slimelord - chytridiomycosis relinquished

Slimelord: Chytridiomycosis Relinquished (2024)

Oh look! Another frenzied, left-of-center 20 Buck Spin release! I kid (or gently chide, as noted in the Civerous review) because, as much as the label may have a “type” (and a “look”) when it comes to their death metal releases, you and I can’t deny that – more often than not – the results are pretty dang spectacular. Case in point: this debut full-length by the wonderfully named Slimelord. Taking the sludgy modern death metal currently in vogue as their foundation, they slather on a whole lot of weirdness throughout Chytridiomycosis Relinquished, and if you thought that title was a mouthful, wait until you get inside the music. This has fast risen up for me as one of the best death metal releases this year, so let’s get into it.

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k'mono - return to the e

K’mono: Return to the “E” (2021)

Sometimes you settle into grooves with your media. Last May I spent about a month devouring giallo films, absorbing the genre and various auteurs (three cheers for Sergio Martino). In music it feels like the past year or so has been a spiraling descent (or ascent, if you prefer as I do) into progressive rock, something I always enjoyed but recently have grown to identify more deeply with. I recently caught a video review for Mind Out of Mind, the sophomore album from Minneapolis’s prog upstarts K’mono over on Sea of Tranquility, and on the strength of that I checked them out, picking up both that album and Return to the “E”, their debut. We’ll get to the new album next, but since I was scrolling through this site and fondly remembering when I was covering my collection in alphabetical order I figured I’d start here, right at the beginning with a fine debut that hints at the growth they’d achieve on their second release.

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ali helnwein - pterodactyl

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)”