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.
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…
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…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of May 20, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Archie Bronson Outfit – Wild Crush (Domino)
Blu – Good To Be Home (InGrooves)
Brian Jonestown Massacre – Revelation (A. Records)
Bry Webb – Free Will (Idee Fixe Records)
Chatham County Line – Tightrope (Yep Roc Records)
Cherry Ghost – Herd Runners (PIAS America)
Comet Control – Comet Control (Tee Pee Records)
Conor Oberst – Upside Down Mountain (Nonesuch)
DZ Deathrays – Black Rat (I Oh You)
The Everymen – Givin’ Up On Free Jazz (Ernest Jenning)
Haley Bonar – Last War (Graveface Records & Curiosities)
Hedley – Wild Life (Capitol Records)
Joakim – Tropics Of Love (Tigersushi/Because Music)
Jolie Holland – Wine Dark Sea (Anti/Epitaph)
Kate Tempest – Everybody Down (Big Dada Records)
Mr. Scruff – Friendly Bacteria (Ninja Tune)
The Okee Dokee Brothers – Through The Woods: An Appalachian Adventure Album (Okee Dokee Music)
Plaid – Reachy Prints (Warp Records)
The Roots – …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin (Def Jam)
Royksopp & Robyn – Do It Again (Cheery Tree)
Smoke Fairies – Smoke Fairies (10 Spot)
Toumani Diabaté and Sidiki Diabaté – Toumani & Sidiki (Nonesuch)
Trans Am – Volume X (Thrill Jockey)
Traxman – Da Mind Of Traxman Vol. 2 (Planet Mu)
White Sea – In Cold Blood (Alternative Distribution Alliance)
Yann Tiersen – ∞ (Infinity) (Mute)
Zero Boys – Monkey (Z-Disk)
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of May 13, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Agalloch – The Serpent & The Sphere (Profound Lore) – Kyle Ward
Bane – Don’t Wait Up (Equal Vision Records)
The Black Keys – Turn Blue (Nonesuch)
Blondie – Ghosts Of Download (Noble ID)
Blondie – Blondie: 40 (Noble ID)
Brantley Gilbert – Just As I Am (Valory)
Chromeo – White Women (Big Beat/WEA)
Coldplay – Ghost Stories (Parlophone/Atlantic)
Cursed Sails – Rotten Society (Rise Records)
Dolly Parton – Blue Smoke (Sony Masterworks)
Dylan Gardner – Adventures In Real Time (Bingo Masters)
Front Line Assembly – Echoes (Metropolis Records) Gruff Rhys – American Interior (Caroline International) – Raul Stanciu
Guided By Voices – Cool Planet (Guided By Voices)
Hiss Tracts – Shortwave Nights (Constellation)
The Howlin’ Brothers – Trouble (Readymade Records)
Kenny Wayne Shepherd – Goin’ Home (Concord)
Killer Be Killed – Killer Be Killed (Nuclear Blast America)
Kishi Bashi – Lighght (Joyful Noise Records)
La Sera – Hour Of The Dawn (Hardly Art)
Levi Weaver – Your Ghosts Keep Finding Me (Rock Ridge Music)
Little Dragon – Nabuma Rubberband (Loma Vista/Republic)
Malka Spigel – Gliding (Swim)
Michael Jackson – Xscape (Epic)
Midnight Faces – The Fire Is Gone (Broken Factory)
Mirah – Changing Light (K)
Mushroomhead – The Righteous & The Butterfly (Megaforce)
Only Crime – Pursuance (Rise Records)
The Pains Of Being Pure At…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of May 6, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Atmosphere – Southsiders (Rhymesayers)
BADBADNOTGOOD – III (Innovative Leisure)
Barrows – Red Giant (Barrows)
Baths – Ocean Death (Anticon)
Ben & Ellen Harper – Childhood Home (Prestige Folklore)
Black Stone Cherry – Magic Mountain (Roadrunner)
Crash – Hardly Criminal (Community Music)
Current Swell – Ulysses (Nettwerk Records)
Elephant – Sky Swimming (Memphis Industries)
Eno & Hyde – Someday World (Warp Records)
Epica – The Quantum Enigma (Nuclear Blast America)
Fujiya & Miyagi – Artificial Sweeteners (Yep Roc Records)
The Horrors – Luminous (XL Recordings)
Hunter Hayes – Storyline (Atlantic)
Kina Grannis – Elements (One Haven Music)
King Dude – Fear (Not Just Religious Music)
Leisure Cruise – Leisure Cruise (Last Gang Records)
Liam Finn – The Nihilist (Yep Roc Records)
Lily Allen – Sheezus (Warner Bros.)
Lykke Li – I Never Learn (Atlantic)
Matrimony – Montibello Memories (Sony)
Money – The Shadow Of Heaven (Bella Union)
Morning Parade – Pure Adulterated Joy (So Recordings) My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult – Spooky Tricks (SleazeBox) – Raul Stanciu
Natalie Merchant – Natalie Merchant (Nonesuch)
Naughty Boy – Hotel Cabana (Capitol Records)
Nikki Lane – All Or Nothin’ (New West Records)
Papercuts – Life Among The Savages (Easy Sound Recording Company)
Paws – Youth Culture Forever (FatCat Records)
Rachel Taylor Brown – Family (Rachel Taylor Brown/Bandcamp)
Rodrigo…
“Chill out. What you yelling for?” Avril Lavigne seemed to implore critics after her “Hello Kitty” video incited a massive internet outcry. Detractors accused Avril of tasteless, tacky cultural appropriation at the very least and racism at worst, a claim she slammed on Twitter with “RACIST? HOW? I LOVE JAPAN!” Defenders were quick to point out that “It’s all been done before,” “it” being the type of pop Japanophilia Gwen Stefani rode hard a decade ago with her Love. Angel. Music. Baby. album. “If you could only let it be, then you would see,” they seemed to counter. If only we could just view the “Hello Kitty” video as the hyper affectionate, albeit naïve and bizarre love letter to Japanese culture Avril intended it to be, perhaps we’d see its real beauty. Unfortunately for everyone, Avril Lavigne included, things are a little more complicated than that.
Seeing Avril acting like somebody else gets me frustrated. Her early persona was one of an every-girl, a people’s pop star less interested in selling sex than she was talking one-on-one to a generation of disenfranchised Hot Topic shoppers. Now, a tanking career and a marriage to the man who is arguably Music’s Most Hated Canadian, she looks like she’s constantly watching her back, like she can’t relax. Though she looks fine in pictures with Kroeger, a gruesomely awkward set of fan photos that some poor souls spent an obscene amount of money for confirm that she becomes somebody else around everyone else.…
Hans Magnus “Snah” Ryan (guitar/keyboards/vocals), Kenneth Kapstad (drums/keyboards/vocals), Bent Sæther (bass/vocals/guitar), Reine Fiske (guitar/keyboards/vocals)
Motorpsycho are one of Norway’s finest bands today. Being active for 25 years now, they have been revolving around the progressive/psychedelic hard rock sphere in the past couple of years. However, they are renowned for their occasional musical shape shifting and their vast discography tackles several genres including metal, jazz, pop and even country. Their latest masterpiece, Behind the Sun, was released at the beginning of March and the band started touring their homeland the same month. After a short Chinese stint, they will cross Europe starting May and June. Luckily, bass player and vocalist Bent Saether found some spare time to answer a few questions for Sputnik Music:
You’ve been playing together for 25 years now and that’s a hell of a long time for bands these days. How do you guys feel now as a veteran act? What kept you guys intact and going so strong?
It’s hard to say what the reasons for our longevity are, but I think a few of the following facts may at least partially explain this:
Musically, we at some point early on decided that ‘all music we want to play is Motorpsycho music’. This takes the matter of “staying true” to whatever musical style you happened to play when you started out of the equation, and enables you as an artist to utilize whatever musical style you feel…
For the last two months I’ve been trying to enjoy the new Andrew Jackson Jihad record, and at 4:30 this morning while standing in a parking lot somewhere in the decaying outskirts of Long Beach, California it finally hit me why I don’t. It’s because I’m selfish. I don’t want to empathize with Sean Bonnette, I want him to empathize with me. I’ve spent years inflecting myself into his own insecurities. It’s not that I can relate to his exact sarcasm and nervousness, but I can find myself in between his prose and then take it for my own. It’s sort of like what Justin Pierre of Motion City Soundtrack sang almost a decade ago in “L.G. FUAD.” – “…the only way I have learned to express myself through other peoples’ descriptions of life…” It’s such a shitty thing to say, but I participate on emotional appropriation on a grand scale. I live vicariously through the grooves in my record collection, only I take what I need and move on. I completely discard its context and heart like trash pulled to the curb after a house party, feeding only off of the emotion behind the stories and taking them for my own. It’s cheap and absurd but that’s why music is such a personal thing. We build connections to lyrics and sounds based off of how they coincide with our own lives. We’re all guilty of musical colonialism and emotional conquest. Luckily art resonates differently in everyone, helping…
Just Mario from CHON and I chilling after the show, that's all.
When I heard instrumental progressive group CHON was touring across the United States- and alongside the unforgettable Animals As Leaders, no less- I felt that if I missed the Atlanta show, I’d never quite forgive myself. And I believe that to be true- even though this show happened two months ago, and I’ve been buried in work and studenthood ever since, I’ve thought about the show for awhile.
There were many great things about the show. For starters, I got to meet some fellow Sputnikers- contributor Matt Harrison (YourDarkAffected) and user Daniel Davis (Paradox1216.) We went out for drinks afterwards, and had a fantastic time just talking about music. And the show itself, for which there was plenty to discuss.
The concert headliners, Animals as Leaders, introduced many of their newer tunes with an energy I didn’t quite expect of them live. After all, you hear the stories of their live performances being a little messy and/or lethargic, but I certainly didn’t witness any of that. Tosin and company were having a blast throughout the occasion, and even played jammer “Physical Education” live for the first time. Even if the band’s music gets a bit tedious after about ten songs live, it was still a spectacle to see them perform their instrumentally taxing songs with such agility onstage.
You know who else killed it? CHON themselves. These kids aren’t…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of April 29, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Andre Obin – Ways Of Escape (Sky Council)
Ben Watt – Hendra (Unmade Road)
Brody Dalle – Diploid Love (Caroline)
Broken Twin – May (Anti Records)
Chad VanGaalen – Shrink Dust (Sub Pop)
Chris Robinson – Phosphorescent Harvest (Silver Arrow Records)
Damon Albarn – Everyday Robots (Warner Bros.)
Devil You Know – The Beauty Of Destruction (Nuclear Blast America)
Edguy – Space Police: Defenders Of The Crown (Nuclear Blast America)
Floor – Oblation (Season Of Mist) Fennesz – Becs (Editions Mego) – Raul Stanciu
Helstar – This Wicked Nest (AFM Records)
Howlin Rain – Live Rain (Agitated Records)
Lindsey Stirling – Shatter Me (Lindseystomp Music)
Maria Minerva – Histrionic (Not Not Fun)
Nels Cline – Macroscope (Mack Avenue)
Old 97’s – Most Messed Up (ATO Records)
Olga Bell – Krai (New Amsterdam Records)
Ought – More Than Any Other Day (Constellation)
Pattern Is Movement – Pattern Is Movement (Hometapes)
Pink Mountaintops – Get Back (Jagjaguwar)
Pixies – Indie Cindy (Pias America)
Ramona Lisa – Arcadia (Red Distribution)
The Revere – Behold, The Sea Itself! (Rock Ridge Music)
Rodrigo y Gabriela – 9 Dead Alive (ATO Records)
The String Cheese Incident – Song In My Head (Loud & Proud Records) Whitechapel – Our Endless War (Metal Blade)
Wye Oak – Shriek (Merge Records)
It’s easy to write off something with a name as silly as “shallow house” as a stupid idea. And, in many respects, it is. The term was created “as a joke” a few days ago on the nigh-omnipotent hydra-like centralized collection of websites that is Reddit, intending to poke fun at the current comment war between people calling artists like Tchami and Oliver Heldens “deep house” and people for whom “deep house” means more than just groovy, bass-centric 4×4 music. Both sides have an understandable position, of course. Most of those in the former camp are dissidents from the big-room house movement which is currently exerting significant control over the global dance scene, disenchanted with the uncreative, poorly-produced slop they’ve heard for too long. They’re enchanted with the infective, funky bass and shocked at the relative sparsity of the compositions, and seeing Beatport and various ill-informed music blogs refer to the music as “deep house” (a phenomenon which I don’t entirely understand) they take it to be the correct term. In the latter group, of course, are the veteran house-heads. They’ve seen the primarily gay and black house sound of the Chicago and New York days appropriated and desecrated for profit by major-label execs eager to promote the easy-to-swallow house of everyone associated with labels like Spinnin’ and Revealed (including Heldens and Tchami), and having their soulful, colorful deep house reinterpreted by a bunch of young white guys (and yes, most of the new…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of April 22, 2014. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Archie Powell & The Exports – Back In Black (Team Cool Records)
Asher Roth – RetroHash (Pale Fire)
Augustana – Life Imitating Life (Razor & Tie)
Death – Death III (Drag City)
Eels – The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett (Pias America)
Francesca Battistelli – If We’re Honest (Warner Nashville)
Hot Victory – Hot Victory (Eolian Empire)
Iggy Azalea – The New Classic (Island/Def-Jam)
Jerry Leger – Early Riser (Latent Recordings)
Justin Rutledge – Daredevil (Outside Music)
Keb Mo – Bluesamericana (Kind Of Blue Music)
Kelis – Food (Ninja Tune) The Menzingers – Rented World (Epitaph) – Channing Freeman
Modern Rivals – Cemetery Dares (Modern Rivals) More Than Life – What’s Left Of Me (Holy Roar) – Jom
Neon Trees – Pop Psychology (Island/Mercury)
Sebastian Bach – Give Em’ Hell (Frontiers Records)
TEEN – The Way And Color (Carpark Records)
To Kill A King – Cannibals With Cutlery (Xtra Mile)
Trophy Scars – Holy Vacants (Monotreme Records)
The Whigs – Modern Creation (New West)
Wumpscut – Bulwark Bazooka (Metropolis Records)
Sunday is when the choices really start to gnaw at you. Choices like: “do I really need to wake up in time to see Surfer Blood at their surprisingly early Outdoor Stage time,” (no) or; “will this beer bong really help me reach my goal of not being utterly exhausted as I leave for the festival?” (yes). It’s also the day when the thought of braving particularly large crowds doesn’t hold quite the appeal it used to. While I was jazzed to see Los Angeles production duo Classixx at the Mojave, the filled-past-capacity mass of hollowed out youths and individuals fresh off two days in the hazardous waste dump that is the campgrounds on a Sunday made it a short set. Better were Starfucker, who, playing on the Outdoor Stage, made up for the searing heat with a wide expanse of glass to collapse on while watching their spacey brand of indie-pop. A relatively mundane, if nevertheless very catchy, band, Starfucker stepped up their festival game with a wide array of costumed freaks running about and several dozen blow-up dolls sporting impressive erections that they released into the crowd.
A double-punk bill of Frank Turner and Superchunk followed in the Gobi tent. While I’m not a big fan, Turner’s energy was infectious to a crowd that was largely dispersed and lying prostrate across the tent ground. “Welcome to show number 1376,” he announced as he launched into yet another rousing, furiously strummed singalong. Working 1376 shifts…
The worst part about Coachella 2013 was easily the dust storm that turned Sunday into a set piece from the Depression and choked the life and easy visibility out of a struggling Red Hot Chili Peppers closing set. 2014’s storm wasn’t nearly as bad; for the most part, walking around during the day Saturday felt like you were travelling on a strange, ominous alien planet, the sun reduced to a weird, haunting half-light and the wind picking up curlicues of dust seemingly at random while bits of sound escaped intermittently over the fields. That creepy feeling was magnified by the fact that everyone seemed to be running from one destination to another, as if constantly striving to avoid the almighty wrath of the weather gods/the narc chasing them. It was how I imagined walking on Mars might be, if everyone on Mars was really, really fucked up all the time.
Of course, God being the sick bastard that he is, Saturday turned out to be my favorite day of the festival. When you kick things off with a blogger’s wet dream of Foxygen, Ty Segall, and CHVRCHES on the Outdoor Stage, it’s easy to ignore the fact that your choice of t-shirt and board shorts for the day will prove quite uncomfortable against pelting sand and an insidious wind chill. Like Friday’s HAIM set, Coachella is made for a band like CHVRCHES, not quite on the verge of widespread popularity but certainly on…
