The reggae that Satori plays starts off from the first kick of the drums. “Celebration” is a slow-tempo track that really hides a barely-masked intensity, created most by the bass and horns on the track. The slower tempo of the disc allows the technicality of the band to shine through properly, but there is no driving beat in the first section of the disc that really makes people want to…
Putting together a little bit of Fiona Apple with Diamanda Galas for eir first track, “Own Skin”, the Spartan nature of the track works to accentuate the vocal inflection of Sarah. Going back to the watering-hole for the second track, “Sweet Candlelight”, albeit with a R&B-infused bassline, Brindell seems similar to Leah Zicari in eir seamless ability to move through genres. If I recall, Zicari’s album started off in much…
Striking about this disc is the great recording that marks this, a live show. Everything that surrounds Brindell sounds studio, with the only minor weakness comes with some of the ancillary instruments, which do sound somewhat live. What is interesting about this disc is the fact that Brindell’s own brand of vocals mesh in only the most tangential ways with the instrumentation on the disc. Take a listen to “4AM…
The Santiago Steps are a band that really don’t portray a specific style in their music. Starting off “Points & Corners” with tracks that draw together indie-rock with America-era 70s rock, the band will please fans of all style. The incorporation of a synthesizer along with the straight-forward delivery of the vocals on “Meant 4 U” makes the track come forth with a bizarre style of dancability. What is perhaps…
Kyle Eastwood has been releasing albums since 1998, but I do not feel as if ey has really had that one defining moment for eir as a musician. However, I believe that Eastwood’s work on Songs From The Cheateau represents eir magnum opus, and that each of the tracks here provide listeners with a great insight for whom Eastwood is and will be in the years and albums to come.…
Sandy Dillon is the oughts’ version of Cindy Lauper, pre-suck Liz Phair, and Shirley Manson. Totally pop-tinged alternative rock with a sultry voice that doesn’t really break any new ground in terms of musical style or arrangement. Sure, the early sixties Bond-like orchestra (in “It Must Be Love”) and synth-noises copped from Massive Attack might be aurally pleasing, but not ultimately sating. Each track treads the same ground as the…
The opening track to “Come With Me” is “Turn on the Music”, and from the opening strains of that track, Roger Sanchez seems to have cemented eir place in the dance hall of fame. There is not that much happening in regards to differing beats or sounds on the track, but the repetition gets tattooed into a listener’s head, while the smooth vocals will get individuals grooving even as they…
Metal knows no cultural or geographical bounds. That is precisely why Denmark’s Anubis Gate has came out of the gate with some of the most furious metal that we have heard so far in 2011. The band is able to tie together a number of disparate styles and sub-genres of metal into something that is fully unique. The band’s sound has changed considerably with Jacob Hansen out as vocalist and…
Chakachas’ “Jungle Fever” (the S-Man’s Jungle Edit) is the first track on “Choice”, and the whole “classics” tag is nowhere more deserving than it is on this track. However, the game is bumped up further with the inclusion of the very-Santana like guitars that are dominant throughout “Darkest Light”, a track by Lafayette Afro Rock. The track sounds almost as if it was sampled for an early nineties rap track.…
The Sainte Catherines are an interesting band to say the least. While most of the punk bands currently out can easily be given a tag, the style of songs like “If There’s Black Smoke Over A Bridge, It’s Over” is hard to pin down as being a specific blend of styles. At some point, individuals just have to admit that The Sainte Catherines are a great band, regardless of what…
I thought Sahg was going to play a much harder bran do fmetal than was present on the opening moments of “Sahg I”. There is a heavy Ozzy influence during this track, as well as dollops of influence from acts like Monster Magnet and (even) Fu Manchu. The only thing that I can hear that distinguishes Sahg from the rest of the rock and metal acts that are plastered all…
There are some intense tracks on Ugly Animals. The average runtime of the tracks on this album seems to be about a minute, but Retx crams everything that they can into this time frame. Whether it is metal, hardcore, punk, or even funk or folk, Ugly Animals has a little bit of everything. A super-group of sorts, Retox links together The Locust, Cattle Decapitation, Festival of Dead Deer and Holy…
Rachael Sage sounds like Tori Amos during “Alright, OK”. The whispered-out vocals and the bouncing of the composition through a number of styles ties eir to Amos’s early work, before the latter petered out (during “Strange Little Girls” and all that followed). The freshness of Sage during the early going of “The Blistering Sun” means a few things: that individuals will have a great role model since both Tori and…
The emotive content that is present on Ghosts Upon The Earth is simply stunning; I believe that this album covers the extend of human feelings, compassion, and pain better than any album that we have heard so far this year. While Let There Be can be understood as an introduction for the types of styles and approaches that Michael will ultimately use over the course of Ghosts Upon The Earth,…
Starting out “In The Key of D” with forceful guitars and Claudio-like guitars, Safety in Number provide three clear paths for listeners: they can either listen to the vocals, the guitars, or the bass which are all viciously forcing their way into the heads of listeners during “You’ll Find A Way”. Moving into a much more oft-heard style of guitar riffs and vocal delivery in “Lusic”, Safety in Numbers deviate…
From the beginning of “Mozartia”, there are two distinct strains of music that Sacriversum creates. There is a very melodic type of black metal that is dominant, and there is a classical type of music (along the style of whom the album was named) that struggles for dominance. The styles clash messily during the opening bars of “Born To Be The Best”, but Sacriversum quickly rights their ship. The inclusion…
Sabrosa Purr really purveys a style of hyper-emotional dream-pop that is as bipolar as it is impressive. “By The Water” starts with a guitar line that does not shine, but rapidly moves into a psychedelic, trippy style that also gives away to a distorted, screamed-out type of rock that has much more to do with Marilyn Manson than Sixpence None The Richer. The continual shifting through genres present during “By…
I find what Bearfoot does on their American Story to be tremendously interesting. This means that the style of music that they play is tied to 19th and early 20th century America, but has been updated to really become germane to listeners in the current era. Bearfoot thus creates in the 10 tracks on American Story a title that will be appreciated by fans of different stripes, touching upon roads…
The vocals that Ryan starts out “From A Late Night High-Rise” are painful. “Follow The Leader” sounds as if Ryan has smoke twenty packs of cigarettes a day for fifty years. I might be exaggerating, but the contrast that eir vocals show against the slightly electronic instrumentation on the track is a little irking. The track would be stronger if Ryan did not force the vocals quite as much. While…
“The Owls Stare” shows Rusty Like as the supreme purveyors of catchy rhythms, as an opening salvo will make true music fans salivate. The strung-out guitars present on this track do not scream with a current type of sound, but they (along with the vocals) really bring a sixties type of sound. It is not one specific brand of sixties sound, but rather an amalgamation of surf and lounge that…