Non-Metal Music

The Red Crayola with The Familiar Ugly - "The Parable of Arable Land" (1967)

I've really struggled with the popular debut album from this Houston-based experimental psychedelic rock act this week as I don't understand the pointless noise interludes & (with the exception of the excellent "War Sucks") the actual songs aren't strong enough to balance the equation. Apparently, the band invited all of their fans down to the studio with whatever they could find to make sounds & then recorded them all randomly banging away over the top of each other with the result leaping over the boundary of what can be considered to be music. I'm baffled as to the level of praise this record generally receives.

For fans of Pere Ubu, Spacemen 3 & The 13th Floor Elevators.

2.5/5

Buck Owens & His Buckaroos - Ruby (1971)

Genres: Bluegrass

I found myself in a bluegrass mood of all things, stemming from a craving to find that perfect bluegrass album.  But the RYM charts weren't helping much as many of the albums sounded samey, so I went to Reddit.  I found many recs and have a lot to go through, but then I found out this Buck Owens album was only 24 minutes.  I didn't even know he had a bluegrass album; he's mostly known as a Bakersfield sound pioneer.  What the hell, I'll just get through it, I thought to myself.  And I am so glad I had enough time for another short album.  There's a lot of spirit to be had in this album.  The band's having a lot of fun, so it's easy to have fun with them.  Now the songs follow a select few basic bluegrass formats, but the energy and production makes this album sound, even for lack of a better word to describe this album, GORGEOUS.  The mixing is gorgeous, and the country spirit is diamond purified, like they freakin' went to Jared.  Rollin' in my Sweet Baby's Arms put me in a perfect equilibrium between my body jamming and my mind and soul absorbing the essence of the music.  Honestly, there's very little country that does that, as much as I love exploring it.  Now I will criticize this album for technically being quite samey, but damn if this isn't some of the most head-bobbin country I've ever heard.

91

Btw, I found that PERFECT bluegrass album pretty early on, but I'm not in the mood for reviewing a 75 minute album right now.  That album is Highway Prayers by Billy Strings, but don't get into him until you've heard some of his earlier albums.

Gary Numan - "The Pleasure Principle" (1979)

I quite enjoyed the 1979 "Replicas" debut album from London new wave outfit Tubeway Army recently so I thought I'd give front man Gary Numan's first solo effort from later the same year a crack this week & I've found it to offer a similar (perhaps slightly greater) level of enjoyment. The early synth sounds somehow seem to be both dated & timeless at the same time while I really dig Numan's vocals which provide the perfect accompaniment for the spacy instrumentation. I've found myself becoming increasingly interested in these old synthpop sounds of late. There's something refreshingly authentic in their simplicity & creativity.

For fans of Kraftwerk, Ultravox & The Human League.

3.5/5

Robert Ashley - "Private Parts" (1978)

A two-track, 46-minute journey that draws upon a combination of soothing spoken word & ambient new age music to good effect. The A side is excellent & is the real reason to explore this release although the B side is also fairly enjoyable. You really need to be able to become involved with a record from a purely atmospheric point of view to understand an album like this one as there isn't any semblance of traditional song structure to be found. "Private Parts" is a gentle, artsy record that will appeal to gentle, artsy people.

For fans of John Cage, Steve Reich & Morton Feldman.

3.5/5

Bohren & der Club of Gore - "Sunset Mission" (2000)

These Germans represent the absolute pinnacle of the dark jazz movement with "Sunset Mission" being one of my very favourite releases from any genre, even going close to cracking my all-time top ten. The depth & atmosphere on offer here is quite simply unparallelled & the class & elegance with which they execute the material shows them to be absolute masters of their craft. I've generally always placed Bohren's next album "Black Earth" slightly ahead of this one but I might need to reassess that position after this week's revisit as this is utterly supreme music right here.

For fans of Angelo Badalamenti, Dale Cooper Quartet & the Dictaphones & Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble.

5/5

Ministry - "Twitch" (1986)

I hadn't heard the sophomore record from these Chicago industrial metal legends since way back in the early 1990's but this revisit has seen me remembering "Twitch" is not half bad actually, this time taking the band's early synthpop roots & combining them with industrial rock for a sound that straddles both EBM & electro-industrial. The tracklisting suffers a little from inconsistency though with a couple of flat inclusions (see "All Day Remix" & "My Possession") taking some of the gloss off of high-quality material like "We Believe" & album highlight "The Angel". Al Jourgensen's vocals are generally very effective & I really enjoy the techy dance music components which are arranged to give them maximum effect. I feel that "Twitch" is too regularly overlooked by Ministry fans as it's arguably a more interesting release than anything I've heard from Al since the mid-1990's.

For fans of Front 242, Skinny Puppy & Cabaret Voltaire.

3.5/5

The D.O.C. - "No One Can Do It Better" (1989)

The debut full-length from this West Coast hip hop MC & it's a pretty decent one too, although I can't prescribe to the praise it seems to receive in some circles these days.

For fans of EPMD, Eric B. & Rakim & Ice-T.

3.5/5

Various Artists - "Whom the Moon a Nightsong Sings" (2010)

A highly regarded double dark folk compilation that certainly has its moments, even if it is heavily driven by the highlight tracks which can be nothing short of transcendent. I absolutely adore Havnatt's "Dagen og natta" (which reminds me heavily of early The Third & the Mortal) & the wonderfully dark fourteen-minute closer in Syven's "How Fare the Gods?" in particular. There are a few duds along the way but they're comfortably overcome by the soothing atmosphere which emphatically takes me to parts of the world that I have never been before i.e. Scandinavia.

For fans of Empyrium, Current 93 & Of The Wand & The Moon.

4/5

Vladislav Delay - "Multila" (2000)

A really deep, ambient compilation of dub techno material from a prolific Finnish producer who would go on to release important records across a variety of different EDM subgenres. The best moments are generally found when there's a bit more structure employed, particularly when the beats are a little dancier like they are on the 22-minute epic "Huone" (my album highlight). Occasionally things descend into mush but generally I find easily enough to enjoy in the dense atmospheres on offer here.

For fans of Pole, Basic Channel & GAS.

4/5

Hermann Nitsch - "Island: Eine Sinfonie in 10 Sätzen" (1980)

There are times when all serious music lovers subject themselves to long periods of aural pain in the interest of expanding their musical horizons & that is exactly what I've done this week while sitting through a full three active listens to this 3 hour 43 minute experimental release from Austrian composer Hermann Nitsch. "Island" is built on a concept that combines the early drone sound with modern classical arrangements however it regularly crosses over the border between music/art & meaningless noise for long periods, leaving the vast majority of listeners wondering just what in the actual fuck they're listening to with the sounds being emitted from the speakers often resembling the members of five symphony orchestras all warming up through completely disparate exercises before a show. When it comes together, you get some deep, unusual & quite cerebral drones but when it doesn't it's just a total mess &, given the really long track durations, you're stuck with it for what seems like an eternity before the next piece shows up, often providing more of the same. The length of this release is absolutely absurd as there are nowhere near enough different ideas to sustain even half of the run time. I'm afraid this one has just gone straight over my head, despite my enjoyment of a few of the thirteen pieces.

For fans of John Cage, Cornelius Cardew & Terry Riley.

2/5

Autechre - "Amber" (1994)

1993's "Incunabula" debut album was an incredible way to start Autechre's recording career & has been an all-time favourite of mine for around 25 years now. If anything, the 1994 sophomore record "Amber" is even better though & cemented this Manchester duo as a truly elite artist in my musical journey.

For fans of Aphex Twin, B12 & LFO.

4.5/5

POiSON GiRL FRiEND - "Melting Moment" E.P. (1992)

This debut E.P. seems to have built up quite the following over the last decade or so but I have to admit that I find that hard to understand personally. Sure, it's one of the earlier trip hop releases but that doesn't give it the right to be mentioned in the same breath as records like Massive Attack's "Blue Lines" which clearly sits in another stratosphere altogether. The female vocals of nOrikO are intended to sound sweet & they do achieve that intent during the best parts but there are just as many moments where she sounds pitchy & amateurish in my opinion. Plus, the instrumentation is very heavy on the cheap bedroom synths that were around at the time which gives "Melting Moment" a disposable feel. I do quite enjoy the first couple of songs as well as the closing title track but the other material is a long way from the mark (particularly "The Future Is Now" which is fucking awful) & taints the overall experience for me. 

For fans of Color Filter, Sugar Plant & Lily Chou-Chou.

3/5

Raphael-Weinroth Brown - Lifeblood (2025)

Cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne first showed up on my radar in 2015 as one half of the canadian neoclassical darkwave duo The Visit, alongside vocallist Heather Sita Black when their album "Through Darkness Into Light" attained the distinction of being one of a very exclusive club of non-metal albums to receive AOTY status from me. Despite this, I must admit that I haven't kept up with his solo work much since. He has tended to focus on releasing single tracks on Bandcamp, with 2020s World Within being his only other full-length prior to "Lifeblood".

The album is wholly instrumental and solely features Raphael's acoustic cello playing with the aid of amplifiers and effects pedals, apart from on a couple of tracks, "Pyre" and "Nethereal" which also feature a bass drum. He says in the Bandcamp blurb that this is his most personal album, with the theme of his relationship to his music and growth as an artist. The result of all this is a classical piece that has great crossover potential and, I believe, may well appeal to many a more open-minded metalhead. I mean, look at that cover, is that metal or what? There is a wide range of emotional scope presented within the albums runtime. As well as sweeping broad strokes that breathe air and life into things, there are moments of quiet reflectiveness and spells of fervent and rabid aggressiveness that complement and contrast each other effectively and are redolent with passion and feeling.

This passion and feeling are the two most apparent emotions I take away from "Lifeblood" and the album as a whole stands as a great testament to the compositional and technical virtuosity of a musician who, in this world of overhyped crap, by the sheer weight of his talent and passion, deserves to be heard by a much wider audience.

4/5

Zbigniew Preisner - "Trois couleurs: Bleu" (1993)

Another Krzysztof Kieslowski film soundtrack I picked up on CD in the mid-1990's; this one the first of the three-part "Trois couleurs" (aka "Three Colours") series which I adored at the time. I think this one might have been the first Kieslowski film I saw as well as the first Preisner release I purchased. While it may not be as classic as 1991's incredible "La double vie de Véronique (The Double Life of Veronika)" film score (4.5/5), "Bleu" still oozes of the poise & class that would become Preisner's calling card. From memory, I think the final installment "Trois couleurs: Rouge" was my favourite of the three CDs but this one is still an excellent example of the type of classical music I connect with. Deep, stripped back, emotionally engaging & slightly gothic. And I can't deny that I was somewhat infatuated with Juliette Binoche at the time either.

For fans of Georges Delerue, Yann Tiersen & Arvo Pärt. 

4/5

Gary Moore - "Still Got the Blues" (1990)

The ninth full-length from this legendary Irish guitarist saw him veering away from his hard rock roots towards an electric blues rock sound for the first time (at least across an entire album) & making huge headway on the global charts in the process. There can be no denying Gary's skills behind his axe as his tone & chops are simply to die for but I have to admit that (despite having to hear this record over & over again as a teenager due to my father's obsession with it) I do tend to find a lot of this material to be pretty flat. Moore's voice isn't exactly the most compelling while the song-writing has a tendency to sound pretty generic for the blues genre. The best parts are when he goes for a deeper & more stripped back sound like he does on album highlight "As the Years Go Passing By" but there is more to interest me on 1995's "Blues For Greeny" record that I mentioned just above this review.

For fans of Eric Clapton, Joe Bonamassa & Derek Trucks.

3/5

Here's my updated Top Ten Ambient Releases of All Time list after revisiting Delerium's 1988 debut album "Faces, Forms & Illusions" this week:

01. Biosphere – “Substrata” (1997)

02. Robert Rich – “Somnium” (2001)

03. Steve Roach – “Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces” (2003)

04. Brian Eno – “Ambient 1: Music for Airports” (1978)

05. Stars of the Lid – “The Tired Sounds of” (2001)

06. Stars of the Lid – “And Their Refinement of the Decline” (2007)

07. Steve Roach – “Structures from Silence” (1984)

08. Klaus Schulze - "Timewind" (1975)

09. A Winged Victory For The Sullen – “A Winged Victory for the Sullen” (2011)

10. Delerium - "Faces, Forms & Illusions" (1988)

Scott Kelly - "The Wake" (2008)

After thoroughly enjoying my revisit to Kelly's 2001 debut solo album "Spirit Bound Flesh" recently, I decided to give his sophomore effort (generally regarded as my favourite of Kelly's three solo works) the same treatment. It's a slightly more consistent record than "Spirit Bound Flesh" with the highlight tracks (i.e. "Figures" & "Catholic Blood") both being utterly devastating. You can expect a ridiculously deep, dark & depressing while decidedly stripped back singer/songwriter style folk sound that won't appeal to everyone but will connect with its target audience on a visceral level. The album does tend to fade a little towards the end but there's enough quality in the opening five tracks to make this a rewarding & deeply introspective listen.

For fans of Steve Von Till, Johnny Cash & Red House Painters.

4/5

Massive Attack v Mad Professor - "No Protection" (1995)

Stoners should look no further than this wonderful remix album that contains eight stripped-back takes on tracks taken from Bristol trip hop kings Massive Attack's brilliant 1994 sophomore album "Protection". Guyana dub legend Mad Professor does a wonderful job at keeping the original depth of the pieces & taking them into even more cerebral directions. I can't tell you how many times my best mate & I numbed ourselves to this record during my 2000's club days. Massive Attack are one of my absolute favourite artists & this is one of the truest examples of an underrated gem you'll find.

For fans of Thievery Corporation, Hooverphonic & DJ Shadow.

4.5/5

Discharge - "Fight Back" E.P. (1980)

A short six & a half minute shot of adrenaline containing five high-octane tracks that whip past you in no time at all. The Motorhead influence is obvious throughout & this is all enjoyable stuff, even for someone like myself who doesn't class themselves as a big punk fan. It's interesting that the two songs on the B side are comfortably the best material so I feel that Discharge would have been better served with an alternate arrangement of the tracklisting. Still... this is a decent way to fill a very small gap in your day. I just can't see myself thinking to return to it any time soon.

For fans of Poison Idea, Negative Approach & Anti-Cimex.

3.5/5

We’re talking about two different things Rex. You’re talking about music production. I’m talking about clubs & DJing. It’s certainly common for EDM producers to make 10+ minute tracks. It’s not as common as you think for DJs to play those tracks in clubs to their full length as they’re looking to fully showcase their taste palate & also give the audience plenty of variety. Those tunes take up a large chunk of your set when the majority of DJs are playing 1-2 hour sets. They also leave you standing there looking like you’re doing very little for a long period which isn’t what clubbers come to see. They create more risk for the DJ too as if the crowd isn’t digging it you have to try to bale out mid-track. At least that’s my experience from having spent a good decade DJing in clubs. I will say that I used to drop long tracks if I needed to take a toilet break mid-set though.

Cocteau Twins - "Sunburst & Snowblind" E.P. (1983)

This short four-song E.P. makes for an excellent accompaniment to the Scottish dream pop/ethereal wave acts "Head Over Heels" album from the same year & shares its excellent opening track "Sugar Hiccup" with that release. The other three songs are all worth hearing too though, particularly the very solid "Hitherto" which utilizes Elizabeth Fraser's powerful vocals really well. "Sunburst & Snowblind" comes highly recommended for metalheads who fancy themselves as a closet goth.

For fans of This Mortal Coil, Dead Can Dance & early Slowdive.

4/5

Hvile I Kaos - Lower Order Manifestations (2025)

The cello is my favourite classical instrument.  Capable of creating such slow, haunitng and melancholic sounds as well urgent and oppressive timbres as well, I find a versatile and always pleasing instrument.  Hvile I Kaos deploy the cello alongside guitar, frame drum and bass to create 'dark chamber music'. This has been on a few nights as I have laid in bed with the lights out ready to get into a peaceful slumber.  Full of mystique and dark terrors, the descripton from the Bandcamp page sums it up perfectly:

Quoted Vinny

Nice tip Vinny. I have listened to this a couple of times. I'm not sure I would find it conducive to a peaceful slumber - but it's great stuff. I gave it a 4/5 as well, probably just over 4, not quite reaching 4.5 status (maybe on more listenings)

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Alessandro Stefano - "Alessandro "Asso" Stefana" (2024)

One of my favourites and probably most played from last year. Ambient Americana from Italian multi-instrumentalist that repurposes the voice of Appalachian folk musician, Roscoe Holcomb. Produced by PJ Harvey and on Mike Patton's Ipecac imprint. The first 5 tracks are laid back, soothing americana invoking images of the desert and lonesome highways, then Holcomb's haunting voice from the past come in for 3 tracks before ending with the longest and most ambient tracks on the album. It's when Holcomb's vice comes in from nowhere on track 6 that really make this album for me, and is a surprise on each listen.

4.5/5

Bobby Bland - "Two Steps from the Blues" (1961)

The highly regarded debut album from this soulful Texan rhythm & blues singer that I find to be a little too inconsistent & (perhap unsurprisingly) bland for my liking.

For fans of Syl Johnson, Freddie King & Little Milton.

3/5

8. Frank Zappa
Genres: Exp. Rock, Jazz-Rock, Jazz Fusion, Comedy Rock

When I was first getting into albums, Freak Out was my first venture into experimental rock, and I loved every effed-up second of it. That raw level of boldness in Zappa's music is justified by his absurd personality. The guy knows how to write what's potentially the worst music on Earth, and make it more fun than a drunken night out on the town. And why? Why did we need Zappa? Simple. Sometimes, we just need to let loose.

Freak Out!: 100
Hot Rats: 100
Apostrophe: 100
Over-Nite-Sensation: 99
Joe's Garage, Act I: 97

Score: 99.2 / 5
Staying Score: 100

Didn't you say that you were separating Frank Zappa's solo work from the Mothers of Invention releases Rex? "Freak Out!" was the debut album from the Mothers & I'm pretty sure that "Over-Nite Sensation" is also considered to be a Mothers release.

There's the "Rule of Names."

Before I post this, I must note that there has been an update to the rules that I forgot to mention. Because certain bands like say "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers" are also counted as part of an artist's main career, there will be a "namesake rule" that states that a solo act can count their time with a band as part of their major career, especially since some bands continue without their frontman, and can still be two separate entries, such as the difference between The Mothers of Invention and Frank Zappa. Thus, the band and the frontman can have two separate entries. This does not count for duets like Simon and Garfunkel, but for a frontman and a named band sharing album title credits.

The Mothers of Invention are also known all over the internet as "Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention."  This rule is based on the notion that the band itself is just as relevant to the solo artist's career under his name.  This means that Zappa can count his time with The Mothers under his slot, and Tom petty can do so as well.  But this is only true if extra credit to the frontman is established by name in the fanbase or the album releases.  Nobody really refers to Petty's band as just, "The Heartbreakers."  Alice Cooper could do the same thing had he made it, and "The Alice Cooper Band" would have a separate entry as well.  RYM does this, too, and it was pretty obvious why.

Cool list, Rex! Though if I make my own list in this thread, it would all just be metal, and I wouldn't have to write my top 20 when it's already in the "top 20 releases" feature.

Personally, I'd be down to play there knowing what I know now, but my vocalist is a much less forgiving about these kinds of things. We are going to compare notes at practice, explain points of view and make a team decision.

Cool tune and I like Album cover too. Delightfully goofy! Quiet Riot 2 Was only released in Japan, so I always associated "Slick Black Cadillac" with Metal Health Album-they re-recorded it for that. 

So I went back to investigate, and yes the Quiet Riot II version is balls. It's not worlds different but it's weaker than the Metal Health version by a significant amount.

I've going to opt to replace Plasmatics' "The Damned" as I've never had much time for it & are going to nominate Randy Holden's "Fruit & Iceburgs" from the former Blue Cheer & The Other Half guitarist's debut solo album "Population II". It was one mean motherfucker of a psychedelic doom metal monster for 1970 in my opinion.

1. Three Dog Night "Momma Told me Not to Come"

2. Pentagram "Be Forewarned

3. Alice Cooper "Desperado"

4. Randy Holden - "Fruit & Iceburgs"

5. Holy Moses "Satans Angel"

6. Savage Master "Queen Satan"

7. Satyricon "Black Crow on a Tombstone"

8. Venom "Witching Hour"

Hi, Ben. Thanks for adding those Blue Stahli albums I've requested. Now for one more thing... It seems you've overlooked my earlier request to add Celldweller's non-metal album Offworld to bridge the gap in their discography. Could you please add that soon? Thanks again!

Totally respect that. Crunkcore is among my least favorite genres of all time, but I'd be totally open to hearing an album in the genre that is actually enjoyable. Maybe I'll give it a shot just for fun.

I actually love it when one of my least favorite genres features an album I find amazing.  Nadja helped me explore some more of my least favorite metal genre: drone.

Vinnie Moore - "Meltdown" (1991)

I picked up Vinnie Moore's third album on CD shortly after it was released given that I was a big fan of his 1986 debut album "Mind's Eye". "Meltdown" saw Vinnie changing direction a bit with a record that's a lot more hard rock than it is metal but it still made quite an impact on this young shredder as there's little doubt that Moore understood the art of song-writing as well as any in his craft i.e. instrumental guitar shred. Time hasn't been as kind to "Meltdown" as I'd hoped though & I see it as a step down from "Mind's Eye" these days but it's definitely still worth a listen if you're into this sort of thing.

3.5/5

I'm sure the genre is not for all metalheads, but I'm certainly attracted to it, if only as background music. Thanks for the recommendations, as I haven't delved into it as much as I probably should have. Just listening to Old Sorcery now.

Lemme know what you think when/if you feel like you've got a good amount of them down.

Kensuke Ushio - "Ping Pong" The Animation Soundtrack (2014) 2 x CD bonus disc edition

Over two hours of music taken from a Japanese animated television show. It spans a huge wealth of electronic subgenres including techno, trance, progressive house, drum 'n' bass, IDM, downtempo, ambient, etc. There are a few really great tracks included, particularly the techno & ambient material which is most closely aligned to my taste however there's simply far too much filler here & I find the cheesy trance & quirky IDM stuff to be pretty hard going.

If any of you are thinking of bands that started as gothic death-doom but slowly (d)evolved into alt-prog rock, here are a couple of them; Anathema and The Gathering. While both of these bands disappoint heavier fans by not having their darker metal sound anymore, you know who might like their lighter rock sound? MY MOM!! Seriously, my mom's never really a fan of metal, but she's OK with softer rock sounds.

Unlike Daniel, I stopped really enjoying Anathema's work quite some time ago. I've always had time for The Gathering though, at least I did while Anneke was still part of the band. I think I listen to their non-metal albums more than the metal ones, simply because they can be played while the family is around.