nox's music review blog

noxtheox likes music, and this is where he's gonna talk about it, once and for all, goddamnit

[telltaletypist]

*proposing to my prog rock gf* will you marry me

her: Yes. (prog rock reference)

[sillysayaka]

a very roundabout way of proposing (a reference to a song by the prog rock band Yes)

[telltaletypist]

[muirchiara-deactivated20181126]

you’ve been told your whole life that disco is bad. you’ve known your whole life that that’s a lie.

[femtoblogging]

best song off marble skies so far

[femtoblogging]

hey this isn’t a full fledged review but david byrne’s Uh-Oh is fucking fantastic

[femtoblogging]

haha

turns out grad school is a lot of work, folks, especially when you don't know what the fuck you're doing. I haven't had a ton of time to focus on this blog so don't expect much from here for a while. I'll post stuff as I can but it's been hard to find the time or motivation to write shit outside of school. I was really hoping to put together a bunch of posts before the semester starts but that looks pretty unlikely at this point. anyways, this blog will update if I feel like writing at any point (I probably will, but it'll be sporadic). I'll definitely get a bunch of posts in over the summer though.

feel free to recommend me music in the meantime though

[femtoblogging]

FUNKY TOWN

here we go folks back into the swing of things it's Blue Funk from Blue Note! 

this one's a bit different than the usual fare on here, so here goes. it's apparently an early 90's rerelease of a bunch of really great jazzy funk. intended primarily for the hiphop scene, where this stuff could get sampled into new material.

regardless of who it was intended for, this is a killer album. if you enjoy any kind of funk or largely instrumental jazz, this is for you.

honestly, this is a great intro to a lot of underrated musicians. i really dig almost all of the tracks on here, but we gotta pick some favorites so here we go:

standout tracks: candido - tic tac toe ooooh bongo man ooohhh

jack mcduff - hunk o' funk godddamn, there's really a lot of instrumentation here! and everything sounds great and flows into each other! fantastic track

damn, what an album! this is that good shit y'all. please give it a listen if you like funk or jazz or just music in general, hell.

anyways, let me know if you guys have any more requests! i'd be glad to review anything you guys want me to.

[femtoblogging]

CHRISTMAS DOUBLE HEADER!!!

wooo! reader beware you're in for a scare!

wait shit that's the wrong one

anyway on this chrimbus day i bring to you a treat! two reviews of some of my personal favorites for the price of one!

up first! mannheim steamroller's Christmas in the Aire

ooooh boy. lot to unpack here, for me personally. probably listening to this every year at christmas heavily influenced my tastes in music. i mean, it's synth heavy prog christmas music.

that aside, i do actually love this album. its really good and the more synth-y stuff makes me want to get out there and just fuck it up on the dance floor.

some nice classical sounding chorus-y, flute-y shit in there too. a lot of this is really grand sounding and such. nice stuff overall.

standout track: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

really, what a wild-ass album. listening to it now with the ear that i've kinda developed for prog its nuts that this has been sitting right under my nose for all these years.

main complaint here is i dunno how well this stuff all works together as an album. going from rudolph to the next couple of tracks is a little... not jarring but i keep expecting them to start ripping it up on the synths or something. still a really good album though.

next up we have nat king cole's The Christmas Song!

christ, what a talented dude. not that the instrumentation on this album is bad or anything, but his voice completely carries this whole thing. to the point that the choral bits in here are a little wierd because they arent just cole singing.

really traditional line up of carols but cole goes in on every single song. he blows shitheads like bing crosby out of the water.

instrumentation is overall real nice, supports the vocals well. like i said, the choral bits are good too, it's just almost disappointing that it's not cole's golden pipes. 

this is the one album that really makes it feel like christmas for me. man, nothing else gives me those warm tinglies like i was a kid again. 

standout track: the christmas song damn, it has been said many times, many ways, huh. but merry christmas to you too. 

anyways, thanks for reading! i hope that if you’re celebrating today, you’re enjoying yourself. if you don’t celebrate christmas, i hope you’re having a great holiday season! 

[femtoblogging]

first request here

from @bizarredawdler we have Rosé from Bran Van 3000!

the link should work as a playlist, not a full album

i wouldn't have pegged these dudes a canucks from listening to em, but i guess i should've considering the source of this request.

nice! n! funky!

great blend of samples and original material here, like all great hip hop. really really solid hip hop album from front to back

standout track: sex love and peace godd what a bop! funky, maybe a little repettitive but it works so damn well

kinda blasted from this last week. don't have a ton to say overall. great, tight album though. would be killer to put on at a party or something

after having written that, i checked their soundcloud and it says: “The idea behind Bran Van 3000 is to turn a really good party into a musical artifact.” so yeah, they really nailed it.

let me know if you guys have any other requests! i’ll try and get em done quick!

[femtoblogging]

great news everyone

i'm no longer dying from work! got a post queued up for today and should be good to go through the holidays.

[femtoblogging]

some killer guitar here

up next! gabor szabo’s Dreams from 1968!

gabor szabo, hungarian guitarist, is one of my all time favorites. certainly one of the dudes who i could point at and say “damn, love that dude’s style for sure.” he’s got sort of an unusual playing style on this album, ranging from chill and calming to frantically paced from one song to the next.  

standout track: The Fortune Teller i love the crazy, frantic feeling of this track. the overall rhythm is really good too. 

i really dig the overall sound of this album. szabo’s playing kinda reminds me of abou-khalil’s oud playing at some parts too, which is very interesting. 

notably, szabo and tjader helped to found skye records along with composer gary mcfarland(who also does piano on this album) in 1968. i think this might have been his first album on that label. 

damn. killer guitar album. 

i’m not really sure what genre i’d shuffle this into if i had to. like soft rock/jazz fusion i guess. 

please let me know if you guys are enjoying the blog so far! i’ve got a few posts lined up but i’m totally open to suggestions! thanks for reading!

[femtoblogging]

hope you guys like vibrophone!

cause here comes another one! cal tjader’s Fried Bananas!

hell yes. this is a collection of songs originally recorded in 1968-69(nice) but recollected and released in 2005.

this album is a lot more chill and mellow overall than Latin Kick, but it still has its fair share of bangers. to be fair, a bunch of these are covers, really lovely covers though. the way he tickles those vibes…oooh it’s really nice. while the first half of the album is more on the chill side, the second half trends towards more upbeat, high energy stuff.

standout tracks: Fried Bananas, Alonzo both of these tracks have a really nice energy to them. i love the more upbeat stuff on this album, and i can definitely see why they named this album after this song. the combo of high intensity vibe playing and a nice beat and some jazzy instrumentation is an eternal favorite for me.

all in all, i love tjader’s albums and this one is no exception. hell yes vibrophone. hell yes.

once more, feel free to submit or ask me to review stuff! esp if its an album you really like.

[femtoblogging]

oh hell yeah

its time for some mother fucking rabih abou-khalil! fuck yes! this time it’s Blue Camel!

rabih abou-khalil is an incredible oud player, and i fucking love the oud. love them tones, baby!

i’ve enjoyed every abou-khalil album i’ve listened to so far, and this one is no exception. him and his backing band make the oud and middle eastern style time signatures fit right in at home with modern jazz stylings. incredible. 

standout track: Tsarka that rapid fire oud playing is the best. fuck yes. 

this definitely wont be the last abou-khalil album i review. mark my words.

if you like jazz at all you’ll probably really enjoy this stuff. 

one last thing: while i don’t particularly love the album art on most of his albums, he has stuck by a particular style, which i love. 

[thekingofcosmania]

Visit Original Link

[unpopularopinionsworlddatabase]

I took a walk down to the park today

I wrote a song called, ‘Just Like You and Me’

I heard the jokes from the sports reporter

The rival teams when they faced each other

The more I lost myself, the more it set me free

How am I not your brother?

How are you not like me?

Everybody’s in the hotel lobby

I’m living in here, yes, I am

I feel it moving in my arms and fingers

Touch me and feel happy

[femtoblogging]

and the third album is....

osamu kitajima’s Benzaiten

what do you get when you combine traditional japanese music sensibilities with more western genres, like psychedelic and prog rock? honestly, i have no idea what you’d call it, other than “some kinda fusion that i love,” but it’s this album. 

god i love the bass and the synths on this album, and i love the way that they get blended into the sound of  the japanese traditional instruments

it’s really fucking wild how well these two styles mesh together. i guess it shouldn’t come as a shocker to me that kitajima has a doctorate in music theory. the dude knows his shit. apparently he played a ton of instruments for this record too.

standout track: Tengu (A Long Nosed Goblin) really really dig the beat and the guitars here, and how hefty they both feel while backing the vocals. 

this is the first artist that i’ve reviewed who is still living, so go check out kitajima’s website, he’s got all his music for sale there, even the older stuff like this. http://www.eastquest.com

[femtoblogging]

for future needs 

[femtoblogging]

alright it's time for round TWO

here’s my second album review! dave pike’s jazz for the jet set from 1965! 

this is a very interesting album. dave pike, ordinarily a vibraphonist, plays the marimba here (okay, fine, they’re not actually that different.) oh, and herbie hancock is on this album too, playing the… organ? alright. 

despite these not necessarily being their instuments of choice, they really manage to make it work. this album has a wonderful sound to it. bob cranshaw on bass guitar really ties the whole thing together too. that marimba plays so nice with the overall jazziness of the album. 

why the hell don’t more jazz groups use the marimba

standout track: Sunny  really utilizes well the bassy end of the marimba and makes it the star of the show, which isn’t done too often, i think. 

this album makes me wish hancock played the organ on more stuff. not that i dislike his piano, quite the opposite, but his organ is so nice here. i guess its hard to be the lead musician of a group and play the organ, since its kinda in the background. probably he preferred piano for a variety of reasons, actually 

why this album isn’t more well known is beyond me, it’s a fantastic jazz album. 

i really love this album art too, it’s got that sweet retro-futuristic flair, ties in well with the title

[sleeps-with-scales]

GAMMA KNIFE