Where were we? Nowhere near any red bats or getting stuck in a time loop and the albums pile up and pecks peck on and on and whatever you do, don’t quote us on anything though
Yoo Doo Right – Build and Rest by the Shepherd’s Light (Mothland) – Yoo Doo Right are a band we’ve covered rather a lot on these pages (and fired at you via our radio waves) over the last two or three years, this is the Canadian trio’s fourth album and is it feeling a little more refined? A little more relaxed and a touch on the mellow side this time around? They do have the ability to see into the dark so they can call it light, do they feel more at ease with whatever their thing is this time?
That is the question here, do Yoo Doo Right feel more at ease with their contemplative melodies, a little bit more at ease with those rich chromatic builds and that gentle swell that at times? This time around it is (at times) almost a Post Rock thing. Did things seem darker last time? Things are feeling rather relaxed here, rather lush, rather on an up. Whatever they’re doing, Yoo Doo Right are always worth your time, this is at times a really (really) beautiful album, maybe not quite as challenging as they have been, maybe a little more lush, sounding rather pastoral right now,
The new album Build and Rest by the Shepherd’s Light is out on November 6th, 2026. Here’s yet more links and here once more is the Bandcamp and just down there are links to some of that (rather unquotable) previous coverage on these pages…
Previous coverage…
ORGAN THING: Let’s get it right this time, more from Canada’s rather refined Yoo Doo Right…
Jörgen Gustafsson – All is in questions (Evergreen) – This extremely refined album has been on repeat for most of this mostly sunny Autumn day now, it was the first to be played this morning and it has been politely (dare I say rather harmlessly?) on repeat here all day while I get on with admin, throwing paint at electricity bills, trying to throw paint at canvas, saying no to commissions (really? You want me to do what?!).
I mean this is all very very “nice” and well really, quietly “nice” polite conservative ambient instrumental music on the whole doesn’t do it for us. Jörgen does seem keen to be covered though, he has sent links to this new album three or four times now when really we are mostly, when it comes to music anyway, we are mostly about loud experimental noise and things maybe a little less polite and a little more progressive or abrasive or structurally challenging or slightly more oh you know, slightly more out there somewhere. I mean this has been running on repeat since 9am, it is almost 9pm now, it is all very (very) nice, some of it sounds like the sort of slightly solemn thing you might hear when you arrive at a church (not that I do a lot of arriving at churches).
Mostly this is just very relaxed, rather polite, positively harmless solemn serious slightly hymn-like ambient instrumental music that to these ambiently untrained ears does sound rather like a lot (like far too much) of the conservative ambient music that people keep insisting on sending in to us on an almost daily basis.
There’s probably websites, publications, radio shows dedicated to this sort of thing, they’ll probably tell you how wonderfully natural it is. I really don’t have much more to say about it, I’ll politely wish Jörgen well, go make a cup of tea and throw on some Maggot Slayer Overdrive.
Can people please stop sending the same e.mail about the same album that they sent us last week or the week before, can people stop sending us polite ambient music or for that matter manufactured pop music or generic American radio friendly punk by numbers not very punk music and the rest of it….
Here’s the Bandcamp
Trentemøller– Trentemøller (In My Room) – Did say after featuring that fine piece of pop art that was the video: “a fine bit of pop art as well as a fine bit of visual pop art, this is parked here as much for the visuals and the sounds. The video is by Dacu” – well that is what we said, we also said we’d be back with more on the album. Seems that as well as being accompanied by a fine video, the lush dream pop of You Always Walk Alone is by far the standout track of what, with all the guest vocalists and everything else, is a rather disjointed unfocussed collection of politely paced electro-pop songs. The self-titled album feels almost like a compilation, some of it is way too repetitive. Anders Trentemøller is one of those “respected and admired” remixers who tend not to have a fingerprint of their own and I think we’ll politely leave this one to you as well… Bandcamp
Here’s a recent Other Rock Show playlist mostly because the Trope album cover art was too boring to put here, check out that Other Rock Show via this beautiful link – The most recent Other Rock Shows at Resonance FM with Horse Lords, Kayo Dot, Extra Life, heckle Chamber, FeeFawFum, Cori&Her, Thinking Plague, Eyeless Owl and…
Trope – DYAD – Los Angeles based “Canadian-Australian alternative progressive rock band Trope explores progressive rock and alternative rock across an ambitious double album” and well maybe seventeen tracks was a little too ambitious when it all kind of plays out on the same kind of level, the same kind of melodic quite thoughtful bit/faster metal-ish bit every time? And yes she can certainly sing but it all the same pace, same voice, same emotion all the way through. This isn’t really exploring progressive rock, there’s none of the high wire adventure of prog, nothing even close to a plague lighthouse keepers trying to keep the giant hogweeds out of the lark’s tongues in aspic and you get their idea that those Flying Luttenbachers and their properly proper prog would fry their Pinapple Thief flavoured minds. I mean if you want slick modern clean-cut very (very) melodic heavy metal that now and again has a kind of interesting chop and change here and there and if you don’t want to pay too much attention to what she’s singing (mostly cliches and take her hand through the wherever…). Hey look, they do their slick modern (very) melodic metal thing well enough, we’ll politely pass by the awful take on the Stranglers and Golden Brown (you suspect they don’t know what the song is actually about?) and well a different voice for Mare’s Nest (no not that one) is welcome but really, those lyrics and the lack of depth and they clearly are a good band and they really could do so so much more if they dared to even think of going for the one and time and time again they almost have something there and well, we’ll politely leave their slick modern melodic metal with you and let them harmless get on with life through their painted eyes. Those harmonies on Slipping Away were an indication that there could be more, apparently the two sides of the album are two very different sides of the same band? Not really. Maybe next time? They seem to have the same album cover artwork as they did for their last album and I’m starting towonder why I have given it so much time today?
www.tropetheband.com if you want more and there is a Bandcamp, the album is released today, November 6th, you can only hear one track at the moment, and that one does’nt feature the main vocalist which seems rather short sighted, bloody stupid actually…
Here progheads, go listen to this, this is what modern forward looking properly progressive prog rock sounds like – ORGAN THING: Unpacking the thrilling new album from The Flying Luttenbachers – the charge, the bolt, the buzz, that Messiaen piece, the defiant hints of Cardiacs, the extremes of it all, the high art…
And have some reasonably recent prog delight from Chicago’s mighty Cheer-Accident…
Previous recent album coverage…
ORGAN THING: Party Dozen fire off another round or two with their grand salute of a new album…
Here’s some more, classic bootleg quality Cheer-Accident action to help the day flow…
