Category: Reviews

Review: Dion Lunadon – Systems Edge

The cover of Dion Lunadon‘s new album, Systems Edge, shows him holding a chain above a guitar. My guess is that he was just about to flog that guitar within an inch of its life with it, because that kind of (yes, Stooges-influenced) raw power is all over the record.

Opening track “Secrets” has him already pounding out raggedy, roaring chords with it, and on “Nikki” it sounds like the bellows of a robotic lion. The thick bass notes punch up the rock even more. It’s a song about a fling that ends in tragedy for at least one person involved, and maybe pleasure for another. “Diamond Sea” has a groovy surf-rock line that runs through it.

“I Walk Away” is, somehow, heavier and darker than everything before it, and Lunadon’s vocals are like a werewolf belting out a tune during transformation. “Rocks On” reminds me of “Mongoloid-era” Devo tracks where you have all kinds of fuzz and some sort of something that feels like it can erupt into full-blown chaos at any moment.

The bass and drums on “Shockwave” hit you like the song’s namesake. “Grind Me Down” has a New York Dolls feel to it with its swagger and garage rock guitars. After the brief instrumental of “Straight Down the Middle,” we get the great dis track, “I Don’t Mind,” in which Lunadon writes off an ex-lover / friend because they only bring him bad luck and headaches. The album closes with the near-doom heavy-psych of “Room with No View,” which sounds like Lunadon is playing his guitar with a lit sparkler he got at a dusty roadside fireworks stand.

For me, the coolest thing about Systems Edge is that Lunadon made a pure rock record. It’s heavy garage rock, to be certain, but it’s nice to hear a rock record that embraces and flaunts the power of distorted, fuzzed, dangerous rock. We don’t have enough rock records that feel at least a bit threatening. Thankfully, Lunadon is here to snarl and growl and shake up the room.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Dion!]

Review: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – The Silver Cord

One of the best things about King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard is that you never know what you’re going to get from album to album with them. It could be alt-folk, a psychedelic freakout, microtonal shredding, thrash metal, or, in the case of The Silver Cord – an album of synth music.

The album has the band diving headlong into their not-so-secret love of synthwave, EDM, rap, and krautrock, starting with the uplifting “Theia” – a song about how we are drifting on silver cords that attach us to ethereal planes we can’t describe but sometimes catch glimpses of now and then. It’s instantly catchy and uplifting, with all the synths and electronic beats rising us up to the natural follow-up of the title track – a beautiful track about birth, death, and rebirth. “Set” is about the wicked Egyptian god (and Egyptology and mythology is all over this record, which delights me to no end) and has a cool rave beat throughout it.

“Chang’e” has the band singing about a goddess of dreams and builds from almost an ambient track into a full-blown dance cut in perhaps the loveliest moment on the record. “Gilgamesh” brings techno-Viking beats to the classic tale of the eternal hero. “Swan Song” uses industrial beats to encourage us to cut the cords that bind us to our attachments and egos and “Go explore. Be untethered. Be unequalled. Grab the sword. Be emperor. Be yourself. Be an orb. Be your spirit. Don’t fear it.”

The closing track, “Extinction,” tackles one of KGATLW’s favorite topics – the destruction of the Earth by mankind’s idiocy and greed. There are hints of “Crumbling Castle” in the beats and lyrics (“Castles crumble with a groan.”) as well. The album ends on an encouraging note, however, as they sing, “I can see everything. I can be in the music.”

So can all of us.

As if The Silver Cord isn’t good enough, and a cool enough project from KGATLW, the band also released an extended version of the record in which they explore long-form synth-jams and add further lyrics to delve further into the album’s themes of death, reincarnation, the afterlife, and enlightenment. The shortest track on the extended version is the ten-minute and eighteen-second-long version of “Set.” The longest is the extended mix of “Theia,” which is just over twenty minutes. All the extended mixes are excellent, and some could be dropped into a DJ set without trouble.

This makes the second excellent album KGATLW have released this year, the first being the epic thrash metal album PetroDragonic Apocalypse: or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation. To go from that to The Silver Cord is a stunning accomplishment that few other bands could pull off and make look easy.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Big Miz – Where I Belong EP

Hailing from Glasgow, Big Miz put in the work behind the decks at at local clubs to build not only his skills but a thriving EDM community there. His first EP for the HOMAGE label, Where I Belong, is a good introduction to his music.

The title track gets it off to a great start with shining beats and bass hits that make you move whether you want to or not. “Everything’s Fine” uses vocal samples to neat effects, and “The Feeling” is a song about getting back to the dance floors and the clubs after we all had to dance in our living rooms during the pandemic (“We gotta bring back that feeling. Yeah, you know the one I’m talking about. That feeling that’s been gone…for way too long.”). Its slick beats will make you want to rush out to the nearest club.

The EP ends with a nice remix of the title track by LUXE that brings up the lush but doesn’t skim on the thumps.

It’s a sharp EP, and every track is solid. Don’t skip it.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Harbour Music Society.]

Review – Augustus Muller – Cellulosed Bodies

Diving further into his love / obsession with 1980s horror / thriller synthwave music, Boy Harsher‘s Augustus Muller teamed up with artist / kinky movie maker Vex Ashley of Four Chambers to create two films scores – one to a film that already existed and another to one that is new, and both of which explore the sexual relationship between humans and technology on the album Cellulosed Bodies.

The first half is a tribute to David Cronenberg‘s 1996 film Crash – in which the main characters are turned on by car crashes. Muller’s six-song “score” to the film (originally done by Howard Shore). “Fur and Metal” slowly takes us into this new, weird world of strange pleasures and soon we’re “Sharing a Smoke,” but how much of it is from a cigarette and how much is from burned wreckage along a dark road? Muller’s use of synths throughout the six tracks are at times haunting and other times throbbing like the pulse in your neck after something stressful and / or sensual. “Perverse Technology” is a perfect example of this, as somewhat creepy synths rise and fall like a lover’s chest taking deep breaths to maintain control while the beats mimic the twitchy brain impulses to seize pleasure now instead of making it last as long as possible. “Body as Machine” sums up the theme of the album’s first half (and Cronenberg’s film) in the title and in the grinding, pulsating synth-beats, and “Shattered Glass” ends the first half with something that isn’t quite afterglow, but more “after-shadow.”

The second half is Muller’s score to Ashley’s film Automaton – which, according to the liner notes, “…features a severe computer entity and trapped prey, succumbing to pleasure…” Reading that, and then hearing the ten tracks that follow, you think, “Yeah, that sounds about right.” The tracks featuring fewer beats, but more experimentation – again the theme of exploring new pleasures that at first might seem frightening – such as “Initialize,” “Next Subject,” and “Endoscopy.” “Examination” uses some subtle industrial clangs for beats, but they never overwhelm the track. “Acceptance” has the “trapped prey” accepting its pleasurable fate (or is the computer accepting it?). I’m guessing it’s the former, because the next track is “You Belong to the Machine” – which builds with a slow menace like a snake that’s been released into a dark room.

“Observation” sounds and feels like the evil / sexy computer is watching its prey / lover from a drone that rises and falls like a hawk drifting on warm wind. “Stretching / Invading” is about…well, I think you can guess. “Who Is in Control” can be taken in multiple ways. It’s the question in a BDSM relationship. On the surface, the computer in Ashley’s tale is in control, but what would it be without its lover? The computer needs the lover to achieve some kind of feeling. The second half of Cellulosed Bodies ends with “Subdue Yourself” – the only track with vocals (from dominatrix Miss Marilyn) – on a whispering aftercare note.

It’s a strange, lovely, sexy record, and one of the more intriguing releases of the year.

Keep your mind open.

NSFW!

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[Thanks to Ahmad at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Ki Oni – A Leisurely Swim to Everlasting Life

Well, this is beautiful.

Ki Oni (Chuck Soo-Hoo) set out to create an ambient album about spirits transitioning from life to death, perhaps wandering the world for a while, and eventually floating into something we here on this side of the veil can’t quite yet fathom. He not only succeeded in doing it, he excelled at it with A Leisurely Swim to Everlasting Life.

It’s difficult to describe how gorgeous this album is. It’s at times lush and other times as subtle as a whisper. Nothing is rushed across its five tracks. The shortest one, opening track “An Infinite Dive,” is fifteen minutes and twelve seconds long. “Floating in a Stream of Consciousness” is perfectly titled, as it’s a collection of the sounds your brain is trying get you to hear as you remain in the eternal present, but you’re always too busy or worried to pause and observe all this amazing creation coexisting with you.

According to the press release I got for this album, “Reincarnation at the End of the World” has Soo-Hoo wondering, “With everything going on in the world –– and if reincarnation is real, where would a spirit go if the world ended suddenly? What would that sound like? Would it continue to float on this deteriorated earth until new life begins or would it float forever into the abyss?”

It’s an intriguing question, and my answer is that we’ll be free from worry wherever we are. Soo-Hoo’s synths, field recordings, and loops emulate a blissful ghost drifting here and there, no cares, no stress, no extraneous thoughts…just calm bliss.

“My Grandmother’s Garden” is a lovely tribute to Soo-Hoo’s late grandmother and the days he used to spend as a child swimming in her pool and eating food she’d grown. “To Wander Beyond the Aquatic Center” ends the record with a song perfect for the cover image of a true infinity pool stretching out into a misty pink sky as birds soar overhead. We should all hope to hear something this lovely as we go into sleep, whether for a night or forever.

This album, this leisurely swim, is something we all need from time to time. We need to immerse ourselves in the present and reconnect with the beauty that is right there calling to us and being enjoyed by those who have gone before and will greet us after we come up from our dive in the pool.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Mark at Clandestine Label Services.]

Review: Cavaran – Nights at Josan

Returning after three years since their last album, Belgium’s Cavaran remind us that stoner / desert rock is alive and well in Europe with their new album, Nights at Josan.

I don’t know where Josan is. The cover makes it appear to be some sort of Southwestern U.S. ghost town. As far as I can tell, there are only five places named Josan in the world, and none of them are in the United States. They’re in North and South Korea, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Croatia. Of course, it could just be a cool place Caravan made up, or visited while shredding riffs that became out-of-body experience – because there are plenty of those on this record.

“It Gives” revs up the motor of your dust-covered motorcycle and launches you down a highway that stretches across mountains and seemingly upward into the sky. Patrick Van Der Haegen‘s bass on “Dying Whales” is the sound of giant marine mammal hearts. “Bad Roads and Mountains” is a stand-out with Lieven Tronckoe‘s metal guitar riffs leading the charge.

“Way Down Low” sends your motorcycle ride down a steep hill and into a dark, possibly werewolf-infested valley, and then “Snail Horns” has you swinging a chain at those same monsters as you blast down the main street of their creepy town. It is anything but slow like a snail. “Storm” is a banger. The groove on it is undeniable and hooks you right away. Your desert road heads into a thunderstorm that will either refresh you or pummel you, possibly both.

“Strawberry Butt” might have a silly title, but it might also be the hardest-hitting track on the album. Everything about it slams into you like hot wind coming down from a sacred mountain. “Black Trip” is a great groover that shows off Gert D’hondt‘s dexterity on a drum kit, and “Bullface” is a great way to close the record – as it practically launches you off a cliff like Evel Knievel over Snake River Canyon. The whole band clicks like a well-tuned engine and leaves you with wind-blown hair and sand-blasted skin.

Again, I don’t know where Josan is, but I want to visit there. You will, too, after hearing this.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Polder Records!]

Review: Art Feynman – Be Good the Crazy Boys

Recording for the first time with a full band, Art Feynman (Luke Temple) took on new energy after relocating to Los Angeles from northern California and decided to create a record that dives into why he, and so many of us, have a fear of missing out (FOMO) and not a joy of missing out.

“Early Signs of Rhythm” bumps and clicks with Talking Heads-like beats, and they are a fully acknowledged inspiration on the album. Temple sounds like he’s looking for signs of true fun in a world that pushes false narratives of what joy really is as he spots a woman so lovely she can melt the frozen ground. Shane McKillop‘s bass on “In CD” is great, pushing the song into a happy mania. The post-punk paranoia of “Therapy at 3pm” is delightfully catchy.

“All I Can Do” has Temple singing about how he’s barely getting by at the rat race runs all around him. Kosta Galanopoulos‘ drums on it are razor sharp and the secret weapon of the whole track. “He Dances” might as well be called “You Dance,” because McKillop puts down a Barney Miller theme-like bass lick and the next thing you know you’re at least tapping your toes and nodding your head in his rhythm.

“Don’t have light to burn,” Temple sings on “Passed Over” – but he might actually be singing “Don’t have life to burn.” Both lyrics fall into the FOMO theme of the record, and the beats encourage us to dance before the end of the night, or our lives, gets here. “Chasing My Life” has Temple trying to catch up with something he can’t define. He likens it to a precious diamond he’s searching for in the dark. It’s the struggle of the ego, an ultimately fruitless task we all stumble into now and then. You can’t help but think he’ll find it, however, as the song is so peppy you end up cheering for him.

By the time we get to “Desperately Free,” Temple is worried about how he’s going to adapt to leaving his ego behind (“Desperately free, I don’t wanna be.”) or how he’s still trapped in FOMO and choice paralysis. The closer, “I Do,” brings us back to Temple’s love of Talking Heads with its simple beats, chimes, keyboard chords, and lyrics about love, hope, and release from stress that’s ours for the taking if we’ll just reach for it.

Reach for this album as well. It’s worth your time.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: The Serfs – Half Eaten By Dogs

In case you weren’t aware, Cincinnati has a growing underground synth scene, and The Serfs (Dakota Carlyle, Andie Luman, and Dylan McCartney) might be leading it if their new album, Half Eaten By Dogs, has anything to say about it.

Opening track “Order Imposing Sentence” has the band chanting / singing, “I can’t remember anything.” at one point as hot grease fire synths burn up everything around them. “Cheap Chrome” thumps with old racing video game beats. “Suspension Bridge Collapse” has echoing vocals that are difficult to decipher, but I think that’s the point, and the synths sound like they were pulled out of a burning garage and played while partially melted.

“Beat Me Down” has guitar rock riffs that simultaneously remind me of early Rolling Stones and The Go-Go’s. The haunting saxophone (by Eric Dietrich) on “Spectral Analysis” almost makes it sound like you’re listening to two different records (one goth-synth, the other 1980s Japanese city pop) at the same time.

“Club Deuce” is your new favorite goth dance club track, complete with frottage-inducing synth-bass and sexy vocals that practically light your clove cigarette for you. The harmonica on “Electric Like an Eel” is something The The might’ve done if they’d gone more industrial. I love the mix of electronic percussion and keyboards on this track, and the bass on it is a trippy hum.

“Ending of the Stream” brings The Velvet Underground and The Vacant Lots immediately to mind with its tribal drumming and vocals that sound like they’re sung by someone who just emerged from a sweat lodge. The bass riff on “The Dice Man Will Come” is as intriguing as the song’s title. Who is the Dice Man? I doubt it’s an Andrew “Dice” Clay reference. Or are The Serfs saying that mankind will become dice, being cast about for random purposes and producing random results? It’s probably something like that. It’s difficult to figure out while you’re mesmerized by the twitchy guitars and shimmering synths. The liner notes I received for this album described the closing track, “Mocking Laughter,” as sounding like “an end credits sequence.” I can’t put it better than that. It’s perfect. The synths, simple programmed beats, and echoing / fading vocals practically have The Serfs bowing as they walk backwards out of a room.

This is a solid record from beginning to end, and a welcome blast of coldwave perfect for the coming winter.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: The Hives – The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons

Returning after eleven years when we needed them most, The Hives emerged from their Swedish tombs and brought us The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons to remind us that they are one of the fiercest rock bands on the planet.

The album starts off like a pipe bomb exploding with “Bogus Operandi” – a powerful, strutting rocker, and then takes off like the Road Runner on “Trapdoor Solution,” which proves that The Hives have lost none of their punk rock flair since their first album. “Countdown to Shutdown” shows off the heavy bass of newest member The Johan and Only as the band sticks their fingers in the eyes of 1%ers.

“Rigor Mortis Radio” has lead singer Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist letting everyone know he has no time for bullshit (“I got your e-mails say you’re warnin’ me. I got your e-mails. Delete, delete.”). “Stick Up” sounds like it has some New Orleans blues influence to it, which shouldn’t surprise us considering the frequent themes of death throughout the album. “Smoke & Mirrors” skewers illusions, and “Crash into the Weekend” has great handclap percussion that gets you fired up for that party, concert, or roadtrip you’ve been craving all week.

“Two Kinds of Trouble” has that distinctive Hives swagger, as does “The Way the Story Goes.” Nicholaus Arson‘s guitar work on “The Way the Story Goes” is especially fuzzy and gritty, which means it sounds great. “The Bomb” lets us all know that we’re all going out to party with The Hives and none of us are going home until we’re done getting down. Chris Dangerous‘ drums on it are flat-out frantic.

“What Did I Ever Do to You?” brings in programmed drums and spaghetti western guitar to a song in which Almqvist sings about just wanting to chill while some random dude goes off on a rant and blames him for everything. The album ends with “Step Out of the Way,” which could be a gauntlet thrown down to younger bands trying to emulate The Hives. Just get out of the way, young’un. You’re likely to be trampled by The Hives’ spotless dress shoes as they head into the club for the sole purpose of leveling it to the ground.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: CHAI – self-titled

I don’t know what’s happening on the cover of CHAI‘s self-titled album, but it looks like they’re having a blast. My guess is that it’s them portraying their fans as they cheer on themselves at a rock show. CHAI are all about self-expression and being true to who you are, so why shouldn’t they love themselves? Isn’t that a goal we all want to achieve?

I’ve been a fan of CHAI since their debut album, and they only further cement my love for them by putting out a song called “MATCHA” (one of my favorite drinks) to start their newest record. It has the slip and slide of an R&B slow jam as they sing about drinking tea and taking time to enjoy it. “From 1992” has a delightful beat that probably inspires synchronized handclaps and dancing by their audience.

“PARA PARA” (a song about a popular dance in Japan) is a perfect mellow jam for summer pool parties or rollerblading along a beach. “I’m ready to rejoice,” they sing on “GAME” – a peppy dance track with synth-bass that sounds like it was pulled from a 16-bit video game. “We the Female!” is a bumpy, bouncy reminder to ladies everywhere that they rule the world. “Don’t try to be somebody,” they say. Again, stay true to yourself. “We the female. Just love us and listen.”

Yuna‘s drums on “NEO KAWAII, K?” could be dropped into any post-punk album or hip hop record. The song is the band’s philosophy of being cute and worthy of love in your own way, not according to others’ expectations or images of what “cute” is. The blippy, bloopy synths of “I Can’t Organizeeee” reflect the song’s title and the band’s (really, any band’s) hectic schedule. Likewise, “Driving22” is a fun song about something all bands experience – the frequent drudgery of getting from gig to gig without going mad from the boredom of all…that…driving.

Mana‘s synths on “LIKE, I NEED” start off in synthwave land and then move into synth-pop territory without missing a beat. “KARAOKE” closes the album with the band singing about how much fun it is to get goofy with your friends at a karaoke bar.

CHAI’s love of Japanese culture and being modern Japanese women is a running theme throughout the record, thus the self-titling of the album. It’s an album about them, but to which anyone in any country, or any sex or sexual identity, can relate.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]