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What Music Are You Listening To?
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KeenEmpire
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troublesomekeen
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Fantastic Plastic Machine - Days and Days
Shonikado wrote:Looking back on what we've done and wanting to change it is the first step in becoming a weakling that cannot do anything.
Woah that is really nice TerminILL, that general sort of modern electronic music is one I occasionally dabble in the listening of, and this is a nice calm tune. I love Zero 7 and Air (not the same thing I know but they have a similarly chill vibe). Here's a French house tune I came across a few years ago, not as good as yours but still I enjoy it quite a bit.
Alex Kid - Don't Hide It
On another note, Hocus Pocus are true classics. It's been a while since I've been really into that kind of psychedelic-to-prog transition music of the early 70s but boy do I enjoy hearing those Dutchmen when they crop up.
Alex Kid - Don't Hide It
On another note, Hocus Pocus are true classics. It's been a while since I've been really into that kind of psychedelic-to-prog transition music of the early 70s but boy do I enjoy hearing those Dutchmen when they crop up.
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troublesomekeen
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Good old Focus! One of my favs. I really like that funk/fusion/jazz element to their music. But right now, I'd have to say I'm blaring Frankenstein full blastBenvolio wrote:On another note, Hocus Pocus are true classics. ...I enjoy hearing those Dutchmen when they crop up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEBYWC60TWY
Old Grey Whistle Test ftw.
Commander Keen in... Canteloupe Quest!
whoops I forgot that Hocus Pocus was the song and Focus was the band. 
Yeah Frankenstein is pretty fun. I also enjoy Marcus Miller's version, which me and my dad stumbled on in Paris back in 2005 when looking at the papers for something to go to one evening, free Marcus Miller concert, was amazing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8vTCp1eV8E
Marcus also does a great homage/adaptation of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhbi8GSsqrU
Yeah Frankenstein is pretty fun. I also enjoy Marcus Miller's version, which me and my dad stumbled on in Paris back in 2005 when looking at the papers for something to go to one evening, free Marcus Miller concert, was amazing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8vTCp1eV8E
Marcus also does a great homage/adaptation of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhbi8GSsqrU
Airiel - Funerals
Some music recommendations were getting thrown about near me, albeit not specifically at me, a day or two ago. This was one - floaty shoegaze stuff, sort of a dreamy quality to it. While I was in shoegazing land, I also took a moment to get hyped about the festival I'm going to in a week with a bit of MBV.
My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow
I have listened to an embarassingly small amount of their stuff (read: just that song) so I guess I should get some listening in before I go see 'em.
Some music recommendations were getting thrown about near me, albeit not specifically at me, a day or two ago. This was one - floaty shoegaze stuff, sort of a dreamy quality to it. While I was in shoegazing land, I also took a moment to get hyped about the festival I'm going to in a week with a bit of MBV.
My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow
I have listened to an embarassingly small amount of their stuff (read: just that song) so I guess I should get some listening in before I go see 'em.
Shonikado wrote:Looking back on what we've done and wanting to change it is the first step in becoming a weakling that cannot do anything.
Likewise I am only beginning to get listening to them. Which is all the more embarrassing since they're from maybe 20km from my house and are, after U2 and Thin Lizzy and Van Morrison, probably the most important Irish artists of the rock era. I've started with the Loveless album and it sounds fantastic, with similarities to fore-runners such as Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth as well as successors such as Smashing Pumpkins. In fact, if I was told that Loveless was a 'lost' early record by Smashing Pumpkins I would not be wholly incredulous. I mean, the songwriting is 100% different but the instrumentation and something about the general style of musicality is strikingly similar. Some fans of MBV might strongly disagree, calling the Pumpkins derivative and simplistic but forget them! I hope their gig is good, and I must take the time to check out their new album too.TerminILL wrote:My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow
I'm getting big into these fella(s) lately, as well as scratching the surface of Industrial and EBM music in general. All suggestions very welcome in these genres.
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StupidBunny
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Grimes... what do ye all think??? I must say I've enjoyed her stuff so far!!! Here she is in the radio studio!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ5XUw4qHZo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ5XUw4qHZo
Benvolio: I'm honestly not entirely sure I'm sold on the musical style, from what little I've heard here (it has a lot of elements that I like, yet the whole didn't seem to be going anywhere, at least to me), but her performance approach there is fascinating to watch.
anyway, I think it's time for another Huge and Uninformative Self-Indulgent Music Post. I'm not even going to try putting these in chronological order, just whatever I can remember having listened to and having opinions on
Steven Wilson - Insurgentes (2009)
As quite the fan of Steven Wilson's work with/as Porcupine Tree, my thoughts on buying this were mostly along the lines of "at the very least, it can't be too bad". I actually don't remember what my expectations were, or if I had any at all. I'd listened to and enjoyed the lead single Harmony Korine, and that was it. Either way, my expectations were exceeded, if they did at all exist. Unlike a lot of Wilson's work, Insurgentes is fundamentally track-oriented, with little in the way of overarching theme or style across the album. This doesn't really hurt it, though - each track pulls its own weight, and it allows Wilson to cover a lot of stylistic ground. I thought I'd something more to say but apparently I don't. I like it a lot, though.
The Protomen - The Protomen (2005)
The Protomen - Act II: The Father of Death (2009)
I'm sort of surprised it took so long between me hearing of The Protomen and actually listening to their stuff, considering their premise - rock opera based (very) loosely on the early NES Megaman games. While I didn't grow up with these games or anything, I can appreciate video-game influenced sci-fi rock opera any day of the week. Ultimately, the link to the original games is fairly tenuous, and The Protomen can be enjoyed without any knowledge of the games at all. What you will want, though, is a copy of the extensive lyrics sheets in some form, as they include vast amounts of unspoken narration, background, plot, etc. Their first, self-titled album has a distinctly hard, lo-fi approach taken to it, while the second act (which is actually set before the first) has a decidedly more polished-yet-retro feel, with some decidedly 80s synthesizers getting a workout. Worth checking out.
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (2008)
Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver (2011)
I'm lumping these two together because I don't have enough to talk about them as individual albums. I'd listened to a few Bon Iver tracks (their very nice cover of Come Talk To Me mentioned previously and Skinny Love, admittedly after it was popularised by Birdy - I'm no good at this "being a hipster" thing, I can't even say I liked it before it was popular!) and thought hey, why not give their albums a listen. So I did, a few times. Even after two or three listens, I struggled to mentally pick out more than one or two songs from each album. The thing with these albums is that while they're not unpleasant to listen to, they're just fundamentally boring. By all accounts the sort of floaty, folksy melancholy stuff they do should be my cup of tea, but it's totally bland. Flume, Skinny Love, The Wolves (Act I and II) and Holocene are nice tracks, but the rest is just... bleh.
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (1991)
I listened to this in anticipation of seeing them live at I'll Be Your Mirror (which was awesome, by the way. at least, the festival was) about a month ago. I liked it, I guess? I think I liked it. I was excited to see them live. And then... they sucked. Their performance was not strictly bad (although maybe the part where Kevin Shields screwed up Only Shallow less than two seconds in counts as bad. with a muttering of "wrong pedal", they started again), but it wasn't crash hot. Maybe it's just the whole shoegaze "stand on stage and look as uninterested as possible" thing that doesn't work for me, but I didn't really enjoy it. Now, this doesn't really reflect on the album, but as interesting as it is it sort of falls into the Bon Iver trap of just being a little indistinguishable, a little unmemorable, one song melts into the other. In this case, this is at least somewhat the intent, and if I tried I could pick songs. It's not bad overall, and I'm sure it was groundbreaking and whatever. I'm just not thoroughly enamoured with the album as a whole, I guess? Perhaps just disillusioned.
Tennis - Young & Old (2012)
I picked this up at the aforementioned I'll Be Your Mirror festival, when the trivia team I was on came in second place (just barely, we tied for first but lost the tiebreaker) and won 4 CDs from ATP Recordings between us. Somehow I ended up with 2 (I guess no-one else wanted 'em) and this is the "actually interesting" one of the pair. Mellow, folky synth-pop, nothing too special, but upbeat and pleasant enough to listen to.
The National - High Violet (2010)
Teeeechnically I listened to this for the first time in mid-2011, but I recently bought the limited expanded edition with some B-sides and stuff on another disc and I want to talk about it anyway. I referred to it vaguely when talking about Alligator, saying it "sort of wallows, emotionally". And that it does, but not really in a bad way. There's a constant thread of melancholy that runs clean through the album, but the music itself doesn't sit around and stagnate, it rises and falls, it remains interesting. A word I'd use and then look like a huge tool for using is "powerful". The surges and crashing finale of the first track Terrible Love set the bar for the rest of the album, but power isn't always delivered with such bombast and spectacle - the closing track, Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks, remains much more understated yet easily moves me to tears (yes I am a huge sap).
The National - Boxer (2007)
Part of the reason I wanted to talk about High Violet up there was as yet another point of reference when discussing Boxer here. Unlike the energy and occasional anger on Alligator or the grandiosities of High Violet, the songs are for the most part subdued, but one of the first things that struck me about Boxer was that it was, even if only a little bit and at a few times, cheerful. It wouldn't be The National if it didn't come with healthy servings of melancholy, but for a handful of moments (notably the opener Fake Empire and Apartment Story) they lighten up, pulling themselves out of the gloom for a minute or two to ponder that hey, maybe things aren't always so bad, even if just for now. And as much as I'm a sucker for melancholy, I really, really like it, even if not quite enough for either of those to snatch my Favourite Song on the Album spot - that one goes to Green Gloves, which sort of strikes an interesting medium; it's not happy as such, but it's not quite sad, either, just quietly beautiful.
Caribou - Swim (2010)
Last time I made one of these, I briefly discussed my total infatuation with the first track of this album, Odessa. A friend recommended I listen to the whole album, and after too many months of being lazy, I finally did a week or two ago. It's really good. I made a tremendous fool of myself trying to throw genres and labels around last time, but I think "experimental, psychedelic minimal techno" might suffice here. I can't find useful words to say things about this album (implying I'm any good at talking about other albums ha ha ha), apart from "if some of the words in that horrible genre abomination there appeal to you then maybe you should listen to it". It's great, really.
alright so I think that's just about everything or at least all the important things
anyway, I think it's time for another Huge and Uninformative Self-Indulgent Music Post. I'm not even going to try putting these in chronological order, just whatever I can remember having listened to and having opinions on
Steven Wilson - Insurgentes (2009)
As quite the fan of Steven Wilson's work with/as Porcupine Tree, my thoughts on buying this were mostly along the lines of "at the very least, it can't be too bad". I actually don't remember what my expectations were, or if I had any at all. I'd listened to and enjoyed the lead single Harmony Korine, and that was it. Either way, my expectations were exceeded, if they did at all exist. Unlike a lot of Wilson's work, Insurgentes is fundamentally track-oriented, with little in the way of overarching theme or style across the album. This doesn't really hurt it, though - each track pulls its own weight, and it allows Wilson to cover a lot of stylistic ground. I thought I'd something more to say but apparently I don't. I like it a lot, though.
The Protomen - The Protomen (2005)
The Protomen - Act II: The Father of Death (2009)
I'm sort of surprised it took so long between me hearing of The Protomen and actually listening to their stuff, considering their premise - rock opera based (very) loosely on the early NES Megaman games. While I didn't grow up with these games or anything, I can appreciate video-game influenced sci-fi rock opera any day of the week. Ultimately, the link to the original games is fairly tenuous, and The Protomen can be enjoyed without any knowledge of the games at all. What you will want, though, is a copy of the extensive lyrics sheets in some form, as they include vast amounts of unspoken narration, background, plot, etc. Their first, self-titled album has a distinctly hard, lo-fi approach taken to it, while the second act (which is actually set before the first) has a decidedly more polished-yet-retro feel, with some decidedly 80s synthesizers getting a workout. Worth checking out.
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (2008)
Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver (2011)
I'm lumping these two together because I don't have enough to talk about them as individual albums. I'd listened to a few Bon Iver tracks (their very nice cover of Come Talk To Me mentioned previously and Skinny Love, admittedly after it was popularised by Birdy - I'm no good at this "being a hipster" thing, I can't even say I liked it before it was popular!) and thought hey, why not give their albums a listen. So I did, a few times. Even after two or three listens, I struggled to mentally pick out more than one or two songs from each album. The thing with these albums is that while they're not unpleasant to listen to, they're just fundamentally boring. By all accounts the sort of floaty, folksy melancholy stuff they do should be my cup of tea, but it's totally bland. Flume, Skinny Love, The Wolves (Act I and II) and Holocene are nice tracks, but the rest is just... bleh.
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (1991)
I listened to this in anticipation of seeing them live at I'll Be Your Mirror (which was awesome, by the way. at least, the festival was) about a month ago. I liked it, I guess? I think I liked it. I was excited to see them live. And then... they sucked. Their performance was not strictly bad (although maybe the part where Kevin Shields screwed up Only Shallow less than two seconds in counts as bad. with a muttering of "wrong pedal", they started again), but it wasn't crash hot. Maybe it's just the whole shoegaze "stand on stage and look as uninterested as possible" thing that doesn't work for me, but I didn't really enjoy it. Now, this doesn't really reflect on the album, but as interesting as it is it sort of falls into the Bon Iver trap of just being a little indistinguishable, a little unmemorable, one song melts into the other. In this case, this is at least somewhat the intent, and if I tried I could pick songs. It's not bad overall, and I'm sure it was groundbreaking and whatever. I'm just not thoroughly enamoured with the album as a whole, I guess? Perhaps just disillusioned.
Tennis - Young & Old (2012)
I picked this up at the aforementioned I'll Be Your Mirror festival, when the trivia team I was on came in second place (just barely, we tied for first but lost the tiebreaker) and won 4 CDs from ATP Recordings between us. Somehow I ended up with 2 (I guess no-one else wanted 'em) and this is the "actually interesting" one of the pair. Mellow, folky synth-pop, nothing too special, but upbeat and pleasant enough to listen to.
The National - High Violet (2010)
Teeeechnically I listened to this for the first time in mid-2011, but I recently bought the limited expanded edition with some B-sides and stuff on another disc and I want to talk about it anyway. I referred to it vaguely when talking about Alligator, saying it "sort of wallows, emotionally". And that it does, but not really in a bad way. There's a constant thread of melancholy that runs clean through the album, but the music itself doesn't sit around and stagnate, it rises and falls, it remains interesting. A word I'd use and then look like a huge tool for using is "powerful". The surges and crashing finale of the first track Terrible Love set the bar for the rest of the album, but power isn't always delivered with such bombast and spectacle - the closing track, Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks, remains much more understated yet easily moves me to tears (yes I am a huge sap).
The National - Boxer (2007)
Part of the reason I wanted to talk about High Violet up there was as yet another point of reference when discussing Boxer here. Unlike the energy and occasional anger on Alligator or the grandiosities of High Violet, the songs are for the most part subdued, but one of the first things that struck me about Boxer was that it was, even if only a little bit and at a few times, cheerful. It wouldn't be The National if it didn't come with healthy servings of melancholy, but for a handful of moments (notably the opener Fake Empire and Apartment Story) they lighten up, pulling themselves out of the gloom for a minute or two to ponder that hey, maybe things aren't always so bad, even if just for now. And as much as I'm a sucker for melancholy, I really, really like it, even if not quite enough for either of those to snatch my Favourite Song on the Album spot - that one goes to Green Gloves, which sort of strikes an interesting medium; it's not happy as such, but it's not quite sad, either, just quietly beautiful.
Caribou - Swim (2010)
Last time I made one of these, I briefly discussed my total infatuation with the first track of this album, Odessa. A friend recommended I listen to the whole album, and after too many months of being lazy, I finally did a week or two ago. It's really good. I made a tremendous fool of myself trying to throw genres and labels around last time, but I think "experimental, psychedelic minimal techno" might suffice here. I can't find useful words to say things about this album (implying I'm any good at talking about other albums ha ha ha), apart from "if some of the words in that horrible genre abomination there appeal to you then maybe you should listen to it". It's great, really.
alright so I think that's just about everything or at least all the important things
Shonikado wrote:Looking back on what we've done and wanting to change it is the first step in becoming a weakling that cannot do anything.
I actually agree with you completely wrt Grimes. She seems like a cool and appealing person, with extremely catchy musical ideas and an appreciation for the potential of the synthesiser. But the 'whole didn't seem to be going anywhere' - she has not mastered songwriting and I sincerely hope that she works on that. Indeed she is deliberately making her music sound less structured and less accessible - and who can blame her in the environment of today's electronic (and other) pop - but if she looked to the songwriters of the 80s or before she could perhaps find stylistic guidance. Nevertheless, it hold true that her songs provide enjoyment for me!
Anyhow... that's a lengthy post there TerminILL full of music that I mostly haven't listened to (except 'Loveless' discussed a few posts previously). Perhaps to aid digestion of such a post, a few links/suggestions of recommended songs might help.
I did listen to Bon Iver's first album a good bit in 2009 when it was all hyped up, and yes it had an above-average musicality and some well-honed production, but for some reason it depressed me a lot. Maybe it was because it was a rainy boring summer at the time but I don't have warm feelings towards that album. I never got my hands on his second album.
The National are very popular but they have yet to gain any traction with me. They don't sound like something I couldn't like though. I do like some fairly melancholy music though so perhaps I will get into them.
Okay so the last week or two I've been enthralled with this album which is astounding both as an album and particularly as an album released 5 years ago:
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig Lazarus Dig (2008)
Also, about a year ago I was raving about Disintegration by the Cure. I still think that is their best album and it remains one of my favourite albums since punk happened. But now I also really like:
The Cure - Seventeen Seconds (1980)
and
The Cure - Pornography (1981)
I also am quite fond of the album that came between these (Faith, 1981) but it is to me the bleakest of the three and thus slightly less gratifying than the other two.
Anyhow... that's a lengthy post there TerminILL full of music that I mostly haven't listened to (except 'Loveless' discussed a few posts previously). Perhaps to aid digestion of such a post, a few links/suggestions of recommended songs might help.
I did listen to Bon Iver's first album a good bit in 2009 when it was all hyped up, and yes it had an above-average musicality and some well-honed production, but for some reason it depressed me a lot. Maybe it was because it was a rainy boring summer at the time but I don't have warm feelings towards that album. I never got my hands on his second album.
The National are very popular but they have yet to gain any traction with me. They don't sound like something I couldn't like though. I do like some fairly melancholy music though so perhaps I will get into them.
Okay so the last week or two I've been enthralled with this album which is astounding both as an album and particularly as an album released 5 years ago:
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig Lazarus Dig (2008)
Also, about a year ago I was raving about Disintegration by the Cure. I still think that is their best album and it remains one of my favourite albums since punk happened. But now I also really like:
The Cure - Seventeen Seconds (1980)
and
The Cure - Pornography (1981)
I also am quite fond of the album that came between these (Faith, 1981) but it is to me the bleakest of the three and thus slightly less gratifying than the other two.
I've tried to carefully pick a couple tracks reflecting each album as a whole, but it's heavily biased towards my favourites (EDIT: this means they're not really that representative at all ha ha ha ha). Either way.
From Steven Wilson - Insurgentes (2009):
Veneno Para Las Hadas
Significant Other
From The Protomen - The Protomen (2005)
Hope Rides Alone
From The Protomen - Act II: The Father of Death (2009)
Breaking Out
From Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (2008)
Flume
From Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver (2011)
Holocene
From My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (1991)
When You Sleep
From Tennis - Young & Old (2012)
It All Feels The Same
Take Me to Heaven
From The National - High Violet (2010)
Terrible Love
Conversation 16
From The National - Boxer (2007)
Fake Empire
Green Gloves
From Caribou - Swim (2010)
Hannibal
Jamelia
(bonus: whole album set on soundcloud)
With any luck, that should help interested parties get something of a feel for the albums there, if not necessarily an entirely representative one because I'm bad at that.
From Steven Wilson - Insurgentes (2009):
Veneno Para Las Hadas
Significant Other
From The Protomen - The Protomen (2005)
Hope Rides Alone
From The Protomen - Act II: The Father of Death (2009)
Breaking Out
From Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (2008)
Flume
From Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver (2011)
Holocene
From My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (1991)
When You Sleep
From Tennis - Young & Old (2012)
It All Feels The Same
Take Me to Heaven
From The National - High Violet (2010)
Terrible Love
Conversation 16
From The National - Boxer (2007)
Fake Empire
Green Gloves
From Caribou - Swim (2010)
Hannibal
Jamelia
(bonus: whole album set on soundcloud)
With any luck, that should help interested parties get something of a feel for the albums there, if not necessarily an entirely representative one because I'm bad at that.
Last edited by TerminILL on Fri Mar 22, 2013 16:37, edited 1 time in total.
Shonikado wrote:Looking back on what we've done and wanting to change it is the first step in becoming a weakling that cannot do anything.
