The end of 2018!

Hello and welcome to the end of the year!

This year was special in several ways, for starters the blog turned ten year old but more importantly I managed to make much more posts than in several past years. I'm really happy about that and I really fucking hope I'm slowly slipping in a comfortable steady pace of discovering/listening/posting. In 2019 I want to hopefully continue this trend (or just watch me fuck everything up after first week). I haven't been very diligent this year with discovering new releases mainly because of my work enviroment which didn't allow me to listen to music while on the job and more importantly it's a job that had me away from town so I couldn't even be on my PC in my spare time.  So during work days I would slave away without any opportunity to listen to music and my only listening days were delegated to weekends and during that time I just wanted to listen what I already knew to keep me sane. So not a lot of contemporary 2018 releases from me.

The list can be find at the bottom of this post so skip there if you don't want my ramblings. For those of you who like to read my thoughts here are a few opinions on some releases and bands from this year:

John Coltrane - Both Directions at Once

Is this a 2018 album? No. Is this a revolutionary album? No. Is this my album of the year? Yes! As a big Coltrane fan I have to say this made me really happy to hear and learn about it. I'm familiar with a lot of his established (official?) catalog and to be able to hear something new was something that got me absolutely thrilled. Is it deserving of all the praise? As much deserving as any other solid Coltrane record. It's definitely a victim of too much hype but I think people were just really happy to get a hold of it (apparently it was rumored to exist long before it came out). Not only is it something new by Coltrane it also happens to be made by my favorite combination of musicians that played with him so I can't really objectively look at this release. It got me thinking about how who knows how much unreleased material there is by jazz giants? I'm sure there are a lot stuff out there waiting for better days perhaps.

Pouya - Five Five

I have to admit I'm largely clueless about the current state of hip hop and trap. I have a couple of friends who are into it that send me tracks every now and then but largely the whole movement, which will probably mark this whole decade, is completely going past by me. I can't really say I feel left out because it's just not my forte. I'm a cave dwelling metalhead after all. Pouya is one of few examples that I discovered by my own during one of my youtube rabbit hole adventures. He's alright I guess. He grabbed mainly because of his fast and fluid flow and also the tone of his voice is really suiting me for some reason. I'm not sure how well known or good he actually is because I have nothing to compare it to. I like it, maybe you will too and his new single has been on heavy rotation this past month for me. His buddy Shakewell has probably my favorite music video of this year.

New forces and faces of jazz

I might be completely wrong here but it seems like modern jazz is slowly rupturing into two streams. One one side you have this insular, for the fans scene that is spearheaded by very technically apt players like Chris Potter, David Binney, David Kikoski etc. (just sifting through Criss Cross roster and you'll get an idea). It feels like nobody outside of contemporary jazz knows or talks of these people for some reason. I like them a lot and I enjoy their music but they can't seem to penetrate to a wider audience. On the other hand Kamasi Washington came from a completely other field and is slowly cultivating this new and also interesting scene of jazz and jazz players which seems to be aimed and also branded as jazz for audiences that aren't familiar with jazz that much. Sure they get shunned and not all of their albums are great but I think it's important that the pillars of jazz get shaken up a bit and him and similar are doing just that. The Optimist was released this year but recorded much earlier (led by Ryan Porter and featuring a bunch of players that are with Washington) and the album proves that the band and the individual players have much more in store than just flashy playing and endless tacky choirs. Another name that popped up for me is Kamaal Williams who seems like another interesting outsider figure in jazz. Perhaps what captivates me about his new album is that it pushes the lo-fi hiphop ambient music into something more structured and interesting while retaining its familiar comfy feel. Lastly from these new forces I want to single out Nubya Garcia who's short EP would probably top my list of the year had it not been for Coltrane. She maintains a good balance between outside and inside, showing skill yet still finding that comfy groove which seems to resonate among a lot of these "outsider" players. Such a shame I missed out on her live concert during this summer.

Metal musi... HEY WAIT, SUMMONING RELEASED AN ALBUM THIS YEAR

It feels like Old Mornings Dawn came last year but in fact it has been well over five years so this album came as a surprise to me. I've read several times on Metal Archives that this new one feels like just a Vol. II of the previous one but I have to disagree. The album is over an hour long but it never feels like that. The last song is absolutely amazing and is worth all the praise it gets! If we're talking only metal this is probably my biggest favorite from this year. I just adore the melodies, the atmosphere and the honesty this album oozes. There were several other good ones that I enjoyed like Esoteric Malacology, ION, Abiogenesis and so on but throughout the year With Doom We Come is the album that I would always get back to when I would come home during the weekends.

And that's about it from what I would like to highlight. I just want to mention that I saw Kraftwerk live this year and it was probably the best live show I've ever saw so far in my life. The whole thing was a thing of absolute beauty. Anyway, here's the complete list:

Metal:

Augury - Illusive Golden Age
Burial Invocation - Abiogenesis
Clandestine Blaze - Tranquility Of Death
Cosmic Church - Täyttymys
Degial - Predator Reign
Drudkh - They Often See Dreams About the Spring
Ectoplasma - Cavern of Foul Unbeings
Funeral Winds - Sinister Creed
Hiidenhauta - 1695
Immortal - Northern Chaos Gods
Imperialist - Cipher
Mammoth Grinder - Cosmic Crypt
Our Place of Worship Is Silence - With Inexorable Suffering
Portal - Ion
Sleep - The Sciences
Slugdge - Esoteric Malacology
Summoning - With Doom We Come
The Order of Apollyon - Moriah
Wayfarer - World's Blood

Not metal:

3 Chairs - Three Chairs 3
Andrew Jackson Jihad - Ugly Spiral - Lost Works 2012-2016
Coco Bryce & FFF - Falling in Love
Grouper - Grid Of Points
Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids - An Angel Fell
John Coltrane - Both Directions At Once
Kamaal Williams - The Return
Nubya Garcia - When We Are
Pouya - Five Five
Ryan Porter - The Optimist
U.S. Girls - In a Poem Unlimited

Thanks for sticking around and happy new year everybody!

The list of 2017

Hello and hi. I noticed a while ago that I did not make a 2017 list. I don't know why and I feel obligated to make one before I do the 2018 one. The 2018 (as you'll see tomorrow) isn't very long for reasons I'll explain when I write that one so here's a list of albums from 2017 that I enjoyed and liked to varying degrees to compensate my small 2018 list and penis. The list is augmented with albums from 2017 that I discovered after 2017. I would just like to mention that Dear (album by Boris from 2017) was really disappointing but to compensate for it a lot of good metal albums came out. I really liked Severed Monolith (from Gorephilia) and Reflections of a Floating World (by Elder) but most of these albums below are good if not better.

In alphabetical order they are:

Metal:

Abigor & Nightbringer & Thy Darkened Shade & Mortuus - 2017 - Split

Acrimonious - 2017 - Eleven Dragons

Altarage - Endinghent

Amaguq - 2017 - Occult Rituals of Anthropophagous Worship

Amnutseba - 2017 - Demo

Aosoth - 2017 - V The Inside Scriptures

Arkhon Infaustus - Passing The Nekromanteion

Arkhtinn - 2017 - IV

Arkhtinn - 2017 - V

Artificial Brain - Infrared Horizon

Ascended Dead - Abhorrent Manifestation

Battle Dagorath - 2017 - II - Frozen Light of Eternal Darkness

Bestia Arcana - 2017 - Holókauston

Blood Tyrant & Warden - 2017 - Duvonde Skerfe

Botanist - Collective - The Shape Of He To Come

Clandestine Blaze - 2017 - City Of Slaughter

Condor - Unstoppable Power

Death Fortress - 2017 - Triumph of the Undying

Death Like Mass - 2017 - Jak Zabija Diabeł

Der Weg Einer Freiheit - 2017 - Finisterre

Desolate Shrine - Deliverance From The Godless Void

Dødsengel - 2017 - Interequinox

Draugsól - 2017 - Volaða Land

Dysangelium - Dysangelium

Eldamar & Dreams Of Nature - 2017 - Split

Elder - Reflections of a Floating World

Enslaved - 2017 - E

Eskapism - 2017 - Tales Of Elder Forest

Falls Of Rauros - 2017 - Vigilance Perennial

Fides Inversa - 2017 - Rite of Inverse Incarnation

Firespawn - The Reprobate

Forteresse - 2017 - Récits patriotiques

Funeral Chant - 2017 - Funeral Chant

Gorephilia - Severed Monolith

Grave Circles - 2017 - Tome I

Havukruunu - 2017 - Kelle Surut Soi

Hellfire Deathcult - 2017 - Death Worship

Heresiarch - Death Ordinance

Impetuous Ritual - Blight Upon Martyred Sentience

Inferno - 2017 - Gnosis Kardias (Of Transcension and Involution)

Kêres - 2017 - Book Of Desire

Krallice - 2017 - Loüm

Nightbringer - 2017 - Terra Damnata

Nokturnal Mortum - Істина

Ofermod - Sol Nox

Over the Voids - Over the Voids

Phrenelith - Desolate Endscape

Rebirth Of Nefast - Tabernaculum

Rude - Remnants

Saqra's Cult - Forgotten Rites

Season of Arrows - Give It To The Mountain

Sinmara - Within The Weaves Of Infinity

Sinmara & Misþyrming - Ivory Stone-Hof

Skáphe - Untitled

Svart Crown - Abreaction

Temple of Void - Lords of Death

Time Lurker - Time Lurker

Tomb Mold - Primordial Malignity

Triumvir Foul - Spiritual Bloodshed

Turia - Dede Kondre

Ululatum Tollunt - Quantum Noose of Usurpation

Ulver - The Assassination Of Julius Caesar

Unaussprechlichen Kulten - Keziah Lilith Medea (Chapter X)

Ungfell - Tôtbringære

Vassafor - Malediction

Venenum ‎- 2017 - Trance Of Death

Vesicant - Shadows of Cleansing Iron

Warloghe - Lucifer Ascends

Not Metal:

Alex Sipiagin - Moments Captured

Alvvays - Antisocialite

Andrew Jackson Jihad - Back In The Jazz Coffin

Andrew Jackson Jihad - Decade of Regression Live At SideOneDummy

Billy Childs - Rebirth

Black Magic SS - Kaleidoscope Dreams

Boy Pablo - Roy Pablo

Chris Potter - The Dreamer Is The Dream

Coco Bryce - Love Fools

Craig Taborn - Daylight Ghosts

David Binney - The Time Verses

David Gilmore - Transitions

David Kikoski - Kayemode

Estrada Orchestra - Jazzbeatjäätis

Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Luciferian Towers

Ibibio Sound Machine - Uyai

Miguel Zenón - Tipico

Nubya Garcia - Nubya's 5ive

Sonic Poison - Combat Grind

Sylvie Courvoisier - Crop Circles

Vijay Iyer - Far From Over

Yosvany Terry - Ancestral Memories

Low Threat Profile - Product Number 1 & 2

Sifting through my grindcore folder I remembered this little project and I wanna talk about it a little bit. Low Threat Profile consists of established names from different legendary bands (No Comment, Infest and Lack Of Interest) all collaborating on these short and sweet powerviolence songs. For a punk band these two 7'' are produced pretty good (at least for my standards). They're crisp as fuck and the vocals have no reverb at all. This style brings up a feeling of great closeness to the band which I really enjoy. The songs themselves are pretty short and simple but they're pretty catchy and the vocal delivery is honest and just right for the melodies. Product 2 feels like a better, more polished release but both were made in the same year and are really short so you can't really compare them that much. First one is more raw and angrier though but in combination they make a good round trip through powerviolence land of polish and hate.

Get them both.

Magrudergrind ‎- 2007 - Rehashed

Here's a controversial opinion that nobody asked and is at least five years late: I don't like new Magrudergrind. By new I mean II and Magrudegrind. They're fucking awful, it's everything I hate about modern grindcore and powerviolence. Despite my dumb opinion I still really appreciate their earlier more simple efforts. Like many similar bands they shat out splits and comps faster than you could get them but I personally think this little album (or whatever it is) is the best, most concise thing they did in their career. You might think 62 trax of thrash is better but I think it's a lot less focused and perhaps even bloated. The most captivating value that this band had was the vocals which were really in tune with the ferocity and tempo of the music. They sound like someone has a severe cold and is really angry at the system. The gnarly vocals are followed by a relatively simple but effective array of blast beats and fast paced punk power chords. Fun and simple for a sad and complex life.

Get it.

Beyond - 2013 - Fatal Power of Death

How about some void crunching death metal? Why ever not? This small band from Germany dropped this gem a couple of years back with not much notice but boy does this one deserve it. It relentlessly channels the spirit of Altars Of Madness in all aspects but it is also drenched in reverb so it sounds pretty much like what the cover depicts. There are no stops when this album starts it only punches forward with fast raspy abyssal yells backed by an endless amounts of riffs and tempo changes. My only complaint is that it does not contain enough solos, everything else fucking perfect.

Recommended.

McCoy Tyner - 1973 - Song Of The New World

While Tyner is mostly known for being a long time pianist for Coltrane he also had a very fruitful and diverse solo career as well. Starting off with relatively conventional (but well made) albums he slowly diverged into more epic and more bombastic sounds. His style of playing gradually came to resemble the famous sheets of sound but in piano form. Song Of The New World truly is a bombastic large ensemble album that was made arguably during Tyner's most interesting phase. Afro Blue, the first track, should be the reason alone why you should give this album a shot but the whole experience is well worth your time as well. Tyner very skillfully juggles grand orchestral sounds and more conventional jazz arrangements with little dissonance in transitions between the two. Although the album is based around an orchestral setting Tyner absolutely is the focal point on every track with absolutely maddening fast improvisations and continuous rapid sheets of sound that make him tower over the whole orchestra. The only dude that manages to compare to him on this record is probably the drummer who manages to stitch everything together in a very fluid way. Good stuff.

Get it.

Walt Dickerson ‎- 1962 - Relativity

I was never much into vibraphones (and xylophones!) when it comes to jazz. I have mixed feelings about the sound of the instrument. On some albums it gives a good mystical and avant vibe to it while on others it's just plain annoying and out of place. Because of that I know a very little amount of actual musicians that are all about this instrument. Aside from the big ones (Milt Jackson and Lionel Hampton) I can't really name any others. I heard about Walt through his Sun Ra collaboration on Visions. I liked it so I decided to check out some of his solo albums. Relativity won't really blow your mind or anything but it will offer a very fine exercise in bebop and hard bop. With just a skeleton crew and vibes this album might sound a bit bare at times but I think it's good as it is. It emphasizes the instrument and creates this unique, distant and calm atmosphere.

Get it.

Bix Beiderbecke Anthology

I've talked about this musician before but let me reiterate. This dude was great, so great in fact that Louis Armstrong admired him during a time when everyone else admired Louis Armstrong. Today of course his talent and influence will fly over our head if we don't understand the context and chronology but his music without context still stands as some of the best dixie compositions made during its heyday. For those uninitiated: dixieland jazz was arguably the first fully fleshed out form of jazz. It essentially sounds like wild marching music coupled with short solos and instruments that were later on pretty much abandoned as jazz evolved further. It's fast, happy and unpredictable. No matter how much time passed this music will never feel outdated, to me at least. This anthology will provide you with his records that were made throughout his short career. Starting with the very raw and wild early recordings and slowly proceeding to his much smoother "swing"-like records made at the end of his career. Give it a honest try and you might just find a new genre to adore.

First CD+Covers

Second CD

Third CD

Tracklist and general info here.

Ralfi Pagan ‎- The Legend

I have a very soft spot in my heart for slow, smooth pop songs and Ralfi Pagan is pretty much just that. Cheesy love songs with a bit of a latin salsa thing was all this dude had in mind and they're fucking beautiful. His voice is light and heavenly so all songs have a very dreamy texture. He made a couple of albums in the 70s and that's it so this compilation offers a good introduction to his music. If you're in the mood for simple love songs this is a great choice.

Get.

Try.

Billy Harper ‎- 1975 - Black Saint

I've shared Billy's music before but I haven't actually talked about him or his style. Capra Black, which was the album I shared before was a very operatic and grandiose album with ambitious compositions that were very impressive for a debut album especially by a not very well known musician at that. He did have a music degree before recording it so it's not all that surprising that he managed to pull it off. on Black Saint he takes things to smaller but more tighter scales. Starting off the album with a riff that sounds like the composition is about to evolve into an elaborate Colors cover it quickly dissolves into a very organized, traditional and relaxed modal jazz trip. After this relatively calm introduction we get two longer compositions with first being a bit of a mixed bag mainly because the fucking cowbell is damn too loud. Aside from the annoying cowbell everything else is more free and more loose musically which offers space for more improvisational and more intense solos (piano being the centerpiece here). Lastly the album drifts off with a whopping 21 minute spiritual which lets all the musicians play at their hearts content fully immersing the sound and feeling of later Coltrane sound. Although a bit self indulgent this lesser known album is still a good experience if you've exhausted all the well known players.

Get! 

Frankie Cosmos ‎- 2014 - Zentropy

Frankie Cosmos is a twee pop project of Greta Kline and she's slowly but surely climbing up the fame steps by recently releasing an album on the Sub Pop label and doing world wide tours. But before all this she made a slew of self-released mini albums from 2012 up til 2014. Zentropy is probably the best of the bunch offering short and diverse songs which are all distinct from one another. Throughout the varied songs a constant form of self-hating and not so serious lyrical themes lurks behind the mainly happy melodies. Overall it's a great little album worth your attention even though some songs feel unfinished but they're all cute. Great for short bus trips.

Get.

Jackson C. Frank ‎- 1965 - Jackson C. Frank

Jackson was never a mainstream name in his time, he released one album and then faded into obscurity. But as things go his album slowly but surely gathered a large audience for a good reason as well. His album is a very finely tuned exercise in depression and melancholy. His voice is soft and well spoken and loud maybe in just a couple of songs. They are so calm and soothing that even though they are all sad in their nature they still offer this calmness and warmth that can't really be described. A sort of happy sadness. The lyrics are honest and direct, there's no masking here it's all just pure emotion. Reading his biography you come to understand why he sings the way he does. A shame he didn't have more luck in life but at least we have this album to remember him by. Recommended.

Get.

Bio.

10 years!

Lay your heart 

Lay your soul 

Upon my magic carpet 

Now we are flying 

To Venus just to kill some time for tea OK

It has been a while in more than one way. This year the blog gets to be ten years old! So far it has been quite a journey. From the popular days when it would get +500 views per day to a much, much quieter days now when a handful of people visit it weekly. From the merry days of rapidshare and megaupload to hard times of file hosting purges and scarcities. We've been through a lot and times have changed, unseen friends, but this blog did not. For better or worse the format stayed the same. I have things I wanna type about so here they are.

THE PAST

I started Flying Teapot in high school when I was 17, back in 2008. Previously I was a part o a few other attempts at blogging mostly with school friends. I had a rant-esque blog that I co-wrote with a friend (it's in Croatian and it was still up last time I checked, it's full of angsty teen rants) and a shareblog called vndrgrvnd, which is still up for some reason, that I ran for a brief time with my then very close friend Zmaj and another friend. And then there's Terror Noise Audio, a blog I still kinda neglect all the time for no apparent reason.

Flying Teapot was all mine though, from beginning to now. I wanted a place where I would give back to the community, I was leech before (a dead term by now I think?) and I wanted to atone for my leeching sins. Endless opposites and experimentation ensued. Most of them half baked or never finished (or even started). I was tempted at times to introduce other authors (back when it was cool to do it and back when people actually asked me if they could join) but now I'm glad this remained solely a one person effort. This I don't mean in a ego kind of way (none of this is intentionally self indulgent) but more in a way that it slowly because of that this became an indirect historical record of my life. A companion piece to another historical archive of my listening habits on last.fm which predates all of my other internet presences. Scrolling through my previous posts memories often come flooding back, remembrance of various phases I had with music, film and art in general. It also allows me in a way to explore how I thought of certain topics even if my opinions were cringy at times or badly written. I can also read through my posts and remember how I felt at particular times; where I was then both mentally and physically. A lot of posts during my college years (which took forever by the way) have a very distinct feeling of melancholy, depression and lethargy. I hated myself during that period (in a not very apparent or original way, I just drank a lot and did stupid shit) mostly for just coming to terms that I'm studying something I'm not really good at or actually talented at all for. Lethargy is still a very detrimental and auto destructive issue that I have which after college started impairing my working abilities. No idea as of yet how to get over it. But that's how it goes for most people and I learned to live with it for now anyway. But not everything here is so somber, plenty of posts ooze with relief and happiness (all Sun Ra posts were obviously made when I was in a great mood). I don't know why I'm writing about this now, I just think it's interesting.

THE PRESENT

I'm not a very active community user but it seems to me that these, more personal, types of blogs have slowly died away. More convenient methods of sharing came about. Youtube, spotify, bandcamp, streaming in general came along and made everything more easier (good thing!). There are hundreds of specialized channels, sites etc. that curate excellent niche or known music. Nothing is obscure anymore, you can go on forever following youtube generated suggestions. There are some downsides though. I'm saddened that blogs pretty much became just a utilitarian cover+short info+tracklist+link affair while before there was always a balance between that kind and this kind of blogs. The community part is either gone or relegated to something faster (discord etc.). I miss when people would write about the music they are sharing. Reading short stories about people's experiences with music, their descriptions of unknown bands, amateur anthropology! Back in the "good old days" there were a lot of interesting people sharing interesting music from their own carefully curated collection. You could talk to them in the comments, you would exchange information and pass on other good blogs that each found. I feel like a good chunk of that is missing now, overtaken by sheer accessibility. Is blogging dead? I don't know but no matter how long my periods of inactivity are I still don't consider shutting this blog down for good. Every once in a while a stream of energy hits me and I feel I could go on for days just talking about and sharing music shooing away my lethargy demon. Maybe one day it will morph into something completely else.

THE FUTURE

So now where does this leave Flying Teapot? I'm not really sure, my tastes have become much more conventional over the years. I'm slowly getting back to where I started. Old post bop and black/death metal, with occasional brief forays into other genres. I now have a sizable physical collection so that I don't even need to turn on the PC to listen to my favorite albums. I often feel like I don't have anything interesting or worthy to share that hasn't been shared before somewhere else. I don't have the pulse on the vein (maybe I never had). I stopped watching movies and I don't read manga anymore. I read books but boring ones. Autobiographies, biographies, history, classics, vapid fantasy and sci-fi. Nothing really captivating or worth talking about for the tenth time. I became a boring, safe person haha. Maybe I ran out of things that I wanna talk about? I don't know, I'll just have to figure it out as time goes. See you at the twentieth anniversary and thanks for being around!

I still miss my old dog. I'll never forget you. You meant much.

John Coltrane - 1965 - The John Coltrane Quartet Plays

Featuring the classic lineup of McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison, Art Davis (both double bass) and finally Elvin Jones (drums) this relatively overlooked Coltrane album offers some pretty great originals that Coltrane did during the late period of his career. The first side (Chim Chim Cheree and Brazilia) offers a more relaxed and more conventional style of his signature spiritual sound while the other half offers a more experimental, intense and free take on jazz. If you're new to Coltrane this isn't a required listening but if you're already very familiar with his most famous work then you shouldn't pass on this album. The rip I have has the booklet scanned which is a nice addition of context and thought as well as a few extra originally unreleased material.

Get it.

Crypt Sermon - 2015 - Out Of The Garden

Holy shit this came out in 2015. I thought this album is way younger (last year or something), I'm pretty sure I included it in my end of the year list of likes. At first I didn't dig this album very much, me not being a huge doom junkie helped a lot but eventually it did grow on me quite a bit. This happens a lot to me when it come to more slower sounding bands, I can't remember what the fuck they were duing.  Crypt Sermon plays that old-ish style of doom that sounds all grandiose and majestic, you know, Candlemass and shit like that but to me they definitely seem a bit more faster than your usual trad doom band. I remember vaguely that this album did quite a splash (at least on the internet) and I think it was pretty deserved, this album is just pure unpretentious fun. It rides that fine line of packing a punch but still being catchy and memorable. I often find myself humming hooks from this album because they really are just that great. The vocals help here a lot, being dramatic and all that but not sounding cringy. It's honest and that's what counts here.

Byzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaantium mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm~

Crystal Age - 1995 - Far Beyond Divine Horizons

"Hey that looks like the ship from Thresholds!" that was my first thought when I saw this album but the similarities pretty much end there (if we ignore the fact that they're both death metal bands obviously). Crystal Age was a short lived band from Sweden that made this album and then moved on to bigger (not necessarily better) things. They left in their wake a very solid and intense old school death metal album that has that signature Gothenburg production (and raspy, strained screaming vocals) but it's not that keen on pleasant harmonies. The guitars and drums pound relentlessly with good riffs and fast solos throughout this relatively short sci-fi journey. Nocturnus clone this is not but if you're looking for hidden gems give this one a thorough listen.

Get it.

Aoki Takamasa - 2013 - RV8

I'm a complete plebeian when it comes to electronic music. I'm familiar with a couple of those monolithic bands that you will inescapably hear if you spend more than ten minutes on the net but beyond that I every now and then pick something out that might be good (to me at least) on random chance. I came across this album via an interesting video that piqued my interest on account of the visuals. The album itself is a series of transitions of rhythm, mostly rooted in the same idea but played out differently each time. It's an interesting exploration of rhythm and texture that I always like to listen on long-ish road trips where I can focus on each little detail.

Get it.

Zaum - 2014 - Oracles

Even though the stoner metal scene is riddled with generic copycats and Sleep worshiping every now and then a band will pop up that offers something a little bit different. Zaum is a Canadian band that takes those middle eastern influenced sounds of Dopesmoker and rides with them in fifth gear on the first two tracks. They're atmospheric, massive and just right enough length to not get obnoxiously boring. The riffs might not be the second coming of Tommy Iommi but they do an excellent job of conveying hypnotic feelings. After those two tracks the albums switches to a more OM influenced sound (especially on the last track) which are admittedly less interesting than the A side of the album but are still enjoyable in their own right.

Get it.

Conrad Herwig - 2000 - Unseen Universe

A jazz album inspired by physics? Maybe in titles alone, I don't really know music theory that much to compare its compositions to modern ideas in physics. Nevertheless this great album showcases that there's still plenty of room for less popular brass instruments to be in the spotlight conventional or not. I always loved the sound of trombones, they're warm and pleasant and can sound ridiculously good and technical when in the right hands and Conrad definitely is the man with the right hands. This is an unrelenting contemporary post-bop album that keeps a firm hold of tradition but still sounds fresh and interesting. A great little adventure that should not be missed. Oh and Dave Kikoski absolutely rips shit up with the piano on this as well.

Get it.

Oppressor - 1994 - Solstice Of Oppression

Speaking of less known gems here's another album but this time in the realm of death metal. Early Gorguts came to mind when I heard this but this one is much more malignant, more sinister and more nuanced. Honestly the vocals are the only thing that are kinda middle of the road, they're your generic 90s death metal deep growls but the other parts of this intricate machinery are shining examples of innovation and progression that was occurring during the golden age (imho) of death metal. The music is riddled with these great passages between fast and slow parts that seamlessly come and go giving this album a good display of how should a dynamic album sound. Every track is some kind of maze of riffs and tempo changes with a good layering of subtle background atmosphere. A shame they didn't get more spotlight time.

Get it.

Realm - 1988 - Endless War

Realm was an underappreciated thrash metal band from the US that raided and pillaged for about few years in the late 80s and then went on their merry way. They left us two albums with Endless War being their first. Everything that we can expect from the production of an 80s thrash metal band is here but the band often develops their ideas in a more progressive and complex song structure. A primitive thrash album this is definitely not. These guys were pretty talented musicians and this album absolutely shows it with plenty of ripping and interesting riffs. Vocals lean more on the heavy metal side of things with Judas like yells and choruses (Vio-Lence comes to minds). All in all this albums is fucking fun and should definitely get much more attention. Solos galore.

Get it!

Walter Smith III - 2006 - Casually Introducing

Modern jazz often suffers from the stigma of being stale and uneventful. I was under that impression for a long time as well, the genre (or scene) seems impenetrable from the outside but all it takes is a little patience and willingness to look. The genre definitely isn't in the foreground at the moment but it still produces a lot of great records and a lot of great musicians. Walter Smith III leans on a much more conventional side of jazz but like a lot of modern jazz albums the 100 years of jazz is jam packed in his music and playing. A careful observer might notice that this cover is very familiar to another classic one and you would find out why as soon as the record starts with the cover of Cyclic Episode (originally by Sam Rivers. It's old and new but through a filter of a new generation that definitely has a lot to prove (standing on the shoulders of giants and all that but they definitely has a lot to offer.

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Apollo Brown - 2011 - Clouds

Even though lo-fi hip hop channels are now pretty accessible and popular on youtube the "genre" has been around for years. It's simpler now just to put on some livestream channel and relax but there are albums lying around that are pretty good as well. The listener should be aware that this microgenre is mainly designed to be background music (or foreground if you're interesting in beat making) so most of these tracks are monotonous and laid back. It's great for music for fucking around or while doing work. As long as those drums are mushy and bassy it's all good and you'll get your head in the clouds.

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Urzeit - 2013 - Urzeit

I don't know why but there's a strange degree of comfiness that comes with listening lo-fi black metal in the middle of the night. Bonus points if it's snowing of course. Urzeit fills this niche need for comfiness with all of it's might on this demo. This demo is raw and unpolished with a bit of punkish flair (as it goes with American black metal it seems) and it's over rather quickly. But for the duration that it lasts it offers a nice variety in riffs and structure. Not really as good or impactful as their latter releases but still a very enjoyable demo when you're in that special mood.

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Charles Mingus - 1960 - Blues and Roots

Mingus is one of those artists where his personality is often more talked about than his music but I think I'll skip the stories and anecdotes and just get straight to the point. Blues & Roots is precisely that, blues and other roots of jazz music. The best track perhaps is Moanin (an original, not a cover of Moanin')  but each track is its own beast played with a lot skill and passion. All of them are quite good and a testament of the passion that Mingus had for music. Recommended.

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Gorephilia - 2012 - Embodiment Of Death

Gorephilia is a fantastic new band coming from Finland. So far they have two albums and both are fantastic with Embodiment of Death being their first. Their sound is a mixture of various old school death metal bands but I think their main influences were Morbid Angel (the fast parts) and Entombed (the slow parts). Everything on this record is brimming with energy and potential although some tremolo parts can get a bit boring. Some variety would do them good and it did on their second album but here they're more primal and upfront. Even with at times mediocre riffs this is an excellent album of a promising band that you should check out if you're into death metal.

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Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe - 1987 - Onye Lusia Olie

Is there anything more happier than the highlife genre? I wouldn't know but it's definitely hard to top it. I recently started to explore the genre in more detail and even though the genre is very repetitive and insular the feeling of joy is ever present. Harmonies and jingle guitars is sometimes all you need to have a bit of fun and highlife is just that. Check it out sometimes, you might fall in love with it like I did.

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Sun Ra - 1972 - Life Is Splendid

Here's a pretty good live album by Sun Ra. The production is something that could have been improved like with a lot of Sun Ra albums (especially live ones) but if you're into Sun Ra you already know what to expect. The set they played contains most of their standards that they played at the time (Space is The Place, Watusi etc.) but with a renewed intensity. I don't know what was going on there but something compelled them to really play the shit out of these songs. Everything is turbo here and it's fucking glorious. This intensity is perhaps most obvious on the fifth track where the band yell s their astro-philosophy at the audience, even laughing at them. Really surreal and amazing at the same time. Even the track Watusi which is always a lively track seems like it's about to implode. Stars really spoke to them that night and lucky for us it was recorded. This a must for any Sun Ra fan in my opinion.

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Ignivomous - 2012 - Contragenesis

Sometimes you just want to be a lump of flesh on the anvil of an uncaring void that keeps mutilating your body and your sanity. That's pretty much this album, its ethos of contragenesis is preserved throughout this album from start to finish. Once it starts there is no going back from the swirling muck that this album conveyed. In all seriousness though as far as Incantation love letters go this one is among the top. I especially love the fact that they preserved some of their more thrashy kind of riffs that were more present on their demos.

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Sonny Rollins - 1957 - Sonny Side Up

I have to admit I was never much of a fan of Sonny Rollins. I hate St. Thomas, it's so fucking tedious and I hate the base melody for it. I know this is sacrilegious as Sonny is one of the greatest giants in jazz that ever lived (and still lives!) but I just could never get into his music or style of playing. With that being said I can't say I haven't tried a bunch of his albums and out of all of them this one came out on top for me. The cover alone should make you wanna pick this up as the lineup is completely stellar with Dizzy and Stitt sharing the spotlight. The album kicks off with a standard I always loved called On the Sunny Side of the Street but it's a complete filler of a song. It's not long and Dizzy even chimes in with some singing but ultimately it's just there to have pop tune at the begging. The real meat and potato of this album are the two +10 minute tracks where there is plenty of room for all leads to jive in with their instruments. Both tracks absolutely rip apart everything in the room (you can even hear Dizzy yelling "YEAAAH" in the back at times) and it's just one fantastic solo after another. They enjoyed making this and you can really hear it. Absolutely recommended.

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Junior Kimbrough - 1997 - Most Things Haven't Worked Out

Junior Kimborough made this record shortly before his death and you can hear on the record that he's about had it with this world. The album will start eerily with an (almost) instrumental of just Juniour and his guitar, surveying the land and telling you how much he's lonely. But like all good blues even if it's sad it makes you happy and pumped when you listen to it and shortly enough after this melancholic introduction song the album kicks in proper with some heavy drum pounding and vocal wailing. When it kicks into fifth gear it does not stop until the end and then it just leaves you wondering how much more this man could do if he kept on living. But we should happy with what we got because this is (to me at least) the closest perfection to electric blues that I'll ever hear. Raw, hard and sad this is what's it all about!

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Allo Darlin' - 2010 - Allo Darlin'

Once upon a time twee pop and jangly indie garbage was all the rage on the internet but it all died down relatively fast. What was left were a bunch of two-three album bands that are no longer active. Allo Darlin' is one of those short lived bands and this is probably their best and most famous effort. For what it is it's an enjoyable trek through twee pop songs about food, movies and love. They're all trite but ultimately lovable and catchy. If you are in a mood for it can be great. Check it out.

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Meiko Kaji

Like many other people I discovered Meiko Kaji through Kill Bill, it could very well be my first enka discovery for that matter. Ever since I heard her voice I was enamored with it and I come back to her albums often. Years ago I shared her most common album (or compilation) called Zenkyoku Shu and someone in the comments left megaupload links to a boxset of her. Recently I went through this boxset and considering how the links are long dead I decided to share it again, this time giving it a proper post. The set includes 6 of her albums containing large volumes of songs making this pretty much the go to collection of Meiko Kaji. The songs of course vary in quality, some are absolute cheese garbage while others tend to be more subtle and refined. All in all she's a great singer and this collection is essential if you like her music.

CD: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Booklet.

Sun Ra - 1984 - Celestial Love

If there ever was a constant in my life it was probably the music of Sun Ra. It doesn't matter what record it is, it can be his wildest or his tamest I will always feel like I came home when I put on some Sun Ra. I haven't posted anything by him in a long time so I've decided to share this little gem of his. This was late in his career and it's a quiet contemplative album and quite a conventional one (in context of improvisation) but that shouldn't be a bad thing. It's a testament to the fact that even though players in the arkestra often played wildly and free they still were capable and learned musicians. Despite it being a conventional album some sharp edges and the usual oddity of Sun Ra still peeks out every once in a while, reminding you and hinting at you a different dimension of music. Good stuff.

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Hank Mobley ‎- 1967 - Hi Voltage

Even though Mobley never really offered anything revolutionary to jazz in his career he grew in time to be a much loved figure. Every once in a while you just wanna hear some dudes have fun playing and that's what the biggest majority of his albums are. Relaxed, fun and with heavy swinging and Hi Voltage is no exception to this practice. The album brings around an impressive roster of sidemen including Jackie McLean and Blue Mitchell and they all seem to jell well with one another for the most part, even Mobley seems to break out of his style at several points. Jackie though might sound a little subdued here (in the same year he fronted the vastly different Demon's Dance album) but it's nice to hear him going back to his old roots. When you just wanna lie down and listen to some fun jazz tunes look no further.

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Gath Šmânê ‎- 2014 - Transmuted Marrow

Fast, heavy and riddled with fantastic and impactful riffs this two track demo was among my absolute favorites back in 2014. And even to this day it continues to be on my mind and I keep checking this fucking band in anticipation for something more. They made this short demo four years ago and nothing else which is a fucking shame considering how unbelievably good this demo turned out to be. Fingers crossed they come back with something new eventually. Until then get this demo!

Highly recommended!

Severe Torture - 2002 - Misanthropic Carnage

In general I was never much of a fan of the guts & gore death metal bands. I absolutely adore Suffocation which is apparently the progenitor of the brutal death metal subgenre but aside from them and few others I left the genre largely unexplored. I discovered this band on a whim and I have to say it hit just the right notes for me. The band starts right on point with a delicious tremolo riff backed by what else than blast beats. After that you're bound on a journey of chuggy riffs, gurgling vocals and monotone drumming. This combined with production that's not very keen on mid ranges and gains you get a comfortable, even soothing bass heavy album. It's heavy is but not obnoxious or draining. I come back every once in a while to this album and every time I enjoy its brutality in fullest. A bunch of murky entertaining death metal riffs. What more could you ask?

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Ensnared ‎- 2013 - Ravenous Damnation's Dawn

It's funny how as I get older I find much more enjoyment in raw and upfront bands compared to when I was a scavenging teen looking for experimental and unorthodox bands. Lucky for me these more classic-but-new sounding bands seem to be all the rage nowadays. Ensnared is a Swedish band that grew up on Swedish bands but instead of following their homeland footsteps they pummel things Tampa style and I'm loving every minute of it. In their 30 minutes Ensnared will remind you just how much awesome Altars Of Madness is but they'll offer it with a good serving of Sweden made melodic riffs as well. Fast and thrashy this EP might feel too short but the material here is filler free and unrelenting. The only downside for me is that they massively lack lava flowing, church burning solos but perhaps this intensifies the no-frills attitude. Such a shame after this EP they moved into other directions with their sound but nonetheless they still left us with this awesome work that satisfies my Altars Of Madness craving.

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FIVE ALBUM DRIVE BY

HEY FOLKS; HOW ARE THINGS? I'M SLOWLY GOING INSANE BUT EVERYTHING ELSE IS GOOD.

Back in 2017 I planned to do a themed week of Coltrane-esque players that were lesser known (back in the day and now). This of course never came to fruition because I'm a lazy slob - BUT - recently by accident I found out that my upload speed is no longer tedious and I'm able to upload stuff in MINUTES. So here are five hidden(ish) gems of modal/spiritual jazz. I don't want to bog you down with words so I'll just say that they're all recommended listening. The albums are:

Azar Lawrence - 1974 - Bridge Into The New Age

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Billy Harper - 1973 - Capra Black

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Booker Ervin - 1965 - The Trance

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Harold Land - 1959 - The Fox

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Tyrone Washington - 1969 - Natural Essence

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