Reacuring Themes: Music
Instead of writing any honest to goodness reviews—which I’ve noticed tend to get long in the tooth and I really don’t have to time for at the moment—I decided to just let you in on what new(ish) and exciting things I’ve been spinning.
For the record, I think that it is still safe to call it “spinning” since, while not exactly a record, your hard drive does a considerable amount of twirling around to play your music.
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First in the list is a fairly new band, Foxy Shazam, and their indie label debut Introducing Foxy Shazam. I won’t bore you with their biographical details, that’s what wikipedia is for, but I will say that these are some rocking young chaps. Stylistically, they fall into that increasingly popular school of high-energy weirdo idie-pop. Sharing the scene with such acts as The Show is the Rainbow and Zebra Zebra. The most distinct element to their sound is the heavy hitting piano work throughout their songs. Some bands have crushing guitars, others have cool steady drumming, well Foxy Shazam has pianos. Sometimes elegant, mostly heavy, ever constant piano, and I dig it.
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The next album that has been in heavy rotation lately is The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ire Works. Granted, this album came out a few months ago, but I’ve just now gotten into it. This is one of those albums that I dreaded hearing for the first time. Understand that Dillinger’s last album Miss Machine is one of my “Desert Island” albums—you know, you can only take five albums with you, what would you take. So, right off the bat I didn’t think that Ire Works could be as great as their last album. Part of this had to do with their recent roster change. As much as I dig Stolen Babies, I just didn’t think that Gil Sharone could match the insane momentum of Chris Pennie’s drumming. That being said, when I first heard Ire Works I felt under-whelmed and took it off the ol’Pod after a couple listens. It wasn’t until I saw the video for Milk Lizard that I decided to give it another try. Honestly, I’m glad I did. While not as great as Miss Machine, Ire Works is a superb album. It draws inspiration from the bands entire history, blending heavy-tech sounds from Miss Machine with the pure math metal instrumentation of Calculating Infinity. Greg Puciato’s vocals are even more diverse this time around as he fully digresses into gutteral growls and raspy screams. It goes without saying that my two favorite tracks on the album are the most reminiscent of their last album—Black Bubblegum and Milk Lizard both have great beats, dynamic vocals and smart biting lyrics.
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I’ve also been digging on Genghis Tron’s new disc, Board Up the House. There is really little to be said except that this is a truly extraordinary example of noisy tech-metal. The sound is thickly layered and posesses the brash confidence of a band who knows that they do their job exceedingly well. What draws me to Genghis Tron’s work—and this can be said of all their albums that I’ve heard—is the way that they infuse techno/industrial elements into their songs. I get a little excited when I hear the keyboard and obvious use of drum machines smoothly blended into a series of screaming guitars. It might seem minor, but to me this is a big part of what makes Genghis Tron enjoyable compared to the majority of obnoxiously grating noise metal that I come across.
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Which leads me to my final band for the moment, The White Mice. I stumbled across there latest album—released 2.2007—, BLASSSTPHLEGMEICE, and boy howdy I tell you what, these boys ain’t right. This is the kind of sludged up grindcore that makes you feel a little dirty just from listening to it. I have to say that I respect the hell out of the fact that they can create such insanity, and after hearing them I am more intrigued to see their live shows and their bloody discarded lab rat costumes. Granted, I probably can’t say that they will stay on the Pod for very long, but they are worth a listen if only for the experience.
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