JohnnyoftheWell
Hugh G. Puddles
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Last Active 01-01-70 12:00 am
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re-using lube

Hi it is time for a new listening log. The last one was long and became a little boring, but I am bored because karma and have decided that NOW is the time for a freshish start. Am in no rush to fill this and am ONLY gonna include records that I vaguely care about or bonded with etcetera ok commence
1Lilys
In the Presence of Nothing

#2545
shoegaze
1992

Oh yes oh yes is this the og shoegaze gem I was looking for? There are a couple of uneven patches in the tracklist, but the peaks here are gorg; Elizabeth Colour Wheel is a woozy bedroomgaze GOAT, and I'm a big fan of the warm-sweater noise pop of the closing pair too. Been coming back to this on and off, looks like it's a keeper.

3.9
2School of Seven Bells
Alpinisms

#2548
indietronica / dreamgaze
2008

Wow a rare good find by way of Aberf; thought those were permanently out of stock. This kinda sounds like Chemical Chords-era Stereolab plus a generous level of sugar minus lounge plus a lot of background synthy shoegazey shimmer-twinkle, and it's (mostly) an indie pop delight. Again, the tracklist is a little patchy, but it's also impressively varied so I shall not complain MUCH mm. More bands should borrow this heavily from Stereolab maybe

Cannot get enough of Half Asleep (!!!!), Connjur and the closer. check !

3.8
3These Arms Are Snakes
Oxeneers or the Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home

#2550
post-hardcore
2004

oh shit yes, this is the wiry scratchy mathy 2nd gen post-hardcore zinger I never knew I needed. similar off-kilter groovebait appeal to the Blood Brothers, but far less screechy extravagance and more grounded jams I feel. this thing rips for the most part, but it's not afraid to cut itself some lengthy slack and so its battery acid stains come in all shapes and splashes. good homework

checkklk Darlings of New Midnight and Angela's Secret

4.0
4Killing Joke
Night Time

#2551
post-punk
1985

I've kept up a cursive appreciation for Killing Joke for over 10 yrs over a couple of albums, but this feels like the one I should have heard a while back to turn me into a fan. Paranoid bops all round, really tight album flow (and succinct runtime) plus a ton of infectious grooves. I feel like an idiot typing this all up rn because I haven't jammed it in over a week heck mistakes were made. Need to chase down a few more KJ albs

Love Like Blood, Tabazan and Eighties yes plz

4.0
5George Harrison
All Things Must Pass

#2552
ROCK
1970

Everyone's heard this record awww, and I am now everyone. Yeah. This is ~obviously~ a wonderful album, wall to wall highlights, a lovely range of styles, excellent musicianship, just great vibes. Love it. The only thing that sticks in my throat the tiniest bit is that Mr. Harrison himself often feels more like the catalyst in the background than the main event; there are a ton of great musicians in his band, and I feel that they carry some points of this to the point that it feels a little more "great jam album" than "songwriting masterclass".

But the songwriting is generally great so idk. Wanna jam Derek and the Dominoes.

4.2
6Teenage Jesus and the Jerks
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks

#2554
no wave
1979

Lydia Lunch howls and plays guitar unlistenably for under 10 minutes and it is better than any other shit I've heard in my life

4.3
7Magdalena Bay
Mercurial World

#2556
pop indie pop dream pop chillwave disco pop city pop
2021

everything that comes out of LA gets a little more lifeless every year

2.9
8Red Transistor
Not Bite / We're Not Crazy

#2557
no wave
1977

gonna forget TVU ever existed and pretend this band invented noiz rock along with les rallizes dénudés. too bad it's their only record output (???), this single fuckin goes

4.0
9The Raveonettes
Chain Gang of Love

#2558
noise pop / garage rock
2003

Psychocandy worship but also it's Christmas day and all your favourite sexual fantasies are wearing woollen jumpers and having cute dirty conversations. Warm fuzz and twee guitar bends of JOY and FUCK.

3.8
10Kayo Dot
Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike

#2561
non-experimental GOTHIC DEATH/DOOM experimental metal
2021

the new Kayo Dot is good it is heavy it is the most darksouls thing they have ever done, and as someone who got into them back in the precious yr 2012 along with the og darksouls this is a dream come true, but also it's not their best it is probably the best recent record that i will hear

4.0
11Every Time I Die
Radical

#2563
mxc
2021

old thrills new release date nice hottakes claiming this is where metalcore's trajectory has been headed when it's literally exactly where it's been all along y'all simp for any old shite these days. some bops.

2.9
12Yoasobi
The Book

#2564
jpop
2021

this is what the kids (my kids) listen to now. it is catchy it is good they are good kids. my girlfriend stitched me into karaokeing Halzion (best song yes) and it broke my night out. bop bop

3.6
13Mastodon
Hushed and Grim

#2567
metal
2021

mastodon plays mastodon by numbers for 90 fucking minutes, ft. a million dull choruses and largely predictable riffs and spooky psycharps and everyone loses their minds because it sounds distantly like Crack the Skye. not the most overrated metal i've heard this yr however, would enjoy this a fair bit if it weren't so bloated, recorded inside a tincan, and had literally any other snare sound. still chewing over the second half, but Sickle And Peace, More Than I Could Chew and ig Dagger are highlights so far

3.3
14The Raveonettes
Pretty In Black

#2568
50s fedoracore
2005

ok the Raveonettes are cruising into 3rd place in my holy trinity of bands that play shamelessly derivative music (after Noodles and early Blonde Redhead of COURSE) and I don't actually think this is a very good album BUT a lot of it is effortlessly enjoyable so who cares.

unlike its predecessor (9) this album features little to no noise; it instead packs in a shitton of twee romantic arpeggios and vintage nods to the point that it's basically Twin Peaks wearing a sweater under an Elvis poster or what have you. some songs are very good, most are mediocre. Sleepwalking is the best Paint It Black ripoff ever. a lot of these only really work in sequencing but idc, it's a breezy jam. discog review onwards.

3.3
15The Raveonettes
Lust Lust Lust

#2569
noise pop
2007

for album #3 this Loud Danish popindie group remembered that they used to be loud, so they reintroduced the noizwall and turned their songwriting to a direction that i am gonna describe as Yo La Tengo with more drugs except they don't sound as bored of the music they're making. the results are positive, the palette is appropriately warm but also lonely and homogeneousfuzz in a way that befits this brand of mopey fuckhaze (debut was defs lets-get-our-clothes-off, this is postcoital wish-i-loved-you hugtimes)

it is also too long, but with highlights like "Sad Transmission" and "Blitzed" and that other one, this doesn't matter (much). anyway, I expected this to raise the game for the Raravettes but it's neither as tight nor as fun as their debut. good album.

3.6
16The Raveonettes
In and Out of Control

#2570
ronettes psychocandy indie death pop
2009

so, if Pretty In Black was a good bad album, this is a mid mid album. the Raverravernets went for a pristine sugary peak-of-powers Phil Spector schtick here, which is a good thing, except that their songwriting is incredibly lazy and presents admittedly good hooks front-and-centre while fleshing out the bare minimum in every other department and i do not abide this. "Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)" and "Suicide" are both good tracks that could have been supergreat ones. guess what they're about.

3.0
17Prefuse 73
Surrounded By Silence

#2572
hip hop glitch hop idm indietron boop hop
2005

pretty sweet suite of raps n glitches nd croonings with a load of beats and a load of bleeps and something for everyone probably. the guestlist includes literally everyone from El-P to Kazu Makino so, uh, take your pick? shock of all horrors, this has the feel of a compilation in a largely good way, changing genres and contributors and voices and moods liberally from track to track while preserving the same prod/style/vibe imprint. from this, i can only conclude that Prefuse 73 is cool and has an identity.

should check some more, cheers Wolfe.

3.7
18Serani Poji
Ochamekan

#2573
really really saccharine Shibuya Kei
2004

heard this a while back but forgot to add it to the database, whoops. Serani Poji are always a fun time and sometimes a fleetingly great time; this is definitely a Serani Poji album!! there are a couple of delightful bops here (top of my head, Sayonara Ichigochan and the second track), but also a fair number of ephemeral pop hooks that make me miss the more expansive Vibe of their OST debut album. only one more to go now!

3.5
19Mastodon
Remission

#2574
PISSED
2002

This feels like cheating because I haven't spent nearly as much time with it as the other good Mastodon albums, but phwoar boi does it rip. I can conclude that:

- Crusher Destroyer is absolutely the best Mastodon opener
- Trampled Under Hoof is fuckin savage
- This could have been shorter but I don't really care
- The drums are unhinged as all fuck and make the new album sound even duller
- Maybe Elephant Man isn't my favourite Mastodon closer at all or really anything close mmm
- I wanna revisit Leviathan very soon

Will be jamming more thanks for the BURN!!

3.9
20Sitar Tan
3811

#2575
C-pop / trip-hop
2020

This was a shot in a dark after one of my students informed me that Sitar Tan (aka Tan Weiwei) existed and I realised I'd never heard of her. First two tracks in particular blew me away and the next thing I knew, this lady was on repeat.

Why is this? Well, uh, there's a LOT of Faye Wong vibes here in most of the right ways ['ethereal' [good]cheese, echoes of trip-hop, strong vocals, gorgeous chinese whispery stuff] and I like that fix more and more and more, so yes

There's definitely a few overlong patches of downtime that keep me from throwing this out as a universal rec, but idk, the good bits are a treat

3.8
21Portrayal of Guilt
Christfucker

#2576
blackenneed hartcore
2021

crusty jank for uncomfortable wank

2.5
22The Raveonettes
Raven in the Grave

#2577
Sleep music
2011

Good news: this album fixes the oversuccinct pop writing that let down In and Out of Control for me and I like the bookends q a bit
Bad news: these songs drag on and on and on with minimal development and most of their seedbeds aren't particularly interesting. Gets the wrong end of the stick as far as less-is-more is concerned, ends up a stone's throw from the drippy shite Beach House were releasing around this time. Next.

2.5
23Lana Del Rey
Blue Banisters

#2578
Depressing self-care RENAISSANCE torch songs for the future
2021

This is the first LDR album I've actively felt like going back to since Born to Die, and I'm struggling to come to terms with it. Her ladyship has *finally* moved on from Jack Antonoff, and either fresh inspiration or a new team of collaborators has laid the works for some of her best songs in years (and years and years), particularly remarkable given that it's mostly based in the same downbeat after-hours piano-limbo that made Chemtrails such a quintessential dud. I want Dealer and Thunder on repeat for more hours, and if the opener and any of the 4 songs before them wanna join in, that's cool in my book. Yes.

Unfortunately, it's also way overlong and the weakest tracks are largely concentrated towards the backend (NOT a tendency I love), but this also means that I've already forgotten that most of them exist. Good fuckin game Lana, rating likely to rise.

3.1
24Lali Puna
Tridecoder

#2579
indietronica
1999

deutsch early heyday indietronica joy. both suffers from and thrives off the classic indietronica buzz of laconically Vibing without fleshing too much out in the way of distinct ideas or mobile song structures, but "Rapariga Da Banheira" is a zany BOP so this is okay

to be continued. good debut.

3.6
25Amp
Astralmoonbeamprojections

#2580
drone / ambient / gaze
1997

70 minute dronemonster. sometimes it's dense and nebulous, sometimes it's bleak and alienating and rather postpunk (esp vocally - see the opener), sometimes it's spacey and blissed out (this is a Darla Records alb mm)

I appreciate the range of moods, but won't pretend it does that much for me ---- EXCEPT "Stellata" is a big highlight and by far the most immediate song; going straight onto my shoegaze mix

3.3
26Lali Puna
Scary World Theory

#2581
indietronica
2001

A solid step up from Tridecoder: all that album's good qualities are still here, but it's a little spacier, a little darker, and a fair bit more distinctive from song to song. I like this a lot TBH, really smooth listen that lays down a Vibe without overstaying its welcome even a teeny bit - can see it getting more and more and more plays mmmm, cool band

big fan of the t/t, "Middle Curse", "Lowdown" "Come On Home"

3.9
27Frou Frou
Details

#2582
pop / downtempo / indietronica
2002

MUSIC IS POINTLESS UNLESS IT CAN MAKE A COMPLETE STRANGER BREAK DOWN AND CRY

this is an album that I don't wanna analyse so much as just list the many songs that i really really like (Shh・It's Good to Be In Love・Hear Me Out・bookends)

reminds me vaguely of later day Everything But The Girl in the lateral sense that it's basically a solid UK pop album with a solid pop vocalist (Imogen Heap) that borrowed a bunch of contemp electronic tropes and trends and does good things with them (yes to trip-hop and glitch mmm sometimes to DnB, not rly to house)

there are some plain songs but it is great mmm

3.95
28City of Caterpillar
City of Caterpillar

#2585
skramz / postrock
2002

we're now entering a somewhat blurry period of albums i half-bonded with before i hit up hospital, which is sad because many of them were very great but also not sad because there's a lot of stuff i can skip over

this is something i should have hopped on years and years ago, when i was really into these kinda jams, not sure why i didn't. maybe the scene reverence got to me and I wanted to save it or whatever. who knows. more or less worth the hype, I'd say - it's a fair bit less frenetic than I imagined (last track is probably my favourite for converse reasons), but those builds do be wonderful and anxious and climactic and dirty. great album.

4.0
29Autechre
Incunabula

#2587
EYE DEE EMM
1993

In hindsight, this was maybe the worst time ever to start my Autechre voyage proper, but they are an awkward group so whatever. I really enjoyed the closing stretch on this and feel that it will probably grow on me if I come back to it in future (moderately likely), but it's also a lot more predictable 90s warpcore than I imagined, so hmmm. Will carry on this road sometime soonish.

3.4
30Stimming
Alpe Lusia

#2590
house
2016

This is by far one of the albums that stuck closest to me from recent times, love how cohesive it is as a whole, how downbeat it is from song to song, how memorable it is with its tentative little motifs, and how much identity each track has. Gonna keep this alongside Gidge for future alleviations of weight and stress, great stuff.

4.0
31Kalmah
Swamplord

#2591
melodeath
2000

Always dug Kalmah a fair bit based off individual tracks back in my peak melodeath phase, but I realised recently how odd it was that I'd never heard a full record. This is a solid album, bit samey and predictable in its rhythms and note choice, but that's par for the course. The rippers (opener in particular) do go hard in that overblown Scandi powercheese violence mode and I vibe.

3.6
32Lali Puna
Faking The Books

#2593
indietronica
2004

One of my favourite recently discovered records and a really delightful microevolution/refinement from the previous two Lali Puna records. This thing is too blissed out to be utterly deadpan, but it's still one of the coolest things in dated indie floatscape. Really great atmospheres all round, does a tremendous job of being a ~little bit more accessible and engaging than, say, Scary World Theory without sacrificing that album's edge. Recommended half-forgotten GEM.

4.0
33MAPA
四天王

#2595
j-idol
2021

I really need to return to this soon, but it is good and sometimes a little bit great.

This is Seiko Oomori's new idol group (as producer/writer, not performer), featuring Megumi Koshoji (Maison Book Girl) and a few debutantes. The vibe is funky jazz pop/rock and the highlights are big and fun. Couple of minorly insufferable parts, but a really strong closing pairing. Nice nice.

3.5
34Periphery
Periphery III: Select Difficulty

#2596
progshite
2016

okay I know this list has an anti--cursive-encounters policy, but this album is fucking garbage and I want to use this space to reiterate this

1.5
35Cave In
Until Your Heart Stops

#2599
metalcore
1998

the rather disappointing tossup of a new 'Converge' record reminded me that I still haven't given Cave In their shot, so I, um, shot it. this is a hell of a debut and definitely one of the stronger metalcore records I've heard full stop. shit's rough and raw, but there's a wealth of ideas all over every song, v smartly executed for the most part. Juggernaut, the t/t and the closer stand out in particular - love how these dish out no holds barred brutality just as much as they cut back to melodic glimpses or striking changes of pace.

main drawback is that this an exhausting record and I probably won't return to it often, but I have a lot of respect mmmm

4.1
36Dream 2 Science
Dream 2 Science

#2600
house
1990

norma rec'd me this very smooth moderately sexy house EP, and although I'm a little too sexy and very much not smooth enough to fully appreciate it, it do be a good jam and imma re-rec it for yall. yay.

3.5
37Cave In
Jupiter

#2601
space heavy alternative rockstuff
2000

well, this was even more of a stylistic departure than I was expecting, which is fine and good and all, BUT I do not get the hype on this one bit. there are some gud dynamics (Requiem) and occasionally shrewd mesmeric spacey spaceouts (Innuendo...), but for the most part the melodies on this don't catch for me and it doesn't carry either the weight or depth that I feel it very much shoots for.

appreciated, but there's no way in hell I'm going to this for my dense headspace emotional spaceheftrawk in a world where Hum and early Oceansize exist. will probably check more Cave In in future, but this was q a disappointment after their debut.

3.4
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