Report Blog Entry
SLAB! - Descension (8/10)
Mwa. Gorgeous. Byootiful.
This is all very much bluesy pop loop music but with tons of nice dissonance. Lots of the riffs here have strange extensions or are augmented/dissonant, and not to mention they have extremely strong rhythm sections (srsly, those DRUMS, that funky bass too) and work excellently as counterpoints to each other. I think the reason they get away with such repetitive and simply structured music is the rhythm section really, none of these songs would work nearly as well with those disco and funk-influenced rhythms. I actually kind of dislike a lot of blues-derived music 'cos all of the chords and rhythms 'n junk kind of sound to same to me, but this is one of those exceptions.
This avoids a lot of the monotony coming from similar sounding groups like early Swans by, GASP, having actual song structures, verses and choruses, and actual chord progressions that GO PLACES.
I think talking about "influence" and music being "ahead of its time" is kind of useless if the music isn't good, but GAWD what the hell sounded like this in 1987? Proto-avant-garde industrial nu metal with occasional Stravinsky woodwind arrangements, extended techniques, random improv sections, and musique concrete sections?
If only People Pie was on here... but besides that, good shit.
Vampire Rodents - Lullaby Land (9/10)
Absolutely stunning, one of the most original albums in recent popular music memory.
Due to the approach to composition, arranging and composing sort of become one here; the sampling melds together many different rhythms, timbres, harmonies, and melodies, but the rhythm and harmony shift around the compositions, making for a very interesting listen. Aside from some odd time here and there, most of this is in 4/4 or 8/8, but the agogical accents are constantly varied, or different metric structures of these time signatures will be played together ("Crib Death") and constantly switched between. The way the different phrases contrast against each other is almost orchestral in nature, even if it lacks formal development, the variety in timbre and phrasing and rhythm certainly makes up for it.
The strong, steady rhythms & general electronic instrumentation is obviously derived from dance and hip hop music. However, the incredible arrangements, interesting rhythms, and warped approach to homophony make this far more musically interesting than most pieces in this style. The "warped homophony" comes from the leading instrument, the cello, having a sort of modernist/late romantic chromatic language, it's just tonal enough to fit in with the voicing, but it'll often be incredibly loose rhythmically, a great counterpoint to the strong rhythms. Plus, occasionally some of the samples will imply major keys in minor ones, or vice versa, such as in "Grace".
The implementation of rock instrumentation is perhaps "post-rock" in its truest sense, the sampling and sound collaging treats rock itself as "found sound", and it's appropriately used as a strong rhythmic backing that's then contorted, though it's all basically in the same key, the constant rhythmic switching like in "Crib Death" or "Toten Faschist" basically flip rock structures on their head. It's almost contradictory- though the harmonic and rhythmic content itself isn't actually very complex, the constant switches between phrases and the different accents make it seem like it really is.
The aesthetics and lyricism is incredibly misanthropic, with decadent imagery, and prose reflecting Vahnke's anti-UN, anti-authoritative, and general anti-humanist ideology. Personal feelings aside, certainly the great music backing this makes it far more harrowing, and the great imagery generated is enough to not make it feel didactic.
The only REAL problem? Well, it's all kind of same-y in mood, especially towards the end, but it's not like albums aren't allowed to have any similar thematic and aesthetic content. Plus, despite the runtime for a pop album the compositions are sublime enough for this not to be a problem.
Voivod - Angel Rat (7/10)
Gud moody, melodic quasi-metal. A lot more like Husker Du than I was expecting- mostly due to the vocals and all of that reliance on the minor key. Though the phrasing is much less simplistic, sure the vox and melodies follow each other but the guitar tends to be more active, which functions as a good counterpoint to the rest of the instrumentation. Plus you have some nice dissonant or leaps to fuck up the harmony- I really like that one verse in "Nuage Fractal" with the vox constantly playing that non-chord tone. And there's all them shredding parts- which is standard fare for rock/metal, soloing over some chords or a bassline. I kind of wish they did more dissonant, outside-playing style stuff there and not just in the other parts of the song- it's mostly typical pentatonic-sounding stuff. Bass and drumming is standard for metal, but they accent the songs really well so I can't really complain- plus there are some nice changes in agogical accents, phrasing, time signatures- da-da-da-da.
Structurally this is much closer to pop music than you'd expect from prog- harmonically, formally, but its GOOD pop music, so who really cares? The subtle subversions of traditional/functional harmony also make this not a complete slog too- like the chorus of "Panorama" where they hover around I THINK the II and bVI and then finally resolve on i at the end... I like that sort of thing.
World Domination Enterprises - Let's Play Domination (8/10)
Really great. "Asbestos Lead Asbestos" is one of the best songs ever made.
A lot of blues-based music sounds really boring to me but these guys do great stuff with it- the guitar follows the root of the bass but then you add all these dissonant notes to it or mess with the rhythm and da-da-da-da. The chords are SOMEWHAT functional, but extended to an almost laughable point, its the perfect balance of dissonance and consonance. Also the vocalist sounds like Brian Wilson sometimes
Rudimentary Peni - Death Church (8/10)
Really damn gud, they evolve a lot aesthetically from their EPs. Lots of more interesting harmonic progressions and maneuvers, tho it's not on the level of quasi-prog like Fear there is some very nicely treated dissonance that isn't just them slamming whatever chords they can fit together to be "crazy, maaaaan". It all fits in the established harmony nicely, and the harmonic rhythm is an excellent counterpoint to the energetic and aggressive rhythmic work (this is totally proto-thrash/black metal BTW). Even with the shortness of the compositions they all last exactly as long as they need to, and there's never a point where a song doesn't satisfyingly conclude an idea or just go nowhere.
Comments
Displaying 0 of 0 comments ( View all | Add Comment )