This is from a comp from the Twisted Village label (Deep Funnels of Entry) featuring a bunch of the psych rock bands the label had. I don’t even know who was the most famous of these bands - maybe the Crystalized Movements? The answer is “none of them”, I guess. I bought this because I really liked Crystalized Movements, and the rest of the comp didn’t really turn up any new favorites for me.
[Read More]This is from Beat Konducta, Volume 1 & 2: Movie Scenes, a record intended as a soundtrack to a non-existant movie as well as a companion piece to J Dilla’s revered Donuts. The thing that makes it a little different from Madlib’s usual work is that there are a lot of vocal samples, helping give it a little more of that cinematic feel. Among Madlib’s instrumental work, it’s not my favorite, but everything he does is interesting.
[Read More]The biggest exception to rap skits sucking is pretty much anything with Prince Paul involved. The framing device for De La Soul Is Dead, of an audio storybook detailing kids encountering the record for the first time, is delightfully self-refential and charming. And “cock snot” really is a vivid phrase.
If you call yourself Trigger Cut, you should really be twee indie rock. But no, we’ve got just pure muscular noise rock going here, sounding like nothing so much as vintage Hammerhead or maybe mid-period Unsane. So, yes, it’s throwing me back to the early 90s, just not in the direction the band name suggests.
[Read More]The Arsonists’ debut album, released in 1999, was very much a throwback record. Not just in sound, but in the way it was created. By 1999, hip-hop had moved into an era of producers being stars separate from rappers. But the Arsonists did everything as a group, including the production, which was unusual for the time.
There’s something so abrasive and unhinged about Times New Viking’s particular racket that listening to them really kind of scrambles your brains. Strip away the fuzz, the overdriven amps, the squalls and washes of feedback, and what you get is pretty simple pop songs at the center. Personally, I don’t find the artiface all that convincing, so this is the only album I ever picked up from them.
[Read More]I think it can be easy to dismiss all these neo-folk types as posers, as just boring sensitive white guys with guitars. And yeah, but some of them are clearly playing something pretty inspired as well. Sam Beam, doing business as Iron & Wine, is one of those worth paying attention to. His debut album, The Creek Drank The Cradle, is pretty precious, but it’s just filled with really nice songs. It’s just Beam’s voice and guitar most of the time, with just the occasional touches of slide guitar or banjo, as you can hear on this song. And while obviously, we here at Five Songs go pretty far in to pretty grim and noisy stuff, sometimes you just really need a pretty song, and Iron & Wine delivers.
[Read More]Welcome to Five Songs, where we have six songs for you!
A repeat! Since there’s not much to say about it exactly, I’ll instead mention that Kid Koala did the score for the video game Floor Kids, which I haven’t tried yet, but will.
Listen to the space on those drums. They sound so live! Awesome.
Leading force behind Norwegian black metal legends Emperor, whose In The Nightside Eclipse is one of the touchstones of the genre, Ihsahn has continued forward as a vital force in metal over the decades since. His solo work has tended more towards the progressive and symphonic end of things rather than the black metal grime of his earlier career, but he’s shown a pretty wide range in general.
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