This album sounds like they’ve taken an upbeat album and just slowed most of it down. The tempo goes from slow and boring to dull and boring and back again. It sounds at though they forced Goldfrapp to do an indie rock album.
The female singer seems to have been told to make her voice as whiny as possible, shrieking along with some of the most tedious guitar I’ve heard for a while. There’s no variety in any of it. They all seem to be playing and singing the exact same notes throughout, meaning no harmonising, no depth, and no interest from me.
The first song that is actually worth listening to the end of, comes 8 songs in, with ‘Golden Web’ which actually has some depth, and although there is still little change in the pace or tone of the song, this song actually seems to have something that works. It’s a shame that they put the song so far along the album or I wouldn’t have already have lost all patience with them. It’s like someone putting an old mattress down to try and cushion the impact of a jumbo jet crashing into the ground.
From here on, it’s just more wailing and shrieking and I long for either the end of the album, or the end of the world, whichever comes first.
Oh wait…what’s this?
It’s the ‘Off’ button.
Thank god for that!
Listen to this album, but make sure there are no sharp objects that you might stab into your ears.
Album that contains the lyrics “You’re still picking your nickers from your arse, like you’re playing a one string harp” will instantly be a hit with me.
Bell X1, are Irish and they play music that will make you chuckle along to the imaginary that they present you with, the example above being one of them. Think Mouldy Peaches meet the Hoosiers and you might have some idea of what to expect.
Bell X1 play music that is kind of minimal soft rock that is very word based. they are not a band that will make you want to dance or cry or rebel or anything like that, but they do seem to touch a nerve inside of me that really endears me to them and I end up wanting to go and hug the band.
I listened to this album mainly while walking too and from work and it made a really nice soundtrack to everyday life. I’m listening now while writing this in my bedroom and it doesn’t sound nearly as effective. Blue Lights on the Runway has a kind of gritty realism that allows their sideways glance at the world but it’s not too heavy with it.
This kind of poncey rock music is a genre that some people would dismiss quite quickly and I tell them, “Don’t” and they should listen, because this album is nice, the sounds sound good and the lyrics are funny and interesting. There could have been a bit more variety on the album, the songs all fit quite a similar pace and style, and this may cause me to bore of the album quicker than some.
Bell X1 have something, I think, that’s a bit new within a genre that has been dragged by it’s bollocks for far too long, but Bell X1 seems to have picked it up, dusted it off and given it a new set of clothes. It’s a nice amendment to my collection.
I have just flicked through youtube, for some songs from their other albums, and none that I have heard are a patch on anything from Blue Lights on the Runway.
Listen to this album: And experience a real, but not too troubling slice of life. Rating: 84%
Munroe Effect are a fluffy rock band from Portsmouth. Munroe Effect are the kind of rock band that, instead of grabbing you by the balls and squeezing, will tickle them slightly. With some kind of feathered instrument, a boa or a duck, maybe?
The music seems to come from a basic enough place. The guitars strum nicely along, changing chords every once in a while to keep your interest, the drums beat simple rhythms and the singing drones tunefully through, about some subject matter that doesn’t quite interest me enough to listen to the lyrics.
Not to say that the music is boring or badly played, no, no, no, I’m not saying that at all. It just plays things pretty safe.
Every now and then the singer begins to scream his little heart out, bless him. While this is entertaining, I’m not sure it’s for the correct reasons. I’d love to see him do it live, his little face all red and twisted, looking like he’s fallen off the toilet.
Munroe Effect are described as “experimental Post-Punkers” and except for a few whiffs, like a fart on a farm, I don’t see this at all, and would see them more as a post-recent-bland-rock group. Meaning that Munroe Effect are after the bland rock, not part of it.
There are some interesting sections in on this EP, and would really like to see how they develop as a band. This is obviously a first draft, and it sounds like it. If I had heard them on the radio, amongst a mix of other music, I would not have picked them out, but I feel privileged to have been given the chance to listen to them.
Check them out, but wait to see how things turn out for them before investing too heavily.
Listen to this album: While balancing a heavy suitcase on your head.
Each time I listen to Whole Wheat Bread, there is a complete shift in my opinion of them. I go from really being very annoyed by them to quite liking them and back again with each listen.
They use a rather familiar mix of rock and rap with a twist of punk in there to add to the flavour. They’re like two electromagnets, one containing rock music and the other containing rap music, with an alternating current of punk that keeps switching the polarities of the magnets so that one minute they are stuck firmly together creating a good mix of sound, then the next minute the polarities change and the magnets fly apart, slightly injuring passers by. It’s a strange blend of likes and dislikes that works intermittently.
At times they sound like they’re trying to be Skindred, and failing, ‘Throw Your Sets Up’ is a song that has this similarity and every time I hear it, I have to turn off Whole Wheat Bread and go listen to Skindred. Other times though, they are quite original and entertaining.
I just keep flip flopping about whether I actually like to listen to the album, and it’s not even that some of the songs are good and the rest is just filler, the same song can have very different reactions each time.
Whole Wheat Bread cross more genres than is first apparent. They have elements from Rock, Rap, Punk, Pop and most of the already established interjecting genres. It’s actually quite an eclectic mix, and is a lot more subtle and varying than is first apparent.
”I Can’t Think’ for example has some very punky undertones but has large sections of rap in there and it works very well. The singer, Nasty Nigga Fleetwood, has a nice raspy roundness to his voice that fits itself to all components of his vocals and doesn’t fall short at any point and I think this is what carries the album through the connecting genres. This is the point where other bands that try to cross the genres fail, but Whole Wheat Bread seem to remain solid throughout.
Aggrotech, which as far as I can tell stands for Industrial music with shouting in it.
Combichrist, which I pronounce: Which doesn’t sound nearly as angry and menacing as you would expect and not nearly as menacing as they seam to want it to sound.
The music is pretty funky, but kind of in the same way that food that’s gone slightly off smells funky.
Maybe it’s a little off for me, because I’m not living in a post-apocalyptic, neo-punk, hyphen inducing world where everyone is raving in the street and setting fire to public officials, but this sounds like a nice way to live and I’ll strive to meet the cultural expectations of Combichrist in the future, so that I may fully appreciate the music.
The music overall is pretty cool and I do really enjoy it, but sometimes it’s a bit too much for me and I’m not in the right context to listen to it. There’s lots of high frequencies and trance influences that seem to make my eyes swivel to the top of my head, which gives me a headache.
I just wish they were a little more DnB and a little less Trance.
Listen to this album: In a post-apocalyptic, neo-punk, hyphen inducing world where everyone is raving in the street and setting fire to public officials.
Typical heavy, power metal, which stinks of the 80s.
Grave Digger have extreme longevity, this being their 13th Album. Quite impressive and considering that I haven’t heard a single track of any of the others is quite an impressive feat. And the have impressive feet.
This album is reasonably enjoyable and they have all of the templates in place and create a nice Spirograph of musical swirly content, but, like the Spirograph, the hand and template often slip, leaving a nasty line across the page, which spoils the whole image. This is how this album is.
Nasty warbling vocals streak across the quite amiable guitar lead power metal leaving me more annoyed than musically satisfied.
The riffs are punchy and the singing is catchy, which is a recipe for success in my books, but as I say, it’s kind of spoiled by the stupid warbling which occurs throughout.
My first thought is that I’ve heard this all before. Simple riffs, top end screaming interspersed with a lower singing style. Think Killswitch Engage mixed with 36 Crazyfists and you’re pretty much there.
It’s a good solid performance of a style that reached it’s peak a few years ago. In come the late runners not realising that they’ve missed the boat and we’ve heard the pinnacles of the genre in other bands and we’re not that interested in having a band that does it quite well, but not as good as the other people who’ve done it.
They do have a slight twist to the genre though, as they sneak in some bits that sound like emo into the mix, which I assume they think will hit the mass market, but these bits are so small that they fail to dominate enough to cater to that audience and just causes irritation to those who aren’t that audience.
If you’re a huge fan of this type of music and just can’t get enough of it, then you may find a space for this album but if you’re a casual listener, then you’ll enjoy it, but not for very long.
Listen to this album: Spinning around with your arms out.
I’ve heard so many good things about this group, but have not heard them before, so I was fizzing with excitement as I pressed the play button, and as I proceeded through the album, I understand why they’ve had so much acclaim.
They’re a perfect media pleaser, they’re talented, slick, intelligent and generally unoffencive. They’re like the Outcasts but with clean clothes on.
Generally described as old school, they do present the very basic structures that were evident in the origins of hip-hop, but Ugly Duckling present a more polished version of old school hip-hop, learning from the mistakes of their forefathers and smoothing over all the cracks that were left as rap advanced. The main difference between this album and the music it emulates is that the originals were ground breaking, which is why there were all those cracks and Ugly Duckling have smoothed over those cracks and failed to create anything earth-shattering.
If you like your rap political, angry, menacing or exciting then this album is not for you. If you like your rap with clean edges, soft beats and a sine wave of scratching, then you will get a lot of pleasure from this album.
I personally really enjoy this album, but feel that it would take some work on my part to get this into my regular listening routine.
It’s such a confusing album, it spin kicks it’s way through hardcore city and then takes a left turning at thrash corner and takes a couple of wrong turnings through Metallica Lane but somehow ends up coming out in the right place, in Good Album Country.
First off, I’m not a fan of really messy hardcore and really prefer really clean and tidy hardcore, along the lines of Hatebreed and Blood for Blood, and this album falls into the category of straight edges and more tuneful riffs, which puts itself straight into my good books, but then it comes in and kicks my arse with the thrash element and I really don’t know where my head goes after that. This album is really very good.
This is an album that will appeal to a much broader market than much of what hardcore has to offer, and while some may turn up their broken noses at this, I’m all for it.
This really is a nice surprise to find this album, and I feel that this band are making huge inroads into where loud music needs to move itself in the future, sticking a big middle finger at genre defining the music and letting styles bleed through to enhance the music rather than strictly regimenting where music fits into the relative scenes.
Listen to this album: Throw up the horns, swing your greasy hair and kick the guy next to you in the head.
Sounding a little like The Trashmen, Nobunny rocks his/their? way through my head, dancing at a jaunty angle.
The lo-fi sound works very well with this 60s rock and roll sound, that encompasses quite a wide range of 60s rock and roll styles and succeeds in bringing them into the modern indie genre in a way that creates quite a charming sound.
Every now and then my ears prick up and pick out a bit that smacks me over the head and shouts the name of another band at me, be that The Beach Boys, The Beatles or The Trashmen, the ringing in my head dies away slowly, leaving a slightly odd, but not unpleasant taste in my mouth, that could be blood.
Listening to the whole album in full ends up being too much for me, the styles end up being like a rich cheesecake. Nice for a short while but if I scoff too much, I really wish I hadn’t. This album is the same. When these songs came on in my random playlist, they were a refreshing change and I really enjoyed the songs, but listening to the same, slightly distorted 60s rock and roll over and over again gets a bit tiresome.
Listen to this album: With a mop-top and a flower stuck down your penis.
![Combichrist - Today We Are All Demons [2009]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B001MW0J1A.01.L.jpg "Combichrist - Today We Are All Demons [2009]")
