Newer Dodge

     When Serengeti released Dennehy in 2006, it was not released anywhere near as he intended it. There isn't a ton of info on this version, but he rereleased the album again in 2008 as a digital download. The story told in this album is based off of a screenplay that he wrote. The Main Characters are Kenny Dennis and Emo Kid. This version of the album is incredibly different than the original. This version has the tracks in the originally intended order with 7 new tracks that weren't on the first version. The original had the wrong track order and included a bunch of tracks that weren't even a part of the album. This has the 7 new tracks, and most of the songs that are on both versions are pretty drastically different on this version. Sometimes there will be a small change in the production but in most cases here there are a bunch of additional skits and interludes to help the album to flow and actually tell the story. I highly recommend listening to both versions because there is a ton of variation and hidden bits of gold within each version. Serengeti is doing some quite interesting shit in hip-hop right now. I wish I got on his train much earlier.(116)

04/24/12: Serengeti - Dennehy (2006)

04/24/12: Serengeti - Dennehy (2006)

1. Critters
2. In's and Out's
3. Feeding
4. I Don't Know
5. Dennehy
6. iPod
7. Lineage
8. Meth
9. Love You But
10. Don't Talk To Jueles
11. Derek
12. Go Paint
13. New Dodge
14. Derek In Paris
15. The Neeg
16. Ozzie Guillen
17. New Dodge (Remix)

     I listened to a good amount of Serengeti now, and this seemed to be an important release in his career due to the fact that he debuted his character Kenny Dennis on this album. Kenny Dennis is the middle aged Chicago Rapper that I mentioned earlier. This album is really rad and tells a rough story of multiple characters including Dennis, Derek, and the Emo Kid. The beats are nothing oiut of the ordinary and very entertaining. What sets this album apart from a normal hip hop record is the fact that his characters are incredibly strange, nowhere near as good of rappers as Serengeti himself and they rap about incredibly off key topics like Brats, being emo, missing iPods, and Meth sales. Good album that is completely worth a listen, but not what Serengeti intended this album to be. I will cover that in the next entry with the "rerelease" of Dennehy. (115)

Nadja - Numbness

God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman

#139) Nadja - Numbness (2009)

 1. Veil of Disillusion
 2. God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman
 3. Long Dark Twenties (Slightly Extended 7" Version)
 4. Alien In My Own Skin
 5. Time Is Our Disease
 6. Numb

wow, we are really behind with the posts. been doin the listening but it's been hard to find time to do the write ups. to try and catch up the next batch of posts may be a bit brief. sorry. anyway...

Numbness is a Japanese rarities collection of tracks that were previously released, with the exception of Alien In My Own Skin, on various comps.

all the songs have that signature Nadja blissed out, narcotic haze but i think the highlight here is God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman, it's so strange hearing the song like that. i may have to track down the comp it's from.
i really dug this record. all the songs were great, it's definitely worth checking out if you can find a copy.

NEW POSTS COMING SOON....FOR REAL