Reviews

Look, I love the moody Mr Blake as much as the next person, but there’s something about Assume Form that I just can’t get sick of. Every listen and every track just hit somewhere special. It’s a true pop ascension for Blake that feels honest to who he is; masterfully crafted and articulate without the typical watered down mess that comes from most seasoned artists looking for a way to increase their audience.

This was highly anticipated on my lists as days before its release, Jon Hopkins dropped a masterful “Early Mornings” mix for Apple Music, featuring a range of genres that I assumed would be a teaser to the influences for this album. At moments It was almost reminiscent of Immunity.

That turned out not the be the case. This is entirely different: a deep and meditative soundscape more akin to a hero’s journey through a dystopian future than any kind of club tracks.

I think that it requires a listen; and it requires you to sit and give it your full attention. You wind up drifting off in thought at times, especially as the album drives home basically only one… More

I just saw this band live for the first time ever last night after listening to them from the moment they broke basically 20 years ago and I'm still thinking about how if there actually is a cult I can join maybe I'm on board.

How often, realistically, have I listened to the songs on this album in the past 10 years? Very rarely, but every note from this album was as familiar as a song from a Boys and Girls in America or OK Computer, albums I've listened to so many times, and it all felt so joyous. Gretchen and I both had a great time.

We got to meet Tim and a couple of the band members after… More

genuinely baffled by the positive reception this has received. my tiktok fyp is full of people declaring this the greatest album they've ever heard. what i can say positive about this album is that it is not ineptly put together. this is clearly the work of competent musicians in service of the blandest, most mid vision in existence. every aspect of this is sonically repulsive to me. even in the occasional moments when i appreciate the craft of the songwriting and production, it's all ruined by mica's awful indie girl baby voice. i can't fathom why so many people are acting like this is a unique or new sound -- it feels like all indie pop has sounded like this… More

Es complicado.

Vi el otro día como DCFC se tocaban esto enterito por el 20 aniversario después de siglos sin escucharlo y todo muy bien. Eso sí, casi lloro con Transatlanticism (Como siempre) hasta que me entró la risa porque me di cuenta que el final es un poco Coldplay.

hey sorry I’ll just get out of the way up front that this song is boring dreck. I try to keep an open mind but this lacks the earworm quality of their one big hit and presents nothing of interest instead. okay now:

what the hell is going on in this music video. there’s gratuitous nudity, mediocre special effects, random violence, and a giant living CGI teddy bear. how did this get made

One of the funniest German records ever.

My paragon album for Berlin’s Wohnzimmermusik. Music and Recording Equipment got cheaper and cheaper and some people tried to make music without ever to work in a studio.

The artwork, the lo-fi-sound, the voice of Jovanka von Wilsdorf the themes of coziness in the lyrics were a delightful alternative.

This album was my entry point to the Monika Label.

Más allá de Legalize It, que adorna incontables paredes de cuartos universitarios, estoy aquí por las melodías y las letras, como en No Sympathy.

Sediento (o hambriento) de buen Death Metal llegué a este disco por alguna oscura newsletter de esas de la que ahora abundan. Es un sorpresón, un disco agresivo, violento, pero muy contundente, una sonoridad que va de la mano con la virtuosidad. Eso sí, yo no estoy aquí por las letras, sino por el desgarro gutural que acompaña la descarga de estrés. Sí, vengo acá a desahogar.

Acá se alejan del rock alternativo de los 90 para pasarse definitivamente al rock/pop que los definiría a partir de este momento. Igual tiene buenas canciones.Mira, en el 2000 era un pobre estudiante universitario y este disco lo compre en la calle, a un vendedor que mostraba todos sus discos en plena calle sobre una alfombra en un paseo de Viña del Mar. Lo fui escuchando en mi discman todo el viaje de regreso (unas 5 horas).

Me gusta, aunque un poco menos que el disco que le antecede, una verdadera joya. Al menos en éste continúan la experimentación. Hay que recordar que a principios d elos 90 U2 estaba en todas, pero todas partes. Y si no era con un nuevo lanzamiento, era con una monstruosa gira que redefinía lo que eran los shows de estadios.

Oye, qué buena racha son esas 4 primeras canciones. Sí, porque Bullet the Blue Sky también es una tremenda canción y no sé por qué no suele incluirse en las compilaciones.

Este es uno de mis discos favoritos de U2, pero eso probablemente se debe a que lo escuché durante mis años formativos, esa época en la que la música que escuchas es imprime en tu cerebro y en tus orejas y se queda ahí para siempre para bien y para mal. En todo caso, tiene una de mis canciones favoritas del grupo: Gone. La podría escuchar por horas.

Just the right kind of Drum ‘n’ Bass for the year 2024. It’s not retro, it’s not overthought.

gyrofield is an eager student of the genre and knows what DnB is all about and where to give it a new spin. Highly recommend if you care about this genre.

Con un espiritu mucho más animado que en sus anteriores trabajo, y tampoco es casualidad que darle mas peso a los bad seeds haya influido en que haya sacado su mejor álbum en la pasada década. Sus letras son el fiel reflejo de alguien que en frenta las pérdidas hasta no solo el punto de la aceptación sino yendo más alla para invitarnos a la esperanza y a seguir disfrutando de la belleza de la cida.

Lejos de estancarse han dado un paso más adelante y dejando atras el tinte oscuro de su anterior disco se aproximan a un lado más Pop sin dejar olvidado el punk que llevan desde su origenes y queda reflejado sus letras. Dentro de esta mezcla podemos ver referencias a bandas que marcaron época como smashing pumpkin o nirvana. Con este álbum buscan marca su sello en la historia para quedar recordados como los grupos anteriores. Eso no podemos adivinarlo pero lo que si es seguro es que Starbuster es un melocotonazo

While this may be their most ambitious project to date, I think several songs end up falling short of their potential. That said, I appreciate the grunge and 90s indie rock influences and think some of the highlights are already all-time Fontaines canon (i.e. lead single “Starburster”). Unfortunately, given the inconsistency, I think this ends up being their weakest release so far.

Me l'he escoltat dues vegades en el que duem de dia i sols diré que tenia moltes ganes que tornara el Nick Cave lluminós, però també el Nick Cave en què es combinen el dolor per la pèrdua de dos fills i la confiança en l'esperança.

Ran to it and almost got goose bumps from the title track. Besides from that it only slowed me down. Will give it a bit more time but feels pretty dull.

Amazing "nature techno" album, lots of woodblock noises, it really puts you into tropical island on the cover. It's a shame they moved away into dronier territory after this album.

Punishing and heavy Dissodeath with groovy riffs for days. This shit rocks.

Monstrous archival release from the band at their peak. This is highlights from an even bigger million CD box set

Disc 1: I listened to the 14 minute "Birdsong" while drifting in and out of sleep (this is not a bad thing!). They chop out a great version of "Brown Eyed Woman" featuring Keith Godchaux's saloon piano (this song really has become a grower on my ears). "Truckin'>Jam" is the first major excursion of the album with some brutal bass chords from Phil.

Disc 2 is complete insanity – an ALBUM LENGTH "Playing in the Band" - but it is the best song on here by a mile (or 45 miles). The highlights of this track is theSonic… More

This is only currently available as part of the Grateful Dead Records Collection compilation, but I'm reviewing it here as I wanted to listen to "Steal Your Face". It was an official live album so I don't know if there are vocal overdubs, but it all sounds pretty good to me.

There's a very strange running order to begin with, alternating between Bob's Chuck Berry covers and Jerry's beautiful ballads, but those ballads ("Cold Rain and Snow" and "Stella Blue" are spot on.

There's a big dip in quality at the start of the second disc, but it is redeemed by a inappropriately laid back take on "Casey Jones".

Nowhere near as good as Skull and Roses or Europe '72… More

La espera mereció la pena

The Lord is back with his second proper album. Silver Dragons and Moonrise Over Isengard are where the Lord really comes into his own, these are glorious flute and trumpet blowouts and are possibly the first great LL tracks - if you do not enjoy these, then LL is probably not for you. Mines of Moria is a short but sweet track with mellow harps and woodwind. The back half of the track probably inspired Fief, it sounds more like dancing deep in a forest than working in a mine though... This would be a good album, but obviously the loathsome cover drags it down...

The Lord's second relase. There is only one worthwhile track here: Quendi Amongst Valmar with its goofy and loveable melody. The other tracks are marred by hamfisted guitar and attempts at singing. The final track, a cover, is shockingly poor but what do you expect given the lousy source material?

Lord Lovidicus' first album (a short album, or a long EP?) is surprisingly minimal and chilled out considering his later 30 minute trumpet sessions. It peaks with track two Gazing Upon Night Sky From Dungeon Halls which really gets it right in terms of undemanding background music. The next track, Within The Castle Garden continues in the same vein. The cover & the multipart mini epic are less engaging, there are some good bits in the latter but also some really annoying stereo panning and problems with repetition. The album ends on a high note, however with a nice bit of winter synth: A Frozen Landscape (Outro) I can't remember if LL returned to this style ever. In summary, not… More

I listened to this album as part of the Musicbrainz Album Club

This was a completely new artist to me, from the album cover and release date I was expecting some kind of psychedelic rock, but this is more psychotic! The instrumentation is very sparse, percussion and acoustic guitar, so the main focus is the vocals. The vocalist has a great, raw and rough voice, he really pushes it into a bellow or growl and that's when it sounds best. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that this was marketed as some kind of "voodoo rock" at the time, several tracks certainly have a ritual feel, with the relentless percussion and chanting. The best of these is Paul… More

Two very different tracks. Ether Gyll is reminiscent of a long-form Pye Corner Audio track. Old and lo-fi sounding synthetic and drums making a hypnotic trip with subtle variations in the patterns emerging over time. Tenter Ground is a bit more polished with a loping, less minimal beat and strange noises floating in and out like backwards, strangled saxes and psychedelic Indian insects. Both tracks have a kind of industrial chug (industrial as in abandoned coal fields and factories, not industrial music). Recommended to PCA freaks, track 1 especially.

In places, this sounds like the ramblings of a confused, elderly man (which is what is is) but that doesn't mean that it's not also great (in places). Strong backing from The Orb throughout, but the standout is Golden Clouds, a remake of Little Fluffy Clouds.

Here's a idea - take some of Bob Marley's best-loved songs and remove all traces of the man himself. Sounds terrible, right? Wrong! This is an hour of great, minimal music. It's not heavy or rhythmic enough to be dub but there's too much going on for it to be ambient either. Bill Laswell can just focus on one of Family Man's great bass parts or some organ (which can sound quite creepy on its own) a vocal sample or some percussion.

I've grown up with these songs, and spent ages playing the basslines so it is really nice to hear them in a new way, this remix album of half a century old songs from quarter of a… More

Extenisve Interview at The Fader Site.

https://www.thefader.com/2024/08/28/geneva-jacuzzi-triple-flame-interview

Atmospheric, powerful and showcasing the songwriting talents of Paloma. But at 56 minutes it's a little too long for my tastes so some of the songs by the midpoint being to drag.

For me, it's hard to not see this album as an elevation for a survivor of sorts. Cave's two sons have died and I can't understand the depths of those sorrows; I've experienced visceral and all-consuming sorrow in different ways, but I feel—and I may very well be wrong about this—that Cave's spiritual sides have grown beyond that of the christian concept of God, into something that I identify as unitarian universalist.

The first half of the album uses Cave's voice as that of a gospel preacher, rhythmically and repetitively, throwing his audience into a trance. The addition of a gospel choir in a few places doesn't hurt.

I dig how the drums sound as though the mics… More

This is an album that, to paraphrase Jon Hopkins, just came about without intellectual process. While I doubt that somewhat—Hopkins is a masterful audio engineer and a great composer, and those qualities aren't solely attained as gifts from above/below—this is both a psychedelic and very warming album, at least to myself. There are a lot of analogue feel to the album.

This music reminds me of the most sacral and ambient music made by the wonderful Popol Vuh. Also, I find this album to be a great step from Hopkins's last album, Music for Psychedelic Therapy.

i did some URL hacking just so i could get here and say this is exactly the sound of a turn-of-the-millennium middle school dance. this compilation includes It Wasn't Me because it's from when music was real 👍

i got this album for christmas the same year that i got the 3rd gen iPod for christmas and i was so psyched. this is the first CD i ever ripped on my PC to put on an iPod!!! unfortunately that iPod was not long for this world because (i am speculating here) there was a firmware bug that could brick the iPod when you connected it to a PC????? so a few days after christmas my dad and i went back to best buy for an exchange… and a few days after that, that iPod bricked too. and so i gave up on iPods and did minidiscs for a while until i got the "iPod photo", which is apparently… More

i have never had a hankering to go back and listen to this album, but there was a phase during like… 6th grade? when i was really into it. mostly Monkey Wrench, Hey, Johnny Park! (still no clue what that song title "means" or is in reference to or what), Wind Up, and… wait for it… Everlong. yeah. of course.

lol, just skipping through this album now and dave grohl mentions the Kingdome in New Way Home! i know what that is (was) now!!! i guess that really did exist once upon a time huh