Annthennath - States Of Liberating Departure

A month or so ago Deathspell Omega announced a new album. This was great news to me because I was wholly convinced that the band is done. While I was anxiously waiting for the new album I spent some time revisiting their older and much less popular (or meaningful?) part of their discography. I'm referring to their pre-SMRC era of old school traditional black metal. Checking out all those splits they did and first two albums made me more interested in what the hell Shaxul was doing all of these years rather than to just revisit old DsO material. So I ended up getting a bunch of his bands and went on an adventure.

Reading his interviews and listening to bands on his label roster or bands where he played you'll quickly understand that he is old school and unchanging to the bone. He and people like him are the spirit of the underground scene. Sadly and I think inevitably they will eventually become ghosts as I feel at the moment that there will be no people to replace them.

In any case Annthennath is the best thing he has ever done in my opinion. This is what DsO would have sounded a few years down the line if Shaxul was in charge of things. Musically this albums is as traditional as it gets but it's not marred down by shit production or bad songwriting. The album is an expansive and interesting exploration of what can be done in the frame of black metal alone. There are plenty of riffs but they are not fun in a conventional way as they offer only darkness and cold. Another interesting thing about this album is that it actually has a very audible and well played bass. And by that I don't mean that you can hear it every now and then in the breakdown it's actually present at all times, complementing the guitars. This is both good and bad as it can sometimes detract from the overall sound (or maybe I'm just not used to hear bass that loud in black metal). All of this joined with Shaxul's unique vocal sound makes States Of Liberating Departure an underappreciated gem of finely played black metal.

Get it here.

Cubismo - first three albums

Hey so it has truly been a while. A slow year indeed but lets try and fix that at least in the end.

Every year I unintentionally dive into a genre that I'm not yet familiar with. For me the joy of discovering something completely different will never get old. I'll remember 2016 for the salsa, samba and other assorted latino genres that I've discovered.

But truth be told I partially grew up listening to such genres. My dad in his youth played flamenco so growing up I heard a lot of Spanish and Latin music but he never really cared to make me interested in it as well so most of that stuff flew over my head. In Croatia the most well known Latin band is actually a native band called Cubismo and Cubismo is probably the first thing that pops in my mind when Latin music is mentioned. Me simply remembering them again this year is probably what kickstarted my venture in these genres in the first place.

Cubismo consisted of very competent jazz, latin-jazz and salsa musicians from the Balkan region but they also had singer that was from Venezuela so the vocals were all in Spanish. This made them unique, exotic but also familiar in a way to most listeners in these parts. They had several albums excellent albums (which I'm currently sharing) and several later albums that were mainstream oriented and not very good (imho). For a while they were really popular but as time went on and novelty wore off the band faded away. Personally I think their downfall came to be because they started mixing other genres that just don't fit (generic 2000s eurobeat, hip-hop etc.) but their vocalist left so that pretty much killed the band. Their final album had a different vocalist on each song. It didn't work very well and they lost their identity and their greatest strengths.

The first three albums of Cubismo on the other hand are some of the best albums I've ever heard. Their early albums feature several great long instrumental songs that showcase a lot of soloist talents and a large variety in rhythm and improvisation. While all this is going on you'll also hear a great percussion backing packed to the brim with congas and conventional drums. Not to mention the vocalist who has the just right sound for this music. The albums are mainly oriented for vocal songs but every track or so the band will play a jazz standard or just jam it out for several minutes on a track. This tempo of constantly shifting the focus makes the albums varied and never uninteresting.

All albums are equally recommended. If you're not sure where to start I'd suggest you go with Motivo Cubano. Viva La Habana is a live album.

Cubismo
Viva La Habana
Motivo Cubano 

Cellgrat - Deception Schematic / External Habitation

Speaking of short lived cult grindcore bands here's another one from the American continent. This one's called Cellgraft, they formed in 2008 and sing about how everything is going to shit. In 2012 they called it quits after one full length (full 12 minutes of audio!) and a few eps, splits and demos. I've never actually bothered to check out their full length release, something I'll have to correct very soon but I've been digging their two EPs quite a lot over the years.

Deception Schematic is fully immersed into old school 90s grindcore style including the low end muffled production. Lots of screams, crunchy guitars and a few guttural vocals thrown in the mix for good measure. It's also really short, like 7 and a half minutes short. This is probably the greatest downfall of it. You don't really get to hear much of it but what you do is excellent if you're into more old school style.

External Habitation on the other hand has a much different approach. It's slightly longer but it's completely different in atmosphere and production. Everything has a lot of gain making it teeth sharp and extremely loud and disorienting. Seriously this shit is bordering on noise at times. I don't enjoy this one as much as I do DS but it's still a pretty wild and fun ride albeit also short one.

Get them both.

N.I.B.I.R.U. - War Before Extinction

Back when Insect Warfare decided to quit I was sorely disappointed. I mean, they released possibly one of the best grindcore album of all time (along with a string of excellent full length demos and EPs) and then they just petered off into obscurity. The band disbanded in 2009 officially and people went their separate ways. Ever since then I've been looking for similar grindcore bands and quietly following ex-band members of IW through their various projects.

One of these projects was NIBIRU which was a short lived grindcore band that didn't put out much but it was deeply rooted in IW style of playing. This EP is pretty much the only thing they did and it's only 8 minutes or so but it's fucking radical. Since the band contained a lot of IW members the whole thing sounds like IW (like it's a spiritual successor) but there are distinct differences as well. IW used to focus on those fast thrashing riffs but on here the focus is more on guitar chugging at lower rates of blast beats. The result is a familiar IW sound but much more slower and far more pummeling.

It's a taste of things that promised a lot but sadly they never continued with this band. What got though is surely worth several listens.

Get it.

四人囃子 - 一触即発 = Ishoku-Sokuhatsu

This album/band might be or it might not be a hidden gem depending on how knowledgeable you are of the Japanese prog-rock scene. I personally discovered them by chance and I greatly enjoyed this album which also seems to be their most popular. They also released a bunch of other albums but I haven't had the chance to hear them.

It came out in 1974 while the band was relatively of a young age. It starts off with a short burst of noisy synth sounds but it quickly segues into a much more conventional prog rock sound. The overall experience is similar to Pink Floyd and similar bands like for example the first (proper) track sounds like Pink Floyd but the synth solo feels like it came from The Doors song. It's strange but it works. Later on the album picks up speed and other drugs bringing much more psychedelia, strange transitions and wicked guitar solos. As it goes one (especially in the longer more jam packed tracks) the band brings in more of their own unique sound.

To be honest I'm not very picky about prog rock and I'll like an album as long as it's not too cheesy or cluttered so I can't really tell if this album stood the test of time or not. Its continuing popularity might suggest that it did.

Get it.

Sweet Smoke

Sweet Smoke was a band that kinda just came and went by. They never really garnered a lot of attention during their prime but they did record three albums (two studio and one live) during their interesting but short career.

The band was formed in US but they eventually moved to Germany where they lived in a commune. So basically they lived out their lives being hippies, eastern philosophy enthusiasts etc. while playing gigs around their town. Eventually someone from EMI came along and gave them a record contract. The contract produced their first album called Just A Poke.

Just a Poke is a +30 min jam which defines their sound/style pretty well. The band does not do regular song structures or lengthy prog passages. This sounds to me a lot like a really fine tuned jam session where each musician gets plenty of room to improvise and interact with other musicians. There is a structure here albeit very open and free but the music is still very melodic and in tune. There's no "out there" experimentation or free improvisation adventures. Everything actually gels very well together, the vocals occasionally pop in to sing a verse or two but the main focus is on soloing and having fun.

So now that they had a record and now that the record was really well made you would expect great things to come for this band. Sadly not much happened. The group just kinda dilly dallied around the world. Some went to India, some went home and some stayed in Germany.

Eventually they managed to realize that their album was actually good (Wikipedia mentions German tourists in Nepal telling them how popular they are). So after that interesting encounter they went back to Germany and recorded their second album called Darkness to Light.

Darkness to Light was in a similar vein to their first one but it had a much more commercial appeal. For starters the album was now segmented into proper songs and the vocals became a little more prominent. Although the songs were relatively short the album still has two +10 minute jams which are both really good and greatly improve the overall quality of the album. On here you can also hear some Indian influences that the band brought back from their trip. So while this album had filler songs the overall experience is still pretty much worth your time. Most of the fillers aren't that obnoxious anyway.

After this record the band again split up doing various travels and such. A year later the same company that did their albums recorded their last performance live and put it out as an album. This album was simply called Sweet Smoke Live.

This one is my favorite one from their short lived discography as it lets them do whatever they want and play however long they want. None of the songs here were on previous albums so all of the songs are new or unrecorded. With that you also get two jams at the beginning and at the end. During the first jam they do a cover of The Creator Has a Master Plan which is fucking amazing and should not be missed.

Anyhow, here are the links for all three albums:

Just a Poke
Darkness To Light
Sweet Smoke Live

Rachel Goswell - Waves Are Universal

Rachel Goswell is a name commonly associated with a band called Slowdive. I'm not very familiar with them so I can't really make any meaningful comment but I'll get around to them one day. She played for them the guitar and also sang and she also played in another band called Mojave 3 which is a great band and you should definitely check out their albums. Especially if you end up liking her solo album which I'm sharing.

On her solo album she combined the music of Mojave 3 with some of her own styling and instrumentation. Even though this came out in 2004 the album sounds a lot like the 90s. It's a quaintly melancholic affair with love songs throughout and songs of longing. It's one of those albums that you put on when it's raining outside and you just made tea and you're comfortably snugged somewhere warm. The songs themselves are diverse enough to feel unique in terms of instrumentation albeit being relatively simple in terms of structure. It's definitely varied enough to keep things interesting throughout the album.

Get.

Hate - Awakening Of The Liar

Hate is a Polish death metal band that has the misfortune of being popular enough to release albums on a steady basis but not being notable enough to attract decent attention. I actually have a lot memories attached to this band for some obtuse reason. I vividly remember discussing their (then) latest album (Awakening of the Liar) on now defunct DarkLyrics forums. I also remember downloading their songs from their homepage with my shitty 56k modem and so on. They even came to play in my hometown but by then I was heavily into noise and power electronics so I didn't really care to see them at that point in time (2008-2009). I heard they were really bad live though.

Their career sadly isn't all that great. After a bit of an rocky start they had a string of solid, melodic yet sufficiently heavy albums but later on they had an identity crisis in which they were trying really hard to be Behemoth. Their latest album came out in 2015 and it seemed like a return to form when I heard it so things are picking up for them I guess. Of the albums I like from them I think this is my favorite one and I feel like their style shines the most here. Every other album has some kind of problem which prevents it from being really great but it seems like everything was in its rightful place when they recorded this one.

The album is essentially a packed tremolo riff ride through the valley of death metal. The songs are written to be catchy, headbangy affairs and general crowd pleasing riffs and solos. Most follow a similar style in composition focused on well written aforementioned tremolo riffs with breakdown-ish parts that separate them. The band has a great sense of pacing so it never gets overwhelming or boring, they never dwell on one riff too much which makes them sound fresh on each new track.

Overall it's a great little (hidden?) gem from Poland. It's a shame this band gets constantly overshadowed by bands like Decapitated and such but I guess not everyone can be a winner.

Get it.

Pharoah Sanders - Heart Is A Melody

Sanders is probably the shiniest example of late Coltrane's music. His very intense and aggressive style of playing expertly portrays the intensity of his and Coltrane's music. His early albums are perhaps best received by the jazz community while his latter career is a mixed bag of good and cheesy. Heart is a Melody is a live album recorded in 1983 and it offers one of the greatest renditions of  Olé that wasn't done by Coltrane himself. On this album Olé is a 22 minute behemoth filled with emotions of pain and joy and the longer it goes the more intense it gets culminating in screams by Pharoah near the end. This song alone makes this album absolutely fantastic. Other songs are much more subdued but are fairly serviceable. Some of them are cheesy but if you're in a mood for that positive spiritual jazz you'll probably like it. The only song that I don't like is the rendition of Naima which was disappointingly tame and safe for Sanders standards.

Get.

Archie Shepp & Horace Parlan - Goin' Home

On this album recorded back in 1977 Archie Shepp paired up with a pianist called Horace Parlan to do several notable gospel and spiritual songs. The album is minimal in style, focusing mainly on the saxophone which is highly expressive and often resembles a church singer. Archie Shepp did a wonderful job here and on each track it's evident that they both care deeply about the songs which they're playing. Every note that Shepp blows from his horn is packed with emotion and grit, each passage brings chills down the spine. Horace Parlan to me is the weaker link here as his barrages of crescendos can get gimmicky at times but that is only a minor complaint.

Blissful is probably the most convenient word with which you could describe this whole thing.

Get.

Side note: If you're looking for a similar album but with the piano in focus you should check out "Steal Away - Spirituals, Hymns And Folk Songs" that Charlie Haden did with Hank Jones much later in 1995.