If you ever needed more of The Field Mice, then this is the record for you. Containing most of the principle member of the seminal Sarah Records "Twee" band, Northern Picture Library picks up where The Field Mice left off while adding Shoegaze elements and more. If I to rank this in the Field Mice Discography, I'd have this at a comfortable number 2 behind the classic Snowball. The album has a great texture to it, and the shorter atmospheric tracks add to the overall feeling of this album. I'll keep this review relatively short in saying that if you like the genres listed, or The Field Mice, then you'll surely find something to like about Northern Picture Library. I listened to it again today as the weather has taken a turn toward the dreary and cold, and it was a perfect compliment to the season. A good time to take a listen to this.
Genre(s): Post-Rock, Experimental Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Dub, Krautrock, Tribal Ambient, Space Rock Revival
Best Track(s): Uh, I kinda feel like the whole thing is supposed to be one thing.
What do you get from the bass player and drummer of Talk Talk? Turns out Mark Hollis was not the only member that was thinking past Rock music. I had no idea of this "band" or album's existence until a year or two ago. I'm not going to forget it anytime soon. This is the kind of "jam music" that I can get into. Which is truly more of a hybrid of a bunch of different genres and sounds. I'd like for this to be categorized as "Experimental Rock". If you like either of the last two Talk Talk albums, then you owe it to yourself to listen to this logical extrapolation on the sound. It's not as good as either Spirit of Eden or Laughing Stock, nor does it have the same sonic or conceptual aim, but it does have some of the same spirit of unbound creativity.
If you ever needed more of The Field Mice, then this is the record for you. Containing most of the principle member of the seminal Sarah Records "Twee" band, Northern Picture Library picks up where The Field Mice left off while adding Shoegaze elements and more. If I to rank this in the Field Mice Discography, I'd have this at a comfortable number 2 behind the classic Snowball. The album has a great texture to it, and the shorter atmospheric tracks add to the overall feeling of this album. I'll keep this review relatively short in saying that if you like the genres listed, or The Field Mice, then you'll surely find something to like about Northern Picture Library. I listened to it again today as the weather has taken a turn toward the dreary and cold, and it was a perfect compliment to the season. A good time to take a listen to this.
If you ever needed more of The Field Mice, then this is the record for you. Containing most of the principle member of the seminal Sarah Records "Twee" band, Northern Picture Library picks up where The Field Mice left off while adding Shoegaze elements and more. If I to rank this in the Field Mice Discography, I'd have this at a comfortable number 2 behind the classic Snowball. The album has a great texture to it, and the shorter atmospheric tracks add to the overall feeling of this album. I'll keep this review relatively short in saying that if you like the genres listed, or The Field Mice, then you'll surely find something to like about Northern Picture Library. I listened to it again today as the weather has taken a turn toward the dreary and cold, and it was a perfect compliment to the season. A good time to take a listen to this.
So, I'm rewatching Eraserhead, because I haven't watched it in ages. I had been meaning to, because I finished Twin Peaks, and I wanted to see if I came away thinking about the film in any different ways with the context of "The Return". I've had "In Heaven" stuck in my head for the past day, so I was interested to see what bands had covered this song, because I only remembered a few.
Devo, Tuxedomoon, The Pixies, y'know things that make sense. But then I see that AJR sampled this song in their 2019 single "Birthday Party".
AJR is a band that my niece saw when she was 12. AJR is a band that I don't really know that much about. (Except that they are villified by the music-loving sites out there.) I've heard snippets of their songs, enough to know that it is so far away from anything I'd want to actually listen to, that it would serve no purpose for me to do so.
I have to listen to this song, right? How in the world would this band, with their style of music, implement this song from Lynch. Not that the song is particularly strange, because it's not, but thematically, what would the lyrics of "In Heaven" have to do with a birthday party?
I listen to the song.
It's even worse than I thought it would be.
The lyrics are utterly inept, bizarre even.
The instrumental is disjointed, unnecessarily syncopated, and loudly produced.
"BUT WAIT!" I think to myself.
Eraserhead could be considered to be bizarre.
Eraserhead could be considered disjointed.
The audio is definitely well-known for its nonstop onslaught of differing sounds clashing together.
Maybe there is more here than I thought.
What was this song about again? A Birthday Party? Let me see.
Oh, it's told from the perspective of a baby that's just been born.
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
Do they know? Is this a purposeful sample? Is AJR secretly surreal? Dada?
Let's take a look at some these lyrics.
"A minute ago, I did not exist
It's nice to finally meet my relatives"
One minute you don't exist. Much like the sperm-like creature seen at the beginning of the film. The violence and trauma of birth. Thrust into a cold and unforgiving world.
The child is not visible when Henry met with Mary's parents, but I'm sure the child was happy to finally meet both mama and papa in Henry's apartment.
I bet our parents always stay in love
Always stay in love"
Unfortunately for the child in Eraserhead, I don't think Mary or Henry were ever in love. They couldn't even stay together for the sake of the child.
"I bet my ignorance is always bliss
Except ignoring pigment in our skin
I bet my country's nice to immigrants"
Henry's passive nature could be described as ignorance masquerading as "bliss".
What about the the discolored pigment on the face of the man who is seen with the "beautiful girl across the hall"?
There could be subtext to Eraserhead dealing with an immigrant's experience in a America. Frightening. Isolated. In poverty. Industrial occupation.
Lynch's great grandparents were immigrants of Finnish-Swedish ancestry.
And do you know the racial epithet that immigrants of Scandinavian descent were called?
"Squarehead"
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
Looks a little square, huh?
Ok, we're connecting a few things here. It's all coming together now.
Let's talk about that sample. The sample is not just a sample they actually sing it in the song themselves.
Although the subject of the song is newly born, it seems to already have a concept of troubles that are facing the world, and possibly like Henry, it would already prefer being embraced by "heaven" the afterlife.
Oh good, here's a video with the band talking about why they used the sample.
Emiliana Torrini is basically chill Downtempo Bjork, which is cool. You really only notice the similarity on specific annunciations and vocal affectations. I don't know how purposeful this was, but they're both from Iceland, so IDK. (I'm obviously not the first person to bring this up, but you kind of have to.)
This album is a richly orchestrated late 90s audio feast. If you like the sound palette on something like Air's Moon Safari, then you'll find a lot to love on "Love In The Time In Science". (Throw some "6 Underground" and a little Portishead in to the mix too.) Torrini's vocals perfectly compliment the production and the atmosphere, and I wish this kind of thing never went out of style. I'm happy to still be finding new things from 1999 to listen to in 2023(4). Surprised I didn't somehow windup listening to this years ago though.
"To Be Free" the first track is an absolute banger. Really love the way the piano is mixed on the track. Sounds like something Thom Yorke would do.
My next favorite might be "Easy" which sounds to me like it could have been the kind of Adult Contemporary crossover hit that the 90s were known for.
The dynamic "Telepathy" (which may be one of the more "Bjork" songs on the album) is another favorite here. It just has all of the elements that music of this kind is known for. Got some emotional string arrangements, driving drums, and soaring vocals.
As a final note, the song "Tuna Fish" has some really strange lyrics, but it's probably the coolest song called "Tuna Fish" that I know.
Whether or not you enjoy Chuck Schuldiner's last album under the name "Control Denied" will primarily hinge upon your patience for Progressive Metal wankery and your opinions on Death's final album "The Sound of Perseverance". If you're fine with both of those things ( as I am) then "The Fragile Art of Existence" should probably get a listen.
Taking the same cues of melodicism from TSOP, Control Denied is essentially same lineup as Death's final album with vocalist Tim Aymar taking over vocal duties instead of Chuck. The power metal vocals add a bit of a different flavor than the typical Death album, so that's a plus. Oh, and Steve Digiorgio is back on the bass, so you know that the low end is completely locked down. (Check out the third Track "Expect The Unexpected" for a particularly tasty bass breakdown.)
"What If.." starts off with some gnarly bass too.
It's tragic this was the last thing we got from "The Godfather of Death Metal" it would have been interesting to see how his sound continued to transform over the years. These songs have a lot of energy, and it all starts at the top with Chuck's riffage. The man knew what he was doing.
Yeah, this is one of those albums that I really have no idea how to approach it.
Thought Industry is some kind of schizo-metal band from Kalamazoo Michigan that are nearly uncategorizable. They sound like everyone and no one at the same time. Some have made some comparisons of their first album and this one to the similarly enigmatic Mr. Bungle, but that's really only in spirit. They don't really sound much alike apart from being challenging music that can turn on a dime. (I saw this in the comment box for their first album "a weird mixture of Voivod and Faith No More.")
Every song that's over 5 minutes long overstays its welcome, and sometimes it gets too out there for its own good, but it never loses interest that's for sure.
If you can get past the first song (which is probably the most abrasive) then you can get through the whole thing.
Here's a new chart of HOT albums this time from the 00s. As the chart states, these are mostly newer listens (within the last year) but a few old favorites as well. Just like last time, I'll be going through and giving an analysis for each of them.
This album was a weird blindspot for me for a long time. I've known about other bands in the "dark jazz" genre like The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Orchestra & The Dale Cooper Quartet, but I had never heard the progenitors; Bohren & Der Club of Gore. Personally, I'd rather have called it "doom jazz" as the lurching pace of the tracks compare more favorably to Doom Metal composition than anything else. However, I understand that it also has its origins in "Dark Ambient", so I guess the nomenclature is accurate enough. Enough about semantics, let's get to the music. If you're not already familiar with it, you may be thinking "what does Dark Jazz sound like?" I have a hard time determining how to explain it myself. Think of Cool Jazz, slow it down even more, and strip away most of the instrumentation leaving drums, keyboard, maybe guitar (treated & textural), and a lone sax. Add some intimate production and depressive atmosphere. There you go.
There's a man in a heavily smoke-filled bar. He's sitting in the corner alone; staring at a crooked knot in the wooden table slats. He looks across to see a woman as lost as he is, but he shifts his eyes to the middle distance. He pushes out any ideas of happiness or companionship. He feels he doesn't deserve it.
This is the soundtrack for the fantasy noir movie in your head. The quiet and still moments that pass slower that most. Listen to this at night walking or driving the city streets. It really does hit different. It sounds cheesy, but this music truly captures that "lonely" feeling better than almost anything else.
I don't really have a favorite track on this, because it sounds all nearly the same. Which could also be a flaw, but, when the vibes are this immaculate, that sameness is a positive.
I have heard of literally NONE of these albums.
Not that I read the whole thread.
But it looks like it could be fun to check some snippets of these albums out on a rainy day soon.
I have heard of literally NONE of these albums.
Not that I read the whole thread.
But it looks like it could be fun to check some snippets of these albums out on a rainy day soon.
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