6.30.2016

End of the Month Music Bitchfest - June 2016

Nine Inch Nails
We're about to get a lot more information about Jupiter and, with it, how our planet and our universe were formed. NASA and Apple Music* teamed up and released a short film connecting the two spheres of space and music, and Reznor and Ross composed an elegant piece to score it. It feels like the softer, more beautiful moments from Ghosts. You can check it out here.

Beck
Beck's new, as-yet-untitled album, which, according to the Space Child himself, "will sound like a range between last year's 'Dreams'** and 'Wow'," is set for release in late October. The new single, while mucho funky, feels a bit pointless and cliche, lyrically (aside from the line about doing jujitsu and the Lamborghini shih tzu, that's pretty solid Midnite Vulture content). Plus, Beck sounds kind of, I don't know, uninterested in all the stuff he's saying. Look, I get that there will never be another MV, that's okay, we'll always have MV. I'd rather Beck just do something new and original than try and recapture the vibe he had 17 years ago.
Just the fact that new Beck is on the horizon gives me hope though...

Aphex Twin has a new EP dropping on July 8th called CHEETAH. While most of it is solid luminescent Aphex; "CHEETAHT2 (Ld spectrum)" has a fantastic, frantic energy appropriate only for the racing of future space cars, the "single"*** "CIRKLON3 [Колхозная mix]" thuds along and gets kind of dark at the end (but doesn't really do it for me), but the big stand out is "CHEETA2 ms800", which is just...fun. Fun and bouncy and, of course, only about fifty seconds.
*sigh*
Not my favorite Aphex Twin EP, but still a totally capable Aphex Twin EP.

I'll be in Los Angeles for most of July and August, so there might not be a Bitchfest next month.


Don't. Cry.



* SYNERGY, MOTHERFUCKER.

** Which I just saw in a car commercial. This...displeases me...

*** Ha. Yes. The radio single. That will be played on the radio.

6.09.2016

A review of Garbage's "Strange Little Birds"






















On every Garbage album since their self-titled debut back in 1995, there's a song or two that doesn't really fit. It's maybe a bit darker or slower or more electronic or intense than the rest of the album. These are the songs I tend to gravitate towards. Their newest, Strange Little Birds, is absolutely overflowing with songs of this ilk and I think that's why it's my favorite album of theirs in years. Whereas Manson and Vig usually get all the kudos from me, this time around it's Duke Erikson's bass. It drives the whole album like no other.

"Magnetized" and "Night Drive Loneliness" are both a bit on the nose, the latter featuring Manson moaning the words "lonely" and "all alone" repeatedly, but other than these rather mild tarnishes, the rest of the album glimmers spectacularly (and consistently) with dark, troubled energy.
The opener, "Sometimes", is completely disparate from anything in their catalogue, combining soft orchestration and brutal, synthetic loops. "If I Lost You" is a perfect prequel to their sinfully, psychotically sensual "#1 Crush" and sounds like sexy Depeche Mode from their Ultra-era. The interplay of Manson's harmonies on "Blackout" (just one of three tracks clocking in at over six minutes on SLB*) is entrancing. The powerful, anthemic slow burn of "Even Though Our Love Is Doomed"** is "the throbbing heart of the entire record" and...is "Teaching Little Fingers To Play" about masturbation? "Doing it my own way / (I'm doing it, I'm doing it) / I'm changing things up / Like I'm teaching little fingers to play". If so, that's awesome. And, if not and it's about Manson taking private guitar lessons...sorry.

And I could keep going. If you tend to enjoy the radio friendly, poppy hits Garbage has put out over the past twenty years, this might not be your thing, but if you like their more shadowy, more intricate depths, then you should probably give Strange Little Birds a try.

* Don't know why, but these things matter to me.

** This and "So We Can Stay Alive" feature some of my favorite lyrics here.

6.01.2016

End of the Month Music Bitchfest - May 2016

Nine Inch Nails
Well, it's fucking June and, aside from his name (and that of his wife and long-time guitar player) popping up on a list of folks involved with the new Twin Peaks, we've heard jack shit from Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails/How to destroy angels/Tapeworm. I figured, when Reznor tweeted about "new stuff in 2016", that he'd either drop some shit at midnight on January 1st, or do the opposite, and post a blurry photo at 11:59 pm on December 31st. Sometimes you eat the bar and so on and so forth.
Guess we're looking to Q4 for this stuff...

Beck
Go here.


After over a year, I finally imported Time Machines II** from the USB stick embedded in the piece of wood set in the hand-carved pewter slipcase inside the leather wallet that's been sitting on my desk.* And reviewed it.

I also finally got around to checking out Soisong, yet another project from the late Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson of Coil (a collaboration with Ivan Pavlov aka CoH). It's so unlike anything I've ever heard from him...  Their one LP Xaj3z is just jaw droppingly disparate from either of their normal fair. There are elements of Reznor and Ross ("Amkhapaa"), Danny Elfman ("T-Hu Ri Toh"), an after hours casino, famous for its android floorshow ("Paer Tahm"), early Gorillaz ("Dtorumi") and, finally, "Ti-Di-Ti Naoo", a quiet, fragile send off, reminiscent of Thai sky lanterns; the very end of which is downright endearing. Almost childish feeling. This is almost a perfect collaboration.
And the packaging is something I've never seen before.

Dat new Radiohead album tho. I feel like A Moon Shaped Pool is the band's Morning Phase, and I think that's why I like it so much. I will admit to having cooled on it since its release, but those Greenwood strings, man... A lot of this feels like Yorke's solo stuff (maybe because just under half of it originated as just that), which I dig more that the majority of Radiohead's catalogue. Review here.

And, finally, Mother Feather has unleashed their dragon and it is taking huge, wet bites out of the pop music scene. Favorable reviews all over the place (including this one here) and shut up and get the album.

* Not ever to be confused with Tin Machine II, although, fuck me would that have been weird...

** Not even kidding.