Slowdive, in my opinion, are perhaps one of the premier shoegazers of the initial wave of the genre. Recording one of the landmarks with 1993’s Souvlaki and following it up with the radically different Pygmalion, Slowdive have cemented themselves as one of the giants of the effects-obsessed artform. Sometimes drifting in between heavenly dream pop bliss with cuts such as “Machine Gun” and the Eno-produced duo “Sing” and “Here She Comes”, to the abstract ambiance that permeated all of 1995’s Pygmalion, Slowdive can easily be not only the definitive entry-point to any curious onlooker, but the ultimate crossover from more conventional rock music to the incredibly diverse/divisive shoegazing genre.
In consideration to the amount of time I’ve spent listening to Slowdive – a whopping thirteen months (according to my last.fm: about 407 plays as of this writing; since Oct. 31st of 2016), I’ve still found myself somewhat overwhelmed with the near-abrupt shifts in their repertoire from album to album, although their catalogue is rather minuscule and far more accessible than some of their other contemporaries. Plus, they have the benefit of not promising an album to their fanbase, then pulling off the most drawn out disappearing act on them over a course of two decades, so Slowdive already have their priorities straightened out quite nicely.
This guide, in keeping with the recently established tradition I’ve forced upon myself (and will most likely alter in future iterations), will give a streamlined overview of the band’s works, along with a sampler that will hopefully guide…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of November 10, 2017. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors. As our staff post reviews of these albums, links will appear below the art work so that you can read about the release, see how we scored it, and more.
— Album of the Week —
Toothgrinder: Phantom Amour
Genre: Modern Prog // Label: Spinefarm
Background:
This is going to shock longtime fans. Toothgrinder started out as one of those modern prog bands specializing in chaos, noise, and aggression with occasional moments of clean singing and melody. On Phantom Amour the chaos and noise has been replaced by lush atmosphere, and most the aggression has been replaced by the clean singing and melody. The most similar sonic shift that comes to mind is the change between Gabriel and Transhuman — in fact, this and Transhuman have a lot in common. Throughout its runtime, Phantom Amour delivers a moody, melodic blend of modern prog, alternative rock, and even a little psychedelia. Check out Phantom Amour‘s title track below.
Since its launch in January 2005, Sputnikmusic has been a site where metal heads and indie-rockers alike have flocked to discuss, review, and share their love for music. Over the course of twelve years, some records have attained a certain sense of lore; this widespread recognition as what we often refer to as “sputnik albums.” These are albums that thousands of users have listened to and rated over the course of a decade, with the general consensus being that, even compared to annual best-of lists, have stood the test of time and earned elite recognition.
The Sputnik Hall of Fame works like this: beginning in 2017, we will evaluate the class of albums that is celebrating exactly ten years of existence. So this article is about the class of 2007. A site-wide vote was held over the course of several weeks to determine which releases would be forever enshrined into the annals of Sputnikmusic history. There are two classes of inductees: first tier and second tier. First tier hall-of-famers were within the top 3 receiving votes, while second tier hall-of-famers were within the top 6 of vote acquisitions. Our staffers worked together to celebrate and reflect upon each album via free-form discussions and debate.
Without further ado, we present to you the first ever class of inductees. Read below for the top tier.
Since its launch in January 2005, Sputnikmusic has been a site where metal heads and indie-rockers alike have flocked to discuss, review, and share their love for music. Over the course of twelve years, some records have attained a certain sense of lore; this widespread recognition as what we often refer to as “sputnik albums.” These are albums that thousands of users have listened to and rated over the course of a decade, with the general consensus being that, even compared to annual best-of lists, have stood the test of time and earned elite recognition.
The Sputnik Hall of Fame works like this: beginning in 2017, we will evaluate the class of albums that is celebrating exactly ten years of existence. So this article is about the class of 2007. A site-wide vote was held over the course of several weeks to determine which releases would be forever enshrined into the annals of Sputnikmusic history. There are two classes of inductees: first tier and second tier. First tier hall-of-famers were within the top 3 receiving votes, while second tier hall-of-famers were within the top 6 of vote acquisitions. Our staffers worked together to celebrate and reflect upon each album via free-form discussions and debate.
Without further ado, we present to you the first ever class of inductees. Read below for the second tier winners.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of November 3, 2017. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors. As our staff post reviews of these albums, links will appear below the art work so that you can read about the release, see how we scored it, and more.
Converge: The Dusk In Us
Genre: Metalcore/Hardcore/Punk // Label: Epitaph
Background:
It’s been five years since we’ve had new Converge, and the kings of hardcore are back to follow up their acclaimed eighth LP All We Love We Leave Behind. A band like this requires no introduction; they’ve long dominated their particular scene and The Dusk In Us will only continue to grow their legacy. For a hint of things to come later this week when the album officially drops, stream the lyric video for ‘Under Duress’ below:
“Under Duress”:
– Full List of Releases: November 3, 2017 –
Adimiron: Et Liber Eris
Genre: Death/Progressive Metal // Label: Indie Recordings
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Annihilator: For The Demented
Genre: Thrash/Progressive Metal // Label: Neverland Music
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Anti-Flag: American Fall
Genre: Punk/Hardcore // Label: Spinefarm
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AUTOBAHN: The Moral Crossing
Genre: Alternative Rock/Post-Punk // Label: felte
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Beast In Black: Berserker
Genre: Power Metal // Label: Nuclear…
Hello lovers of album art, and welcome to a quick post dedicated to distorting them. Using a model (deepdream) by our favorite overlords, google, and code from a really great tutorial, I have generated some (what I guess I will call) “surrealed” images. Enjoy.
Generally I work in R for the stuff I do here, but in this case used another, even more popular computing language, python. Python is a much more general purpose computing language than R (it currently powers reddit as well as a whole host of other websites and projects). Like R, it is free, and unlike R, google wrote their “deepdream” code in python and made their model to interact with python.
(Install Instructions: To install python, I recommend downloading Anaconda with this tutorial as a guide. It downloads python, as well as many popular packages, and gives you an easy way to install packages. Unfortunately, it is a fairly large download (>300 mb’s). After install you will need to install multiple packages. You can install most, and probably all of them if you open a “command prompt” and type this in the command line
Many of those will be part of the Anaconda, but just in case, run the line. Once Anaconda is installed, you can run the IDE packaged with it, spyder, and run the code from my script, found here.)
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of October 27, 2017. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors. As our staff post reviews of these albums, links will appear below the art work so that you can read about the release, see how we scored it, and more.
Ne Obliviscaris: Urn
Genre: Progressive/Black Metal/Death Metal // Label: Season of Mist
Background:
I’m not going to lie, I’m probably not the person to actually be writing on this. I liked the first two tracks from their debut and barely even bothered with their sophomore release because I kind of felt that it was a step backwards and didn’t really build on any of the debut’s potential. But Urn… this finally builds on the debut’s potential. Yes, the vocals are still kind of nasally and off-key, but when it comes to the music and songwriting, they’re finally getting it. The songs are more memorable and their blend of black, death, and prog is finally gelling into a cohesive unit. Also, the songs themselves don’t seem to meander all over the place like they used to on previous albums. Definitely something fans should check out, but Urn is even something people that blew off their previous two releases might actually enjoy.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of October 20, 2017. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors. As our staff post reviews of these albums, links will appear below the art work so that you can read about the release, see how we scored it, and more.
– Full List of Releases: October 20, 2017 –
Amenra: Mass VI
Genre: Post/Sludge Metal // Label: Neurot Recordings
Soundtracks have always played a big role in my enjoyment of music. Often I find myself paying more attention to the various melodies in the background of whatever film is playing, imagining how the soundtrack’s producers decided to match certain moods with specific frames. I don’t know, it’s just fascinating to me. I watch a lot of indie-romances and stuff that the average guy actively avoids, but one thing that frustrates me is that even in the so-called indie flicks, they always seem to draw from the same pool of hip artists. I guess I was just tired of hearing the same types of scenes matched up with the same types of musicians, every time. It’s like they’re getting lazy; either that or they all just want to emulate successful indie soundtracks of the past without actually attempting to go through the requisite discovery of unknown artists that makes an indie soundtrack worth exploring. I wanted something that would make me feel like Garden State did when I first heard it, before I knew of The Shins, Remy Zero, or Nick Drake — but that was a long time ago, and my musical depth and breadth has more than tripled. I needed outside help to dig a little deeper.
So when I did my brief little rec competition (thanks to everyone who offered a song!), I was trying to fashion a “sputnik indie-flick romantic comedy” type of soundtrack that would (1) turn myself…
Book Of Opeth presents a brief synopsis of the band’s earliest history all the way to present day. While interesting and beautifully crafted, Book Of Opeth rarely gets too in-depth, and leaves some lingering questions in the process.
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Has Opeth really been around for over twenty-five years? It really doesn’t feel like it has been that long. I still remember being a little kid and hearing “Demon of the Fall” on the radio for the first time, and immediately skate boarding down to Lou’s Records to buy the CD. It obviously wasn’t the first time I had ever heard death metal and clean singing on the same song (Fear Factory had been doing it for awhile by 1998), but it was executed so much better and the musicianship was leaps-and-bounds more advanced. Also, acoustic guitars were such a novel idea (at the time) for music so intense. With the radio playing “Demon Of the Fall” fairly regularly, there was a lot of hype around my hometown of San Diego, California — but apparently we were the exception. One of the things I learned while reading this book was the band was totally broke during this era and scrounging money together to pay for canned meat and cigarettes. While kind of a cool little fact, it is unfortunately about as juicy as Book of Opeth gets. That doesn’t mean it’s not…
When Heartwork was released in 1993, it ushered in a new sound that would eventually become known as melodic death metal. At the time, though, people didn’t know what to think of it and they certainly didn’t know how to classify it — they only knew they liked it. Heartwork featured a collection of catchy and grooving riffs, memorable melodic leads, and even strong choruses. These facets combined with a pristine production, surprising accessibility, and the major label support of Columbia Records put Carcass into heavy rotation on national radio and even Mtv’s Headbanger’s Ball. Of course, Heartwork wasn’t the only album released in 1993 to eventually be highlighted as part of melodic death metal’s origin, but it was certainly the highest profile. It was Heartwork that earned the band tour offers with the like of Iron Maiden, and the chance to remix bands as diverse as Die Krupps and Bjork. Unfortunately, this was around the time metal ended up becoming a ‘bad word’ and the band eventually had to move back to their original label, Earache Records. For a brief few years, though, Carcass was backed by a major label with a song that featured regular rotation on Mtv’s Headbanger’s Ball and radio stations across the country — and the album, Heartwork, ended up being one of the original releases of the melodic death metal genre.
In acknowledging I’m most likely the website’s local stan for this guy, and the point that I’m writing such an article solely due to the fact I seriously can’t stop listening to his rather plentiful back catalogue, I’ve come to have certainty in the idea that David Sylvian is quite possibly one of the greatest and most ambitious artists to come from his respective generation. There’s so much I could (and will) say, but considering the scope that his works have offered listeners for the last forty-plus years along with the various artistic overhauls that have accompanied Sylvian’s output — both solo and with others in the band format — it seems quite necessary that I provide somewhat of a guide to the works of someone I hold in high esteem. For the sake of not rambling on longer than I really need to, we shall begin with a quick glimpse of where Sylvian began: in the art rock group Japan. Formed in 1974, Japan had their roots in the glam rock scene and took to their influences quite clearly with their initial outfitting, which would come back to embarrass the group upon their identity shift to new wave/synthpop auteurs that often rejected the New Romantic culture and the following that came with it:
Following two albums’ worth of middling glam worship blended in with some worthwhile tunes, Japan had finally found their sound with their third album, 1979’s Quiet Life; along with this futuristic sound, Sylvian had eschewed the slurred vocal…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of October 13, 2017. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors. As our staff post reviews of these albums, links will appear below the art work so that you can read about the release, see how we scored it, and more.
St. Vincent: MASSEDUCATION
Genre: Indie-Pop/Indie-Rock// Label: Loma Vista Recordings
Background:
St. Vincent’s fifth full-length LP MASSEDUCATION (pronounced “mass seduction”) marks Annie Clark’s follow-up to her celebrated self-titled 2014 venture into art-pop. Jack Antonoff (of Bleachers) is credited as a co-producer with Clark and there is a range of special guests featured on the album including Kamasi Washington, Jenny Lewis, and Thomas Bartlett.
Check out the music video for “New York” below:
– Full List of Releases: October 13, 2017 –
Altarage: Endinghent
Genre: Death Metal // Label: Season of Mist
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Ancient VVisdom: 33
Genre: Rock // Label: Magic Bullet
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Antisect: The Rising Of The Lights
Genre: Punk // Label: Rise Above
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Beck: Colors
Genre: Folk/Experimental/Alt-Rock // Label: Capitol Records
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Bigfoot: Bigfoot
Genre: Alternative Rock // Label: Frontiers Music
I’ve always kinda liked U2. When I was growing up the songs I most frequently caught on the TV were catchy, distinctly not-classics “Beautiful Day” and “Elevation” (a personal favourite music video for my kiddy mind), along with the likes of Coldplay’s “Yellow” and “The Scientist”. I didn’t grow up in the 80s, but through my parents gradually allowing me to get their CDs I got a quick-and-dirty version of U2’s evolution: immature Cure-loving post-punkers, machine gun punks, soaring stadium rockers and country-fied Cash and Dylan wannabes. It’s a damn impressive evolution, regardless of your feelings on the band overall; the switch-up from Rattle and Hum to Achtung Baby easily ranks up with those of, say, Radiohead (disregarding that nothing else in the universe really sounds like Kid A). It’s the common narrative that U2 went off the rails after Achtung, if you ever thought they were on the rails at all. Allow me to try and set the record straight.
I still love this video, screw you all.
Following on from Zooropa – undeniably an EP’s worth of content stretched out into an album, but a weirdly compelling mess of ambient, soundtrack and electronic rock nonetheless – came Pop. A quite literally unfinished album full of dead ends, empty spaces where additional guitar or keys or noises were probably meant to go. A trashy, shallow, flashy album, as if Bono’s Fly glasses were transmuted into musical form. An album of dance-pop demo cuts, desperate to snatch…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of October 6, 2017. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors. As our staff post reviews of these albums, links will appear below the art work so that you can read about the release, see how we scored it, and more.
– Full List of Releases: October 6, 2017 –
Alex Lahey: I Love You Like A Brother
Genre: Indie-Rock // Label: Dead Oceans
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Andrew Hung: Realisationship
Genre: Drone/Electronic/Psychedelic // Label: Lex
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Antarktis: Ildlaante
Genre: Post Metal // Label: Agonia Record
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August Burns Red: Phantom Anthem
Genre: Metalcore/Progressive Metal // Label: Fearless
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The Black Dahlia Murder: Nightbringers
Genre: Melodic Death Metal // Label: Metal Blade
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Blue Hawaii: Tenderness
Genre: Indie/Dream-Pop // Label: Arbutus
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Carbon Based Lifeforms: Derelicts
Genre: Ambient/Downtempo/Electronic // Label: Blood Music
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Citizen: As You Please
Genre: Emo/Grunge/Post-Hardcore // Label: Run For Cover
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Courtney Farren: Nothing Like It
Genre: Indie-Pop/Folk // Label: Courtney Farren
![For The Demented [Explicit]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61TwArmhrVL._SS500.jpg)
![American Fall [Explicit]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61NeAGjAbSL._SS500.jpg)
![Berserker [Explicit]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61KHbMTnKSL._SS500.jpg)
![Masseduction [Explicit]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41on99Y3BzL._SS500.jpg)
![Colors [Explicit]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/416JKsKKpQL._SS500.jpg)
![Realisationship [Explicit]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61IzYzuqjjL._SS500.jpg)
![Pinewood Smile (Deluxe) [Explicit]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61masRu38lL._SS500.jpg)
