Friday, October 23, 2015

Review: Swans- The Gate


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Okay, so this won't exactly be a review in the traditional sense, since this is in fact a demo/ live package really intended to give glimpses into the upcoming Swans album, but I thought I might just share my thoughts on some of the material. As for some of the live material, some of the unrecorded stuff has been floating around for a little while, but it sounds intense. Tracks like 'Frankie M' are getting me very excited for the new project. The rises and falls of this track are epic, and the way Swans can build anticipation in a longer piece like this is unrivaled. The radical reworking of some of their To Be Kind material is also pretty great. 'Just a Little Boy' was one of my favorite tracks from the last album, and now with this version, I can like it in a different way. This version is much noisier and chaotic than the creepy, slinking one on To Be Kind. It's getting me excited about the live DVD that's coming with the as yet unnamed album.

And now for the demos. At the end of the second CD, there were a few short acoustic demos, as there have been on all of these Swans crowdfunding projects. The one that really stood out to me was 'When Will I Return?'. This song is super creepy in this stripped down state, and I really hope Michael Gira keeps this one this way, as the isolated atmosphere lends a lot to this track. The rhythm demos were hopeful as well, as I can see these turning in heavy, stomping behemoths of songs once electrified and fleshed out.

As it stands, this project did exactly what it intended to do; hold Swans die hards over, and to get them anticipating the punishment they'll receive with the next album.


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Friday, October 2, 2015

Deafheaven, Disclosure, and What a Time to be Alive

As promised, here are a few more of my opinions of recent albums. The projects I'm looking at here are Deafheaven's New Bermuda, Disclosure's Caracal, and the Drake/ Future collaboration, What a Time to be Alive.



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Deafheaven: New Bermuda

I'm honestly just getting into the whole black metal thing, but I can definitely see what Deafheaven does differently from the Mayhems and Emperors of the world. The band definitely borrows a lot of screamo, shoegaze, post rock, and in this project , more trash metal. There's definitely some '80s speed metal in here, and the soaring guitars throw more of a Siamese Dream coloring on the album than a De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas vibe. I can see where people are coming from when they say this isn't black metal. But does it really matter? This album is pretty great, even for all my struggling to parse out lyrics. It's a lot more direct than Sunbather, but it still has its peaks and valleys sonically, and I feel like there's a lot here that fans of many genres may be able to appreciate.


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Disclosure: Caracal

There's not really that much I have to say about this album. I honestly feel like this is the inevitable place that this whole new wave of electronica has taken us to. It's all mid tempo mediocrity with pretty passionless singing about pretty cliche topics. I've seen things saying this is more of a pop record with electronic elements, and I have to agree. The group got some radio play with 'Latch', and unfortunately this is the direction they're going to go. I guess we now have an idea what the UK garage answer to Avicii would sound like. Pretty uninteresting, as it would turn out.


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Drake & Future: What a Time to be Alive

I'm going to cut to the chase; this mixtape is god awful. I've never really been a huge Drake fan, and I really can't stand Future (I made the mistake of reviewing Honest a while back), so maybe this project isn't for me, but this is less than half assing. Future's auto tune warbles are slathered all over this thing, and Drake sounds pretty uninterested for the majority of the project (the exceptions maybe being 'I'm the Plug' and 'Jump Man', though the latter has an atrocious hook). Hooks are incredibly weak, especially the groan fest that is 'Big Rings'. And people are trying to defend this, saying it was recorded in only six days. So? Tupac's Seven Day Theory was written and recorded in one more day and it is orders of magnitude better. Hell, Spiderland and Please Please Me were recorded in two days and 12 hours, respectively. Besides that the instrumentals were most likely sitting in Future's inbox for months. It really is just a compilation of Future scraps that they threw random Drake verses on, for the most part. I wouldn't be surprised if I learned that the two were never in the same room, or state, for this project's recording; they have no chemistry whatsoever. Watch the Throne 2 this is not.

So, check in later for more of my opinions. Do you have any opinions on these albums? Let me know what you think, or what you think I should share my thoughts on next.

"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."