Author Archive
By staff
Tuesday July 15, 2014
The band members: Lynn Gunn, Alex Babinski, and Brian MacDonald
I like to believe that thanks in some part to the small but dedicated PVRIS fanbase here on Sputnikmusic, the young post-hardcore band’s music has gained serious traction in the alternative music world and signed to Rise Records as a direct result. Obviously, the chances of the four or five people who still actively comment on my gushing (if somewhat incompetent) review of their debut self-titled EP as a significant cause of label A&R picking up on the electric energy of the group’s distorted guitar wails and penchant for catchy songwriting is pretty slim. That being said, the band deserves credit where credit is due, and their focused live energy translates well to recording. When their inevitable first full-length comes out (soon, hopefully!), it promises to be a good’un. We got the chance to have a quick chat with lead singer Lynn Gunn following the band’s Warped Tour set in Mansfield, MA about the upcoming release, new musical directions, and performing through a medium like Warped.
We’re here with Lynn of the now eminently Google-able PVRIS with a V, as opposed to the original, eminently un-google-able Paris with an A. How are you doing?
I’m good! How are you?
I’m good, thanks! Tiring day, but, you know…
(laughs) I feel that.
Your album has been looming on the horizon for…
By staff
Monday July 14, 2014
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of July 15, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
The Acid – Liminal (Mute/Artist Intelligence)
Anand Wilder & Maxwell Kardon – Break Line (Secretly Canadian)
Antemasque – Antemasque (Volcom Entertainment)
Army Navy – The Wilderness Inside (The Fever Zone)
Big Wreck – Ghosts (Zoe Records/PGD)
Bleachers – Strange Desire (RCA)
Calyx & Teebee – FabricLive.76 (Fabric Worldwide)
Chris Letchford – Lightbox (Chris Letchford/Bandcamp)
Cloud Boat – Model Of You (Apollo Records)
Dead Fingers – Big Black Dog (Communicating Vessels)
Fhloston Paradigm – Phoenix (Hyperdub)
Fink – Hard Believer (Ninja Tune)
I The Breather – Life Reaper (Sumerian Records)
Jason Mraz – Yes! (Atlantic)
John Hiatt – For Terms Of My Surrender (New West Records)
Landlady – Upright Behavior (Hometapes)
Luluc – Passerby (Sub Pop Records)
Madlib – Rock Konducta (Madlib Invasion)
Manic Street Preachers – Futurology (Columbia)
Marsha Ambrosius – Friends & Lovers (RCA)
Melted Toys – Melted Toys (Underwater Peoples Records)
Morrissey – World Peace Is None Of Your Business (Harvest)
The Mother Hips – Chronicle Man (Mother Hips Records)
Needles//Pins – Shamebirds (Dirt Cult Records)
Pennywise – Yesterdays (Epitaph)
Raffi – Love Bug (Rounder)
Reigning Sound – Shattered (Merge Records)
Richard Reed Parry – Music For Heart And Breath (Deutsche Grammophon)
Rise Against – The Black Market (Interscope Records)
Sébastien Tellier – L’Aventura (Record Makers)
Slow Club – Complete Surrender (Wichita)
Suicide Silence…
By staff
Monday July 7, 2014
Yesterday (06.07.2014) was the day of the 26th Estonian Song Festival – the biggest national party that’s held here every five years. A little backstory: the tradition of countrywide song festivals in Estonia began in 1869, when 46 male choirs and five orchestras gathered together in the city of Tartu (the first song festival featured only men, mixed choirs featured first in 1891, and all-female choirs in 1896, regularly from 1933). 878 people performed. It laid the foundation for a national awakening and National Song Festivals have been an inseparable part of Estonian culture ever since. They are our main tool for defining ourselves and have always been events entwined with our yearning for independence, while simultaneously emphasizeing our oneness. During Soviet occupation, these song festivals were the most prolific regular patriotic events inside the Soviet Union – happenings that even the governing force majeure couldn’t impale nor stifle by forcing propagandistic themes into the programme. Thus, Estonia’s struggle for freedom under Soviet rule is known under the name “The Singing Revolution”.
Nowadays about 30 000 singers perform to a crowd over three times that size (which is a lot considering Estonia’s whole population is 1.3 million), all united in a positive, patriotic, uplifting circle of celebration. I didn’t go this year (as a spectator of course, thy higher powers have not blessed me with a particularly impressive set of pipes), which I’m more than a little ashamed over. It’s not that I couldn’t go, but I decided to sleep…
By staff
Monday July 7, 2014
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of July 8, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Aaron West And The Roaring Twenties – We Don’t Have Each Other (Hopeless Records)
Braid – No Coast (Topshelf Records/Universal)
Chelsea Grin – Ashes To Ashes (Razor & Tie)
Gene The Southern Child – Southern Meridian (Parallel Thought)
Gulp – Season Sun (Everloving Inc.)
Honeyblood – Honeyblood (FatCat Records)
Judas Priest – Redeemer Of Souls (Epic)
Leela James – Fall For You (BMG)
Lewis Watson – The Morning (Rhino/Warner Bros.)
The Mastersons – Good Luck Charm (New West Records)
Matt Kivel – Days Of Being Wild (Woodsist)
Ministry – Last Tangle In Paris (UDR)
Modeselektor – Modeselektion Vol. 3 (Monkeytown)
Monuments – Amanuensis (Century Media)
Noisia – Purpose (Vision Recordings)
The Proper Ornaments – Wooden Head (Slumberland Records)
Psalmships – I Sleep Alone (Big School Records)
The Relapse Symphony – Shadows (Standby Records)
Richard Marx – Beautiful Goodbye (Zanzibar LLC)
Scars Of Tomorrow – Failed Transmissions (Artery Recordings)
Sia – 1000 Forms Of Fear (RCA)
The Skygreen Leopards – Family Crimes (Woodsist)
Steve Wilson – Cover Version (Kscope)
Tim Bowness – Abandoned Dancehall Dreams (Inside Out) – Raul Stanciu
Wolves In The Throne Room – Celestite (Artemisia) – Kyle Ward
Wolvhammer – Clawing Into Black Sun (Profound Lore)
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Album Streams:
Gulp – Season Sun
Judas Priest – Redeemer Of Souls
Matt Kivel –…
By staff
Monday June 30, 2014
Sputnik’s Infinite Playlist: Q2 Edition
No KISS featured on this list, unfortunately
Welcome to Sputnikmusic’s first Infinite Playlist of 2014. Confusingly, this is also based in Q2 – there was no Q1 playlist due to the author’s laziness. This also marks our first Infinite Playlist since SowingSeason (the originator of the list’s idea) went Emeritus, making it especially fitting since he has returned to the fold. Welcome back, Sowing. On this list are some of the finest tracks of the past three months from all over the world, as chosen and written about by the Sputnik userbase. We’ve got some great music to promote, from black metal to fuzzy, scuzzy stoner rock to sublime electronic. Enjoy.
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IMPORTANT NOTE: Click on the track titles while holding down the CTRL key, and the song will open in a new tab. Clicking without the CTRL key will cause your browser to leave this page and make reading the blurbs mighty difficult.
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This issue’s contributors are as follows:
Artuma / Arcade / Passive Madman / TheSupernatural / silentstar / dimsim3478 / Brostep / RogueNine / RivalSkoomaDealer / ExplosiveOranges / PitchforkArms / cmaitland421 / ScuroFantasma / Judio! / laughingman22 / Azn. / Rhyme …
By staff
Monday June 23, 2014
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of June 24, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Ab-Soul – These Days (Top Dawg Entertainment)
Black Bananas – Electric Brick Wall (Drag City)
Carsie Blanton – Not Old, Not New (So Ferocious)
Circulatory System – Mosaics Within Mosaics (Cloud Recordings)
Deadmau5 – While (1<2) (Astralwerks/Universal)
Flashlights – Bummer Summer (Hard Rock Records)
Gus Gus – Mexico (Kompakt)
Jad Fair & Danielson – Solid Gold Heart (Sounds Familyre)
Kasai Allstars – Beware The Fetish (Crammed Discs)
M. Geddes Gengras – Ishi (Leaving Records)
Mastodon – Once More ‘Round The Sun (Warner Bros.) – Greg Fisher
Peter Matthew Bauer – Liberation! (Mexican Summer)
Phish – Fuego (ATO Records)
Phox – Phox (Partisan Records)
Riff Raff – Neon Icon (Mad Decent)
Roll The Dice – Until Silence (Leaf Spain)
Sam Coffey & The Iron Lungs – Gates Of Hell (Southpaw Records)
Sarah Borges – Radio Sweetheart (Lonesome Day)
Slaves – Through Art We Are All Equals (Artery Recordings)
Sons Of Magdalene – Move To Pain (Audraglint)
Speak – Pedals (Playing In Traffic)
Strand Of Oaks – Heal (Dead Oceans)
A Sunny Day In Glasgow – Sea When Absent (Lefse Records)
Total Control – Typical System (Iron Lung Records)
Xeno & Oaklander – Par Avion (Ghostly International)
Zig Zags – Zig Zags (In The Red)
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Album Streams:
Circulatory System – Mosaics Within Mosaics
Deadmau5 – While (1<2)…
By staff
Monday June 16, 2014
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of June 17, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Alexis Taylor – Await Barbarians (Domino)
The Antlers – Familiars (Anti Records)
Big Freedia – Just Be Free (Queen Diva Music)
Boris – Noise (Sargent House)
Cannabis Corpse – From Wisdom To Baked (Seasons Of Mist)
Cerebral Ballzy – Jaded & Faded (Cult Records)
David Gray – Mutineers (+180 Records)
Death Has No Dominion – Death Has No Dominion (Sqe Music)
The Downtown Fiction – Losers & Kings (Fearless Records)
Ed Sheeran – X (Atlantic)
The Felice Brothers – Favorite Waitress (Dualtone Music Group)
For All Those Sleeping – Incomplete Me (Fearless Records)
Frog Eyes – Carey’s Cold Spring (Paper Bag Records)
Ghost Town – The After Party (Fueled By Ramen)
Glass Animals – ZABA (Harvest)
The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer – A Real Fine Mess (Tonic Records)
How To Dress Well – What Is This Heart? (Alternative Distribution Alliance)
Jennifer Lopez – A.K.A. (Capitol)
Julian Velard – If You Don’t Like It, You Can Leave (Chloebro Records/Exodus Entertainment)
Klaxons – Love Frequency (Akashic Records)
Lana Del Rey – Ultraviolence (Interscope Records)
Linkin Park – The Hunting Party (Warner Bros.) Irving Tan
Lone – Reality Testing (R&S Records) Hyperion
Lower – Seek Warmer Climes (Matador Records)
Martyn – The Air Between Words (Ninja Tune)
Matteah Baim – Falling Theater (Dream Drive Records)
…
By staff
Monday June 9, 2014
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of June 10, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
The Amity Affliction – Let The Ocean Take Me (Roadrunner Records)
Anathema – Distant Satellites (Kscope) – Trey Spencer
Andrew Bird – Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of… (Virtual Label)
Arch Enemy – War Eternal (Century Media)
Big Wreck – Ghosts (Zoe Records)
Body Count – Manslaughter (Sumerian Records)
Chrissie Hynde – Stockholm (Caroline)
Clipping. – CLPPNG (Sub Pop)
Craft Spells – Nausea (Captured Tracks)
Death Grips – The Powers That B – Part 1: Niggas On The Moon (Death Grips)
Dub Thompson – 9 Songs (Dead Oceans)
First Aid Kit – Stay Gold (Columbia) – Rudy K.
The Fresh & Onlys – House Of Spirits (Mexican Summer)
The Great Sabatini – Dog Years (Solar Flare Records)
Hollie Cook – Twice (Mr. Bongo)
Jack White – Lazaretto (Columbia)
Lust For Youth – International (Sacred Bones)
Mars Red Sky – Stranded In Arcadia (Listenable Records)
Mayhem – Esoteric Warfare (Season Of Mist) – Voivod
Memory Map – The Sky As Well As Space (Joyful Noise Records)
Mike Rosenberg – Whispers (Black Crow/Island Records)
O.A.R. – The Rockville LP (Vanguard/Universal)
Plastikman – EX (Mute)
Popcaan – Where We Come From (Mixpak Records)
Quantic – Magnetica (Tru Thoughts)
Rippikoulu – Ulvaja (Svart Records)
Say Anything – Hebrews (Equal Vision…
By staff
Wednesday June 4, 2014
Hark’s debut full-length Crystalline is a heaving beast of an album that stretches out the bounderies of sludge metal. The songs on the disc are plenty complex with meticulous twists and turns oftentimes honed to perfection. The might of early Mastodon, Crowbar and High On Fire is combined with the technicality of progressive metal and a dash of hardcore pugnacity to dazzling effect. I’ve recently approached Hark’s frontman Jimbob Isaac to talk about the creation process of Crystalline, and his ongoing career as an illustration artist.
Hark is a new outfit, but you also fronted sludge metal luminaries Taint last decade. There’s a 5-year gap between the last Taint release (All Bees To The Sea EP) and Hark’s debut. Why did it take you so long to compose new music?
The space between releases is simple to explain. Forming a brand new band, with a new vision, new personalities and the high quality levels that we committed to producing, is certainly not a quick or whimsical process. Forming Hark was a total gamble, in terms of there being no guarantee as to whether Simon, Niko and myself would even be able to write music together. We worked solidly for 3.5 years, to form the band, and write music that genuinely moves us.
There are certainly some similarities between the sound of Taint and Hark. The sludgy, riff-based approach seems to be intact. But also your new band seems to trade the post-hardcore leanings of Taint for a more complex, progressive…
By staff
Wednesday June 4, 2014
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of June 3, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
50 Cent – Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire To Win (G-Unit Records)
Apathy – Connecticut Casual (Dirty Version Records)
Biome – Lost Dubs (Biome/Bandcamp)
Bis – Data Panik Etcetera (Do Yourself In)
Blue Sky Black Death – Euphoric Tape III (Blue Sky Black Death/Bandcamp)
Bob Mould – Beauty & Ruin (Merge Records)
Bok Bok – Your Charizmatic Self (Night Slugs)
Buzz Osborne (as King Buzzo) – This Machine Kills Artists (Ipecac Recordings)
Camper Van Beethoven – El Camino Real (429 Records)
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Only Run (CYHSY Inc.)
Curtis Harvey – The Wheel (FatCat Records)
Devon Williams – Gilding The Lily (Slumberland Records)
The Donkeys – Ride The Black Wave (Vanguard Records/Universal)
Echo & The Bunnymen – Meteorites (429 Records)
Edward Rogers – Kaye (Zip Records)
Fucked Up – Glass Boys (Matador Records)
Fu Manchu – Gigantoid (Redeye Label)
Gabriel Kahane – The Ambassador (Sony Masterworks)
Gold-Bears – Dalliance (Slumberland Records)
Hamilton Leithauser – Black Hours (Ribbon Records)
Kan Wakan – Moving On (Verve)
Lucy Hale – Road Between (Hollywood Records)
Matisyahu – Akeda (Elm City/Universal)
Miranda Lambert – Platinum (RCA Records/Nashville)
Nightmares – Suspiria (Rise Records)
Parquet Courts – Sunbathing Animal (What’s Your Rupture?)
PHORK – High End (NNA Tapes)
Redvers – Truth In Silence (Redvers/Bandcamp)
Rich Robinson – The Ceaseless Sight (The End Records)
…
By staff
Tuesday June 3, 2014
Over the past few days, there’s been a bit of a hullabaloo on Sputnik regarding what, exactly, constitutes evidence in a review. In the comment thread for contributor Josh Fountain’s review for the new Powerman 5000 album, there have been a few people attacking the review itself for, among other things, its “lack [of] basic argumentation.” At the risk of pulling some comments out of context, users have described it as a review “chock-filled with “cheap insults,” one that is “extremely annoying” and “filled with animosity.” While for every user who complained, there were about five or six supporting the reviewer (which, to an extent, I approve of), the thread still devolved into a trainwreck of “this review sucks/you suck/Powerman 5000 sucks/this thread sucks.”
I’ve already voiced most of my thoughts about the review itself in the first few pages of comments, but for those of you unwilling to read a few extra paragraphs of me blathering on about writing about writing about music I basically argued that evidence in the traditional sense is moot in terms of writing reviews. Of course it’s possible to describe a song down to the timbre of an instrument and utilize that as evidence as to why it’s an objectively brilliant and/or stupid piece of art, but for the near-total majority of the general Sputnik-reading-and-writing populace such criticism is undesirable and usually too dense and pedantic to read. If an author wants to argue that the reason such-and-such a song is…
By staff
Monday June 2, 2014
Roots was one of my top 5 records last year, which made me super excited for Aura ever since the album was announced. Now, thanks to the man behind Saor, Andy Marshall, Sputnikmusic has the chance to host the stream for what is bound to be one of the finest black metal albums of the year, from one of the finest newcomers to the genre. Filled to the brim with authentic Celtic melodies and wonderfully lush primeval soundscapes, Aura is a real treat for those who like their metal atmospheric and epic. You can pre-order Aura from Saor’s bandcamp. The album will officially be released on June 6th, 2014 via Northern Silence Productions.
The stream has ended!
By staff
Friday May 30, 2014
Even though I have 100+ reviews on Sputnik, I’m actually a man of few words, at least when it comes to writing. Verbally I can talk on for days and about pretty much anything if in the right setting, but you’ll rarely see me posting a review that’s over 1000 words. Why so, I really don’t know. I guess opening myself up to a screen just isn’t the same. In any case, enough rambling, here’s what you need to know about MiXE1 and their debut album Starlit Skin:
1. MiXE1 was formed in 2010 and they play electronic rock music with a poppy vibe.
2. The band’s name is pronounced Mikes one, and all the songs are “set” in a futuristic city of the same name.
3. As of now, the band is independent, after the closure of their previous label Static Distortion Records in 2013
4. Starlit Skin is a solid debut that will surely see the band craft out a nice little niche for themselves.
5. I’ve learned from Jom that lists of five are always the coolest.
In co-operation with MiXE1’s frontman Mike Evans (super nice bloke by the way), Sputnikmusic now has an exclusive chance to stream the band’s debut album, starting from today (31.05.14) up until the midnight of next Friday (06.06.14). So don’t be shy, give Starlit Skin a whirl, and if you enjoy it, do go and support the artist by purchasing the album (bandcamp link…
By staff
Monday May 26, 2014
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of May 27, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
7 Seconds – Leave A Light On (Rise Records)
Austin Mahone – The Secret (Universal Republic)
Ben Frost – A U R O R A (Mute)
Black Anvil – Hail Death (Relapse)
Cher Lloyd – Sorry I’m Late (Epic)
Crowbar – Symmetry In Black (Entertainment One)
Crowder – Neon Steeple (Six Steps Records)
Eyehategod – Eyehategod (Housecore Records)
Harassor – Into Unknown Depths (Dais Records)
Haunted Hearts – Initiation (Zoo Music)
Hercules And Love Affair – The Feast Of The Broken Heart (Moshi Moshi)
Hundred Waters – The Moon Rang Like A Bell (OWSLA)
Jerry David DeCicca – Understanding Land (Virtual Label)
Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires – Dereconstructed (Sub Pop)
Little Barrie – Shadow (Tummy Touch Records)
Mariah Carey – Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse (Def Jam)
Mark Jones & Twenty Paces – Breaking Even (Mark Jones & Twenty Paces/Bandcamp)
Marty Friedman – Inferno (Prosthetic Records)
Matthew Barber – Big Romance (Outside Music)
Misery Index – Killing Gods (Season Of Mist)
Moe. – No Guts, No Glory (Sugar Hill/Universal)
Owen Pallett – In Conflict (Domino)
Peter Murphy – Lion (Nettwerk Records)
The Ready Set – The Bad & The Better (Razor & Tie Recordings)
Reuben And The Dark – Funeral Sky (Arts & Crafts)
Roll The Tanks – Broke Til Midnight (Epitaph)
Rush Midnight…
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