Swarvy

Charles Mingus, “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”

Ladies and gentlement, the pilot has illuminated the “JOSH IS NOT QUALIFIED TO TALK ABOUT JAZZ” light, please return to your social media app of choice and return your seats to the upright and locked position.

Boris, “Hama”

Amplifier Worship is the first studio album from Boris if you ask them, because they consider Absolute Go a single. It’s a 60-minute single, mind you, but it’s still a single as far as they’re concerned, so this is the first album. And it’s a banger, the first in a very long string of fantastic albums. I’m not sure Boris really redfined anything, or set a template for other bands to follow or anything. They’re just consistently great across decades. That’s all.

Nitzer Ebb, “Control I’m Here (live)”

I mentioned the other day that I kept up with the proliferation of Nitzer Ebb releases for a while, and this is a good example of what a pain in the ass that was. When they started picking up some momentum after Nine Inch Nails brought a lot of attention to the genre, the label decided to try and pick up some buzz for Ebbhead by releasing a live EP. But did they just release a live EP? Oh my, no. They released it in two separate discs you had to buy, with the first one including a slip case that would fit the second one. Did they release both halves at once to make it easier to pick up? Of course not! I did find both halves, and frankly, it’s just a live EP and totally not worth tracking down.

Tuxedo, “So Good”

It is so good, Tuxedo, you’re right.

Swarvy, “Lesson With Julian”

Kiiiinda regretting not writing more for that first track.

Has-Lo, “Utero”

Well, on track here for the shortest Five Songs entry ever, at least by word count. Maybe by running time also, I don’t know. I’d have to actually do some research to figure that out, and that is absolutely not going to happen.

Cynic, “Celestial Voyage”

Cynic’s 1993 album Focus is one of the foundational documents of progressive metal, as they took death metal and mashed it up with prog and jazz, resulting in an album that was very, very far out there for the time. The constant showy playing can get kind of exhausting, honestly, but it’s hard not to at least respect what they’re up to here. They actually put just this album out, which would have been an impressive one-record legacy…before ruining that by reforming 15 years later. I have not listened to any post-reunion records, though.