you know what this is actually really disappointing. I love Sato's stuff in Seaside Lovers (see: Memories In Beach House) but this really just doesn't work. it's synthy cheese, sure, but with no TANG to it. like a bland lifeless fat-free light cheddar.
wow wow wow. all over the place (which is expected from a 2 hour, 46 track compilation). starts with a much more straight-up punk vibe and moves onto become really textured post-punk pieces and then straight into oddball art punk territory (I think they use a rubber duck on 2 separate tracks) so yeah LISTEN TO IT WHEN YOU'VE GOT 2 HOURS TO KILL!!!
[insert lots of drinking (I turned 18!!!) and lots of gaming (I played Grim Fandango which was fab - amazing dialogue and characterisation - and also replayed Outlast which I hadn't played since it came out - not as good as I remember but still enjoyable at times. nice enough bleak atmospheres which instil terror when used well but is anchored too much by horrible horror jump-scare clichés. big fucking insane rippy-heady-offy guy can go fuck himself too. ending is pretty poor as well. story as a whole is just laughable tbh)]
some songs are fabulous like It's Nobody's Fault But Mine and John the Revelator but some I actually don't feel. a pretty samey listen and inconsistent in quality, but damn the greats make up for the pits.
i mean at times its doom-and-gloom works really well and creates really enthralling textures etc but mostly this is pretty dull. the lyrics are cringey too, but i liked it for the moments it wasn't just so /dull/ (which was more often than i'm making it sound, i did enjoy this )
i really wanted to like this more than i did. the A-side was just far too gritty and raw for my tastes (which, in black metal, i love rawness but it just was way too much) but the B-side was pretty great.
as a whole this album is bloody fantastic (lovely dreamy production, once again adopting trap-meets-vaporwave stylistically) but Eco Zones.... I could listen to that shit for hours
mm hmm just really moving Andean folk. I remember Defago mentioning this (I think) when we were talking about traditional Peruvian music, but yeah either way thank you (whoever) gave this rec to me first (though admittedly I extrapolated it from Poe's chart , wouldn't have gone "ooh it's this album" without you Defago or whoever)
yeah i dug this one in places. artsy disco which can be flipped either way: sometimes it strips the beauty of some of the tracks and sometimes it adds to it with some nice no wave/art pop influences every now and then. enjoyable for sure.
don't worry, Legendary Chinese Hits collection, I haven't forgotten about you. my least favourite of the collection - and I mentioned this in Skype. What makes Zhou Xuan's take on shidaiqu, for instance, so emotional for me comes down to a lot of factors but mainly, a) her almost unhuman, romantic, melancholic vocals; b) perfect melodies and perfect arrangements working in blissful harmony; and most notably c) how well it paints a picture of 30s-50s China, mainly down to her roots in Chinese folk music and usage of a lot of traditional Chinese instrumentation - her music is very typically Chinese. however, with this compy in particular we have our shidaiqu-star Liu Yun taking a lot of influence from Western music of the 50s, now of course this doesn't make it automatically worse, but it strips it of its personality for me. the part c) factors a lot into my enjoyment of shidaiqu and with quite basic guitar/bass/drums being adapted in a lot of these songs it's quite disappointing. but who's to say that you can't have perfect pop songs with just basic instrumentation? of course, I would be a hypocrite to insinuate such things with Allo Darlin, Francoise Hardy, and The Bats all literally being in my top 10. but I think here the case is that comparing it to what makes Xuan's collection so great - a) her vocals are bland; b) her melodies are interesting, sure, and the arrangements are from time-to-time very pretty and sometimes very moving; c) as i said it doesn't paint that lovely picture of Chinese scenery that Xuan's does - it really just doesn't have the glimmer that her music does. I'm not going to say that this album was bad by any extent - but certainly disappointing - though I have to admit overall it was kinda nice despite it not being as exciting and enthralling as previous collections have. _________________
a beautiful 4-disc compilation featuring traditional folk & classical music from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. each disc is a new adventure - new flavours and different (though noticeably similar) textures created from their beautiful use of interesting collections of instruments and pathos-filled vocals.
I got through it all in one go, and I think it's certainly a challenge - but for anyone looking for a whole new vocabulary in music that hasn't been explored before (unless you've listened to your fair share of Southeast Asian Folk/Classical unlike me) and for anyone who wants to really experience a new culture take on how music is commonly done - this collection is your place to start. Absolutely breathtaking.
if anyone wants an explanation as to why I really didn't like this one, I can give you one but I don't want to clog my diary up with ramblings about what's not quite right here and there. just know it's probably my least favourite PC Music release and I hope to god she doesn't do anything like this again.
y'all cray, I found this one very enjoyable. light, bouncy, and fun often but also very dense and chopped-up whenever it chooses to be, really liked it.
-insert loads of disco/house singles (really all I've been listening to)-
now, out of the three Merzbow releases I'd heard at this point, this one is definitely my favourite (miles ahead of Flare Gun and 1930). I think it just has interesting textures compared to his other work, y'know. with all the noise and abrasion there's also really interesting, kind of bubbly electronics that work really well alongside it and make it just that extra bit special. _________________
really dense and it sounds like buildings are crashing down or something. almost post-apocalyptic in nature, very dark and desolate. is desolation peaceful?
i started watching Shinrayku! Ika Musume which uses this fab denpa single that i heard a few months ago and i'm hooked. SHINRYAKU! SHINRYAKU! SHINRYAKU! SHINRYAKU! SHINRYAKU! SHINRYAKU! IKA MUSUME KYUN!
regarding notation, from now on I'll put [relisten] next to relistens and leave new listens blank. i listen to more new stuff than i relisten (and definitely post about new listens more, since you don't need to know every time i relisten to a favourite or sth)
i really liked this actually, not much to say but i put it off for so long bc i thought it was going to just be boring but i actually really loved certain parts
wew lad. digital hardcore influence here and there to make really full-on industrial hip hop. the first thing i've really found exciting of theirs since The Money Store - everything else they've released has been pretty bland.
really fun jangle/indie pop EP from 1982: very raw original sounds for indie pop as it was only a newborn thing. but yeah oddly fresh for such an early indiepop recording. love this kinda stuff. _________________
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
(i'll start today's listening in a fresh post):
)
