Sam Jones - 1960 - The Soul Society

 

Here's a jazz album I've been meaning to share in a good while. Aside from Charles Mingus and Jaco Pastorious I don't think there ever was a very visible bass player in the world of jazz. Sure - Ron Carter was an omnipresent figure throughout most of jazz history but the spotlight rarely shined on him. For this (real or not) reason I always had this fascination with bassist led albums and groups. They hit different.

Sam Jones recorded a lot as a sideman most notably for Cannonball Adderley but he had a slew of his own albums as well with this one being his debut album according to Wikipedia at least. Interestingly the line up is bigger than what is on the cover but I guess Riverside decided these dudes will draw the most eyes in the record store. As is maybe evident from the cover Jones switches from double bass to cello per track keeping things fresh.

The album is a hard-bop treat that isn't treading any new ground but it does not need to nor it proclaims to be. There are two standards here and the rest are compositions from various members of the group offering mostly mid tempo grooves and solos. Jones tends to be a bit too high in the mix which might put some people off but I had not so much problem with it. Aside from that I can't really think of anything to complain about this record. It's just good and varied fun session.

Get it / Stream it

Eiskalte - 2020 - Demo MMXIX

 

Continuing with the theme of obscurity here's another black metal band that's largely unknown (not even on Metal Archives at the time of writing!).

This tape runs for 13 minute and the cover should give you a pretty good idea on how it sounds. The closest comparison would be, of course, Paysage d'Hiver but the project is distinct enough to no be just a clone of it. The mixing is a little weird because the tape essentially has two layers of sound. The first, dominant, layer is the melancholic synthwork which is of a significantly better sound quality (and it sounds much louder) than the guitar/drums/vocal work which make the second far less dominant and softer sounding layer. The black metal part is traditional atmoshit done well with piercing vocal shrieks, blastbeats and buzzing guitars. The synths are melancholic, slow and very winter comfy. I adore to listen to bands and albums mixed like this in the middle of the night with just me and my books or whatever. The only bad thing I would say about this tape is that the jumps between the black metal and ambient parts are at points done very jarringly and definitely get you kicked out of the intended mood. Despite that I would still recommend this a try when you're in the mood for some introspective lo-fi stuff.

Get it!

Stream it!

Alpgeist - 2020 - Bergteufel und Waldgeister

 

Hey folks! I'm all healed up and I have albums to share. Last time I was posting something it was November (black metal time) so I think I'll continue with a couple more black metal albums I've discovered recently.

Alpgeist is a relatively obscure German black metal band from Bavaria that has this one long form song EP and a demo prior. I've not checked the demo but this EP is a gem that definitely needs much more (internet) exposure than it got initially back in 2020. The EP title roughly translates to mountain devils and forest spirits and as soon as it starts you'll get hit by a comfy barrage of atmospheric keyboards and melodic tremolo riffs. The atmosphere of the EP certainly is "foresty" but it is very upbeat and dynamic. The production is crisp and audible making the synths able to stand out every time they kick in. Often the nature inspired bands get bogged down in monotony but this release provides a lot of changes in tempo and riffing making these 20 minutes feel way too short. Looking forward to hear where this band goes next and in the meantime if you're in search for some solidly made black metal be sure to check this out!

Get it!

Stream it!

End of one year and start of another one!

Hello everyone and happy new year!

I hope everyone is alright and that the year of 2022 was decent enough for you. For me it was mainly alright and with a lot of traveling as was the case for the last few as well.

Perhaps the biggest thing that marked this year for me was the passing of my grandfather who was a major influence to me in a lot ways especially in music. I don't think I would ever be that much into jazz if it weren't for him. Although someone passing is always a sad affair he was 94 years old at the time so it's not like we didn't have enough time with him and he was getting tired of life anyway. Especially after his wife passed away. "After you hit 80 you should just be taken outside and shot in the back of your head." is what he would say (half jokingly) whenever we would have to drive him to the doctor. While I already did share a lot of artists that I'm listening to specifically due to his influence (Bix Beiderbecke, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong etc.) there are still some artists I haven't reflected on and I hope to in the following years.

The blog, as usual, isn't as active as it was in its heyday of sharing but I hope to pop in and share stuff when I get the time and inspiration.

Unfortunately I recently suffered a ruptured eardrum so listening to music has been particularly hard this past month or so but I should get into surgery to get that fixed hopefully relatively soon. I might actually focus more on some reading in the meantime or something...I don't know. We'll see how it goes!

2022 IN MUSIC

Musically I'd say this year was pretty good. I can't really say I was amazed by a lot of albums but the output was pretty good overall. Obviously I was looking forward to new Deathspell Omega but in the end it left a fairly lukewarm impression on me. I am looking forward to studying the lyrics a bit more in depth as I hear from others they're a good read. A lot of good jazz came out this year, most notably for me the Sun Ra Arkestra put out a fantastic album that I revisited a lot this year.

My list is in alphabetical order but the bolded albums are my favorites. Hope you will find something you like!

BLACK METAL

Acherontas - Malocchio - The Seven Tongues Of Ahmon [bandcamp, youtube]
Aerdryk - Met De Drietand Op Mijn Huid [bandcamp, youtube]

Bekëth Nexëhmü - De Evigas Gravrit [bandcamp, youtube]

Bhleg - Fäghring [bandcamp, youtube]

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium [bandcamp, youtube]

Coscradh - Nahanagan Stadial [bandcamp, youtube]

Dark Funeral - We Are The Apocalypse [spotify, youtube]

Deathspell Omega - The Long Defeat [spotify, youtube]

Doldrum - The Knocking, Or The Story Of The Sound That Preceded Their Disappearance [bandcamp, youtube]

Drudkh - All Belong to the Night [bandcamp, youtube]

Falls Of Rauros - Key to a Vanishing Future [bandcamp, youtube]

Gevurah - Gehinnom [bandcamp, youtube]

Gnipahålan - I Nordisk Vredeslusta [bandcamp, youtube]

Hate Forest - Innermost [youtube]

Häxenzijrkell - Urgrund [bandcamp, youtube]

Kathaaria - To be Shunned by All... as Centres of Pestilence [bandcamp, youtube]

Krallice - Psychagogue [bandcamp, youtube]

Medieval Demon - Black Coven [bandcamp, youtube]

Misþyrming - Með hamri [bandcamp, youtube]

Mortuus - Diablerie [bandcamp, youtube]

Nokturnal Mortum - To Lunar Poetry [youtube]

Nocturnal Triumph - Nocturnal Triumph [bandcamp, youtube]

Swampborn - Beyond Ratio [bandcamp, youtube]

Ultha - All that has Never been True [bandcamp, youtube]

Vehemence - Ordalies [bandcamp, youtube]

White Ward - False Light [bandcamp, youtube]

Ymir - Aeons of Sorrow [bandcamp, youtube]

OTHER METAL

Altars - Ascetic Reflection [bandcamp, youtube]

Artificial Brain - Artificial Brain [bandcamp, youtube]

Brii - Corpos Transparentes [bandcamp, youtube]

Conan - Evidence Of Immortality [bandcamp, youtube]

Desolate Shrine - Fires of the Dying World [bandcamp, youtube]

Elder - Innate Passage [bandcamp, youtube]

Faceless Burial - At The Foothills Of Deliration [bandcamp, youtube]

Hissing - Hypervirulence Architecture [bandcamp, youtube]

Immolation - Acts Of God [bandcamp, youtube]

Luminous Vault - Animate The Emptiness [bandcamp, youtube]

Phobophilic - Enveloping Absurdity [bandcamp, youtube]

Ripped to Shreds - Jubian [bandcamp, youtube]

Scumslaught - Knives and Amphetamines [bandcamp, youtube]

Sedimentum - Suppuration Morphogénésiaque [bandcamp, youtube]

Sumerlands - Dreamkiller [bandcamp, youtube]

Triumvir Foul - Onslaught To Seraphim [bandcamp, youtube]

UIV - Frigus [bandcamp, youtube]

Wormrot - Hiss [bandcamp, youtube]

NOT METAL

Akira Sakata & Takeo Moriyama - Mitochondria [bandcamp]

Alvvays - Blue Rev [bandcamp, spotify]

Cecil Taylor - Respiration (1968) [bandcamp]

Chip Wickham - Astral Traveling [bandcamp, youtube]

Connie Han - Secrets Of Inanna [bandcamp, youtube]

Gard Nilssen - Elastic Wave [spotify]

Horace Tapscott - The Quintet (1969) [bandcamp]

Jasmine Myra - Horizons [bandcamp, youtube]

Keith Jarrett - Bordeaux Concert (2016) [spotify]

Mark Guiliana - The Sound Of Listening [bandcamp]

Sun Ra Arkestra - Living Sky [bandcamp]

Tigran Hamasyan - StandArt [bandcamp]

Flail - 2018 - Rehearsal MMXVIII

 

Here is something I discovered during this November and it is something different and strange! Flail is also a Finnish band but a much more lowkey band (although they do have a spotify page!) with not much info about them on the web. This rehearsal tape was their first official release and as luck would have it was also the first release I heard from them. Having only skimmed their future releases after this one I'm not really in a position to tell you how kvlt this one is compared to the newer ones but I does feel like this tape is more of a "proof of concept" thing than anything else. So what the hell is it? Well it is a bit difficult to describe as I don't really know any other band that sounds like them except maybe Yoga? Or I guess a really drugged out and disoriented Haexenzijrkell? Kind of?

The biggest contributor to their uniqueness is a very distorted and psychedelic guitar tone which has a bunch of weird effects that seems super layered with short bursts of delay or reverb? Or perhaps there are several guitars in the mix? I'm not really sure exactly how they are pulling this sound off but I absolutely love it. The vocals are more of an afterthought and can be heard mainly in the back and are your usual fare of pained screams that you can often hear on lo-fi tapes like this. Drumwork is slow and plodding but fits very nicely with the "slowly dragged into a void while overdosed on heroin" atmosphere of the whole tape. The only problem I have with this demo is that the guitars are definitely too high in the mix and they are suffocating pretty much everything else here and that can get annoying at certain points. Despite those production decisions this tape absolutely fucking rocks and I'm looking forward to discover the rest of their output as this tape sounds to me very fresh and unique!

Get it

Warloghe - 2017 - Lucifer Ascends

 

I've talked about this band before but I will briefly talk about this 7'' as well. Warloghe is a legendary Finnish band that recently resurfaced with a new full length which was my album of the year last year despite the album being highly orthodox and written mostly before 2021. But who cares anyway! I really like their sound as it reminds me of flesh slowly falling off from a living human as it walks. This 7'' record was released back in 2017 with little fanfare keeping in line with their "no nonsense" approach to marketing and hype. It consists of two unheard tracks, one recorded before Womb of Pestilence (first album) and one after showcasing their nuanced progress in nihilism. The title track also appears on the 2021 album in a rerecorded form. Both tracks sound weirdly yearning and melancholic to me as if they are calling back the good ol' days I guess. Great stuff and not to be missed but I am highly biased with this band so who knows. Expect high levels of not-production!

Get it / Stream it

Silberbach - 2009 - There Will Be Blood

 

Hey! It is that time of the year and I don't mean soon to be Christmas season! It is Nothing But Black Metal November! A fairly ludicrous tradition that I've picked up from /mu/ probably 5 or so years ago. Basically you are supposed to subject yourself to, as the title says, nothing but black metal for a month. Since I am and have been for years a kvlt motherfucker anyway I don't find this too difficult and basically I just use this month to revisit my black metal library, weed out the albums I no longer care for and force myself through at least some reasonable part of my massive multi year backlog. This year is no different and since we are nearing the end of november I was thinking I should share a couple of rediscovers and newly discovered albums in the next few days. Starting with...

Silberbach! Right at the start I have to say that the band name, the album title and the cover are all fucking stupid and goofy looking. But! The music is fantastic! You get 4 lengthy, varied and epic traditional black metal tracks that are highly German (and bit Norse-core especially on the second track) in style. Vocals are your usual croaky screams but the guitars are what steals the show here. Varied and harmonic the riffs are bountiful and catchy while not overly tacky with too much melodic wankery. Fun and energetic romp that I think will be pleasurable to any black metal fan.

Get it / Stream it

Imperial Triumphant - 2013 - Goliath

 

I've been following Imperial Triumphant for a very long time by now. I think it was Abyssal Gods that made me check them out in more detail. I'm happy for them that they blew up with Vile Luxury - an album that I really enjoyed when it came out but sadly my enjoyment of it petered out eventually. Alphaville was alright and so is the new one (I was really happy that they got Kenny G on that single track, shit was fantastic). With all that I said I feel like a complete hipster pseud by having this digital only two track EP as my absolute favorite release by them.

This could very well be because it reminds more of Deathspell Omega than on Imperial Triumphant or that it has a more concise song structure but I still think it's a fantastic pair of songs. Dizzying, spiraling riffs that keep descending and descending backed by pretty intense drum rolls and inhumane (albeit effect driven) growls is what you'll find on these two tracks.

They might not be their most original songs but I like them a lot and whenever I think of Imperial Triumphant these two songs are the first thing I want to come back to.

Check them out!

You can also stream them here!

Alash Ensemble - 2007 - Alash

 

I feel like throat singing (or Mongolian singing or whatever you call it) has become quite known to the internet collective consciousness. Either through memes or genuine interest in it. As is usual with traditional music (this is just my hot take) it can get repetitive and unimaginative very fast, often relying on a few styles and not much variation within those.

Alash Enseble proves me wrong in my thinking providing us with a very enjoyable and varied album recorded way back in 2007. I don't understand the thinking behind the album cover as it conveys a completely opposite feel of the music contained on this album. It's lush, happy and upbeat. Even the ballads or slower songs provide a deep sense of glee and joy inside them (Subudai for example). While the instrumentation keeps to its roots and is fairly basic the vocal deliveries are varied in style, singers (both male and female) and tempos. With so much diversity in vocalizations that often go in harmonization with each other it makes sense to keep the instrumentation out of the spotlight as there are enough elements vying for it already.

If you ever wanted to check throat singing out but never found something captivating or interesting enough I'd suggest you try this album out!

Get it (flac 1 and 2 part) / Stream it

Teleport - 2018 - The Expansion

Man - that's a fucking great cover art. Teleport was a death metal band from Slovenia that I caught live possibly in 2018 or 2017, I can't quite remember the exact date. I am a  local band heretic as I don't really like any of the local bands from my country or the region but this one stuck with me as it seemed different from the usual when I watched them live. I'm also happy to report that they don't suck on the recording as well and this demo is a testament to that.

This high quality demo would be their last effort under this name, after this they would reform under a different name and for the first time release a well made proper full length in 2021.

A lot of what is on that full length can be heard or felt on this final demo but in a more rawer and simpler way which I like because I'm into more primal forms of metal. Despite being a demo it's competently made and produced death metal akin to more older school stuff from the early 90s and late 80s that had a very noticeable thrash metal vibe. There are three tracks in total which give you about 20 minutes of material. Production is on par and you can hear all of the instruments clearly (including the oft overlooked bass guitar), vocals are raspy and layered nicely in reverb/echo. This isn't the type of death metal that is an full on assault on your senses rather this is more of a contemplative spin on the genre packed with a lot of tempo changes and eerie melodies. Good stuff.

Get it.

Also check out their full length under their new name here!