What are you listening to now? : Non-metal Edition

Swans - The Beggar (2023)

Genres: Post-Rock, Experimental Rock

Subs: Ambient Drone, Avant-Folk, Neofolk, Gothic Rock

I've been more and more hyped about the new Swans for ages, especially since I saw The Beggar appearing in Rateyourmusic's top albums of 2023 a couple weeks before it actually came out.  Nobody had it on YouTube, I couldn't find a good leak, so I waited impatiently while fawning over the incredible genre-tagging of this album.  Going through the various secondaries, avant-folk, gothic rock, drone, neofolk, gothic country, etc., it felt like this would be the most Swans thing ever.  I got through all the other Swans albums I hadn't played yet (The Great Annihilator, The Burning World, Love of Life, My Father and Leaving Meaning) before I came to this.  Now I'm fully familiar with their history and prepared to take on this album.

The album's overall atmosphere isn't quite as dark as before, but it's still very emotional.  It relies on a more autumn approach to sadness and hope, something that goes hand-in-hand with Swans music while being completely separate since we relied on depression told through anger and sadness told through post-punk and gothic rock.  The atmosphere is quite healthy, perfectly produced so that the ambience and reverb are never too little or too much.  It's just that RIGHT amount of both.  I suppose one can take note of the fact that it's one of those albums that lets the singer (Michael Gira) drive the melody while the instruments are staying simple and monotonous, but there are two problems with that.  First of all, Swans have become an atmosphere band.  That was always a strong point for them, but it's become the primary focus ever since the first became a post-rock band back in 1996 when Soundtracks for the Blind was released.  So I'll judge this by the atmosphere.  It's beautifully done, but it's hardly overpowering, which was the strong point of various Swans albums.  Despite this, while some songs take more than halfway through to come close to overpowering, most of the songs add something a little different every now and then so that these monotonous and drone-style rock songs become progressive in nature.  Good balance.  And having said THAT, it's possible that the atmosphere simply doesn't feel that overpowering on a first spin because one can be so familiar with the horror and terror that drove them since their 80's debut Filth.

This is not to say that the album itself drags on, just a couple of the individual songs.  Even when I was nearly done with the ten-minute title track, I couldn't believe I had already gotten through those ten minutes.  That is a perfect example of how to use slow-building drone behavior in a way that makes time fly.  So in the end, the two hours mostly goes by astonishingly quickly.  On another note, it feels like the shorter songs are the ones that get drawn out more often, including the shortest track, Los Angeles: City of Death at a tiny little three-and-a-half minutes.  When comparing this to the next track, the six minute Michael is Done which is more experimental and unpredictable despite never breaking the consistency, it's easy to see where the focus of the album's weirdness goes into.  One minute into the eleven-minute Ebbing, the quiet intro grows louder until we get into a folk song, and one minute into that we get a creepy alien wind instrument driving the backing rhythm while Gira and Jarboe sing together.  It keeps getting more and more unpredictable from there for a while before settling into a long and atmospheric vocal middle act that lets the drummer take on the craziness instead.  In other words, there would be a noticeable improvement in the album if a couple of the shorter tracks were left out, even if those shorter tracks are still nice to hear, and I suppose you could take two or three minutes off of Ebbing.

But I guess what you guys really want to hear about is the 43-minute monster knows as The Beggar Lover (Three)?  Well, it takes all the mystique that you expect from an experimental post-rock album like this, but with less rock.  The ambient, drone, electronic influences as doing whatever the hell they want at a fairly slow pace, combining to keep things really freakin' creepy and unpredictable while Gira croons, groans and growls on and off to spice it up.  But about twelve minutes in, it becomes a rock song, acting very deep, mysterious and a little bluesy as the bass kicks in.  I'm certain a million people have said this about one song or another, but I'm gonna take my turn: it's like being sucked into the Twilight Zone.  Literally.  I found myself hypnotically head-bopping to this, and it didn't even have an actual melody.  Afterwards, the kind of drone-rock you'd expect from a good Boris album lets the atmosphere take over as this hypnotic bluesy beat merges with a serene but harsh reverb with the intensity of a twister.  Halfway through it becomes a vocal harmonization lead by Jarboe with some deeper male vocals barely heard in the background holding a single not, keeping the atmosphere original through its hypnotic monotony.  But then it twists itself into a collection of electronic beeps that would make Plastic Neesound proud.  In other words, for the entire 40 minutes you're not sure what's gonna happen next, and one has to keep listening to know what.  It's almost as if the 43-minute track is mocking everything Swans did before, taking everything they've done and more and mishmashing it into something built for a lot of conversations on the internet.  Hell, wait until you get to the kid.

Now part of the reason Swans have lasted so long and been so well-received over the last 40 years is because they built themselves on new directions.  When one was tired, they'd switch to the next.  For the last five albums they've tackled dark post-rock, with the exception of Leaving Meaning, which was lighter and less weird.  It seems like this is a new, more hopeful direction for them.  It may not be as dark, and it might draw out sometimes, but it never stops being "magical."  I appreciate the new direction, and I'm guessing Leaving Meaning was a practice album for this.  The Beggar may turn out to be a predecessor to something timeless.  I could be wrong on that, but I'm behind this well-constructed new look on the 80's experimental band.  It's not QUITE cream of the crop Swans, but this is currently my number 1 of the year until I find something better.  And considering we get at least one perfectly made album a year IMO with so many coming out, that's very likely.

96/100.  In the same league with Curtis by Curtis Mayfield, Crimson by Edge of Sanity, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road by Lucinda Williams and RTJ3.

Bram Stoker's Dracula - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1992)

This was a birthday gift from my appropriately named cats Vlad and Mina.  Each year , my wife challenges herself to buy me one vinyl record that she thinks I will like. Before now I have ended up with Asphyx records, ambient Nordic albums and now a movie soundtrack.  She has been spot on with each release and this one keeps her golden run going.  Dramatic and theatrical with a constant sense of underlying tension and darkness.  Might get round to watching the movie at some point.

I absolutely love that soundtrack Vinny. I would have bought it on CD shortly after release & it's stayed with me ever since.

This afternoon's listening while doing puzzles with my four year old daughter:

Lowlife - "Permanent Sleep" (1986)

English post-punk.

Killing Joke - "Night Time" (1985)

Post-punk/gothic rock from London, England.

Jane's Addiction - "Nothing's Shocking" (1988)

Despite being thoroughly infatuated with extreme metal, I've always been open to all types of music, even from quite a young age. Evidence of this can be seen in my deep emotional attachment to the first couple of albums from this Los Angeles alternative rock outfit. I first discovered Jane's Addiction through their 1990 sophomore record "Ritual de lo habitual" shortly after release & worked my way backwards to their debut studio album "Nothing's Shocking" as well as their self-titled 1987 live album. "Ritual de lo habitual" is the undisputed high point of their career but "Nothing's Shocking" is still a wonderful listen in it's own right. It's certainly not as consistent as it's younger sibling but there's a crap-tonne of variation & the highlights are truly magical.

I've recently seen "Nothing's Shocking" being claimed as an alternative metal release at other online resources but that's pushing the friendship way further than it can sustain in my opinion because metal only makes a small contribution to the album with the rock component outweighing it by a significant margin. When they do get their metal on Perry Farrell & co manage to create a vital & hard-edged sound that may well have provided some influence for a band like Tool. At other times you can expect everything from a fairly unintimidating brand of alternative rock that sounds like it was the inspiration for bands like Spin Doctors & Blind Melon to ambitious psychedelic & acoustic rock outings that bring to mind Led Zeppelin's more experimental mid-70's records to funk-infused alternative groovers similar to what Living Colour were doing at the time to intense & dangerous hard rockers ala Guns 'n' Roses. There's certainly a couple of misses (see the disposable "Standing In The Shower...Thinking" & "Thank You Boys") but the hits confront you with the power of ten zillion jet engines, leaving the most inspired tracks like "Up The Beach", "Ted, Just Admit It" & particularly "Summertime Rolls" & "Mountain Song" sitting amongst my favourite memories of being 14 & 15 years old. I tend to go for the heavier & more stripped back & atmospheric tracks at either end of the spectrum the most but if you're in any way inclined towards late 80's/early 90's alternative rock & grunge then I'd encourage you to check out "Nothing's Shocking".

4/5

Echo & the Bunnymen - "Heaven Up Here" (1981)

Post-punk/gothic rock from Liverpool, England.

Echo & the Bunnymen - "Heaven Up Here" (1981)

Post-punk/gothic rock from Liverpool, England.

That's a good one from what I remember.  EatB had a good hotstreak in their early days.

I'm going through another day where I blow through a bunch of short vaporwave albums.  Today I'm gonna focus on Vito Genovese and his many aliases.

A couple of releases that got an airing while cleaning the house yesterday:

BUCK-TICK - "十三階は月光 (Juusankai wa gekkou)" (2005)

Alternative/gothic rock from the Japanese visual kei movement.

Bodychoke - "Cold River Songs" (1998)

Noise/post/gothic rock from London, England.

Minnie Riperton - Perfect Angel

Considering that this is a follow up to one of the greatest soul albums ever, and is largely helmed by Stevie Wonder, I had super high hopes for it.  But while it's catchy and you can catch everything, the whole album feels overwritten, as if they tried too hard to make a good follow-up, and Riperton's rhythms don't really "mold" with the instruments, especially since she's relying to hard on her signature squeal in fairly inappropriate places.  Still, it has a better atmosphere and overall presence that most soul albums.  The whole album is taking the very idea of creativity very seriously, and the album';s largely consistent.  Still, it has its noticeable spots.

7.5/10.

Daft Punk - Alive 2007

I was in the middle of composing my Top 100 Albums Topster chart, and noticed near the end that Discovery was still there.  I had heard all the others recently enough to remember well, but how well did I remember that one?  After playing some of it, I immediately came to a not-so-exact but similar conclusion I eventually came to with Def Leppard's Hysteria in my earlier album-ventures: Why should I consider the album perfect if it has such a weak finale like Love and Affection?  Why shouldn't the same be said for an intro song as repetitive, simple and over-emulated like One More Time?  The quality shift between that and Aerodynamics was so high that it hurt.  So I got through some more of it and remembered enough to lower my rating down to a 9.5.  But then I went back to the live album, and I have very different feelings.  It's much better than last time.  This album doesn't feel like a pop-version of a house album; it feels like a real party with lots of mashup creativity.  Alive 2007 basically cranked up all of Discovery's 10/10 elements to 11, even when being lengthy.  Thankfully, it didn't overuse the rhythm of One More Time because it was mashed with Aerodynamics in what was still a weaker track but still very funky.  And the fun of it is that Daft Punk build themselves on experimenting with catchy melodies through funk, pop, techno, disco, industrial and trance.  These guys KNOW how to make people dance.  Too bad I'm a little too tired for that right now.

Also, if you're a real EDM fan and you're on Youtube, you'll listen to that bonus disc and end the experience with that ten minute mashup.  So if you're a serious house fan, I know for a fact that this album is for you.  There's a lot to love about it, even for people who don't want their songs repetitive, which Daft Punk seems to rock better than most due to sheer club charisma.

Not the most educated in house just yet, but based on what I've experienced, I'm gonna give this a 100.

I'm gonna see what the buzz about Pentatonix is about.  Anthony Vincent uses them in his Ten Second Songs a lot.  I started with the first hristmas album, and was completely taken by surprise by the appearance of that Fleet Foxes cover.

Anyway, so far it's just a cheesy a capella album.

Oneohtrix Point Never - "Replica" (2011)

The most highly celebrated work from this Massachusetts electronic/ambient producer.

Grouper - "A I A: Alien Observer" (2011)

The sixth album from this talented Californian ambient producer.

George Clanton - Ooh I Rap Ya

It's supposed to be the internet's hottest album for the time being.  But even though that Animal Collective-esque vibe is as pretty as a jewelry shop, I can't fully get past the decision to give all these songs very similar tempos.  It has a plethora of atmospheric strengths, cleverly using its various sound effects and melodies to maximum effect, but on the 0-10 scale, this one flaw keeps it from being perfect.  We'll see how it goes once I finish it.

HEALTH - Disco4+

Been playing a lot of HEALTH this past couple of days.  Probably my latest favourite new discovery.  Lots of collabs going on with artists I know well - Perturbator, Full of Hell, NiN and Chino Moreno, however there's also lots of artists and genres on the Disco4 series that I am eager to learn about based on this experience (Nolife, Brothel, Soccer Mommy and The Body)

Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want to Turn Into You (2023)

Genres: Art Pop, Alt-Pop, Electronic

First, let me say that for a female-fronted alt-pop album, this is one of the COOLEST things I've ever listened to.  The whole album, even in its incredible variety, maintains a deep, soulful and hypnotic mood of chill like I've never heard before.  And this variety is carefully strutting like a smooth criminal all over the pop world with both acoustic and electronic genres carefully working together and taking turns in the focal points.  It's like Lorde overdosed on Portishead and got a member of Celtic Woman to sing it.  Just listen to Crude Drawing of an Angel.  There's a Lynchian vibe about it that just captivates the listener.  This lady obviously listened to Julee Cruise and Enya, and the influence did its job.  The album even has a couple worldbeat touches scattered throughout, as we have faint African undertones and even a flamenco song. 

As an example of the cool vibe, let me point out which, might surprisingly, even be one of the worse songs on the album (and that's a hard thing to judge).  Bunny Is a Rider is all about that unique and quirky percussion, justifying the lack of real instrumental melody in a rare and clever way that never gets in the way of its effortlessly and overpoweringly "cool girl" mood.  That percussion and the backing effects work together perfectly to bring me the surprises and consistency I demand.  Of course, before anything, this "pop" album is largely an atmosphere album.  This is proven by what may be the single worst track on the album, although its merits are five-star strong: Fly to You.  The instruments have no melody, and rely on reverb and Polachek's vocals to drive it.  However, I won't judge Fly to You as a blotch on the album, as its strong points are very strong, and we've had our share of melody-based songs and a percussion-focused track already.  Besides, immediately after this song is one of the best tracks: Blood and Butter, a folktronica song with both melody and great percussion tricks.

One more thing I have to mention is that Polachek is a vocal genius.  Her deep, new age voice can go into impressively high territory, and she really knows how to carry her voice in an atmospheric and lightly operatic way.  There are backing vocals that work very well with her, but she still manages to outshine them all.  Although it must be noted that her vocals tend to take over a lot, but I think that's actually fine considering that, while I would normally be bothered by that, the mood, instrumentation and atmosphere are made incredible because of her perfect voice.  In fact, one would say that because of the handling of these elements, the album is extremely unique despite its pop and electronic genres that it tweaks and rearranges so often.

So this is an album that may be really hard to get into, like Kid A for the best example I can think of, but I think it's totally worth it.  This album gives me everything I ask for in an album, variety, consistency and new tricks, while justifying elements that would likely be flaws if someone else had attempted it.  This is like Portishead meets Radiohead meets Enya, except this one album beats them all, and I hold all three in high regard.  One must remember that the vocals are considered an instrument this time, as well as the auto-tune, and are leading the melody with the instruments, even when percussion is the main focus of the instruments.  This is an album I will return to with no questions asked.  It's some of the most fun I've ever had with the surreal side of music, especially with pop.  It took more than half of the year, and I avoided alt-pop for reasons pertaining to awareness of alt-pop's radio-friendly reliance, but I dived into it again and I finally found my "perfect" album for the year.  It's my firm belief that with so many albums out every year, at least one of them has to be perfect, or at least there has to be at least one that I can consider perfect.  This is it.

10/10.

Tim Hecker - "Virgins" (2013)

Many of you would probably be aware that I'm a big fan of ambient music but if there's one artist that I've always struggled with it's Canada's Tim Hecker. His music just doesn't seem to gel with me & this revisit hasn't managed to enlighten me on what it is that I'm missing either. Tim's vision simply isn't musical enough for my liking, instead opting for noise & experimental noodling where I struggle to grab onto anything of worth. "Virgins" is arguably his most well-known release these days but I'm afraid it's not for me.

Stars of the Lid - "And Their Refinement of the Decline" (2007)

After struggling with the Tim Hecker record I was left feeling that my ambient itch had been left unscratched so I reached for a sure-fire winner from one of the true gods of the genre. Marvelous stuff!

I really love the variety and production here, as well as Lil Ugly Mane's various rapping tricks.  But I do have ONE problem with it so far: many of these songs aren't really changing or progressing despite the variety of the album as a whole.

Dave Lombardo - Rites of Percussion (2023)

Not my normal bag, in fact I would go as far as to say that the prospect of an entirely percussive record would normally sound dull as fuck, however it turns out there's more to this than just Lombardo showboating his skills.  There are some hints at ambient textures and the creation of atmospheres undertaken along the way also.  The album never quite falls into predictable tribal beats although he most certainly is embracing many elements of world music in his exploration and experimentation.  It does not sound like a guy just cocking around on his selection of drums either.  Although I suspect the album is not 100% composed pieces there is no obvious shabbiness to proceedings.  If anyone has any lingering doubts that Lombardo was only good when he was in Slayer then (should their mind allow) this record will dispel such illusions as his creativity is obvious throughout Rites of Percussion. Forget the blistering performances of his thrash heyday, this is beyond that and more than worth a quick listen through at just 35 mins long.

Biosphere - "Substrata" (1997)

A stunning ambient work from Norway. One of my favourite records.

Blood Ceremony - The Old Ways Remain (2023)

It has been fully seven years since Blood Ceremony's previous album, Lord of Misrule, was released back in March of 2016. That release showed them moving away from their heavier, doomy sound, towards a more psychedelic, style that was a little lighter in tone than their previous material, whilst still maintaining a connection for their original fanbase, amongst which I count myself. The Old Ways Remain finds the Canadians stepping even further away from their doom metal side and completely embracing a lighter, bouncier and, dare I say, poppier sound. Having been a huge fan of the band since their earliest days, after the very first listen I was exceedingly disappointed by TOWR and it's direction. Subsequent listens have seen me walk back my opinion a little, but I have still got to say upfront that this is probably my least favourite Blood Ceremony release.  Now don't misunderstand, there is still a fair bit I enjoyed here, but this is Blood Ceremony and my expectations for one of my favourite bands is much higher than for many others.

Not everything is doom and gloom however, in particular the contributions from a couple of guests are definitely worth mentioning. Joseph Shabason's saxophone on third track, Eugenie, provides one of the album's highlights and Laura Bates of ambient folk doom band Völur provides fiddle on the album's best track, The Bonfires at Belloc Coombe and the penultimate Mossy Woods, that gives both tracks a folksy, Appalachian feel. Alia O'Brien dominates proceedings though, with her distinctive vocals and her flute providing most of the soloing, she towers over Blood Ceremony in a similar way that Ian Anderson does in Jethro Tull and is the main point of focus for the band. On the downside there are a couple of absolute duds, which is something I thought I would never say about a Blood Ceremony track, but Powers of Darkness is a bit of a mess and Hecate is majorly dull and overtly poppy-sounding.

Ultimately I would have to say that The Old Ways Remain is a bit of a letdown for me personally and whilst still retaining a fair bit of Blood Ceremony's basic DNA, the band seem to be pursuing a more commercial direction which is also as likely to alienate long-term fans of the band.

3.5/5

Harold Budd - "The Pavilion of Dreams" (1978)

Revisited the sophomore album from this Californian ambient legend this morning while playing with the kids on a lovely Gold Coast morning. This really is the best place in the world to live.

Global Communication - "76:14" (1994)

Seriously brilliant ambient/chillout from Somerset, England. An all-time favourite of mine over many decades now.