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What have you been listening to this week?
What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)
Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.
You can make a chart if you use last.fm:
http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/
Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.
The Gorillaz new track dropped paired with a rehash of their old Kong Studios website. Its good fun. The track itself, its not half bad. Not my favorite track of theirs by a long shot.
For reasons that are probably obvious, I suddenly find myself listening to a lot more punk. Dead Kennedy's to be more specific (some Clash as well). I forgot how good they are. Also, with all of the talk of AI and jobs, Soup is Good Food is more relevant now than ever.
I'm getting through the audiobook version of "Vertigo: The Rise and Fall of Weimar Germany" by Harald Jahre. The feeling that history rhymes is strong while going through the last parts of the book and the future looks a little darker. I highly recommend this book and will be buying the ebook after I return the library loan of the audiobook.
I found a song called 'Dopamine' by Madelline which I enjoyed, but then found out that she has another version, her "split brain" version where they mixed her vocals in both French and English at the same time in different ears, but the music floats independently. I found I really enjoyed this, I felt enveloped in the music. It just felt really nice. Like it feels like if music and the concept of "underwater" was combined into one experience. I'm not sure how to really describe it.
I tried finding other songs that do this or something similar. I found that 'Trampoline' and 'Melt' by SHAED kind of hit a similar feeling, though less. There were a couple of others but none quite like the first song I found.
I then discovered "bilateral" music and ones categorized as 8d, 16d, 32d, etc which is kind of interesting but not quite what I'm looking for. Those more take existing songs and move the whole performance around a virtual stage which does feel neat but it's more "around" and not like I'm physically swimming through it.... I know that probably makes no sense.
In any event, I'm now looking towards trying to find more like it.
Woah! Wild song! I both really liked it and felt like I was losing my fucking mind.
Two things occupying my headspace,
Cabbage's 2017 Young, Dumb, and full of... And Jazz Emu's 2022 Digital Spool
Been a lot of intense metal this week.
I've been locked onto Koloss most often. I think it's Meshugga's best album, and think Meshuggah is perhaps one of the best metal bands to ever do it. They go between stellar lyrics with amazing rhythms, legible harsh vocals, and wild time signatures with a still detectable pulse (Thomas Haake builds usually builds his parts around a 4/4 or 3/4 pulse, giving you something to anchor to as the rest of the music phases around).
Lamb of God's New American Gospel has been getting some rotation, as well. I'm trying to learn the song "Black Label" on guitar because, to me, it's an excellent song on guitar for simplicity, endurance, and form reinforcement. The breakdown is just a chug on an open drop-d string, which really emphasizes relaxing the wrist, but still intricate enough to keep the left hand moving, and require a bit of a careful approach. Of course, driving around, I let the rest of the album play, so I'm listening to it as well, but Black Label is probably my favorite song on the album.
New HEALTH is on the way, so very excited for that. (think crossover between darkwave + shoegaze pop + metal)
Most recent Deftones
Siege Column - Sulphur Omega (war metal)
No Cure - No Cure Straight Edge Die Slow Fuck You (extremely angry hardcore)
Silver - Obsidian Moon Invocation (raw black metal)
Heruvim - Mercator (old school death metal)
Periodeater - Pacing in the Maw of Time (overtly leftist black metal)
Also some of my favorite albums of all time (so repeat recommendations probably at this pt):
Dredg - Catch Without Arms (YT Playlist of Album) - very unique indie/art rock(?) that I've loved for a long time
Dredg - El Cielo (YT Playlist of Album)
Flower Face - Girl Prometheus (singer/songwriter/indie pop)
Now, Now - Saved (singer/songwriter/indie pop)
Haven’t had time to listen all the way through it yet, but I’ve been enjoying Between the Buried and Me’s newest album, “The Blue Nowhere,” which dropped today. It’s just more BTBAM, and I mean that in a good way!
Edit: figured I’d tag on some extra info - I’d ostensibly describe Between the Buried and Me as “progressive death metal” but that’s really reductive. They pull from whatever genre suits their needs for any given tune. It’s still firmly rooted in a proggy sound, but it’s entirely in the realm of possibility for a song to segue from a crushing breakdown straight into a blues jam, twangy strings and everything, then into something that sounds like a pop anthem, and right back into some nasty crunchy metal to top it off. It’s never too disparate though, IMO—there’s still a sense of cohesion through all their material, it doesn’t feel random.
I always thought Between the Buried and Me was just a death metal band. I looked them up after your description and WTF'd hard, I had no idea they were a progressive deathmetal band (emphasis on progressive). I also found a video of Paul Water chick'n pick'n, so any band that does that gets a couple extra points in my book (I got the technique from Brent Hinds, RIP, but it definitely adds a unique sound, especially in high gain).
Would you say "The Blue Nowhere" is a good start for them?
I’m so happy to help you discover that! But also oh jeez, that’s a near-impossible question to answer haha. I haven’t listened to the back half of “The Blue Nowhere” album, so I can’t tell you for sure either way on that one yet. Really enjoyed what I’ve heard so far, and I’m sure you’d appreciate its progginess either way.
I’ve been listening along with their discography in real time since ~2005 when I was still in HS so my journey with them is somewhat hard to emulate retroactively! I will say that their sound has gotten less metal and more proggy over time, but it certainly wasn’t an Opeth-level pivot. It was like they used to be 60-40 and now they’re 40-60 if that makes sense. So, if you’re excited about their sound being more progressive sounding, probably the newer the better.
If I was forced to rank their albums, I’d probably go as follows—do note that this is VERY much gut, as I haven’t listened to their full discography in years, and also acknowledging that I definitely prefer a more metal sound than straight prog:
(Not ranking TBN yet)
I love all of their albums, to be clear—calling an album “their worst” is like acknowledging the slowest Olympian in an event. Silent Circus and their ST album are their two oldest, and the band’s lineup was different. They were almost grindcore-adjacent at that time (but still proggy).
I don't think I ever said anything but I always wondered if your name was a reference to BTBAM's Shevanel Cut A Flip
It is :) I use it as my username whenever I’m able, but I usually show up to sites too late and it’s taken. But not this time!!
I haven't listened to The Blue Nowhere yet either but personally I have a hard time getting into their older stuff, and like their newer stuff. The Proverbial Bellow and Voice of Trespass from Automata II are my favourites, but there are also a lot of cool songs on Colors II.
Possibly the least sexy answer but Lofi girl! Great counter point to chaotic work life.
So far it's been a toss up between the new Deftones album, Private Music, random Primus selections, a revisit of Rammstien's first three records, and the remaster of The Smashing Pumpkin's Machina I. I have also caught up with the new Coheed and BTBAM singles which I just found about a couple days ago.
Some old Godsmack, Keep Away, thanks for the most recent episode of