scår søünd

I have been remiss in my music listening duties. I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos, and for some reason reading without musical accompaniment. I've also had a horrible bout of insomnia, which makes me less motivated to do anything than I would be if I had a good night's sleep behind me.

---

Droid - Droid

Droid are an L.A. metal band who are signed to Korn's guitarist's vanity imprint record label. Their bass player is the former lead singer/rhythm guitarist of The Deadlights, who were one of my favourite one-off bands of the Nü-Metal era. The problem with Droid is that they don't seem to have any of the variety, melody, or intelligence of the former band. If You are down with forty-six minutes of homogeneous screamy metal then by all means listen to Droid. But if you prefer a more dynamic sound in your heavy music this might not be quite the thing for you.



KMFDM / My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Naïve/The Days of Swine & Roses (single)

Back in the day there was a magical record label named WAX TRAX!. The WAX TRAX! artist were a tight knit group of Chicago-based industrial artists. There was a strong thread of performance art, and collaboration among the WAX TRAX! family. The side project between TKK and KMFDM was Excessive Force. In 1991 the album Conquer Your World was released. The Work that Sascha Konietzko did with Buzz McCoy on that album spawned this split remix single. The TKK remix of "Naïve" isn't that great. It sounds like a funkier, swankier, dirtier version of "Naïve", but it wasn't a great song to begin with, so I think it is more a mater of source material than ineptitude in remixing. "The Days of Swine & Roses" is a great song, and Sascha came in to KMFDM it up. The guitars are a lot harsher, the bass isn't as prevalent, and the song sound a bit more muted than the original, but it is still a good remix, just not as good as the original. Both songs are extended from their original length to 10:00 opuses.



Prince & The Revolution - Purple Rain (soundtrack)

The 80s were great, weren't they? At least the nostalgia of the 80s is great. In the 80s Prince was great, but he didn't really stand up over time, much like this album. "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" still hold up remarkably well, but the rest of the album is very dated. There was a very distinctive sound to New Wave music in 1984, and while the band is tight, and the musicianship is strong this album sounds like 1984. I have never seen the movie Purple Rain, but I'm sure it's a fin picture. At this point, however it is stuck in time, and not timeless like good art really should be.




Portishead - Dummy

Portishead are the second best trip-hop band after Massive Attack. Fortunately both bands are friendly, and they don't even really take up the same market-share. Massive Attack tend to be very outwardly political, and Portishead have a tendency to be introspective and emotional. Back in 1994 it was hard to find a copy of Dummy in the stores, but in the past 14 years Portishead have become a cultural phenomenon. With their new album (Third) debuting at no. 7 on the US billboard chart, and no. 2 in the UK album charts. Aside from having a very strong start Portishead had to travel a long and winding road to get public notice. After being away from the band for ten years the public was finally ready to accept Portishead, which seems like the epitome of ahead of their time to me. The Critical press has already lauded Dummy, and I don't know what I can add. This is a fantastic album, and probably the second best trip-hop album ever released. Again after Mezzanine by Massive Attack. It is down-tempo, and sad, and compelling. The samples come from music from old spy movie soundtracks, and blues and soul records. This is what it sounded like when you let English kids that lived by the sea get ahold of hip-hop music and do their thing.



Marilyn Manson - Eat Me, Drink Me

I got into Marilyn Manson back in 1994 around the first time I heard "Lunchbox". I am always excited when a new MM record is announced. Which means that I am kind of excited about the new MM album that he is going to be recording with Twiggy later this year, even if Steven Baird isn't going to be involved this time. Manson was always best when he was angry about something, and screaming about individuality. When he got depressed and lost his will to live and create that made his music a lot harder to listen to. There is a track on Eat Me, Drink Me that hearkens back to lunchbox by using a very similar guitar riff, and there is a song or two that are loud rockers, but this album suffers like its creator. The music is not the industrial-metal that most of the rest of Manson's back catalog is. The song structures are a lot more traditional, and I blame this mostly on Tim Skold not really wanting to reach into Manson's depressed headspace. The allusions to Alice in Wonderland aren't very helpful to the theme either. This is not a bad album, but it is Manson's worst.