Albums, more albums, crossing the teas, eating some cake, cleaning house before the year finally does end, that Kampira album is a pure delight and there’s clearly some catching up to be done with Botanist before we hit January and it all starts again if we, or indeed you, want it to…
Nicola Miller – Living Things (Cacophonous Revival Recordings) – Canadian jazz saxophonist and composer Nicola Miller with some rather warn rather mellow experimental earfood. Fluid tunes, nothing that’s ever obvious, nothing that’s ever difficult or hardboiled, it is challenging never as difficult as some experimental jazz can be. There’s something here, something both enjoyable and with a touch of depth, it kind of sounds like the artwork looks…. Bandcamp
Kampire – Kampire Presents: A Dancefloor in Ndola (Strut) – This one came out back when the sun was up in the sky and we didn’t need a dozen layers of clothing, it came out at the start of August, it is still sound as good as it did back there here in the cold wet darkness if mid December, been meaning to say something ever since it did come out, it really is a joy of an album. “Strut introduces a pioneering new compilation ‘A Dancefloor In Ndola,’ curated by revered East African DJ, Kampire. This release marks an evolution in Strut’s approach to compilations, showcasing emerging DJ talent from across the world and embracing an innovative approach to musical discovery from the next wave of selectors. Forging her reputation through memorable sets for the Nyege Nyege Festival in Uganda over the last decade, Kampire now tours worldwide and is celebrated for her brilliantly curated sets spanning the full range of African music styles from the ‘70s and ‘80s to the present day”. I could try bluffing here, I don’t have a massive knowledge when it comes to African music (although I do have some much loved bits of treasure on old tapes from John Peel shows), I’ll just do a quick cut’n paste and tell you this is in excellent compilation that “flows through different East African and South African genres from Congolese rumba and soukous to 1980s township bubblegum and the rich guitar-led sounds of Zambian kalindula. “There are styles of music on the compilation which are often considered unsophisticated from rural areas. I and other contemporary African artists and DJs draw inspiration from them; it is part of what makes us ourselves.” Kampire also shines the spotlight on many incredible women in African music from the ‘80s, including Congolese legends like Pembey Sheiro, Feza Shamamba and Princesse Mansia M’bila to V-Mash and Di Groovy Girls from South Africa”. A Dancefloor In Ndola is released on 2LP and CD and features an exclusive new edit by Kampire alongside personal liner notes tracing her links to the music. Cover artwork montage is by Canon Rumanzi. excellent compilation. Bandcamp
It is about tidying everything up before the New Year and the next onslaught
Unit:187 – KillCure (Metropolis Records) – Vancouver’s Unit:187 back with a just released album and what they’d probably like is to say is a “crushing mix of industrial and metal”. This is a return after the passing of founding member Tod Law in 2015. They say they’ve been taking time to process the loss and are now honouring his legacy with this new album by finishing the songs the band wrote with Tod before his death, as well as with some new music. The album features Tod Law, Johnny Morgan, Chris Peterson (Decree, Front Line Assembly), Ross Redhead (Decree), Kerry Vink-Peterson (Stiff Valentine), as well as contributions from Stuart McGinley, Justin Hagberg, Galen Waling, Adam Lastiwka, and Ken ‘HiWatt’ Marshall. It is a “crushing mix of industrial and metal”, maybe a brooding stifling mix, it is another of those dark mechanical global noise attacks that metallic industrial bands like to kick out, tough, brutal, they do their thing rather well. Bandcamp
We Hate You Please Die – Chamber Songs (NMAS) – We mentioned them early in the year when the lead track from the album passed by, “Stronger Than Ever is from the band’s forthcoming album, that’s not a very nice band name is it? They’re from Rouen, France” is what we said as we shared the video and the first track off their album….
And then we said “you’re going to need the Bandcamp details after the adrenaline rush of the first track off the album Chamber Songs. Here’s the Bandcamp, the album is out in September, more from us soon I expect, if there’s time and a thousand other things don’t distract us and well, never never is time and there always are distractions and with the price of Bikini Kill tickets we kind of need new bands…”, and then, as is ofter the case, we did;nt hear anything else from the band, not ever a thanks for that, but then an actual thank you from a band is a rare rare thing. We get on with the thousands of other bands waiting for attention and quite frankly we forgot all about We Hate You until we were flicking back through this year’s Organ pages as we preperare for the obligation of a best albums of the year list (we like ot do ours a th e actual end of the actual year). So there were were flickering through and reminding oursleves, and hey, did that album actually come out?
And so the Chamber Songs album actually came out back in late September of this almost ended year, it is twelve forthright slices of barbed punk rock or alt.rock or feisty female fronted 90s grunge or whatever you want to call it, whatever it is it no messing, it does bite, it does slice, they’re full of attitude as well as energy and maybe a touch of spite and well you get the idea from the videos up there and the album is there on Bandcamp. We don’t need to bang out a whole load of words about how urgently good it is, our work is done here…
Cringe Fantasy – Welcome to the Big Dumb Show – “Have you lost your lust for life? Is this modern world too much for you to bear? Global warming, misinformation spreading like a cancer, the rejection of science, the fall of democracy, the rise of fascism, working for a pittance as the ever widening gap of the haves and have nots grows and grows. It’s alright, take a breath – Cringe Fantasy is here to help”. Are here not is here, you’re a group now a thing, this slow death of the English language will not do.is that the only thing they did wrong? “We did nothing wrong” they said. A lot of this sounds like Lovely Little Girls, the band who go by that name we mean, Gregory Jacobsen and his deviants – “A band louder than sound and brighter than the sun – Cringe Fantasy is here to blow your collective brains out and throttle your puny little earth bodies into Valhalla. This is the pop music of the future. Welcome to the 23rd century” – Are here! Not is here, here and now this is some kind of multi-limbed weirdo pop supergroup whose core members are artists from bands you may already know… Lovely Little Girls, Microwaves, Tijuana Hercules, Pili Coit, Mac Blackout, KK Rampage, and an extraordinary assemblage of guests from bands around the globe. “Prepare to be waterboarded by the greatest people in the world. Everything we do, we do for you. Ugh, we wish we were dead”. They’re like some kind of deranged stage musical only the theatre has no exit, an art-damaged pop collective whose music is an amalgamation of of some thing somewhere in the middle between heaven and hell, a big show with plenty of time to shine, if only they had said so at the time, they put it out months ago, it never emerged from the light, it stayed in the shadows, their religion is the new entertainment, communication shot to hell now, welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, have another sip on that drink, bury your shame in deep, notify your next of kin, this is nothing like the lamb lying down on broadway like some bat out of hell or some democracy under siege and take my pulse and pass the art rock. If it sounds like anything it sounds like those Tubes direct the school choir like some white punks on hope just beyond the closely guarded line and who needs reviews, go hit the damn play button. Pop art, surrealistic pillow, prog rock, Buffalo Gals going around the outside, sweat release, do it again, gluttony knows no bounds, , pass the lube, let’s go again, I didn’t get where I am today by reviewing records like this, they’re doing nothing wrong, no one has to die, a cacophony of orchestral experimental pop and noise-rock… that’s a nice bit of acoursic guitar….
An adventure featuring Lovely Little Girls, Mac Blackout, Tijuana Hercules, Microwaves, NONZOO. Guests include current/former members of: ADULT., KEN Mode, Deaf Club, Chris Connelly, Bobby Conn, AITIS Band, Psychic Graveyard, FACS, Revolting Cocks, Joan of Arc, Cheer Accident, Cellular Chaos, Flying Luttenbachers, Chaser, Dead Rider… Bandcamp
We could go on, there is always another good album, Botanist just put out a new one, we do like a bit of Botanist or botany or
Botanist – VII: Beast of Arpocalyx – Pretty sure we’ve gone on about the band from San Francisco, California before, if fact I damn well know we have, and played a piece of two on the radio, this would be brilliant if it was’nt for those damn silly cookie moster vocals, the music is way too good for all the childish crap with the singing and if it is still extreme metal then this some of the most original properly progressive beautifully coloured extreme metal out there. Botanist music is up there with the very best, with bands like KayoDot, not quite the drama and certainly not the emotion of KayoDot but it is in that direction (this is high compliment coming from us). Botanist sound as epic as progressive, a blend crafted so well, the details are delicious, the compositions heading down all kinds of side streets, yer man talks of post-black metal worship of the natural world and invites us to enter the verdant realm, seems like a more than decent invite to us.
Something about wanting to make an album “that tapped into the rawer recording side of black metal, as well as all the magic that merging many more than eight individual mics/performances to fit the limitations of having only eight total tracks for mixing” – Well there’s certainly a lot packed in here including a song called Wolfsbane for the howling mad ones out there,
Seems All the songs on VII: Beast of Arpocalyx are about plants with some kind of animal mythology association. “I’m unsure where the inspiration began. Maybe it was seeing the surreal cover artwork in a book, maybe it was first learning about The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary. The word “arpocalyx” first surfaced on “III: Doom in Bloom” on the track “Vriesea”: arpocalyx is a variant of that plant. My nerdy outsider mind loved it as it sounded like some green metal perversion of the world “apocalypse.” The word stayed in the memory banks until this album”…
This album was actually recorded back in 2016, seems it jsut came out this month, seems that main man Otrebor was responsible for it all, well that’s what he says, now if only he would sing rather than just growl… but then that was back in 2016 and turns out was actually an album recorded and released this year, an album that has more than the cookie monster on vocals, musicians and bands are really useless when it comes to telling people, more in a moment…
and well, if you are feeling like you want this all to keep going into a 39th year…
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