Dead Leaf Echo – Verisimilitude

Dead Leaf Echo has taken its previously released songs “Act of Truth,” “Half-Truth,” and “Woolgathering” and warped them, stretched them out, submerged them, and otherwise manipulated them to create the new EP Verisimilitude. For this effort, the band has enlisted other artists to put their own spin on these songs. Each version has a familiarity about it, where the original songs peek out here and there, but each track also bears the mark of its primary collaborator.

“Half-Truth” gets a hard electronic edge from Fryer, not too distant from what Curve did on its Cuckoo record. The drum programming takes center stage and pulses and crackles while the vocals float on ether in the background. Elika’s version has even more of the Curve feel to it, though, with its glitch-snippet electronics and faraway feel. The bass creeps in almost unnoticed the way Massive Attack used to do it. Its relatively fast pace aside, this remix owes a debt to Bowery Electric as well. The third version of the song might have come from the mind(s) of Lali Puna, this time having been worked over by Remarkably Spry!. Space is the place.

The song “Act of Truth” gets the ambient treatment from the collaborators DLE and RxGibbs on two other tracks. DLE adds minimal pulsing and some keyboard layering to the original. RxGibbs goes for a more epic electronic landscape, having pounded the original vocals into a paper-thin, overlapping backdrop.

The one-off remix of “Woolgathering” gets its input from Mark Van Hoen. The touchpoint here might again be Bowery Electric until the cut turns decidedly Portishead, without the self-conscious creepiness.

It’s not required that you know the originals in order to appreciate the collaborations on Verisimilitude. Dead Leaf Echo’s range of helpful friends have created versions that stand on their own.

New Album from Annie Crane

Annie Crane’s new “Jump With A Child’s Heart” brings NYC edge to traditional Americana sounds.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Singer blends ‘60’s folk and Celtic influences with rock & pop on album about making dreams come true “Without giving time effort, time will owe you nothing.” Annie Crane is speaking to the many talents that arrive in New York City each year to pursue their dreams. “Do it without complaint, to do it honestly and with the purity of a child’s heart,” she says, relating the theme of her new record, Jump With A Child’s Heart available October 4th.

Classically trained in her hometown of Rochester, New York at the Eastman School of Music, Crane knows of which she speaks, arriving in New York herself in 2006 where she persisted and stayed. It was at the famed Sidewalk Cafe that Crane began to climb the ladder.“I started hitting open mics and by the end of the year I was attending the Sidewalk’s ‘Anti-Hoot’ every Monday night for about a year. It was there that I gained recognition and support.”

Crane’s blend of folk, Americana and traditional Celtic sounds transport listeners to worldly locales while retaining an urban edge that is the unmistakable influence of her adopted city. Her mythical songs weave together classic 60’s folk, indie pop and rock, traditional Irish music and Americana influences to arrive at a unique sound that is confident and all her own.

Reminding of legends such as Sandy Denny, Joni Mitchell and Gillian Welch, Crane has reached far and wide with her music with live performances logged from Copenhagen to Kentucky and from Berlin to Albany. In Paris, Crane was recognized as “one of the most pure talents from the real New York scene” and in Nashville she shared the stage with one of her icons, Emmylou Harris.

Todd Grubbs – Return of the Worm

It’s not uncommon for rock/fusion guitarists to be a bit weird and eclectic. They implement odd sounds and styles into their instrumentals for the sake of unique variety. Veteran musician Todd Grubbs is no different; if you can’t tell by its cover, his newest LP, Return of the Worm, is quite an adventure.

Born in Tampa, Florida, Grubbs has been performing for over 25 years, and he’s received international acclaim for his previous releases. His influences include Steve Vai, Jeff Beck, John Coltrane, the Beatles and Frank Zappa. While Return of the Worm does suffer a bit from the inherent redundancy of the genre, it manages to introduce enough interesting elements to keep listeners intrigued throughout. Also, there’s a transparent level of humor and joy (such as voiceovers and joking around) that adds a valuable distinctiveness.

“Five After Four In The Morning” opens the album with night sounds, trains, and guitar arpeggios. It’s an effective introduction. “I Am Not A Commentator” is a fun and funky jam with expert musicianship. Its first half is fairly mellow, but eventually it erupts into a Zappa-esque crescendo of technique. Incorporating answer machine messages and an impressive range of dynamics, “The Message” is equal parts Rush, 70s hard rock, and specialized absurdity.

Strings and even odder time signatures are utilized on “6/9/03.” Featuring biting riffs interspersed with equally awesome solos and a wide array of instruments, it carries the same brilliant rhythmical repetition as King Crimson and The Galactic Cowboy Orchestra. “Frogs” allows its music to complement a humorous and illogical Redneck story about frogs (kind of like Primus), and it’s easily one of the most entertaining tracks. The eerie ending is especially affective and memorable.

Besides the aforementioned redundancy that’s arguably unavoidable with this kind of music, the track “You Can Do It” is a bit of an odd choice. Just like the rest of Return of the Worm, it’s fantastic musically; however, listeners are also subjected to hearing a woman sulk intensely for almost the entire duration. Honestly, that doesn’t equate to a very enjoyable piece.

Return of the Worm is one of the more interesting, varied, and fun guitar-focused instrumental albums I’ve ever heard. Grubbs proves to be a masterful player while also showcasing a sense of humor and an appreciation for the joys of collaboration. It may sound formulaic as a whole, but each track excels at its own purpose. In essence, it feels as if Grubbs is more concerned with providing a good time for his audience than he is with virtuosity and ego, and that’s a rarity among his kind.

Jen Grygiel – s/t EP

Poets, philosophers, psychologists, and theologians have been writing about love since the dawn of time, but there’s something about its multi-faceted complexities that continues to intrigue us.  It would be fair to assume that without amour as a subject, the film and music industries would’ve collapsed ages ago.  Indeed, love – be it passion, adoration, infatuation, affection, or otherwise – continues to be a draw for artists in all forms of media.  Unsurprisingly, the topic has always been a pervasive one in music, whether manifested in the hormonal swooning of the Beatles’ earliest hits or in the sexual heat of the Black Eyed Peas’ perverse pop.

Love as an overarching theme is something with which Boston’s Jen Grygiel is intimately acquainted.  Having sung such songs as “All the Cowards in Her Path” and “Typical Asshole” in her time with glam/punk group MEandJOANCOLLINS, the topic of spurned paramours came up time and again.  It should also be mentioned that the band – fronted by Grygiel’s husband Bo Barringer, no less – chose Love. Trust. Faith. Lust. as the title for its debut LP.  Until the sophomore album arrives sometime this fall, Grygiel has chosen to focus her attention on a solo EP, a 14-minute set of scrappy rock that trades in the sordid debauchery and playful snark of her other outfit for an aesthetic which highlights the veritable emotions that arise when a serious relationship goes awry.  The immediate melancholy, frantic disbelief, and lingering anger of a broken romance is prime territory for songwriters, and Grygiel seizes on the well-chronicled scenario with a succinct candidness that manages to feel bracing rather than banal.

Grygiel brings all the bleary-eyed intensity of an early morning split to life on opening cut “5:30 AM,” which, against a midtempo waltz groove, finds our protagonist pointing out the elephant in the room: “I’m tired / I can’t sleep / you’re awake right next to me.”  The standard-issue rock instrumentation and Grygiel’s plaintive vocals lend the track a timeless bluesy quality that any fan of Jack White’s many bands would find appealing.  From here, the next stop is “Drive Me,” a throbbing rock tune whose urgency is felt in both the incessant drive of the rhythm section and in the pleading lyrics (“When did we both lose our minds / I want to stay here / trapped in time”).

“Reckless Woman,” which recasts the wronged lover as a vengeance-seeking fireball, is both the EP’s most entertaining and impressive song, its punchy drum and bass combination providing a fitting backdrop for Grygiel’s vitriol.  Things come to an expeditious close with “Just Say Maybe,” in which despondent requests are made (“Love me / give it a second chance / take another look”) while an acoustic guitar strums in isolation.  Coming on the heels of “Reckless Woman,” the song is notable for its modest presentation and folksy bent.

Though the topic is certainly well-worn, it’s no less refreshing to hear Jen Grygiel explore love with a sense of intimacy and vulnerability.  MEandJOANCOLLINS was all about lusty swagger; this first solo record strips away the glam rock spectacle and goes instead for substance.

New Single from Little Deadman

Listen to Little Deadman’s New Single
“Post Helado Madness”: http://www.bantermm.com/tracks/LIttleDeadman-POSTHELADOMADNESS.mp3

Formed in early 2009 in San Diego, Little Deadman is Spencer Rabin, Anthony Levas, Brian Dall, and Tyson Wirtzfeld. Their reverb and echo steeped sound is alternately breezy California cool and caustic proto-punk, drawing influence in equal measure from the folk structure of Bob Dylan, the pop sensibility and moodiness of New Order, and 60′s soul music. After years of playing in different bands, the four-piece regrouped after writing several songs together, four of which appear on their new EP “Shooting Seagulls” as well as a 7-inch record featuring the title track via Single Screen Records. They are anticipating a full-length in early 2012.

Little Deadman on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/littledeadman

 

Beaten By Them – Invisible Origins

Modern music has positively been able to stay afloat with some of the freshest new innovations continuing to surface. Whilst many still wonder where all the new music has gone, bands like Beaten By Them are continuing to relentlessly pound away with a desire and heart that goes beyond your basic genre role call. Creativity is hard to come by and for many, music has gone stale and old: far too old to conjure up any kind of fighting spirit. But with Invisible Origins Beaten By Them don’t offer anything necessarily original and still, the album propels with a sensitive ability in being able to take the oldest ideas and turn them into something interestingly great.

On Signs of Life, the band conveyed the album’s title with forceful reckonings that beguiled the listener’s efforts. The more time you gave the album the more rewarding each listen was and still, it wasn’t until closing “Pioneer 10” that you really sensed the band was finally hitting overdrive. On Invisible Origins, the precursors act as the foreshadowing and with music that is fortunately, just as expressive as it is menacing, these eleven songs are sharper signs of life that highlight skilled efforts. The twisting guitar that starts “Final Sun” initializes a prevalent discord of drums and wavering riffs before settling on a rigid tempo and later on “Water,” a beautiful piano counterpart turns minor and dissonant with great ease. There is a definite amount of maturity that has been developed and a lot of the songs reach into a more reflective, reassuring state with brilliant care. Songs are able to meld and blend within each other without ever needing to be suffocated with cluttered arrangements and the result is a refreshing collection of strong and varied instrumental music.

Songs like “Lost” transcend with atmospheric rumblings that support the progressively gradual build of the music with purely aesthetic touches. Much like before, Beaten By Them take to a nature that incorporates all sounds into a massive melting pot of sounds; fused through undertakings that all include fantastic climaxes, these pots are definitely brewing with massive sounds. Through “Lost” the band weaves a scaling guitar around the focus of a careening string section and scattered cymbals. Here the climax hits when the guitar meets the drums head-on: the melody is the strong current and the corresponding instruments and harmonies acting as the rushing waves crashing around it. Without losing attention too much, the music is – as a natural result – far more fluid, expansive and perhaps, simply better than before.

While their previous effort featured a slew of songs that were over the seven-minute mark, Invisible Origins scales back the embellished compositions, for the most part. Even “Damp Sky 2” acts solely as a transitional piece through a new sound and with a new-found approach on song structure, the singular work past ten minutes, “Vanishing Point,” ends up being the album’s glistening moment with a blistered guitar part and churning synths. Driving the walls with minimal modifications and trimmings, the music is pensive and filled with tension. Once you feel the bass might just disintegrate into nothingness, the music escapes through a hole in the bottom that makes way for a screeching organ that never lets go. Like the pounding bass, it wails through the ending along with each passing addition. Even the most subtle of changes can make a difference and in terms of sequencing, a terrific one for Beaten By Them.

Logicpole

Brainoil – Death Of This Dry Season

After the release of their extremely well received self-titled debut LP via Life Is Abuse it has taken Oakland’s Brainoil eight years to return with a follow up, the members all drifting off into various projects and putting the band on hold. The trio of Greg Wilkinson, Ira Harris and Nathan Smith are now back and on August 2^nd release their new album Death Of This Dry Season via 20 Buck Spin.

Death Of This Dry Season is not merely an album but a sledgehammer of sound and intensity, titanic riffs and brutal, raw, feedback drenched sludge/doom metal that smothers the listener into submission. Though it spans only seven tracks by the end it feels like a daylong enjoyable battering as the songs drag and rumble with intriguing riffs, dark melodic breaks and oppressive intent.

The title track starts the menace, the guitar diving in straight away off a discordant tone, its bluesy melodic riffs standing strong against the steady and punishing drums and bassline. Vocally, there is a good black metal feel which slips seamlessly into the music, neither over powering each other. The track is a strong imposing start but when the might of “Gravity Is A Relic” takes over you know Brainoil is truly back, and with a new power and intent to claim that step right at the top of the genre. Though the whole album is strong, this track is a definite highlight with its immense charging attack unrelenting and the thrash punk riffs that are the cause obsessions. The breakdowns too are impressive and show a band in full control of their sound and songwriting.

There are numerous standout moments on the release, like the hyped up pace within “Opaque Reflection” and the intrusive grating sound of “Crimson Shadows”, that show off a compelling blend of death metal vocal attacks and Dead Kennedy like punk riffs consummated with thick sludge overtones. Throughout Death Of This Dry Season feedback and sonic bursts reign adding that extra intense flavour that makes the album work so well.

“Feet Cling To The Rotting Soil” is another track that rises above the rest, a short sharp shock to the senses that slams hard with a fusion of Suicidal Tendencies and Buzzov*en. Rampant with filthy energy it devours the listener as they consume it, and epitomises what Brainoil is all about.

Death Of This Dry Season is a welcome return for Brainoil and a marker of what lies ahead from the band, with a hope that it is not another long 8 years or so before they make another appearance. With their suffocating, unrelenting, brutal sound loaded with crushing heavy riffs and gritty sonic melodies there is and will be a growing demand for much more. For anyone who enjoys wallowing in the thick oppressive sounds from the likes of Black Cobra, Iron Lung, and El Dopa, Death Of This Dry Season and Brainoil are a must.

http://www.brainoil.com/

New EP collection from My Violent Ego

My Violent Ego releases EPs collection

My Violent Ego – One day you’ll laugh at the sad saga that was (2011 – White Birch / Handwriting / Sometimes rec)

Download: “Come on, sleep”: http://myviolentego.bandcamp.com/track/come-on-sleep?action=download

Info: www.myviolentego.com

***

Fully remastered, “One day you’ll laugh at the sad saga that Was” features a 22-track selection of songs from MVE’s EPs produced before and after the “Carried-Along-By-Fate” full-length album, released via the French label Ocean-Music in 2003.

My Violent Ego features Paolo Miceli (also from Sea Dweller) and vocalist Christy Brewster (both have guested on Giardini di Miro recordings in the past), and is most definitely for fans of Cocteau Twins, An April March, Slowdive and dreampop/shoegaze music in general.

Digipack packaging with 8-page booklet. Limited to 500 copies, available through myviolentego.com (World), Tonevendor (USA) and Norman records (UK).

“..washed out effects drenched shimmer, dreamy abstract pop drift, and hushed ethereal pop ambience. 4AD loosed from its more traditional song like structures, the sounds allowed to float freely, blurred clouds of tangled melody, hushed angelic voices, looped melodic mesmer stretched into dreamy droned out drifts of ephemeral dreampop” – Aquarius records, http://aquariusrecords.org

Chthonic – Takasago Army

What would you get if Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth decided to join forces, started using Asian stringed instruments and keyboard passages and moved to Taiwan?  If you said Chthonic, then you are already ahead of the curve. Chthonic, pronounced Thonic, formed about 2 years after Dimmu Borgir, so to write them off as a mere carbon copy would do them a disservice. Though there are many similarities, Chthonic forge their own unique path as they navigate through the symphonic metal scene. Takasago Army is the latest offering from these metal veterans, and at first listen provides enough atmosphere and aggression to slake the thirst of the most jaded listener.

Takasago is an ancient Japanese term that refers to Taiwan; it also is a reference to soldiers recruited from Taiwanese aboriginal tribes to serve in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. The album opens with “The Island”, a 2 minute atmospheric, instrumental intro which gives way to “Legacy of Seediq” and “Takao“, two blistering tracks that charge forth at a frantic, unrelenting pace. The song “Oceanquake”, for my money, is the standout track as it seamlessly blends all of the elements of the symphonic black metal sound with keyboard arrangements and an oriental feel, not to mention the utilization of a stringed instrument called an erhu. Chthonic don’t stop there, as the listener will notice hints of melodic death metal on “Southern Cross”, as well as small doses of power metal.

There are two noticeable elements that do detract from the overall feel of the album: vocal delivery and repetitive nature of the music. Lead vocalist, Freddie Lim tends to invoke a shrieking style which directly parallels that of Dani Filth of Cradle of Filth.  After awhile it tends to become more than a bit nerve wracking in the sense that it has already been done before; to his credit he does mix it up a bit with a deeper, more guttural approach occasionally. Additionally, there are some female vocals to help compliment Lim’s vocals on the album, keeping it from being labeled as overly harsh.  The one other aspect that hurts this album is the lack of variety and approach. I do not envision this as an album that you will continue to spin over and over for the next year or so, but to Chthonic’s credit I consider them more original than most in the genre. Sadly, I will probably always compare them to their European counterparts at least in terms of overall contribution; however, with Takasago Army I feel that Chthonic may have more to offer lately than many of their peers out there.

In closing, Chthonic offer up an exceptional album that is worthy of praise and closer inspection. Since the commercialization of bands like Dimmu Borgir have left them as little more than commodities, ripe for a pack of mall core kids to drool over in the local Hot Topic, Chthonic bring a fresh take to a genre on the brink of extinction. In 2007, Chthonic won Best Band Award at the Taiwan Golden Melodies Award Ceremony, so it would appear that they are doing something right, and it would seem that any success has not gone to their head. If you are looking for something with a bit of an exotic edge in the Symphonic metal genre then I suggest you check out Takasago Army and give it a listen or two; I bet that you will be pleasantly surprised.

The Hypnotist Collectors – “Ohio”

Hailing from West Oakland, California The Hypnotist Collectors bring a smooth country swing with “Ohio”. Track two off of their new album titled, Worn Out Factory. Vocalist/guitarist Augustus DeVandry’s vocal scratch gives this tune an angst that prevails above Dick Dale-esque lead guitar. With harmonica backing a tale of marriage, escape, and love lost, the narrator battles with his future plans to stay, or go. “What’s there left to say, I got nothing left to say, Ohio”.

I had the pleasure of seeing, as well as meeting, The Hypnotist Collectors in San Francisco back in February. They we’re a stand up group both on stage and off. With “Ohio”, what starts as somewhat of a quiet, mellow tune, soon turns into an outburst nearing the end of the song. DeVandry’s delivery screams as he’s joined by Brian Fernald on bass, Eddie Lang on drums, and Roger Poulin on lead guitar.

The Hypnotists Collectors create a punchy mix of country, and psychedelic blues that make “Ohio”, as well as Worn Out Factory, an album that keeps the listener guessing. With one spin, clear influences start to emerge from the likes of Dylan, the Rolling Stones, and Gram Parsons. While encompassing such a wide array of musical styles without stepping too far over the line, The Hypnotist Collectors have released a 10 song album filled with all the highs and lows we experience in every day life. A group of songs that is so relatable, it’s impossible to turn away.

Next Page »