Lewd Acts Lung Patrol EP:
Color me impressed. The first song is pretty meh; good, but nothing amazing. But then the second song has an amazing build up and the pay off is damn worth it. And the final song is just great. It has a country sound that melds into hardcore very nicely. Hopefully their next album will build on the momentum they have going.
Rating: 13/15 best thing out of San Diego
Harmonic 313 When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence:
An album of synthesizer heavy beats and cool guest singers and MCs. Musically similar to El-P, but less jarring, and more prone to epic synth washes. The guest vocals range from vocoder drenched rants about a dystopian future to MC brag tracks. The balance between instrumentals and vocal tracks is pretty much perfect, giving listeners about as much as they want of either. Though not explicit throughout the entirety of the album the theme of machines conquering mankind is expressed throughout by the foreboding synthesizer sounds, and general fear and tension expressed through the beats. A really cool disk filled with good beats and cool vocals.
Rating: 13/15 cyborgs
Greg Malcom Leather and Lacy:
Jazz hating multiple guitar playing New Zealand free improv musician does an album worth of soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy’s compositions. Malcolm plays the melodies quite beautifully on a conventionally played guitar on his lap. For the backing parts Lacey sets up guitars hanging by him and at his feet. He slaps or kicks the guitars, which are often fuzzed out, to create drones and percussive noises. Malcolm’s extra guitars lend each track a certain ambiance, making it sound almost as if they were recorded in various locations each with a different background noise. Malcolm is a tasteful player and each track has an arid sparseness to it that suits the compositions well. An interesting and fairly mellow disk.
Rating: 13/15 kicked guitars
Keith Rowe / Keith Rowe & Taku Unami Keith Rowe and Taku Unami / Keith Rowe:
Beeps blurps and scrapes. A very interesting very minimalist release. A cool listen, but only when you’re in the mood for it.
13/15: weird things to play a guitar with
Bad Brains Bad Brains:
Incredible riffs that flawlessly shift to other amazing riffs, get you going and some of the most intense vocals ever put on album take you over the edge. Of course thats only half the album, the other half is mediocre reggae, that no one has ever listened to more than once.
Rating:13/15 Jah!
Parliament Up For The Down Stroke:
Doo-wop vocals, funky guitars, horny horns. Lets not forget crazy lyrics, interesting song structures, and amazing improv. Though not as fully awe inspiring as they would become, this album still turns heads and can make even the most introverted wallflower want to shake their ass.
Rating: 13/15 hints of thing to come
Merzbow 1930:
Its really easy to lose yourself in this album. The frequencies, layered static and found sounds, seem balanced in such a way as to lure you in. The sounds shift frequently enough to hold your active minds interest, while boring into your subconscious. Eventually all your brain is focusing on is the noise, which is a really amazing place to be in for an hour or so.
Rating: 13/15 effective compositional uses of static
…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead The Century of Self:
Not my favorite album ever, but you can’t knock these guys for lack of passion or ambition. Every track has epic riffing impassioned vocals and lyrics which take no prisoner. A strong disk overall but the singularity of their musical attack, which probably makes them amazing live, makes it hard to get through the whole album in one go.
Rating: 13/15 tone it down once in awhile points
Paul Weller At The BBC:
A good mix of Weller’s three-chord take on soul music, and acoustic tunes. Spanning 4 CD’s one gets a feel for all of Weller’s lyrical capabilities, which are considerable, and his knack for crafting simple tunes. Weller has the fortune of having a great backing band, that completely understand the mood of each tune. Weller has aged more gracefully than most and gone through several distinct creative periods, many of which are represented here. A solid release.
Rating: 13/15 Jams
Makeshift Reviews 