Links:
Air

Nicholas Godin and Jean-Benoet Dunckel don't exactly fit into the electronic silo you'll find them filed under. Instead take 1960s psychedelia and 1970s space rock, and retrofit it with with an odd, almost wacky electronic bent. And not just in the song writing either, the production of this album is wrought with strange sonic elements and aural twists and turns that keep it anything but standard, even in 2001.

Air's most cohesive work to date has them collaborating with Beck Hanson, for a song that sounds like it was an out take to '99's Mutations. As the French duo weave in and out of psychedelia, space rock, country, electro-geek and a sublime golden few moments of spaghetti western silliness that gives props to composer Enio Moricone, they have created a blissful listening experience that refuses to stop revealing new and wonderful elements with each repeated listen.

-Jeff Ashley
[ top of page ]

Links:
The Appleseed Cast

The numbers here that are proper songs--guitar, drums, vocals, etc.--mine the moodier veins of indie rock. But with the vocals blurring into the background and the focus on the sonic textures of each, the songs avoid becoming maudlin, and instead weave a lush blanket of warm, inviting melancholy. Think Talk Talk here. It's not what's being sung or played, it's the way in which it's being done and the beautiful ache it leaves in its place. And like Mark Hollis' work, which I so adore, this album is best listened to with a good pair of headphones and the lights turned down low.

The songs shift and slip between each other through a series of instrumental bridges consisting of backwards loops, drum samples, and other smartly used covert effects, and listening through Low Level Owl you can tell that a painstaking amount of time and attention was paid to each sound and each nuance. The way the vocals melt into organ at the end of "Blind Man's Arrow," the way the reverb on Josh Baruth's kick drum at the beginning of "Doors Lead to Questions" recalls Jon Bonham's roar on Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks"--all entice one's ears with a cacophony of aural delight.

One of the things that endears this album for me is the liner notes, which cover the recording process and how certain sounds and effects (on the between-song instrumentals, at least) were created. As well, there are some heartfelt words by the band on the amount of time, energy, emotion, and most noticeably, devotion, put into the creating of this epic. It's not gone unnoticed.

Chris Crisci and Aaron Pillar (guitars and vocals)--who, along with Marc Young (bass) and the aforementioned Baruth, make up The Appleseed Cast--previously released a short-play, Little Hands, under the name Hundred Hands. [Click here to read the review.] And as with Little Eyes, on Low Level Owl they can do no wrong; instead, proving further that such musicianship and dedication to its muse should not go unnoticed. Don't let this one pass you by.

-Craig Young
[ top of page ]

Links:
Aural Blasphemy

I reached over with my rubber-tipped stick and tapped "play," and was pleasantly surprised to have my socks knocked off. Not in a "your neighbor just split the atom in his garage next door and the hypersonic shock wave just took apart every molecule of your body" kind of way, but rather a, "Hello, so glad you could join us. May we take your socks? Emil here is going to administer a nice foot massage," kind of way. With a name like "Aural Blasphemy" and the fact that solitary noisoid Joe Abrescia also runs the Frozen Media Empire label (New York's volcanic zone of North American noise), I was expecting to be punished.

"Nucleus" begins with a subterranean rumble, a distant expulsion of heat and gas through pressed rock, a swiftly approaching ground wave that pulses beneath a rising surface scream of metal being stretched and torn. "Sonomech v2" proposes the question of "I'd like to know what caused that noise" as it hammers against the inside of your speakers. "Sledge" barrels along like "Tentack One" of Imminent Starvation's Nord. In fact, a lot of the texture and feeling of Catharsis reminds me of Nord which is certainly another mark in Abrescia's favor--not that he's emulating the work of another, but rather that he has got the same splendid amalgamation of noise, beats, and melodies.

A lot of recent noise music (skipping lightly past the oxymoron some will still argue is inherent in that appellation) has left me tired because the artist tries to hard to produce noise and doesn't bother spending enough time on the musical aspect of the work. If I simply wanted noise, I could strap a speaker to my head and play Merzbow or just curl up inside a jet turbine. No, what makes me take the stick out of my mouth and remove a layer of earplugs and actually enjoy the sounds coming out of my speakers is music that seeks to use noise as an effect, as an instrument in concert with other instruments--other voices--to create timbres and sonics that still speak of how relentless energy can co-exist with continuing decay. As "Sledge" collapses, you can hear concrete rebar shattering, power lines snapping, and whole buildings imploding on themselves, and even the dust spewing out from the wreckage is charged with power and movement. This is the tumultuous lifecycle of the mechanized, industrialized world that is swallowing us whole.

-Mark Teppo
[ top of page ]

You'll be surprised to see that there is a parallel between the two bands. In fact, the first few listens I kept thinking Satyricon, but that wasn't quite right. There was definitely more Immortal to the sound. Then they Americanized the sound adding globs of sludgy, crusty grindcore. Then they brutalized the sound with a healthy vicious war metal vibe.

Battle's Clarion is definitely a war, a battle that is filled with victories and a few defeats along the way too. Averse Sefira need to get a producer to tame some of the wildness and simply fester away, filling with all that anger and unleashing it on us next time and again and again. "The Nascent One (The Age of Geburah)" and "Deathymn" really were mind-boggling black metal anthems unleashed with the energy of a neutron bomb. Averse Sefira managed to recruit MkM (Antaeus) and Lord Imperial (Krieg) to lay down some backing vocals. But the best feature of Battle's Clarion is the absolutely driving, maniacal drumming of Carcass. All hail the American king of black metal drums. I think a few bands had better start tightening the belt and get ready for a battle. Averse Sefira want to defeat them...badly.

-Sabrina Haines
[ top of page ]

Links:
Built to Spill

All of these slimmed down, though sonically formidable new creations keep tangential guitar lines in check and rely on slowly unraveling melodies and seamless transitions to carry the weight of their message. Understated inflections from keyboards, bass, drums and a variety of manipulated guitar tones (Martsch's slide playing is especially prominent throughout) fill the empty spaces where usually ubiquitous lines of smoothed over distortion would have cut in. Despite this logistical semi-overhaul, Martsch, Brett Nelson and Scott Plouf play as if they shared the same set of ears and hands. The contributions of Northwest rock veterans Sam Coomes (Heatmeiser, Quasi) on keyboards, and Brett Netson (Caustic Resin) on guitars; thumb piano and percussion are also noteworthy.

With a formidable breadth of music already in circulation, Martsch is living up to the abundant comparisons to Neil Young that helped introduce his strangely melodic, high-registered voice and his band's Crazy Horse-styled explorations. With four softly intoxicating meditations--"The Host," "Alarmed," "You Are," and "The Weather"--he adds further dimension to a growing catalog of songs, while making the transition from journeyman to master within the songwriting craft. Like Young, Martsch gives care and attention to both extremes within his songwriting vision. Ancient Melodies of the Future is an album caught somewhere between Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, with its frayed shards of electricity, and After the Gold Rush, with its wistful melodies and gentle rhythms.

Amidst all the musical construction, Martsch's lyrical portraits flow gracefully from his echoing call, probing common thoughts, feelings and problems, usually with an open-ended craftiness that makes them stick. "Trimmed and Burning," an ardent rocker rife with self-examining conundrums, features vivid statements like "there's a light that never goes out burning a hole inside of me" and "I've agreed to always love you but never enough to set you free." While most of what Martsch puts across leaves the listener pondering questions with no answers, there are some instances of logical forthrightness: "happiness will only happen when it can" ("Happiness") and "no one can tell me to listen, no one can tell me what's right / 'cause nobody has my permission, no one can see in your mind" ("In Your Mind"). Even though the album offers a range of different tempos and moods, it will likely be remembered most for its subtly powerful ballads. Martsch says it all in the love song "You Are," repeating ever so softly, before an euphoric flourish of slide guitar, the line "everybody, everybody knows, everybody knows that you, that you are."

-Dan Cullity
[ top of page ]

Links:
Corrosion of Conformity

COC, as the band is now most widely known, deliver a union of plunging, Sabbath-inspired riffs, shotgun drum beats, rolling and rumbling bass lines and gritty soulful vocals via frontman Pepper Keenan. Rampant DJs encroaching on the land of metal should beware this vicious onslaught by guitarists Keenan and Woody Weatherman. This isn't accepting territory. The COC experience is, and will seemingly always be, a basic assault of guitar, bass and drums pressed toward a final destination of sometimes foreboding, other times raw and nasty, always groove-heavy rock 'n' roll. This live document, recorded at Harpo's Concert Theatre on April 20, 2001, successfully captures the blinders-strapped-tight focus of one of the late 20th century's greatest metal bands, who have no inclinations toward hanging up their fire axes and putting away their smoking drumsticks just yet. A long layoff between the release of Wiseblood and America's Volume Dealer, highlighted by a label switch from industry giant Columbia to Sanctuary, was seemingly a motivating force, reinvigorating rather than wounding the band. With new momentum behind them, COC could have shrunk in the face of a serious back injury to drummer Reed Mullin that made touring impossible, but they surfaced with old friend Jimmy Bower (Crowbar, Down, Eyehategod, The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight) in tow to disrupt the skins. The fellow Southerners fit like biscuits 'n' gravy, and judging from the success of the tour and the live fire presented here, COC were riding mighty high in the saddle in 2001.

-Dan Cullity
[ top of page ]

Links:
Craig David

Craig David's Born to Do It is a smart blend of American hip-hop, R&B, and British two-step. Two-step, for those not in the know, is a fusion of drum 'n' bass and R&B rhythms. Successful purveyors of this type of music include MJ Cole and Artful Dodger. As luck would have it "Fill Me In," the first hit single off the album, is nothing more than artful dance floor styled foreplay that makes the most stubborn of wallflowers nod their heads. "Can't Be Messing Around" is the push over the edge that will have everyone running to the dance floor, including the wallflowers. With an ease that belies his years, Craig smoothly transitions the listener from dance floor to the bedroom with songs like "Rendezvous" and the R&B smooth "Follow Me." Craig even gives us a taste of his native two-step musical sound with "Rewind."

Mechanical, stuttered, and yet groove oriented this sampling of two-step proves that the genre may be around for a while. And it could easily become a staple of the American rave scene--which would make two-step only the third thing to come from the UK I've been fond of lately, (sorry "P," I couldn't resist). Back on point, it's been a long while since I've been able to utter or type the word "pop" in a positive context and smile, and Craig David alone is the reason for this welcomed change.

Born to Do It does it better and more consistently than anything I've heard since we changed centuries. If The Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync or Britney Spears had this kind of talent they'd actually be worthy of all the adoration and love of their fans. Born to Do It is a giant step in the right direction for pop music. Hopefully this album signifies a return for pop music on a mass scale to artistry and respectability.

-Cecil Beatty-Yasutake
[ top of page ]

Hypocrisy
10 Years of Chaos and Confusion
Nuclear Blast

Links:
Crematory
Hypocrisy

If you are one of the lucky few that will get to or got to catch them on their final tour, you have great memories of Crematory. For the rest of us, Crematory presents Remind: a select retrospective of their distinguished career. If you are really lucky, you might rush down to the local indie and beg for a "brilliant box" of Remind because it is a limited edition with the live disc plus a bonus disc with the extremely rare tracks "Tears of Time," "Fly," and "Do You Know," along with the original demos. Yes, of course, you owe it to yourself to get a nice Crematory brilliant box--did I mention the thick booklet in German?

The only reason that I'm not totally bummed that bands are closing out their careers (Emperor, Crematory, who's next?) is that Hypocrisy is still together and so is Pain. Peter Tagtgren is the most exciting, creative force around Scandinavia these days and I'm all for keeping him busy with projects--either producing or creating music. Sure, you have all the other Hypocrisy albums so you would already have all these choice Hypocrisy gems--"The Fourth Dimension," "Penetralia," "Osculum Obscenum," "Deathrow (No Regrets)," "Killing Art," "A Coming Race," "Fractured Millennium," "Roswell 47," "Fire in the Sky" and "The Final Chapter" (appropriately last in order).

Possessor's of the first pressing of 10 Years of Chaos and Confusion will get a bonus disc featuring a new song "Turn the Page" (can't tell you what it sounds like, didn't get that one) and 8 demo tracks. I'm sure you've already taken off running to purchase the double disc set before it sells out.

-Sabrina Haines
[ top of page ]

Links:
The Cult

After an 11-year absence from making a decent record, The Cult have put their leather pants back on, and made a rock record that rivals anything they've done to date. If you ever liked The Cult, and gave up on them (like I did), you need to get this one. It's like Love, it's like Electric, it's like Sonic Temple, with a production that makes Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy sound nastier and heavier than ever before. Ian's super rock wail confirms him as one of heavy rocks masters, and Billy Duffy's guitar playing has never been more hooky, more riffy, more catchy or more like Black Sabbath. This one has them thinking they're Jagger and Richards.

I'm forgiving them for the '90s--the typical order of things hasn't suffered a bit. The first half of the album sounds so much like The Cult you love that upon fist listen, you'll swear you have heard it before. Then just following the albums consummate, and quite-ultimate, rock ballad "Nico," it takes a sudden and unexpected turn for the dark. The second half, beginning with the diabolical "American Gothic," makes short work of tearing things apart. It's a lot like Soundgarden's Bad Motorfinger, or Sam Ramie's movie A Simple Plan. As it develops and evolves, it becomes hugely manic and focused simultaneously.

I cannot prop Ian Astbury or Billy Duffy any more. They have made what is sure to be one of the best rock records of the the first decade of this new millennium--17 years after they started.

-Jeff Ashley
[ top of page ]

Links:
Iced Earth

It's a theory, but I think Schaffer had to regroup musically and he went to his roots--those terrifying teen years watching horror flicks. These aren't hokey tributes or jokes, these are serious, well-fleshed songs written from the sad perspective of the "monster." Iced Earth could have done worse, they could have sold out and done rap-metal; so be proud, metalheads, Iced Earth is true blue metal. I like the track "Wolf" best because it flat-out rocks and there's always been a little wolf in me, but Sabrina is partial to "Damien" for some twisted reason. Other stand-out tracks are "Im-Ho-Tep," "The Opera Ghost," "Ghost of Freedom" and "Jack." Horror Show is every bit the equal of Something Wicked... and Stormrider. Now, if I figure this correctly, I should be able to catch them a couple of times on their September tour.

-Jason Haines
[ top of page ]