#rv:xwd

[albumswapping]

The Aristocrats by The Aristocrats [via RandomDigits]

I needed something hot to blast during a summer day, and this might just be it. It's some... I suppose you could call it experimental metal? Combines a variety of metal and jazz tropes (gotta love dem walking basslines) and some wah-wah pedals, then randomly switches between going full-blast and somewhere lower. It's experimental because a lot of the transitions are incredibly abrupt and, due to the fact that it's a trio, the sound is somewhat sparse. Still, you get some pretty sweet riffs like, all the time, non-stop. Also wah-wah pedals. I am a huge sucker for wah-wah pedals. The almost complete lack of song structure kind of gets on my nerves after a while, though.

» xwd

[albumswapping]

Automat by Automat [via nil]

By a strange coincidence I'm already familiar with part of this album from Radio Soulwax's D&SCO mix where The Genus is used as a transition track between Sunday Morning Fever and Welcome Aboard (at around 11:20). Due to the mixing you can pretty much only hear the higher synth parts, so it's nice to hear the rest of it now.

Anyway this is a neat combination of space disco and progressive electronic. (No, not that progressive. The early synth and new wave stuff.) This means that you literally combine a space disco beat and bassline and everything else is progressive electronic noodly stuff. It works pretty well! All aspects are fairly well done. It's not super-catchy but it sounds good, and combined with the beat to keep things moving this is great general cruising music. The first three tracks (which are the A side) even flow together smoothly, and I'm probably always going to be a sucker for that. Also of note is the passages where the beat drops out completely, and that's still decently well done.

In general I would advise against dropping this into any mix not designed in some way to be chill-out or so, since it's not the fastest and the beats aren't super-crunchy, due to the fact that every sound was made by an experimental monophonic synthesizer. Which, if you think about it, is kind of impressive, but it still doesn't have a forceful drive, since that's not exactly what it's trying for.

Robots are awesome.

» xwd

[albumswapping]

Russkaja by Energia [via mediate]

I'm going to be real honest here, if you get something in a major key with a straight beat, moderately interesting bassline, and some kind of off-beat syncopation, and set it to a moderately fast tempo, I'll probably like it. I think. I don't want to test this theory of mine too hard, but given that this more or less describes this album and I think it's pretty cool, I suppose that's a good starting point.

Anyway, this is some kind of Russian ska thing? That's my best guess. mediate said it's like, folk rock? I'm almost positive this is ska. I don't speak Russian but there are occasionally things shouted in English that make about as much sense as most other things with random English phrases shouted. It's got an awful lot of energy behind it, which makes sense because the title of the album has an exclamation point behind it. Also powerchords and stuff. It's fun! You could probably throw this on while driving too fast or doing something destructive for cognitive dissonance. I love playing things with horns and stuff while blowing things up. One time I played the tank battle in Battlefield 3 while blasting fun.'s Aim and Ignite and it was pretty funny.

I really do appreciate the raw aggression offset by the inherent cheesiness of a full horn section. There's so much power here you can't let any of the songs go over three and a half minutes or someone in the band will pass out. I can't speak too much for the rhythmic complexity here, but these guys seem pretty good. Especially that drummer on the fast songs. I could barely keep up in my head on Autodrom but that dude was holding the beat nice and steady. I should note there are some slower songs too, but they've still got a lot of energy behind 'em.

If I'm in the middle of forgetting to brake for corners and this album comes on, I'm definitely not skipping it.

» xwd

[albumswapping]

Dystonia Duos by Joe Panzner & Greg Stuart [via gloomp]

And once again gloomp attempts to "expand" my "musical horizons" with ""noise" "music"" (imagine I had to get someone to make finger quotes around my finger quotes there). Except this time I think he succeeded, because I don't want to run until the hurting stops. I mean, I'm not going to play this again, but maybe I can use it to freak out old people.

Anyway, this is apparently some of the best that "electro-acoustic improvisation" has to offer. I honestly don't know why it has that name, it makes me think of a Kplecraft jam session. Hey, we've got a hacked NES, some drums, and a sax, let's jam! I don't know what this solo is going to turn out to be! Then again that's electro-acoustic jazz, so, something totally different.

I will say though, it's not the worst thing I could think of. It's unnerving, sure, really loud in a lot of part, but it doesn't come randomly out of nowhere, it slides in and out. There's some definite progression to it, though I honestly don't know where it's going. Maybe it's going nowhere, just like all of our lives! Deep. But at the very least it wasn't an hour of static.

I have no idea what was used to make this album, but based on some of the sounds and pitches I heard, I will have to guess a dial-up modem of some kind was involved. There's a lot of cheap microphone noises, with humming and hiss, but they go in and out so I have to assume that was a stylistic choice of some kind.

This is more of a single-album experience, and it's not like noise music has anthems anyway, so the tracks are pretty much all roughly the same. Organ b/w Timpani Solo gets points for reminding me of how much Homestar Runner likes the term "b/w" (backed/with), i.e. "Pork b/w Beans." Casa de Pedras had some nice bass to it. Also at the very end, when it faded out, my ears started ringing and it could've been part of the music and I wouldn't know.

If you're into this sort of thing, I'm sure it's already mysteriously made its way into your music collection like whatever that thing in Evil Dead 2 was that had the camera in first-person view as it zoomed around the woods. Maybe you'll enjoy this more than cutting off your hand with a chainsaw.

I'm going to go listen to Brazilian funk now. You know, smooth everything out.

>> xwd

[albumswapping]

The Bravery by The Bravery [via Aidiera]

This album's cool. It takes a bunch of things I like from various genres and puts them together in a relatively cohesive whole. Well, it's mostly indie rock. But it has disco basslines! Those funky, steadily-churning basslines that sometimes jump up and down an octave. I'm a massive sucker for basslines like that, and it gives the songs a playful vibe. Also making an appearance are synthtron / electroclash / "synthpop with updated equipment" synths. I'm not entirely a sucker for those, but I like the weird bleepy and rumbly sounds. They're used well here. Those get joined with the usual indie rock staples of guitar riffs (and solos!), catchy hooks, high energy, and ever-so-slightly whiny vocals. Let me talk about those vocals, actually. There's usually some kind of effect on them take takes the edge off of them and makes them blend in with the rest of the song pretty nicely. But when the effects are off or add reverb or whatever, it just sets me off and I get annoyed. Kind of a personal thing. A bit distracting, but it doesn't happen often enough to be much of a problem. I'm not able to make out the lyrics the entire time, but they seem to be mostly goofy things that sound neat, so it's fine. Overall, this is cool stuff. Perfectly competent, doesn't really falter. There are no slow songs, so nothing drags and the whole vibe of the album keeps up. I don't think the beat actually drops except during the intros and outros of songs. Which is good, because there's "dance music" that has breakdowns every 2 minutes and I hate that, totally kills the mood. The tracks are all pretty good, but standout ones (that I might play if I still had my college radio show) were An Honest Mistake, Fearless, Swollen Summer, Public Service Announcement (maximum disco), and Out of Line. The bonus track Hot Pursuit is okay, depending on how you feel about hoovers, so it's worth looking out for that version of it. Aidiera remains my go-to guy for mostly-inoffensive indie rock.

>> xwd