Beach House - Teen Dream

Majestic, dreamy, beautiful.

Flying Lotus - Reset EP

Futuristic glitchy deep bass-heavy hard hip-hop beats. One of the most original artists in my eyes. He knows what the fuck is up. These tunes are bitchin'.

Charles Mingus - Blues & Roots

Energetic to no end. Upbeat and bluesy, with tons of catchy leads. Mingus, once again, proves he is a master of jazz. Easily a favourite.

Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um

The first time I listened to this, I had my volume on low. Big mistake. Upon turning up the volume, I took note of all the detail in the music. Rich and flavorful jazz, with songs ranging from ballads to upbeat bebop. Catchy rhythms and leads, especially by the saxophonists. Mingus and the crew are geniuses.

We™ - As Is

Chill out to a great mix of drum and bass, ambient, hip-hop, and trip-hop, featuring unique atmospheres and the ever-so-popular amen break samples.

Antaeus - Blood Libels

No fucking bullshit, straight to the point. Raw, blasting, loud, abrasive black metal in your face. I don't know why I've always hesitated to check this out.

Frank Zappa - Hot Rats

Rich and beautiful instrumentation. So many good things going on here.

William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops I

The sound of decay; the world around you is falling apart.

Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam

That looks delicious. Strawberry fucking jam.

So it's been approximately two months, and Animal Collective has become my new favourite band. They make incredibly psychedelic, experimental, happy, and catchy tunes. I have problems staying still when I listen to a lot of their songs. This music is like a drug for me. And apparently this is music for drug users. I never thought I'd actually like any of this hyped indie stuff, but hey, it looks like Animal Collective is a great start for me.

Strawberry Jam starts off with Peacebone, whose introduction is just ever so reminiscent of old-school Nintendo-esque audio. Messy (but rather captivating) electronics scattered around, which then leads to a little bit more organization, which then leads into the pulsating kick drum sound, which then leads into the singing. The vocal melody (and everything about the song) gives off such a happy vibe. Chores, For Reverend Green, and Fireworks are also delightful songs which completely trip you out if you fully submit yourself to them. Cuckoo Cuckoo is a complete mindfuck, and a rather spazz-tastic track. Strawberry Jam ends off strong with Derek, which carries an extremely catchy melody.

Lyrics? ... lololol, man, these lyrics are fucked up. Just looking at them will inform you that Animal Collective do (or have done) drugs. Excessively? Maybe. Look at Chores, shit's quite evident. "I only want the time / To do one thing that I like / I want to get so stoned / And take a walk out in the light drizzle / At the end of the day / When there's no one watching". Rather humorous, if you ask me. But really, Animal Collective's lyrics are creative, drug-influenced, somewhat full of non-sequiturs (e.g. Peacebone), and most certainly, are incomprehensible works to be deciphered and interpreted.



Track picks (in no order): Fireworks, For Reverend Green, Peacebone, Chores

Heaven In Her Arms - Erosion of the Black Speckle

Hm... this is quite good.

Heaven In Her Arms' debut is a passionate (well, of course) screamo/post-hardcore album, with influences from progressive metal, post-rock, and even metalcore at times. The music is fantastic, but the vocalist are rather unfitting. He would work his magic a lot better in a black metal band. lol

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew

Charismatic cacophony.

Shpongle - Tales of the Inexpressible

I don't do drugs and this is still awesome.

Shad - The Old Prince

Wow. Such unexpected mastery coming from this underground emcee. Shadrach Kabango's second album, The Old Prince, presents such a wonderful experience. There's so many good things going on here, and it is full of traits that hip-hop albums these days should have -- soulful beats/music, lyrical prowess, and conscious topics. Shad is a seriously talented rapper in my eyes; he absolutely kills it all with his continuous multisyllabic rhyming and creative, fun wordplay. His lyrics piece together and make so much sense, with topics ranging from piracy to poverty. And he can even do this in such a comic manner -- listen to "The Old Prince Still Lives at Home," in which he humorously describes what his poor life is like. After a fantastic 40 minutes of quality music and rapping, Shad leaves off with a poem with a powerful message, which continues on from some of the album's earlier themes.

A masterpiece of hip-hop.



listen to: I Don't Really Like To, Now A Daze, The Old Prince Still Lives at Home

Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun

Hypnotic, trippy, psychedelic, noisy, experimental, and densely packed with percussion. It sucks you in and gets you addicted.

Pendulum - Hold Your Colour

Kinda hard to describe... identical, unchanging, formulaic songs, but extremely high energy. Incredibly danceable, but don't pay too much attention to it or you won't be blown away (that's what I did, being the nerd that I am). Just turn this shit up and rave the fuck out.

Extra points for the sick album art.



Listen to: Slam, Fasten Your Seatbelt

pg.99 - Document #8

Document #8 stands as probably one of the most well-known albums within its genre. No surprise, since it is one hell of a listen. Relentless to no end, this is pure chaos straight to the head. Emotion just seeps out of this one in every way possible. Lyrically, this is quite outstanding; poetic and dramatic on a rather high level. Straight from the heart. As for the instruments, masterful composition is shown, à la hardcore punk/screamo. The last track (not the re-issue) is a mostly instrumental piece--epic, long, and beautiful.

Listen to this, and Your Face [will be] a Rape Scene.

Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep

Supreme old-school vibe, thanks to the RZA's near-impeccable jazzy production, grotesque topics (fulfilling the "horrorcore" tag), and solid lyricism. Truly entertaining.

Autechre - Tri Repetae

(yes, that is the album cover, don't ask me why)

I'm surprised I haven't shared a couple of my thoughts regarding one of my most favouritestest albums in the world.

IDM gurus Sean Booth and Rob Brown drop some godly glitchy electronic beats in their extremely unique style here. Minimal yet absolutely intriguing, the tracks lean towards the more ambient side or the more IDM side (and sometimes both). Either way, you get the transcendent experience. Tri Repetae begins with Dael, which starts off with a slow, hard-hitting beat fused with glitches. Once the melody/bass enters, you get the impression that the song is sinister and evil. Doesn't really sound like it would work in an electronic album like this, but holy shit does it ever. Listening to the album a little more, you get more of the glitchy clicks and cuts used in beats -- something Autechre is quite known for. Another one of their distinctive traits is that they slowly add thin layers of music (whether it be synth, glitches, or beats) like stacking up a cold cut sandwich, until it gets really filled and you're satisfied with the result (gay analogy). You would notice a lot of that throughout Tri Repetae. C/pach is easily one of my favourite joints on this album, as it's basically a glitch-hop kind of beat. Eutow is also a bitchin' tune, with a fast-paced dance beat and deep synth melodies.

I could probably ramble on and on about this album, but I'll stop here to leave you hanging. A wonderfully textured album, rich with sound and packed with loads of material to enjoy. Listen to this!!!!11



Recommended tracks: Dael, Clipper, Eutow, C/pach

Earth - HEX; or Printing in the Infernal Method

I like this album. I like it a lot. A lot.

As track 2 started playing (because the first track is sorta like ambient filler), I was amazed, simply by the approach/style. Slow, brooding, looming, dark, desolate. This is the kind of music to listen to on an evening spent in barren (western desert) farmlands (as suggested by the album cover lololol). Clean guitars tweaked by high degrees of reverb and delay, slow drumming. I don't even know how to describe this in terms of genres, because it's droney like their earlier material, but it's not drone doom; it's really slow but it's not doom metal, in fact it's not even metal at all, it's sort of like post-rock but it's not, and there's a huge Western (ie. wild wild west lol) influence. Hmm... ambient western slowcore? Honestly, I don't know. But that just means that you'd have to listen to this to determine for yourself. The lead guitar playing on Raiford (The Felon Wind) further supports my statement regarding the Western influence, with images of deputies, cowboys, sheriffs, tumbleweeds, saloons, quick drawing, and revolvers being immediately and vividly painted in my mind.

The songs started to sound a little repetitive and same-y for me as I continued the album, but that was really not much of a concern as the unique and unmatched atmosphere created was truly captivating.

Earth - Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version

An hour and 13 minutes of encompassing, monolithic drone doom. Given that this band is the main purpose/influence of Sunn O))), you'd know what to expect from this album. Booming bass, downtuned distorted guitars, all that you could really ask for in a drone doom album. As soon as the album was done, my ears felt so empty without the drones, and I was craving for more.

I'd probably like this more if less notes were played (especially on the first track), but this is still an excellent record in my opinion.