Olekranon - Danaus (2013)

Band: Olekranon
Country: Dartmouth, New Hampshire
Style: IDM/Drone
Label: Inam

Truthfully I was not aware of Olekranon before being sent this album. I wasn't even aware that Inam released anything beyond Sujo's stuff, but receiving this in the mail one day definitely surprised me. Being the side project of the interesting Sujo, which I only found out after doing some looking into the project, my attention was definitely gained.

Unlike the music I've become accustomed to from (I guess you could call his more well known project) Olekranon does away with most of the metal ideas that make up the foundation of Sujo's sound. In it's place you have a more interesting replacement of electronic and noise music. Noise has been a part of Sujo's sound for the majority of recordings I've heard from it, but this takes things to a more logical level. Dealing with a more beat based sound, the harsher electronics and noise aspects of this record come out a bit more expectedly, with distortion popping up through various melody lines and beat echoes and all that sort of stuff. I don't mean to make that into a negative because what's on here is well done and arranged in such a way that makes it more manageable to take in and absorb. It should be said that the electronic side explored on here isn't so much trance of house but more IDM, industrial, and dark ambient - just so there's no confusion as to what this actually is.

The way these pieces are constructed so that certain elements come out more than others is rather well done. Some tracks, Nine Streams for example, do make use of more of a traditional electronic music sort of construction, moving from a heavy beat into more ambient territory - but it's well done, while a track like Coerced takes an almost Nine Inch Nails-esque industrial tone. That's obviously more on the accessible side. Tracks like Crooked Wheel, Severed, and Delicate Times take on more of that dark ambient and noisier sound that is probably on the more abstract side of things. It's not for everyone, and this is, in my opinion, still a pretty hit-and-miss record. The track lengths vary meaning you'll get a more substancial track or two then a short one that feels more like an idea than anything. Honestly, I have to say that I was drawn to the more accessible tracks on here, especially a track like Marionette which sort of feels like a Sujo B-side, but is still pretty damn good. But that's just where my head was at in terms of how I was able to swallow down this album.

In the end I felt only slightly drawn to this album, there's some good stuff on here, but also some stuff that didn't really do all that much for me. I wish there was perhaps a bit more cohesion in terms of how the album was put together, it kind of just feels like a batch of tracks than a real album, but that's just me. It is what it is and I'm sure there are people out there who can digest it and really get a feel for it better than I can, and if you're one of those than definitely give this one a go.
Overall Score: 6.5
Highlights: Crooked Wheel, Coerced, Marionette

Staer - Daughters (2013)

Band: Staer
Country: Bingo, Norway
Style: Noise Rock/Experimental Rock
Label: Horsearm

As far as experimental rock goes, I try and stay within certain bounds that I have set for myself. I learned years back that there is such a thing as going too far in experimental music, especially using the realms of rock music. I had never heard of either this band or the label that had sent it to me but I had a few more off the wall records I was being sent at the time (for some reason?) and just found myself going with it.

I just have to say that I love the press description of this band first and foremost. Saying that this band is like "two enormous dueling space-titans collide amidst the planets, hurling moons at one another, crunching their torsos across the hemispheres of Venus and Neptune whilst emitting a miasma of thunderous resonance," is nothing short of hysterical. I don't mean to offend whoever wrote that up but it is seriously funny stuff - but press releases for this sort of thing are funny anyway. But back to the music on here, which is certainly far from your typical "rock" formats. No big choruses to be found here. No huge sounding riffs either. What is huge is the sound of the band though. The band certainly make massive sounding tracks either through their droning sound or a more frenetic one. So you're essentially getting a drone group on one end and a mathcore/post-hardcore one at the other end, which sounds terribly frustrating when written down on paper I would assume. It's like, you're either going to get super slow and dull or extremely fast and quirky - I know plenty of folks who will read that and immediately take against this record. Hell, if I read I might question listening to this, but if you're still reading this I have to tell you it works rather well.

Let it be known that this is a rather raw sounding recording, though I have to tell you it still sounds pretty great. It's very clean sounding even with tones of distortion and feedback in the mix. I definitely give props to whoever engineered and mixed this thing cause it sounds great; and this is the sort of record that very easily could have sounded like crap as well. Noise rock by it's very nature comes from crap recordings for the most part and there are plenty of bands who make it work, but this record is all the better (and more palatable) because of it's cleaner production. To return to the hugeness issue that I brought up above, the record sounds big. Ok, what does that mean? For only being a power trio, and I'm assuming they don't have a budget anywhere near the size a band like Rush have, they manage to come out sounding like they're playing live. The guitars and bass just soar while the drums have an air and space to them that really works for this recording. When the guitar and bass are going from one end of the spectrum to the other the drums keep things anchored down, but it isn't mixed in such a way where it all blends into cacophony, it's clear that each instrument has it's place in the mix.

But for sure this will not be for everyone. For every track that is rocking and graspable, at least on a certain level, there's another that really goes for that experimental and avant-garde take. Songs like the opener, Flashing Teeth of Brass, definitely leans towards that drone metal sound while One Million Love Units on the other hand takes noise rock to it's improvisational side with plenty of stop-starts, feedback, distortion bleedthrough, and a real lack of direction (in terms of how the listener feels/is meant to feel not in terms of where the song is going). At times it's almost psychedelic in execution while other spots just feel like a bit too raggedy to really do anything, at least for me.

This was actually a solid record, which was definitely not what I expected to say when I first pressed play for the first time on this one. There's some real spots of genius on here that really make it worth while, I just wish the band had tapped into that side more instead of giving the listener the middle finger on a few tracks. If you're a fan of noise or experimental rock you'll probably be used to the middle finger at this point, but regardless, give this one a shot. It's surprisingly good.
Overall Score: 8
Highlights: Daughters I, Neukölln

Mucho Tapioca - Mucho Tapioca (2013)

Band: Mucho Tapioca
Country: Toulouse, France
Style: Jazz Fusion/Experimental Rock
Label: Independent

I wasn't originally planning on covering this album when I first got it, which was several months ago. It just looked like something I wasn't particularly interested in, but one day I had some time and I was going through various links I had been sent to listen to and figured I should give this one a go. To my surprise it turned out to be something a bit more up my alley than I would have ever expected.

Jazz rock is something I would say I'm not particularly well versed in, even though I have been known to enjoy some of it from the 60s and 70s, if it's modern, chances are I've never heard of it. Frankly I can't even remember the last time I've heard jazz rock with vocals, but I guess it would make sense that in order to accompany some weird and frenetic music, the vocals would follow suit; and let me tell you the vocals on here are Mike Patton-meets-Frank Zappa crazy. At times veering into bizarre and/or just plain stupid territory, hear opener Parano Yack. I don't mean stupid in the way that it probably comes across, but more absurd the route this guy takes to vocalizing. He can go from more high-pitched wining to gruff (think Tom Waits) moaning and it's just weird. If it was just him I could see this sort of album becoming very tiring, but luckily the instrumentalists keep things just as off-the-wall and fun as well. Though I have to be honest and say that in terms of genre exploration, they never really move into heavier territory, which is somewhat disappointing because there were several times when it felt like the music could have used a nice climax instead of just wandering around the same territories it was for the majority of the song, and I would point to the first two tracks on the album as main culprits of this. They don't really do much of anything. I mean, the band is obviously playing and making music, but at the end of these first few tracks, I never remembered anything that had just happened.

It wasn't until about track three that I really started to get into this album. That was when it started to actually sound as if the band was getting into what they were playing and not just fiddling around. It was a little bit louder (or the rock influence was actually coming through) which may have been why my attention was grabbed at that point, but I actually think the songs got a bit better as well. The band also comes across as, slightly, more serious than the earlier tracks may have presented them, which is weird that halfway through the album the band finally hit their stride, at least in terms of how they constructed the album, because the last half is really some solid jazz rock. Being quirky and weird certainly wins a band points in my book, but it only works if the songwriting isn't overpowered by it, and I think that's where this band falters. There a solid chunk of this album that feels more eccentric and weird just for the sake of it. Instead of the songwriting allowing them to be that way, it feels like they let being weird dictate the songwriting, but that's just my opinion.

So, overall, this was an inconsistent, but actually pretty solid little album. I think if the band perhaps shift focus from trying to be as quirky as possible to actually writing some good songs, their next record might be something pretty damn cool. But as it stands now, if you're a fan of more eccentric and wild sounding rock music, this should be on your list of things to listen to, though if you're not a fan, I don't see this converting you to the church of weird music.
Overall Score: 7
Highlights: Scrabble au Coin du Feu, Malhabile Lama, Méchant Chameau

Peste Noire - Peste Noire (2013)

Band: Peste Noire
Country: La Chaise-Dieu, France
Style: Avant-Garde/Black Metal
Label: La Mesnie Herlequin

Peste Noire is one of those bands who I always question what they're going to do next. It appears like with each album they release they get weirder while sticking to a primal and raw aesthetic. I wasn't even aware that they had released a new album until I saw this one floating around on various blogs.

Despite maintaining a similar raw and noisy production tone through most of their their work, to call this band anything other that unpredictable would simply be false. Having heard just about everything in their previous four full-lengths, including flamenco guitar solos, electronic club beats, and polka segments, to expect anything other than the unexpected means coming in unprepared, or at least in my book it is. Despite the basement production style and the punk rock attitude, things have always turned out well in terms of how their albums come out. I'm constantly surprised by how well this band manages to fuse those two aesthetics on each of their albums. There are plenty of basement black metal and punk rock outfits who are perfectly fine with having guitar tones that are thin and weak sounding, drums that overpower a mix, and vocals that border between being obnoxious and down-right bad, yet this band, even form their first full-length was above that. Though I will say that at least on this album, the guitar tone has been stripped back to that thinner sound which can grate on the ears a bit.

To be truthful, even with the more eccentric tendencies this band has, I would still consider this to be the band's most punk recording to date. Both in terms of the production and just in execution the entire record carries the spirit of 70s punk music like Crass or Rudimentary Peni. In a certain light, I do admire that about this record because after making a record as ambitious as 2011's L'Ordure A L'etat Pur, this one really feels stripped back and more raw in comparison; but I do feel like this is not as strong a record as that one was. The songwriting on here just doesn't feel as full with wild abandon or as memorable as I would say either of the previous two full-lengths were to me. That doesn't mean there aren't highlights though, with a track like Niquez Vos Villes completely shattering any ideas of what sort of song it's supposed to be. Also, for as much as I would have preferred a thicker guitar tone, there were times where I felt like that thinner tone did work to the benefit of the song. Working underneath the acoustic guitar in Ode, it made for one of the best sections on the entire album in my opinion. But perhaps my favorite moment was on one of the album's shortest tracks, La Blonde, where about halfway through or so it transforms from a punk, almost post-punk, song into a dissonant black metal one. It's unexpected and a nice quick jab that really grabbed me every time I listened to that track.

So, overall, it's an album of hits and misses in my book, but I guess I'm more likely to forgive its misses because I do like what this band does and tries to do. It's not an album I expect a listener to be bored by because it is filled with plenty of different stylistic quirks to keep you interested. I suspect that there are plenty of people out there who won't have the same problems I did with the guitar tone on here, but I'd recommend this band's entire back catalog really.
Overall Score: 7.5
Highlights: Niquez Vos Villes, Ode, La Blonde

Blut Aus Nord - What Once Was - Liber III EP (2013)

Band: Blut Aus Nord
Country: Mondeville, France
Style: Industrial/Progressive Black Metal
Label: Debemur Morti Productions

It really isn't a stretch to say that Blut Aus Nord are one of the consist and interesting groups in underground metal (let alone black metal) and each new release is greeted with something approaching a fever. Having recently completed the 777-trilogy, the band have released the next installment in their What Once Was... Liber series. The previous two installments I've enjoyed very much and the promise of the band continuing along a similar path as those two is definitely intriguing.

Since the inception of this series of albums was announced to be more of a return to and an extension of the more extreme side of BAN's sound, I think it's provided some of the project's most under-appreciated recordings. When each one of these releases does first emerge it rightly gets the press going (like myself) but it does seem that over time they fade into the background a bit more. While these releases certainly aren't unlike territory covered in the band's past, they are perhaps not as experimental or grabbing; but in their own way, a retreat to more conventional, and I use that word lightly, style of songwriting that isn't meant to be as forward thinking or revolutionary. Liber I was an embrace of more traditional black metal elements and had the band at their most straightforward in a long time while Liber II was a bit more in line with the more dissonant aspects of the 777 series, this album appears to me to take on more of an atmospheric form. There are certainly aspects of this release that call back to the previous two but this one does feel slightly more droning in its structure, whether it happens to be from more droning guitar parts (but let it be known that this most certainly is not a doom metal based album at all) or a greater use of synth or just being a bit more paced, the overarching vibe I got from it was a more atmospheric listen. If anything I would attribute is to a greater use of space. While the band has worked in the world of dark ambient music before on numerous occasions, it's use on this record definitely added a greater sense of pacing in my opinion.

Perhaps I'm not the best person equipped for reviewing this release because I'm bound to enjoy and like most everything that this band puts out. While I think that I preferred the last release from this series a bit more than this one, this one is definitely worth your time if you're a fan of the band. It's plenty interesting and listening to this band experiment with new ideas can often be as enthralling as hearing your favorite band's best record on repeat.
Overall Score: 7.5
Highlights: III, V

Postures - Postures (2013)

Band: Postures
Country: Gothenburg, Sweden
Style: Alternative/Progressive Rock
Label: World In Sound

I was sent this record several months ago and had planned to write a review for it all the way back then. But life got in the way and I forgot about it until recently when I knew there was a prog-rock band that had contacted me and I wanted to actually review their record. I found it, finally listened to it, and the rest is below.

Just to start off, I have no idea how much of this blog/how many reviews this band saw of mine before they sent me this album of theirs but it has to be said that I do consider it rather brave of them to have sent it to me at all seeing how (I'll say) unkind I have been about rock and metal bands with female vocalists who are not Anneke van Giersbergen. Maybe that had something to do with why I procrastinated for so long before finally listening to it, but thank goodness I finally did play it because hot damn this chick's got a voice on her. I'm prejudiced to female metal vocalists because they're either operatic (which I find annoying) or they try and go for more of the intense death metal approach, which is fine but regardless of sex, can make it hard to give present yourself with any personality. I've found in a lot of the female front rock bands I've heard, since maybe the 2000s, have just wanted to sound like Amy Lee of Evanescence. I've pretty much just stopped listening to female vocalists for those reasons, but Postures somehow got a girl how not only can sing (extremely well I might add) but also conveys a personality. Already I'm on their side - so you can pretty much see where this review is gonna go from here.

Focusing on the vocalist would be a dumb thing to do though because the instrumentalists backing her certainly don't let her take the spotlight despite her vocals being right up front in the mix. This is a prog-rock band, so there's plenty of showy instrumental passages, which I'm certainly not adversed to. The drums are all over the place, but in the best way possible because they're restrained when the band are either doing more of a straightforward song, Are We Still Breathing? for example, or when the band dive into those more trippy and psychedelic ideas. But just knowing that they could go off and freak out was enough to keep me attentive to what they were doing. I love how the organ tones and bass kind of melded together in a lot of spots as well. It gave the whole track this interesting vibe during those more trippy spots that was quite cool, though it doesn't need to be said (so I'll say it anyway) that they are obviously separate for the majority of the album, doing their own lines. The guitars are nicely clean, but have that retro kind of tone that I thought was pretty cool as well. So, in summary, the instrumentalists are pretty badass on here, but what I thought was pretty cool was how they actually had tracks that were dedicated simply to the instrumentalists (or instrumentals, as they're typically called). For a band that has a such a lovely vocalist, the fact that they were willing to have songs without her shows confidence, and thank goodness these guys know their stuff.

As much as I do love all of this album, I have to be honest and say that Clusters is probably my favorite track on here. The way it just grooves and pretty much lures the listener into thinking it's a straightforward rock song and then transitions almost suddenly into more of a crazy prog-rock jam before it ends is just a gut-punch and I loved it. It's probably the track I return to the most when listening to the album. But it has to be said that the last four songs on the album are some of the best rock songs I've heard all year. From the more up-tempo and rocking Clouded Sight to the traditional prog-rock sound on Undertow and the epic jam-rock track closer, Quakes. They're all songs that stand out on an album full of highlights (which I think says a lot for the band's writing in general). But there really isn't a miss on here.

But the end result is an album with strong performances and songwriting, which is much more than I came into this expecting. It's a real gem that I did not expect when I first got it earlier this year. You can certainly expect to see this album again on here later this year and hopefully you'll make the right move and listen to it.
Overall Score: 9
Highlights: Heavy Tremor, Clusters, Quakes

Haken - The Mountain (2013)

Band: Haken
Country: London, UK
Style: Progressive Metal/Rock
Label: InsideOut

Ever since Haken impressed me with their full-length debut Aquarius back in 2010, I've been a fan. They're style is appealing to more typical prog-metal fans but they have those more quirky aspects that harken back to older prog-rock groups of the 70s and 80s which I love. Among other things, that's what got me on board originally and that's what kept me listening up to this point.

Perhaps it's because Haken seems to bring stylistic ticks from both modern bands and older groups that they have been able to make a name for themselves despite still being a relatively young group. In all honesty, I can't think of another band that has brought the two brands of progressive styles together in as successful or fulfilling way as this one. There are plenty of bands working in the confines set by Dream Theater back with their first couple of records, as well as groups who continually ape whatever bands like Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Cynic, and Meshuggah do (among others). Then there are the older groups who more or less simply improve production to give their releases more of a sheen, or the newer groups who just prefer that older brand of progressive music that is closer to fusion. Hell, the likes of Opeth, Steven Wilson, Dark Suns, and a couple of others have even retreated to those sounds for their most recent work, so hearing a band like Haken who so brilliantly combine the two aesthetic choices into a cohesive whole is not only refreshing but strikingly original as well. There are clear lines from where the band receives inspiration but no one influence is ever so prevalent that it dominates the band's sound, there are mere glimpse of one band, then maybe another, but for the majority of both this record, and to a lesser extent their previous two full-lengths, they have been able to craft something unlike any other group.

With that being said, this album is decidedly more jazzy in it's approach towards songwriting. Where the previous two full-lengths were definitely located firmly within more of the metal world, this album definitely brings in more of the quirks from 70s progressive rock and 60s fusion. The record as a whole is definitely not as heavy as a result of that, with tracks like the first released Atlas Stone or Because It's There showing more of that fusion approach to songwriting than a metal one. Perhaps the most striking evolution I hear on this album is the band's use of sound design. It's not often that a band, from the rock based genres, makes use of something like sound design but it can clearly be heard throughout this record. Subtle little touches from the synths or various pads that are used for mere seconds, bring a lighter touch (light in the sense that the band aren't taking themselves too seriously) to certain tracks. Perhaps most notable in the epic Falling Back to Earth where these subtle touches are just sprinkled all over. The drum work on this album has also evolved to heights that make it perhaps the most interesting thing on a record full of great performances. Through the use of tabla (and what might be hand percussion) the drumming approaches more of a Tool-esque approach of intricacy and interest.

The entire record is really an achievement in modern progressive (rock/metal) based music because it captures both stylistic ticks so perfectly without ever compromising to them. It's a brave record for the band, both pushing their sound into more quirky and jazzy territory while reducing the heavier aspects that perhaps brought more modern prog-heads to the band, but one I think paid off. This has been out for a while at this point and if you haven't caught up with it yet, you know what you have to do.
Overall Score: 9
Highlights: Atlas Stone, Cockroach King, Pareidolia