Month: January 2019

all that remains - this darkened heart
CD

All That Remains: This Darkened Heart (2004)

Does anyone else remember when All That Remains kicked ass?  Earlier in their career they kind of got lost in the shuffle of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal propagated by bands like Shadows Fall, Unearth, and Lamb of God.  If anything the band was known for the fact that Phil Labonte was the original vocalist for Shadows Fall.  When I fell back into metal I picked up the most recent albums from both band to see what the fuss was about.  15 years later I can’t tell you what happened to my copy of The War Within, but damn if I don’t keep coming back to This Darkened Heart, which I’ll always love no matter how much of a gun-toting right wing nut Labonte becomes. Continue reading “All That Remains: This Darkened Heart (2004)”

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ali helnwein - pterodactyl
Cassette

Ali Helnwein: Pterodactyl (2017)

My first cassette review!  Supposedly this $25 Wikoo portable cassette player has Mega Bass™ and that weird warping noise I heard five minutes into “Side A” of Pterodactyl, the odds and ends compilation from composer Ali Helnwein was part of the charm!  I’m kidding (a little bit); I know there are much better cassette players out there that probably do this tape a lot more justice than my rinky-dink player is, but I can still see the nostalgic charm of the wonderful uniformity of the cassettes, and the music – regardless of media type or file size – is fantastic, a collection of unused film cues and smaller pieces that highlight the whimsical and intimate genius of Helnwein’s music.  Continue reading “Ali Helnwein: Pterodactyl (2017)”

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alfonso lovo - la gigantona
CD

Alfonso Lovo: La Gigantona (1976)

And so we come to the first album I own but have never listened to.  La Gigantona, an obscure album from Nicaraguan guitarist Alfonso Lovo was a blind buy, part of a binge of records from the Numero Group when they had a killer $5 sale on compact discs.  And I’m happy to report that the compilation is fantastic, offering a wide range of tracks from solo classical tracks to straight up funk explorations and extended latin jazz jams that cross the universe and back again.  All that plus a fat booklet of liner notes that flesh out the extraordinary life of Lovo and the music contained on the disc. Continue reading “Alfonso Lovo: La Gigantona (1976)”

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alexi murdoch - time without consequence
CD

Alexi Murdoch: Time Without Consequence (2006)

I’m guessing I picked up Time Without Consequence after seeing the film Away We Go with my wife.  Alexi Murdoch embodies that soft folk vibe Nick Drake chased throughout his career and became huge again thanks to that Volkswagen commercial.  So sure, Murdoch is part of a larger movement that for better or worse spearheaded a massive amount of wispy bearded men plucking acoustic guitars and getting record deals, but there’s still a few gems to be had from Time Without Consequence that  I can turn to without cringing.  Continue reading “Alexi Murdoch: Time Without Consequence (2006)”

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alcest - kodama
CD

Alcest: Kodama (2016)

With Kodama, it feels like Alcest finally merged genre they were influenced by into one fully homogenized style, and to be honest I’m not 100% certain I love it.  Which is not to say Kodama isn’t a very good album or that I don’t enjoy it; it is and I do.  But there was something so pure about the way the earlier albums would juxtapose black metal, post rock, shoegaze and pop into these amorphous pieces that would sometimes touch and overlap, only to pull away again that I loved; in a way it reflected my own fractured way of looking at the world.    Continue reading “Alcest: Kodama (2016)”

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CD

Alcest: Écailles de lune (2010)

Considering how much I love music, the memories I can remember around the first time I heard something are few and far between.  Maybe it’s age, my poor addled brain taken up with too many other bits to properly remember where I was the first time I heard a band.  Point being, I can’t recall the exact moment I first heard Alcest, but I can recall the exact feeling I had, because it hits every time I put on Écailles de lune.  Continue reading “Alcest: Écailles de lune (2010)”

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