Pokemon and Smash came out yesterday and they basically shut the rest of my life down (whoops) so I got a little behind. Here's yesterday & today

Since I Left You by The Avalanches
Preview: Electricity

This album is neat as f***. Evidently it's composed entirely of samples, and there are over 3500 samples on the album (!!). That concept alone makes it really interesting to me, so although few parts of the album stood out above the rest, the experience as a whole was a really enjoyable one. Def something I'll give a few more spins to.

Rating: Good!


In Silico by Pendulum
Preview: Propane Nightmares

This album isn't as bad as I was lead to believe it is. It isn't as clean as Immersion, and I'm not sure I'll spin it again, but I don't think it's an unenjoyable album. The middle of the album is a little slow imo, its highlights are on the ends. I think it's fairly inoffensive, idk.

Rating: Okay

Calendar
Favorites this week: Since I Left You

a reminder of how bad I need to get this album
I picked up At Last Alone when I was doing import shopping cause it was cheap & shipped from the same place but that's all I have ):

The Devin Townsend Band - Synchestra

What a treat of an album! So this is the second Townsend album I have on my calendar, I've heard the first Devin Townsend Band album Accelerated Evolution a while back, and I love it. It was a majestic prog. metal album that really had clean and emotional songs. Now, the second album from the band is a much different approach, a somewhat earthy, more rock and riff oriented type of deal. Oh man, this album really kicks it into high gear, starts out with a nice acoustic track, diving into all sorts of melodies. Gaia is a really powerful track that I really enjoyed, but then again I enjoyed pretty much the whole album.

With amazingly energetic songs coupled with very good songwriting, this album is definitely a highlight with every track standing out. 9/10

I love Synchestra. Hell of a journey, very earthy feel. Underrated Dev album.

There are live recordings of him doing Pixellate and Babysong with Anneke and they're brilliant

baby song is hilarious

and pixellate has some egyptian stuff going on damn.

there is a lot of cultural influences on the record, too

which is cool

Endtroducing..... by DJ Shadow
Preview: What Does Your Soul Look Like, Part 4

This album is cool as hell. It's like the Avalanches album I did yesterday in that it's made entirely of sampled material (which is beyond cool), but this album pulls from far less sources. It has a wider variety of styles than Since I Left You did, although it tends to focus on slower tunes a little more. I really like the idea of creating an entire album based only on samples, so if you know any other great albums like that I'd like to hear them. Definitely gonna spin this one some more.

Rating: Good!

The Books - Thought For Food
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Cx10MrMYB4

it features a lot of instrumentation from the two members of the band but it features a LOT of samples from a bunch of really obscure sources. Their second album, The Lemon Of Pink is even better in my opinion but their first album is probably the sampliest

i used to love Since I Left You a lot but its appeal is long gone for me now. it used to be exciting to me and i loved all of the samples and stuff but now it bores me. it's a sad feeling. don't burn out your enjoyment of it yet, treasure it while you love it

same with endtroducing but i've never LOVED that album as much as sorta enjoyed it and now i dont at all

Free the Robots is pretty similar to endtroducing in technical style but again features a tad less samples
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD7fMneOrAo


i havent had time to listen to my albums but ill try to get them listened to by tomorrow, if i have to i'll drop the ones i've missed to get back on track

http://rateyourmusic.com/genre/Plunderphonics/

you're in for a ride

Apes With Hobbies - Synthopathic

So Apes With Hobbies is a nice indie project of this guy I found on my early days of venturing on metal archives, usually being hit and miss, with some brilliant progressive metal tracks and electronic tracks, and some amateur, wishy-washy tracks, unfortunately, this album doesn't hold much interesting ideas, it being a very bland electronic album, a lot of it is progressive synths fluttering around, while it's kind of cool, it is really flat and lacks dynamic, unlike some of his later work.

So that's that. 4/10

I'm in a negative mood & don't want to bring any negativity out but I'm just not feeling it man


Halves - Haunt Me When I'm Drowsy
I wanted to do a Halves album this month but somehow picked the only album i've actually listened to somehow?? WOOPS
so that kills any possible motivation

it's a seriously good album though check it out

9/10!!

I'm gonna hope I feel better tommorow and do the two albums then cause I've been super hyped for those 2

enjoying everybody's posts btw keep it up i love u

it'll be better tomorrow hang in there xoxo

today i listened to THREE albums i was behind on damn (damn) damn (damn) danm damn



Odd Nosdam - Level Live Wires
Odd Nosdam is a producer / beatmaker for the anticon record label, most known for his work in the cLOUDDEAD project (I swear to god I will never stop sucking cLOUDDEAD's dick)
His style fuses together abstract percussive hip hop beats and droney atmospheric Boards of Canada-esque instrumentals. I've always been extremely attracted to this "drone-hop" kind of sound, and the beats on this album definitely didn't disappoint me. Most of these beats were very nice and I can see myself coming back to this LP a bunch more times. It seemed a bit barren at times but that's pretty much just because I miss Doseone and Why? and Nosdam working together on the goddamn cLOUDDEAD project that I will never stop talking about.
Why? did some rapping reminiscent of the project during one track on the album, and this track was definitely my favorite. It made me happy and emotional. Made me remember cLOUDDEAD's self titled. God damn, I love cLOUDDEAD's self titled. Unf.
Anyway, it was pretty good. Anyone into instrumental hip hop or atmospheric soundscapes would probably dig this.
7/10: I liked Fat Hooks and The Kill Tone Two. (The latter featuring the vocals I was talking about earlier)

Toro y Moi - Anything In Return
Toro y Moi makes comfy synthpop / dance music and his vocal delivery is pretty much his strongest point, I think. Most of the songs on this LP are accompanied by interesting instrumentation and I think that its best moments are when the good instrumentation merges with good vocal delivery, but unfortunately these moments aren't as often as I feel like they should be. Some of these songs are boring. It's not a bad album at all, though, and if you're in the mood for comfy tunes then give this a spin.
6/10. I dig Say That, Cola, and Grown Up Calls.

Zs - New Slaves
Not for the faint of heart.
This album was hypnotic and terrifying, Jesus Christ. Noise art at its finest, right here. Zs are a really abstract group, occasionally composing really intricate and precise symphonies and occasionally making crazy unorganized improvised messes. New Slaves was kind of a merge of the two styles, I think. Parts seemed very planned out and methodic and other parts were so balls to the walls crazy I was having a hard time keeping up. Some parts are abrasive and some parts are kind of calming in an abstract way. It's mostly very incoherent and spastic, though. (in a good way)
It's a really good album overall, but I don't see this as being many people's cup of tea. If you're into post rock or free jazz and don't mind abrasiveness, I definitely recommend trying this out. It's awesome.
7-8/10. I like: Don't Touch Me, Acres Of Skin, and New Slaves.

Wee.

What albums are you guys looking forward to this final week? I'm mostly looking forward to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin'.

I'm looking forward to Jihad, Nhor, Agent.
Also anxious to see if Trophy Scar's post-hardcore compares to their blues/jazz fusion stuff

it doesn't compare well, it's rather boring and the guitar is panned to the left a lot which bugs me

3/10

ty dear
& wow Zs is fantastic


Aesop Rock - Skelethon

Aesop is my all time favourite lyricist and one of my favs in general. Skelethon is my least listened to album, and after listening to it again I don't really know why. This album is really awesome! The instrumentals are great, the hooks are cool, but most importantly the lyrics are mad interesting. Listening to this shows to me Aesop is only getting better every album. I heavily enjoyed sitting down, listening to each track and just contemplating the lyrics. All is lines come out smooth & sound great without taking any quality away.
The album has a lot of memorable tracks, it's not my top Aesop Rock album but it's close. There's some good stories, interesting topics & lots of complicated lines(I guess some people would think this is a bad thing?)

Leisureforce, 1000 O'Clock, & Gopher Guts have instrumentals I could listen to for days even without lyrics.

Kimya Dawson singing in Crows 1 is truly
amazing(they make an entire album together after this too!! perfect duo).

And back to Gopher Guts again that's like one of my favourite songs ever. It's like perfect to me! I see the track and want to skip straight to it ignoring every other track. Maybe why I don't listen to Skelethon much.


another 9/10 album, is it wrong to be sick of listening to amazing music??

I'll do that other album later today/early morning tommorow.

i love aesop so god damn much.

that album was great, i think None Shall Pass is my favourite album by him, but everything he's done is gold, and it feels like your a literary critic when you try to get meaning from his lyrics. that's a modern day shakespeare right there.