Paul

Paul

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Off To Buffalo

[May. 17th, 2008|10:23 am]

[	Current Mood	\|	dorky	]
[	Current Music	\|	iPod stuff	]

Shufflin' again:

1. Tactical Sekt "Devil's Work (Accuser Remix by Solitary Experiments)
Solitary Experiments is one of those bands whose output I find hit-or-miss, but their remixes are almost uniformly outstanding. They generally remix middling tracks and make them exceptional. This is no exception, adding massive epic melodies and hammering dance beats to what was originally, frankly, not that great of a song.

2. Mortal Constraint "Open Head"
The iPod is loving Mortal Constraint, it seems. Surprising since I only have the one album. This one's a bit less disturbing than the one I got last time, but still typical of their cold, methodical approach... almost like the early Klinik sound, in some ways, but a bit more IDM-influenced and with harsher vocals.

3. Severed Heads "Stupid Maurice Faction"
From Op3, one of the last Severed Heads releases. The Op series were supposedly another attempt at "pop music", but if that's the case, Tom Ellard's idea of "pop" is a mutant strain. Here's we've got the typical Ellard meandering bassline and off-kilter feel. No vocals on this one, other than some sampled and heavily manipulated yelping.

4. Scar Tissue "In This Place"
I liked Scar Tissue a lot in the late 90s/early 00s, where I saw them as sort of a cousin to the then-current Subconscious Studios sound. I got into them and Gridlock at the same time and tended to associate them with each other at the time. Unfortunately they seem to have sort of petered out just as they were getting really good, though I think they still play shows in California (?). This is a calmer piece, with nice, reverb-laden percussion and some vaguely hopeful-sounding strings and what sounds like sampled bagpipes. A bit like a more concise version of the Dead Voices On Air sound, this one. From TMOTD, an album whose cover was done by Jhonen Vasquez before anybody cared about him.

5. Front 242 "Beyond the Scale of Comprehension"
Remember Pulse? That's okay, nobody else does either. Actually, I think a lot of that album was quite interesting, but kind of like Haujobb's Ninetynine, it wasn't what anybody really wanted from the band at the time... and like Ninetynine, looking back on it now, it's actually pretty damn good. Jean-Luc De Meyer barely audible in a sea of warped electronics, piano, and organ. "If you can afford it, there is no limit."

6. Godflesh "Someone Somewhere Scorned"
This is one of the standout tracks from Slavestate, where the electronic aspect of Godflesh's music was at its peak. A bleepy synthesized bassline, thumpy drum machine, shouted vocals, and blaring, droning guitars. I haven't heard another band that incorporates electric guitar into industrial as well as this. Justin Broadrick yells "I'LL NEVER CHANGE" a lot on this, but in fact, he does change. A lot. Listen to Jesu, Ice, and Techno Animal to see what I mean. (On a side note, this is giving me massive Rifts gaming flashbacks.)

7. Foetus "Mighty Whity"
(That's his spelling, not mine.) Another high-school era flashback. This is one of the high points of the Gash album, which was released on the heels of some high-profile remix work J. G. Thirlwell had done for the likes of Prong and Nine Inch Nails. It's appropriately guitar-heavy and a blast to listen to. "Up against the wall and spread 'em/Your cracker ass is goin' to Armageddon." He really does have a way with words, Uncle Jimmy does. KILL WHITY!! UH.

8. lb "Angie (Miniature Numerique)"
Leave it to Uwe Schmidt to make a glitchy, heart-crushing work of genius out of something that gets played regularly on stations with names like ROCK 101.5. Someday Wes Anderson will make an overly precious movie set in outer space, probably with Owen Wilson, and he'll consider using the entire Pop Artificielle album as the soundtrack.

9. Klinik "Sense"
Awake was one of those weird albums Marc Verhaeghen made in the 90s, after Dirk Ivens left the band and all the projects he started up to take the place of the Klinik kinda flopped. It was actually one of the better ones, but seeing "KLINIK" on an album cover and then listening to some dude sing about how he wanted to "touch your lips" was kinda jarring. This particular track is one of the unremarkable ones, unfortunately.

10. Tyske Ludder "Schreie"
Old-school EBM bass, with plenty of vocoded backing vox and mid-tempo percussion that sounds like it's coming from my friend Felix's old Akai sampler. Actually, it's almost like a hip-hop track - the vocalist (who sounds like a Teutonic orc) has a lot to say here. Sadly, his message is lost on me, an Anglophonic dummkopf.