Don Caballero

Nice one today!

Yautja, “for naught”

Kind of math-rock, kind of death metal, this kind of hybrid makes me happy. Which it probably shouldn’t! This comes from the EP Songs of Lament, the followup to their excellent Songs of Descent. Both are worth looking into.

Bathory, “Shores in Flames”

Bathory were black metal pioneers, with the singer Quorthon’s strangled croak setting the template for black metal vocalists that persists today. The primitive recording and washes of guitar noise also formed one of the pillars of the genre. But, not content to provide some of the building blocks for one type of metal, Bathory re-invented themselves. The album prior to this one started experimenting with breaking out of the template, but Hammerheart showed that the template was gone. This song is the opener of that album, featuring Quorthon actually singing, and the songwriting now was focused on the epic rather than the squalid. And, indeed, Bathory had now invented the subgenre of Viking metal which, yes, is a thing. Bottom line: there aren’t very many bands that have ever been as metal as Bathory, and there aren’t very many bands more influential on the genre.

Today’s music.

μ-ziq, “Johnny Mastricht”

Electronic artist μ-ziq is the moniker of Michael Paradinas. Designed not for clubs but for headphones, μ-ziq had a great run of really interesting, inventive albums. The prize record is the fantastic Lunatic Harness, but the follow-up Royal Astronomy is great as well. This album, Bilious Paths, is very good but is a little off his peak.

Einstürzende Neubauten, “Mei Ro”

This track is from The Jewels, a compilation of a series of tracks that Neubauten posted on their site. The tracks themselves were the product of a series of formal experiments, with the band participating in games to generate constraints, and the songs were all put together very rapidly, a day or so. The results are interesting but not always super gripping.

My first repeat song today. I decided I’m going to skip repeats, because they’d be boring. Here’s your minty fresh songs for today.

Kendrick Lamar, “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe (Remix)”

This remix was included as a bonus track at the end of Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, at least on the version I bought. Complete with unnecessary Jay-Z verse! Anyway, this album is fantastic, and as I mentioned last time, is part of an unbroken winning streak. I think Lamar is the closest person we have to George Clinton working today.

The Wedding Present was great last night! Nice mix of older material and newer stuff, including playing “Dalliance” (included on the playlist), one of the great songs about longing ever.

We have music sign!

Knxwledge, “onlijournitro”

This is from yet another DJ album, with this one being basically just a collection of beats. Some of them are quite good, they’re mostly pretty short, and this overall feels like more of a collection of ideas than a coherent work. They’re actually pretty ideal to pop up in a shuffle format, honestly.