Saltillo - Ganglion (320) (2006)

Take Portishead's finest trip-hop beats. Add some mesmerizing modern classical piano and string pieces. Throw in some ethereal female vocals, brilliantly chosen and executed samples, and top the whole thing off with some IDM and a hint of breakbeat.

I really have nothing bad to say about this album, it is top notch from start to finish. The only possible filler is the 2.5 minute next to last track I'm On The Wrong Side, but as my history professor would say, that is simply the council of perfection to what is otherwise a stunning debut release. Once you hear the opening track, A Necessary End, you'll wonder how Matthews (Saltillo's real name) and any of his other 11 tracks will ever be able to come near it. It combines all of the ingredients listed in the first paragraph and brings them together to create an astoundingly good track, which may just be my favorite trip-hop track of all time. And yet the quality holds. A Hair On The Head Of John The Baptist is another absolutely chilling track, with the Shakespearean samples (I have no idea where they come from, but they are perfect) emboldening the bleakness of this track. Grafting features some frighteningly impassioned wailing-style vocals that go perfectly with the Middle-Eastern tinge the song possesses. Matthews' wife, Sarah, provides some hauntingly morose vocals on Giving In. No two tracks are really the same on this album, or anywhere close for that matter.

The final thing I need to mention about this album is the mood. I'm a sucker for albums that can create an atmosphere, and Ganglion is one of the best: it's downtempo trip-hop is a nice base, but for me it's the strings that put it over the top. They cement the melancholy, the despondency, the gloom that covers this album and its tracks. Very good album for late at night, for a rainy day, an excellent chill-out album. I cannot recommend this one enough.

I loved you not

Alexander Tucker - Old Fog (V0) (2003)

I can't guarantee that you will like this album the first time you listen to it. If your experience is similar to mine, it will take multiple listens over a period of time for the album to fully burrow itself into your subconscious. Be patient with this one, in other words. It's worth it.

As far as what to expect, it's sort of a psychadelic folk album--the actual genre it's commonly labeled under is "freak folk," but yeah. The variety on this album is actually quite outstanding, ranging from minimalist tracks consisting of mostly plucked guitars or banjos to more "normal" tracks all the way to full out electric-guitar-wall-of-sound drone. As for the vocals, they will probably take some getting used to, but this reviewer feels that they complement the music perfectly. There's also slightly medieval feel to this album at some points, and overall I have yet to hear anything quite like it.

Where are my friends and where do they live?

ANNONCEMENT

Mandatory Metal Monday was cancelled due to iron poisoning.

Corrosion Of Conformity - Deliverance (320) (1994)

Okay, so a late update for Mandatory Metal Monday. Corrosion of Conformity is often considered a stoner metal band, and I can see the basis for that. I don't know if the band embraces the term as much as, say, Electric Wizard, but it describes this band's sound well enough. I've yet to listen through "Blind" in it's entirety, but from what I've heard, this album seems like a departure from that "thrashier" sound. I'm also find my self singing the chorus to "Clean my Wounds" all the time. That doesn't really have any bearing on the album's quality, but it's late and I have nothing to write.

Hell me Jesus, help me clean my wounds...

Sunn O))) - Black One

Listening to Sunn O))) (pronounced "Sun," I believe) is like floating in a swirling black vortex of sound. The crackling of distortion and the haunting sound of demonic vocals fills your head, and for a moment, you'll find yourself lost in it's hopelessness. Oh wait, I thought I was postshoegaze for a second. Anyway it's a drone/ambient album from Sunn O))), and depending on your mood, it would be awe-inspiring or completely unlikeable. Expect harsh vocals, wall o' sound guitars, and drawn out song structure. It'd be a great soundtrack to the end of the world.

Perverted within a viewing, standing alone...it took the night to believe...

Immanu El - They'll Come, They Come (320) (2007)

In terms of 'gorgeous albums,' this one is top 5 in my entire collection. This is one of those records where the cover gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect within the music (and if you think I'm implying that this is the sonic equivalent of a ghost horse soaring above the clouds, I am). This is Swedish post-rock, with some beautiful ambient sections but also some very stirring crescendos. On the surface, this album is pretty simple. The vocals seem to float above the rest of the musical fray, always there but never drawing attention to themselves. The piano work is simple but very cathartic, especially on tracks like White Seraphs Wild and ...In Valleys. The lyrics, too, are fairly minimalist, but also incredibly powerful. And yet it all comes together so brilliantly and seemingly effortlessly. Maybe because of this, I really have a hard time describing this one, but I always wind up coming back to the adjective 'warm.' It thaws away the ice that builds up from the outside world and exposes the emotions within (that sounds really emo, but so be it, it's the best imagery I can come up with). Bottom line, I dare you to listen to this album and not have it affect you, because I don't think it can be done.

I will stand tall when the winter gets to us if you stay with me

Mogwai - Young Team (2008 limited edition + bonus disc) (320) (1997)

Per request. The bonus disc overall isn't that great but has some cool moments worth checking out.

We gotta....we gotta do something about this...

Mew - Frengers (320) (2003)

I promised something weird this afternoon, and I'm going to sort of deliver. I had another album I was planning on uploading that is much weirder, but I decided to go with this one instead.

Mew is a Danish indie/art-rock/dream pop band. The reason that I fell in love with them is that they really are, in my view, completely unique, something I could only say for a handful of bands in my collection. Their sound is difficult to describe or contain within genre boundaries. They will lure you in with their sugary art-pop sweetness, then blow you away with their impeccable dynamics and technical musicianship. And I haven't even mentioned Jonas Bjerre's vocals yet.

I'm not sure if this is my favorite Mew album or not, but similarly to what I did with The Mars Volta, I'm going to start with the one that I think would be most useful to a newcomer. If you like this one, be sure to check out the rest of their catalogue.

In fact, the only weakness Mew seems to have is their album covers (their new one is okay, but this one is bad, and the scary thing is it doesn't even compare to And The Glass Handed Kites. *Shivers*)

She came home for Christmas

Arcade Fire - Funeral (320) (2004)

Now that Mandatory Metal Monday is over, we can get back to some real *coughcough* music.

I couldn't believe it when Dubious told me he had never heard this album. Although it has gotten to the point where this album has gotten overhyped in some places, make no mistake: Funeral is one of the top 10 albums of the decade.

I love albums that invoke that sort of coming-of-age melancholy: as children, most of us grow up thinking the world will be so much better when we're older, when we'll actually be able to do "stuff," when we're not limited by our parents and held back by the frustrating rules and overbearing authority figures. Then we do grow up and slowly realize that, while we thought life would get better as adults, in fact, it's the opposite. Instead, there are just more rules, more responsibilities, more roles to assume. And for those of us who spent our adolescence dreaming of the freedom of adulthood, it's depressing to realize that we spent the freest years of our lives dreaming of a day that will never come. Bands such as The National are absolute masters of channeling this frustration and bitterness into music. Arcade Fire's debut deals with similar themes. Take the closing track, In The Backseat, where Régine Chassagne concisely sums up what we're all feeling or have felt at some point:

I like the peace
In the backseat
I don't have to drive
I don't have to speak
I can watch the countryside
And I can fall asleep
I've been learning how to drive
My whole life
I've been learning

Win Butler echoes these feelings on the track Wake Up (used in the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are) when he emphatically declares that:

If the children don't grow up
Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up
We're just a million little gods causing rainstorms
Turning every good thing to rust
I guess we'll just have to adjust

But don't let this album fool you in thinking it deals only with the issues of adulthood realization: it also slaloms between issues such as love and loss, the passage and power of time, and, particularly, death. Each song seems to address the concept of death, even if it is not always a physical death. Death of a soul, death of a society, death of a romance. It's no coincidence the album is titled Funeral. And yet it's not a gothic album, as there always does remain a thread of optimism, however slight. But don't expect these Canadian indie pioneers to spoil the answers of life: we never do find out what happens to any of our protagonists in this song. Indeed, as the aforementioned lyrics of the closer In The Backseat indicate, even by the end of this journey through love and death and introspection, we still are hovering awkwardly between the driver's seat we are supposed to assume and the peaceful backseat we inwardly crave and feel at home in.

You better look out below!

Parkway Drive - Deep Blue (320) (2010)

Mandatory Metal Monday is day celebrated at the NAE offices (Basement in Idaho) meant to force certain staff to listen to metal. Metal purists often assert that any of the "core" genres of metal aren't "true metal." Fuck those guys. I'm not a particularly big fan of grindcore, hardcore, deathcore, or metalcore, but as far as metalcore goes I like Parkway Drive. I take that back, I just like Parkway Drive. Anyway if you've ever heard metalcore before, Parkway Drive won't sound too unfamiliar. It's important to note that this isn't like Atreyu's brand of easily-digestible mainstream metalcore. Parkway Drive doesn't constantly break into simple melodic choruses and never spout things like "you took me home/I drank too much/because of you my liver turns to rust." Heavy down-tuned riffs, harsh vocals, and breakdowns are what you can expect. That's not to say they are afraid of melody, but it's less apparent than on their last album. Either way, you should give the album a try if you like metalcore. If you don't, then it probably isn't the album that's going to get you into it.

Track list:

1. Samsara
2. Unrest
3. Sleepwalker
4. Wreckage
5. Deadweight
6. Alone
7. Pressures
8. Deliver Me
9. Karma
10. Home Is For The Heartless
11. Hollow
12. Leviathan I
13. Set To Destroy

THIS IS SURVIVAL! THIS IS MY EXILE!

My Bloody Valentine - You Made Me Realise (320) (1988)

"You Made Me Realise" (it's spelled like that everywhere, by the way) is apparently pretty well liked. It's appeared quite frequently appeared on greatest EP/Song lists, and I imagine NME and Q Magazine are more credible than me. I don't know if I hold this EP in such high esteem, but I haven't listened to it much. Not that anyone cares. Here you go, though.

Track list:

1. You Made Me Realise
2. Slow
3. Thorn
4. Cigarette In Your Bed
5. Drive It All Over Me

But...where's all the reverb on the vocals?

Earth - Hex; Or Printing in the Infernal Method (V0) (2005)

Earth has been described as a "Drone Doom" band, and their earlier records fit the bill. This album however, may sound a bit different than the label suggests. Partially inspired by Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" it has a lonely, western feel to it. Just sparse, clean guitar. If you're not into "Drone Doom" that's no reason to pass on this album.


Track list:

1. Mirage
2. Land of Some Other Order
3. The Dire and Ever Circling Wolves
4. Left in the Desert
5. Lens of Unrectified Night
6. An Inquest Concerning Teeth
7. Raiford (The Felon Wind)
8. The Dry Lake
9. Tethered to the Polestar

Cormac McCarthy, Anyone?