So I have a lofty new years resolution for 2018 in music, and it’s one that my track record of consuming mainstream pop and thriving on the hyperbole of big-name indie-rock releases suggests that I’ll be unable to deliver upon. Regardless, I remain focused and intent on exposing only new/underground artists this year, particularly of the indie/folk/electronic variety. I’ve spent the better part of 9 years on this site covering artists who, for the most part, don’t need reviews from someone like me on a site like this. Sure, there have been your Astronauts, Tigers on Trains, et al sprinkled in – but now I’d like to make that my primary focus. I guess klap will have to review Taylor Swift every time from now on.
In light of this newfound direction in life (on Sputnik), I’d like to make this a somewhat regular blog. I realize that it borrows a lot of ideas (the name hype machine for starters, but Sowing’s Hype Corner just makes me want to punch myself), but it’s the best I can do for now. For each installment I’ll highlight three upcoming records that are not necessarily on most people’s radars, and then offer a quick synopsis, a sample track, and a “hype rating” that I shamelessly borrowed from Has It Leaked. Not that I’ve ever downloaded leaked music.
So enjoy, and hopefully this is the first of many beautiful unveilings that will help to bring hard working, “starving” artists into the sput-light. Look for…
If you’re anything like me, you’re probably done by now with the same tired-sounding retreads of Christmas classics. That’s why, like Rudolph, I’m here to save the holiday with alternative versions of the tunes we all know and love (and a few originals). This is just a brief 10-track, 35 minute collection that I spin every holiday season to help get me into the spirit and shake the radio-staples (although a couple of these may still get extended airtime, I don’t know) — I figured I might as well share it. Most of these you’re probably already aware of but for a long time I had no idea that Anberlin and The Shins made any Christmas songs, so hopefully you find something below that you enjoy. This is definitely not an exhaustive list of alt-rock/pop-ish holiday tunes, which is why I invite you to leave your favorite Christmas cover in the comments below. Merry Christmas, Sputnik (and happy holidays across the board)!
I have a special connection with Vince Staples’ music because my partner lives in Long Beach. The first time my partner drove me around Long Beach, I saw the city through the lens of the rappers that call it home and speak about the city through their music — mostly Snoop Dogg and Vince Staples. My girlfriend would remark, “That’s the Roscoe’s Snoop eats at.” “Hmm, I wonder where Vince ‘Real Artesian’ Staples eats. Maybe that vegan Thai place I really like.” As I spent more and more time in Long Beach, I started to actively seek out Vince Staples. When I’m at The Pike I’m peeking; whenever I drive near Ramona Park, I’m scouting for him. It started to become absurd. I can recall a back to school event at Cal State University Long Beach that was actually quite popping, but definitely not somewhere Staples would be. “Maybe he’ll make an appearance. They managed to get Drake a couple years ago. Man, when I went to CSUN we had fucking LMFAO.” Long Beach is as eclectic and grimy as the music of Big Fish Theory. You can walk ten minutes in one direction and hit the ocean, or walk ten minutes in the opposite direction and stumble into a crack house, much like how he can start the record with a jovial track like “Big Fish”…
Seven albums deep, Propagandhi know how to riff. They also know how to write evocative political lyrics. Combine these two qualities and it becomes difficult to craft a subpar record. Seven great albums in a row, Propagandhi have perfected their blast-to-the-face thrash-influenced punk. While peers like Anti-Flag fell flat on their faces after the Bush years, Propagandhi have consistently found fresh ways to keep their politically-charged lyrics relevant — mostly because they strike the listener as a band who actually know what they’re talking about — as opposed to some of their peers who clearly never got past Political Science 101. Victory Lap isn’t their best record, but “Cop Out of Frame” puts a tear in my eye, and “Failed Imagineer” gets me banging my head, which should be enough to crack any best of the year list. –Robert Lowe
Slowdive are a band that makes it all too easy to wax poetic. Their lush and vibrant music is the soundtrack to everything: depression, elation, love — moments of emotional encumbrance which call for the band’s malleable sounds and textures. Slowdive’s triumphant self-titled is, like every album before it, an arresting record full of surprising substance; a mountain built seemingly from nothing. “Slomo”, the opener, features a handful…
2017 was a solid year for epic doom metal, with some of the best releases of the last few years arriving in the form of Below’s Upon a Pale Horse, Doomocracy’s Visions & Creatures of Imagination, and Arduini/Balich’s Dawn of Ages. However, if I had to choose just one album that I will be listening to 10 years from now, it would be The Crowning of the Fire King. After disbanding in 1992, Sorcerer acquired a cult status, which their 2015 LP In the Shadow of the Inverted Cross further augmented. Drawing influences from acts such as Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus, and Martin-era Sabbath, the The Crowning of the Fire King is a continuation of the band’s debut with a slightly more modern production. Those who enjoy traditional ’80s metal will love the Swedish outfit’s sophomore effort, as the combination of epic songwriting and convincing atmosphere is enhanced by an array of amazing guitar leads, solos, and one of the best vocalists in metal today. All in all, Sorcerer might have only two albums under their belt, but in my book, they are one of the best epic doom metal acts of all time. –manosg
**Click the Arrow on the top left of the player for songs from 40 – 31**
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40. In the Nursery – 1961
Post Rock/Classical/Ambient // ITN Corporation
In The Nursery have been around since the early 80s and have gone through a number of style changes without ever losing sight of their original formula. That formula is basically percussion-laden classically-influenced music. 1961 is significant because it marks yet another stylistic adjustment, and it might just be their biggest yet. This time In The Nursery have added rock elements to their classical sound, and it basically makes the album sound like a very symphonic post rock album with occasional vocals. In the Nursery have never really released a bad album, and this one isn’t bad either. Every change they’ve ever made has been great and the rock influence on 1961 is no different. The song on the video doesn’t really do the album justice, but it was literally the only video I could find for the album.
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39. Cyanotic – Tech Noir
Industrial // Glitch Mode Recordings
I’m a big fan of Cyanotic’s brand of industrial metal. A lot of industrial bands that feature guitar riffs tend to get real lazy with the programming and electronics, but Cyanotic never have. I guess that’s why they can pull off an album like Tech Noir.Tech Noir drops almost all…
I want to briefly talk about U2. They have a new album out this week, Songs of Experience, which Rowan described as ‘an Apple-funded gimmick to appeal to the poetry-loving college crowd.’ It’s ostensibly a companion to 2013’s Songs of Innocence, and it’s bad. Not offensively bad (not that U2 ever have been offensive, moreso bland and boring, spiritless and soulless, pedestrian and ponderous), but bad enough to warrant derision and mockery. What is it exactly that Bono stands for when he sings ‘I can help you, but it’s your fight,’ when we all know that he hides money in tax havens and has powerful friends compromise editorial integrity for him? I don’t know. For the record, “Get Out of Your Own Way,” the song that line comes from, isn’t completely awful, and could well have been successful had it not been compressed so heavily and recorded by a band with more clout and pertinence than U2. But the entire album is so completely diluted with the sentiment of nothingness that you can’t help but feel as if everything is painfully familiar; lyrically and thematically, its anti-Trump vitriol is obvious and well plundered; musically, it’s repetitive, blase, samey, and unoriginal. This was the band that wrote Achtung Baby, criticized the technocratic revolution, and then preceded to redefine the frightening implications of digital distribution. Nowadays, I would rather listen to The Killers. So, to simplify, it’s what we would otherwise expect from a new U2 album. But, perhaps most bizarrely, Songs for…
Repeat this with me until it sinks in: there’s a new Glassjaw album. It’s written, it’s recorded, it will quite possibly release on schedule, and we’re (probably) not all collectively dreaming. Two songs have now been released, and contrary to instinct and logic, they also actually do exist. I know, right?
Why am I doing this bit? Basically, it’s been a long time since we heard from Glassjaw: the band’s unique brew of satanic label nemeses, persistent health issues, and ironclad dedication to not talk to their fans if at all possible has left us holding hands across forums. A new Glassjaw full-length has been the Detox of the post-hardcore world for 15 years, and unlike that hip-hop myth told of only in whispers, Material Control is both real and also probably actually good. But if you’re planning on going into the new one blind, I’d take a second to reconsider; Glassjaw’s evolution over the years has been a fascinating one, and even at their most scattershot, their discography feels surprisingly like a complete package.
The early years and Silence – The story starts in the early 90s with the dissolution of straight-edge Jewish post-hardcore icons Sons of Abraham, of which Justin Beck and Todd Weinstock were both members. Glassjaw’s earliest incarnation, featured in demos only worth tracking down for the truly completist fan, sounds like a scrappy punk band made of your high school friends with a local legend/possible serial killer wailing over the top. It’s rough, but we…
Thousands upon thousands of albums, EPs, mixtapes, compilations, and songs are released weekly. You might not be aware of the existence of 99% of those releases, but they’re there. So when each song released to the public is simply a drop in a pool that dwarfs even the Pacific Ocean, it can be hard to navigate the current music scene: it’s always moving and impossible to keep up with its speed. That’s where Share Some Singles comes into the picture. This series was formed to highlight songs released in 2017 that might not have been discovered by other listeners otherwise. I, alongside other Sputnikmusic users, have pulled together dozens of singles released in the recent past that we felt needed to be heard by the world. Or at least the Sputnik reader base.
Artists are listed in alphabetical order with corresponding YouTube, Soundcloud, and/or Bandcamp links (click on the song title to open a new tab). A Spotify playlist is also embedded below if the singles are available through that service. Enjoy! –wtferrothorn
What do you know about beauty? Alex Cameron and Angel Olsen have a deep knowledge of it, that’s for sure. This is as tender and gorgeous as one could ever want a duet to be. In the short 4 minutes of runtime,…
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.)
![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)
