A few albums recently listened.

beta band - 3 eps

lush stuff and their best effort imo

I have not participated in this thread much in a while. Here are a few recent listens.

Clinic - Free Reign II (2013)
I enjoyed the original album when I first played it a month or so ago, but after a handful of spins each this version really shines through. Fantastic indie psych. I ought to pick it up on vinyl.

Honey Is Good - Early Morning Are You Working? (1999)

I have just discovered this band today. Do you like Indie Rock? Do you like Noise Rock? Do you like damaged girl vocals? Do you like The Knife? Then you should probably listen to this band fronted by Karin Dreijer of The Knife and Fever Ray. It's like early PJ Harvey but...Karin. Terrible band name though.

The Night Marchers - Allez! Allez! (2013)
Streaming this on Spotify, been meaning to listen since it came out in January. For those unaware, this is the second album from the latest garage punk band fronted by John Reis of Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, Rocket From the Crypt, etc. I feel like I didn't give their debut enough attention so I should probably revisit soon. I think they're both produced rather well, and this is sounding good so far.

Merchandise - Totale Nite (2013)
Still a definite Manchester influence here, with vocals reminiscent of Morrissey but a little less so than on last year's Children of Desire, perhaps. Maybe it's just that I was expecting it. No disappointment here so far, but I don't know if it'll contain songs as epic as the two stand-outs from last year. It feels more consistent though, Children of Desire had a few duds. Yeah, this is impressive but I may be wrong about the vocals, Morrissey is definitely still there. I'm not complaining though.

Milk Music - Cruise Your Illusion (2013)
I checked out their EP from last year which was ok but sounded too much like wannabe Dinosaur Jr. and Mudhoney. Still I was interested to see where they'd go next. I was impressed with some nice and mellow guitar playing on the first track (an instrumental), and there has been some really nice guitar work throughout. But the vocalist still sounds like he's trying too hard to be J. Mascis or Mark Arm. Cool album title and cover though. I'll keep the album in rotation as I did enjoy the music, maybe I'll get over the vocals.

Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin (2013)
I've been a casual fan of this band for the last few releases, nothing awesome but worth the occasional listen. Putrifiers II was alright, I probably enjoyed it more than Carrion Crawler / The Dream but still it wasn't awesome. I like this one more than anything else I've heard from them, it'll get more plays from me. I really hate the album cover though. They had some good ones in the past but Putrifiers II was also ugly.

Kurt Vile - Wakin on a Pretty Daze (2013)
Really digging this new album, even just after my first spin yesterday. I only learned about him with his 2011 album Smoke Ring for My Halo, which had a few great songs but several I didn't care for. This album is much more solid all the way through.

Wavves - Afraid of Heights (2013)
This is another one I got yesterday that I'm really enjoying. I've heard King of the Beach a few times before and thought it was alright, but a bit annoying at the same time. I ended up rating it 3/5 and not going back to it after 3 spins. I wouldn't have been that bothered to check out any material after it, except the less goofy cover and the samples sounded really good so here we are. Better production and songwriting. I'm reminded of good Weezer, a tiny bit of sElf in a song or two, and a lot of another surf-influenced indie rock band called Mrs. Magician, whose s/t album from last year I really enjoyed but I like this better.

Kelpe - Answered EP (2013)

Pretty straight-forward EP from Kelpe, nothing has blown me away but it's a nice listen. Really looking forward to the full-length in June.

Srsly underrated, even amongst the MoM imaginary subforum massif

9/10

Very rarely I hear an album, I fully enjoy listening to from beginning to end. But I did with this one.

^What'd you think of it? I haven't gotten around to listening to it yet, but I really loved their 1st album.

well it's not totally great as it flows over you like an aural bubble bath,

but they hit the spot more often than not - only a couple of tracks
come close to Babbling Brooke

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake 10/10

Depeche Mode, Black Celebration

Shabazz Palaces, Black Up

Oval, Ovalcommers

Fluorescent Grey, Ambiente (particularly Disc 2)

Shostakovich, Symphony no 4

Dalglish, Benacah Drann Deachd

GAS, Modern

All fantastic in their own way. God, I'm really thankful to have heard these.

  On 4/29/2013 at 6:07 PM, Head Gardener said:

well it's not totally great as it flows over you like an aural bubble bath,

but they hit the spot more often than not - only a couple of tracks

come close to Babbling Brooke

 

Wtf!? I don't have that track. I've been missing out.

Enjoying a chilly sundown behind the trees with a joint and Susumu Yokota - Mother

album is like their neu 75

  On 4/20/2013 at 5:33 AM, Bob Dobalina said:

 

Srsly underrated, even amongst the MoM imaginary subforum massif

I've been listening to Of Montreal - Satanic Panic in the Attic. I'd forgotten about it after all their shitty music started coming out but it's still a really great pop record, with a few 10/10 songs.

pink floyd - animals

such an underrated album. i rank it as their second best behind meddle.

  On 5/3/2013 at 6:27 AM, zaphod said:

pink floyd - animals

such an underrated album.

Underrated, really? Every PF fan I know loves it, and as far as I know it's always been well regarded by the press too.

It's one of my favorites among Obscured by Clouds and Meddle.

dont really understand Animals... might need to try again

tonight my 3 most useful albums are

Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen

Roxy Music - Avalon

A Guy Called Gerald - Black Secret Technology

all chill, good melodies, sexy, spaced out, soulful, respect for weeed

  On 5/3/2013 at 7:35 PM, sidewinder said:

 

  On 5/3/2013 at 6:27 AM, zaphod said:

pink floyd - animals

such an underrated album.

 

Underrated, really? Every PF fan I know loves it, and as far as I know it's always been well regarded by the press too.

 

It's one of my favorites among Obscured by Clouds and Meddle.

 

maybe fans or music critics, but the general public? they only really like dark side and wish you were here. maybe the wall. i haven't met a single person who likes animals and most of them haven't even heard obscured by clouds.

totally agree on both animals and meddle, which are my favorite pink floyd records.

john coltrane - crescent. an incredible record, hard to say anything more about it than that. the kind of album that you want to play at midnight with candles burning and incense going and shit.

Jan Hammer - The First Seven Days 1975
great but also cheesy jazzy electronic music by the guy who did the Miami Vice soundtrack. Had no idea he had such a large catalog. Probably the best thing I've heard by him. Has more in common with prog rock and kraut than most synth records of the time.

Ph.D - Ph.D 1981
Its rare a random pop album I've never heard of will be this appealing to me. It's sort of a hybrid between UK synth pop and glam rock, but with no rock guitars. All synths and drums.

madlib's ventures off and attempts to cover a wide spectrum of jazz music styles- all seem to focus on beat (not even one grand or upright piano driven song?) and hammond organ with heavy bass treatment- you know what that means right? they all sound a little too similar despite setting out to sound different (with exception to 'slave riot' by the young jazz rebels)

madlib expands his fictitious jazz universe with more outfits that help elaborate the whole sound direction type style of playing live instruments and blurring the lines betwix one man band sound and collaboration thing (listen to the two songs by the jahari massaba unit for comparison). the linear notes are peppered with hints of a few of these outfits' independent records which i gather are more about resurrecting damaged memories of a record collectors fetish of lusting over possible treasures rather than an accurate index. the music is good but the dress is better

flying lotus - cosmogramma 10/10

taake - doedskvad 10/10

autechre - exai 10/10

meat puppets!

Author & Punisher - Ursus Americanus - very cool fusion of noise, industrial and drone, guy makes his own instruments and such

Bibio - Silver Wilkinson - Quality Bibio goodness

Ezekiel Honig & Morgan Packard - Early Morning Migrations - Listened this morning, fittingly while watching the sunrise. Quality ambient/minimal glitch

Fevrier - The Lover - IDM/Shoegaze/ambinet fusion stuff, nice melodies and harmonies

Juan Atkins & Mortiz Von Oswald - Borderland - Excellent stuff

Prurient - Through The Window - Not as noisy as his previous works, more still haunting and hypnotic, it's on Blackest Ever Black

Sigha - Living With Ghosts - pretty damn good industrial techno album, good balance of noise, bass and rhythm

*Shels - Plains of The Purple Buffalo - solid post-rock album, kind of a southern vibe to it, lots of accoustic guitars mixed in

Thundercat - Apocalypse - Thundercat does it again, quality album

Witch - S/T - Awesome bluesy sludge/doom featuring J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.,

Stella by Yello is so fuckin good. most people probably know this album for the oh yeah chicka chicka song but its overall quite incredibly diverse and creative and beautiful

100/10

Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972: Masterpiece. 9.8/10