scår søünd

I was going to update this Friday night, but I got drunk. Then I was going to update it Saturday, but I was both drunk and lazy, and I spent all day watching YouTube videos of Marilyn Manson and Henry Rollins. I think I got all of them. So I've decided to finally update it today. I didn't really listen to any music the past two days, so nothing there, but I did listen to a bit on Friday.

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Rammstein - Du riechst so gut '98 (single)

Rammstein got famous because they had a couple of tracks on the Lost Highway soundtrack then they released "Du Hast" as a single. They sing exclusively in Deutsch, and they don't give a fuck what they think about them. They also love fire, and homoerotic imagery. After they got famous they decided to re-release their first single with a lot of remixes, and new artwork. There are three KMFDM remixes on this single, all of which are good, one by Rammstein's longtime studio collaborator Jacob Hellner, which is impressive, and good for the dance floor, the best by Olav Bruhn is a scathing industrial version of a good heavy metal song. The first remix is a Mike Patton (of Faith No More) minimal mix. Patton's remix strips away all of the instrumentation and leaves us with something that sounds like Deutsche opera, which is a pretty powerful effect with Till Lindemann's voice. If you don't like the song the single is obviously not going to be your thing, but if you do it is well worth the effort.



We Are Scientists - Crap Attack

We are scientists broke through my boring indie rock barrier by being good at what they do. Their music sounds similar to that of their contemporaries, but their guitar tone is different, and the words are more interesting. Crap Attack is a collection of b-sides, covers, and remixes complied from their very early career. There really isn't a bad song on this collection, and I always have to commend a band that's willing to cover a Sigur Rós track. (Thursday is the only other band that comes to mind that has also done so). The remixes are good, and not overly electronic. It is indie rock for people who like music, and not just elitist assholes.



Gescom - A & B (EP)

Gescom might as well be Autechre except for the fact that their music is more structured and almost melodic. This was the first EP Gescom ever released and it is incredibly hard to come by, and it isn't necessarily representative of the later glitchy output from them. There are four tracks of well structured ambient electronica on this EP. It is downtempo, but not dark or even chillout. It is complex enough for active listening, but also suited to background music, because it is not as abrasive as some of the group's later output.


AFI - A Fire Inside (EP)

1998 was the year that AFI let their fans know what those three letters stood for. It was also nearly the end of their tenure as a Hardcore punk band. They went out with a bang. This is fast-tempo punk-rock with obvious goth overtones. The last two tracks are covers; "The Hanging Garden" by The Cure and "Demonomania" by Misfits. AFI were letting their goth flag truly unfurl for the first time, and this was an indicator of their new direction.



Error - Error (EP)

I probably listen to this EP more than anything else in my collection. There are two reasons for this: The EP is Seventeen minutes long making it easy to consume quickly, and two it is some of the best electroclash/industrial I've ever heard. It is an absolutely brutal five song collection. "Nothing is Working" opens up the record with swirling synth line that starts repeating quickly then becomes a bass and microbeats combo until the drums, guitars, and hard synths set in. It is rip your face off electroclash. "Homicide" is a cover of a 999 Song, which is pretty good. "Burn in Hell" is a thumping bass-driven track that is incredibly heavy. "Jack the ripper" has an awesome ambient intro that terminates with the sound of knives sliding blade against blade then breaks into the murderous meat of the song. "Brains Out" is an altered version of "Nothing is Working"; It is almost a remix, but different enough that it is another song in the same vein. The lyrics "Let's just fuck our brains out motherfucker" is repeated ad nauseam. I was attracted to Error because they're comprised of Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion, Atticus Ross of 12 Rounds, his brother Leapold Ross, and Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape Plan on Vocals. An absolutely bone crushing combination.



Zebrahead - Playmate of the Year

Zebrahead are a kind of under-rated band. You might have heard of them back in 1999 when they had the hit single "Get Back". The video aired on MTV, and "alternative radio" glombed onto it for a few weeks as well. About a year after their second album Zebrahead released their third album Playmate of the Year Which is probably their best album. They play a Pop-Punk hip-hop hybrid, but it is good. Their lyrics are witty, and the music is catchy. They sound a lot like Goldfinger with a lot more funk.



Eels - Electro-Shock Blues

I really like Eels; they are one of my favourite bands. I started listening to them in 1996 when Beautiful Freak was released, and I liked "Novocaine for the Soul" but I didn't really get into them until around the time that Blinking Lights and Other Revelations was released. Then I got sort of obsessed and acquired their entire back catalog. Electro-Shock Blues is Eels darkest, most touching and best album. The album was recorded after Mark Oliver Everett spent a stint in a mental institution after his mother's death from a long battle with cancer and his sister's suicide after years of battling with schizophrenia, and Mark finding his father dead in his bed when he was 19. The album starts out with a song about finding a corpse in the bathroom and winds through songs about childhood, depression, desperation, and works its way To a song about falling in love at a funeral. It never quite makes it to the light of day, but it does terminate on a positive note. In the sea of music that I have to listen to this album pops up a lot.



MuDvAyNe - L.D. 50

Mudvayne's debut album is also their best. I like Mudvayne, I really do, I have all of their albums and DVDs and one of their singles on 10" blood-red vinyl. The problem with Mudvayne is that they never matched the quality of their first release. L.D. 50 is an album about human consciousness being an ape with a symbiotic relationship to a mushroom. The band watched 2001 A Space Odyssey every day that they were in the studio recording this album. There is a spacey feel to some of the songs, and there is definitely a sterile clinical feel to the entire record. Even the song about Ed Gein feels clean even through the grit of the subject matter. L.D. 50 is a prog-funk-metal album with a definite point of view. It is smart, it is heavy, it is complex and interesting, and it makes you want to get into the pit. If you are into metal, and I mean real metal and not that Glam shit, there isn't much not to like about this album. The Bass sound is unique, the guitars are awesome, but not too fast, the vocals are good, and the drumming is polyrhythmic.



White Zombie - Astro-Creep: 2000 Songs of Love, Destruction, and Other Synthetic Delutions of the Electric Head

I sometimes forget that I like White Zombie. This usually happens when I haven't listened to them for a while. I'll look at the CD on the shelf and say, eh, well I like "More Human than Human" but what else is worth a shit? The answer is that almost every song on this album is really good. It all sounds basically the same, but it is good. Rob Zombie et. al found a formula for making cool horror movie inspired industrial-metal and they stuck to it. It is probably a good thing that this was the last White Zombie album though. I don't know where else they were going to go with the band. Except that Rob Zombie's solo career never strayed too far from the themes in White Zombie.



Iron and Wine - The Shepherd's Dog

I am a really bad judge of indie rock. This shit is just not dynamic enough for me. You could play me songs from fifteen different bands on those pacific northwest labels and I'd think they were all the same fucking band. Great, you've got acoustic guitars and a sincere attitude toward your art, I can respect that. I am just not on the same page you're on. Listen your songs show that you have an obvious talent with your instrument, and you probably write decent lyrics, but I'm not listening to them because you're not putting them into a context that makes me care. All the critics seem to rage about Iron and Wine, whatever.



War of Ages - Fire from the Tomb

Christian metalcore is a totally acceptable genre classification. Hey, I love Jesus Christ too. I mean, not really, I'm an atheist, but I can feel your determination to help save the souls of everyone who hears your music. Fire from the Tomb is a re-recording of War of Ages debut self-titled album, and it is really heavy. I read the lyrics sheet and I was put off, but the music is pretty heavy, and the words seem to fit well. So, as long as you don't take too much to the message, or if you also think that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the savior of the world this is probably a record for you.



Helmet - Betty

Somehow this album got funky when I wasn't looking. I'm used to helmet being very riff-heavy and something between hardcore and metal, but not metalcomre. But I put Betty on the other day and I was astounded by how fucking cool the bass work was and how funky the sound was. It sounded like groove metal to me. I guess I don't listen to Betty very often, and that's my fault. I usually listen to Meantime, and Size Matters which are both more straight up rock. Betty is also the only Helmet release to sort of show off Page Hammilton's Jazzy chops. Good record. I also noticed that the N*E*R*D song "Lap Dance" uses it's main sample from the song "The Silver Hawaiian". Which is kind of interesting given the divergent styles of both groups.



Bloc Party - Intimacy

The new Bloc Party album isn't available in any physical format yet. It's a us$10.00 fee for the download and a pre-order of the CD, which is basically the right price. I always think that anything more than about us$12.00 for a CD is way too much. As to the content of the new album, it is good. It isn't Silent Alarm, but that album was that time and that place. It is five times better than A Weekend in the City though. The music is a lot more electronic in nature. There are a lot of keyboards and samples scattered about on this album, and they're used to great effect. The change in instrumental inclusion does not change the essential Bloc Party Sound. Kele Okereke has said that this is his break-up album. So get ready for songs about ex-lovers, but I think we all need a few of those records on our shelves.



KMFDM - Ruck Zuck (EP)

Check it out, KMFDM released another remix album. The first track "Free Your Hate (Käptn's Krunch mix)" is fucking great, but only because the initial sample is "The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves" the other six remixes are fine, but they're nothing special. The cover of "Der Mussolini" is okay, and the b-side "Ansage" is boring. This is probably the least inspiring KMFDM release since they "re-formed" int 2002.



The Cops - Free Electricity

I go to my local public library about once a week. While I'm there I scan through the CD rack and see if there's anything I don't have, and I occasionally come across something I've never even heard of before. The Cops are a punk band from Seattle. They're pretty good. I couldn't find much information about them anywhere, which makes this a little bit harder. They seem to be an anarcho-punk band. They're socialists. The music reflects this. They have occasional reggae influences. It is decent stuff.



Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris

I can't bring myself to really like Queens of the Stone Age, and it's my own biases that prevent me from doing so. See, Queens... were formed from the Ashes of Kyuss, who were also a stoner-rock band. That's the thing I have a problem with, the Stone part of the rock. Bands that actively advocate drug use really turn me off. Josh Homme makes these "desert sessions" albums, where he and a bunch of his friends go out to the Arizona desert, get really fucking wasted, and jam. He will often bring ideas for QoTSA songs back from those sessions, making the band a "drug band." I really can't get behind that message. Blame Nancy Reagan. Era Vulgaris is totally listenable, but Rated R is still their best album. There are a couple of pretty good rockers on this album, they are the tracks with two commas apiece. "Run, Pig, Run", and "Sick, Sick, Sick". The rest of the songs are decent, but those are the standouts.



Band of Horses - Everything All the Time

That thing I said about how I don't really pay attention to a lot of the indie rock I listen to, well it is still true, but I liked Band of Horses debut effort. They stand slightly to one side of the indie-rock horde because they use steel guitars. They have a slight alt-country vibe, and it makes all of the difference. Really all your band needs is some little fucking gimmick. If you write country songs for a rock band you are automatically going to be different from, and therefore more interesting than 96% of the other shit out there.



Puscifer - Cuntry Boner (single)

Puscifer are another side project of Maynard James Keenan. It is his humorous side-project. No holds barred, nothing is off the table, and he is willing to work with anyone in any genre. "Cuntry Boner" is my favorite Puscifer song by a long shot. There is this walking bass thing and a country rhythm. Then Maynard starts singing about all of the country stars he's fucked. Included are Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley's Little girl, The Judds, and Johnny Cash. The b-side is another country song titled "World Up My Ass." I think Maynard has a joking streak in him. Especially since he thinks that Tool is actually his funniest band.



Black Light Burns - Cover Your Heart

Black Light Burns are rapidly becoming my favorite band of the month. Cover Your Heart and the Anvil Pants Odyssey is a collection of covers, b-sides, and instrumental tracks, and a DVD containing the videos from Cruel Melody and a documentary about the current band. Any band willing to cover "Forkboy" by lard has my fucking vote. There are a few unexpected covers on this record. "On the Bound" by Fiona Apple is the standout. She has a unique vocal delivery, and Wes tries to emulate it to good effect. "Rid of Me" by PJ harvey is an even better version than the original. The instrumental tracks are well textured and interestingly structured. They are a bit more ambient than some rock fans like, but I'm a big fan of ambient music. If this is a template for the further direction of the band I am on board 100%

Today's wrap-up is going to be slightly different. I'm figuring this shit out as I go, so it could be a crap shoot. Yesterday I was listening to an album shuffle of random shit out of the 70GB of stuff that is on my iPod; None of which is still on there. Today was a much more deliberate listening experience. The only playlist I listened to today was titled "long overdue"; which is my playlist for albums that I love and haven't heard in a long time, or new music that I have not yet listened to. Sometimes I'll get the special editions of an album and throw the whole thing in there to see how it all sounds in context. I often find that bonus tracks don't quite jive with the rest of the album, and should probably have been b-sides on singles, or left for compilation tracks. There were two such albums on today's list. One of them felt tacked, on, the other felt fluid. Anyway, Without further Ado, the list:

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She Wants Revenge - Save Your Soul (EP)

Save your soul is a four track EP released after This is Forever. All four tracks are previously unreleased, and none are remixed. That means four brand new She Wants Revenge songs for consumption. I was all over it. I really dig She Wants Revenge; They are a kind of vaguely electronic almost Gothic Rock band. They tend to have great, very associative lyrics, and interesting melodies. This release was no different; it contains two decent tracks, and two good songs. Unfortunately there is nothing truly great on here, but it is wholly listenable. I think of this band as my generation's reply to The Cure.



Reggie and the Full Effect - Last Stop: Crappy Town

Reggie and the Full Effect started out as a joke side project for James DeWees while he wasn't playing keyboards for Collide or The Get Up Kids. He had three fairly humorous albums: Greatest Hits 1984-1987, Promotional Copy, and Under the Tray (wherein the disc was literally under the tray, and under a glossy black card). Then all of a sudden He got serious. James had some personal issues problems and got a divorce spawning a much heavier album that relied less on the synthy sound fans had grown accustomed to. No more songs about "Megan 2Kwhatever". Then Mr. DeWees hooked up with My Chemical Romance to play keyboards on their The Black Parade tour. Somewhere along the line he meets Sean Beavan who is famous for producing albums by the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, God Lives Underwater, and Slayer. In between his personal turmoil and his changing genre affiliations Jim acquired a drug habit. Rehab came and went, and out of all of the emotional baggage that causes addiction, and the struggle to free oneself from it came this album. This record is HEAVY. Both in content and in sonic structure. Reggie has eschewed a lot of the keyboard parts and replaced them with guitars, many of which are provided by Frank Lero of MCR. I like the different eras of Reggie for different reasons, but I think this is his best album to date.



Interpol - Our Love to Admire

Interpol are basically the reason I gave indie rock a chance. I kept reading articles in hip zines about this band from NYC who were the coolest of the cool, and had the chops to back up the fashion. Eventually I picked up a copy of Turn on the Bright Lights and I was hooked. A few years later Antics was released, and I didn't get around to buying it right away. I finally bought the special edition with the remix EP and I was slightly less impressed, but I really liked the remixes, and the record grew on me. There was not a bad song on either record, nor on any of the EPs they had released before the albums came out. I heard about Our Love to Admire and I waited with baited breath for it to be released. I had a few fears about this album though. Interpol had abandoned Matador records for Colombia, so they were no longer an indie rock band they were a Rock group. My fears that the band weren't unfounded; the band's sound had changed. The change, however, was a natural progression, it was a maturation of their sound, and experimentation with new techniques. The music had grown, and the band had grown, they needed that bigger stronger structure beneath them to support that growth. Our Love to Admire reminds me of a re-potted plant; the band in it's new pot is free to expand and flourish, while if left in that smaller space they would have become root bound and been suffocated by indie guilt. The reason that I listened to this album today is because I finally found a copy of the bonus track "Mind Over Time." The track fits right in with the tone and texture of the album, but it is not nearly as good as any of the other standard tracks. Interpol's first album as a full-fledged rock band is more inspiring than their second attempt as a group of indie rockers. I'm sure they'll continue to grow and improve in the future, but they have small margins in which to improve. This is about the fourth time I've written a review for this album, see how much I believe in this band.



The Faint - Fasciinatiion

Check it out, The Faint made an ascii joke. I dig the faint, but I wasn't sitting by the phone waiting for Todd Fink to call me up and let me know the street date for his new record. I did, however, have Wet from Birth in my minidisc player for the better part of a year and a half though. That shit was awesome. "Drop Kick the Punks" Dance-Punk doesn't get much better than that. Some girl I was dating turned me on to them around the time Dance Macabre was released, and it was right up my alley; it was great Electronic Rock music. For a while I didn't think the band had a guitarist, but I turned out to be wrong, they just use a lot of awesome effects. Everything sounded like Bass, Drums, and Keys to me. Of course Connor Oberst was an original member, but that might have been when they were still named Norman Bailer. Fasciinatiion isn't as good as either of the previous two albums. I'm not even sure if it is as good as Blank Wave Arcade (the band's first real foray into electronic rock), but it is decent. "Fulcrum and Leaver" was the only song that I really liked on this album, the rest of it was decent, but not the quality I expect from this band. Maybe the album will grow on me, but my first impression wasn't very impressed.



Black Light Burns - Cruel Melody

Cruel Melody did not make my best of 2007 list. It was the only album in my honorable mention category, because it was the only standout debut album that I heard last year. Since I made my end-of-year list I've had more chances to listen to this album and it keeps getting better and better. The basic reason that I listened to it today is that I got the bonus tracks for the album. There are two b-sides, a remix, and two instrumental tracks. None of the bonus tracks stack up with the rest of the album, but the remix is by Daniel Anderson of Idiot Pilot, who are a great electronic/hardcore duo from Washington. The music on Black Light Burns debut effort is intriguing and complexly structured. The band is like an all-star line-up of former nine inch nails members, and a member of Telefon Tel Aviv. Making them one of the most proficient, and intense groups of sonic artists in the country. Wes Borland, Founder, Frontman, Vocalist, Guitarist, Idea Man, was the only truly talented member of Limp Bizkit, and he couldn't stand being in that joke of a band anymore. After a thick fistful of failed projects with other artists he took creative control and made a group of his own. The band as it exists today is entirely different than it was in the studio two years ago while Cruel Melody was being recorded, but I have high hopes. The lyrics are approachable and entirely relatable. When Wes sings "You Can't, You Can't/You Can't Stop a Bullet/I'm giving you my trigger/But you better never pull it" I get it. When he sings "You're Living a Lie/Just Like Me!" I get it. No, the lyrics aren't dense, and I don't want or need them to be. The sonics are dense enough for everything. But the lyrics are heartfelt and soulful; they speak to anyone who has experienced broken trust, or lost love, and a whole range of emotion. Even after my subsequent listens I doubt this would make my best of list for 2007, but it's honorable mention is a bit more fawning. We might have to wait a little while for a followup to this album, as Wes Borland is currently playing guitar for Marilyn Manson's world tour.



Bloc Party - Mercury (single)

Bloc Party were the first, and only, band that I was introduced to via ringtone. I was browsing the Verizon ringtone site on my phone one day when I came across "Blue Light" and "Like Eating Glass" from Silent Alarm. The words "Like drinking poison/Like eating Glass" spoke to me (Check out the tautology). Dealing with everyday life was just that for me when I first heard Bloc Party. Then when A Weekend in the City was released I was at my local indie record shop day one to pick it up. Bloc Party are somewhat prolific. There are collections of b-sides for both of their full length albums that rival the albums proper in both length and quality. I imagine that the same will be true for Intimacy. They are also unafraid of pushing the boundaries of their genre. Yes, Bloc Party are ostensibly an indie rock band, but they love the remix, and they incorporate electronic elements into many of their songs. "Flux" was the first example of an original Bloc Party song with a strong keyboard presence. "Mercury" follows in the vein of "Flux" and expands the theme by incorporating a vocoder, and a host of remixes. The b-side to this single "Idea for a Story" continues this trend. I have yet to listen to Intimacy the album from which this is the first sings, but if "Mercury" is any indicator I will be pleased with the results of this slightly altered direction.



Eels - Useless Trinkets: B-Sides, Soundtracks, Rarities and Unreleased: 1996-2006 (disc 1)

Generally speaking I am not much of a lyrics guy. Yeah, I like words, I like prose, and literature, but I tend to put less emphasis on the lyrical meaning of a song than I place upon my emotional response that the sonic tone of a song. Mark Olive Everett is one of the few men who writes lyrics that I always want to listen to. I only listened to the first disc of this today because it is an hour and a quarter, and so is the second disc. Some of these songs are present on the album 1996-2006: B-Sides and Rarities, but I have no qualms with doubling up on the material because it is so good. There aren't a lot of artists who write truly inspiring and truly heartbreaking songs, but E is one of them. I think I'd heard all of the songs on this album before I picked it up, but some of the new versions are great. There isn't a single skippable track on this disc.



Sigur Rós - Hvarf-Heim (disc 2: Heim)

This is the second disc of material released in CD format as a soundtrack to the Sigur Rós documentary of the same name. Heim Consists of live acoustic, and orchestral versions of the tracks used in the film. Six tracks clocking in at around thirty-six minutes, the first disc is around the same length. I don't know, I like Sigur Rós, and I'm into the post-rock thing, and their exclusive use of Icelandic and whatever made up language it is that they use, but these versions weren't any better than the album versions. Truthfully I like the studio versions better in every case. I listened to the first disc at some point last week, and I had a similar reaction. It is okay, but nowhere near as great as () or Ágætis byrjun.



Datarock - Datarock Datarock

Datarock are fun Norwegian Dance-Punk. I'm into Norway, I'm into DP, so this piqued my interest. The only track that really stood out to me on this album was "The New Song". Everything else on the album was sort of meh. Yeah, it's fun, sure it is dancable, but in the end it is forgettable. I would probably throw a few tracks from this album on a playlist for a party because it's something that you can shake your ass to, but that's about all it is good for.



The Birthday Massacre - Looking Glass (EP)

I can't remember where I first came about The Birthday Massacre. It was probably on a Deadsy message board a few years ago. What I know is that I heard a few remixes that they did for Combichrist, and Mindless Self Indulgence and I wasn't knocked over by them, but they were interesting and better than average. So I picked up Walking with Strangers when it Came out, and I got copies of Violet, and Nothing & Nowhere. Yet again, they aren't great, but they are better than average. They are and electro-pop band with a female lead singer and they have a unique perspective. The Looking Glass EP is an expansion upon the Walking with Strangers era sound. The title track itself is a new song, and there are a few good remixes of "Red Stars" which was itself a standalone single. The high point of this release is a cover of Tommy James and the Shondells "I Think We're Alone Now", which was popularized by 80s teen idol Tiffany. The new version doesn't venture too far from the source material, but it puts a cool spin on the old idea, and everybody knows that retro kitsch is always in.



Roadrunner United - The All-Star Sessions

You would do well to click the first link to get a good idea of what this album is. I was actually pleasantly surprised upon listening to this record. I had been putting it off, and putting it off since it was released, and I finally bit the bullet today. I thought, I hate half of the team leaders on this, and I don't think they can do anything interesting songwriting-wise. And I was fucking right about half of them, but it was a different portion than I expected. I assumed that Matt Heafy could only write songs like Trivium. Because I knew that dude when I lived in Orlando, and motherfucker doesn't have a lot going on other than loving the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and writing staid solos and riffs. But he came up with a couple of pretty interesting songs. One of his tracks is a straight-up hardcore punk tune, and another is a good strong rock song. Joey Jordison was the other stand-out, but I knew he would be. That dude wrote a ballad, and a rock song, and a brutal face crushing black metal song, and a synth addled tech-metal song, and a post-hardcore rumbler with Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw and Head Automatica. Rob Flynn went for the metal and didn't look sideways, let alone back. Disappointingly Dino Cazares, whom I had assumed had some versatility in him just went for speed and thrash tunes. All in all this is a pretty good fucking album, but I hoped for a little bit more versatility from it. I knew there wouldn't be which is why I waited so long to listen to it, but what have we if not for dreams? If I had access to any Roadrunner artist ever I think I could come up with something more inspired.



HUM - Fillet Show

This is HUM's debut album on Twelve Inch Records. It shows none of the polish found on the later albums You'd Prefer an Astronaut or Downward is Heavenward (which are both space-rock masterpieces), and it doesn't have the heaviness of Electra 2000, but it does show the seeds of the "Pioria Sound." It is loud guitar rock by a band of midwestern kids who like space. Basically the only reason I even have this is that I am an obsessive completist, and I hadn't heard everything HUM had ever released. While it isn't a great album, it does show the promise of who HUM would eventually become.



Emilie Autumn - Opheliac

I only learned about Emilie Autumn about a week ago, and I was intrigued. I probably clicked on a link from some other gothic-industrial something or other, and came about this cute, pink haired, white faced, corset-clad, violin brandishing girl from Malibu, CA who relocated to Chicago, got a bad attitude, and started making interesting electronic music. I have a soft spot for strings, with the guitar being my favourite instrument, but Cello coming in a very close second, and the music of Antonio Vivaldi being my favourite classical music essentially because he wrote primarily for strings. Which is also the reason I really like chamber music, well that and the presence of Harpsichords. Emilie has dubbed her particular brand of sonic expression "victorian-industrial" and she is spot on. There are some guitars on the album, but it is largely synthesizer based and accented with her violin. The songs deal with suicide (obviously), broken relationships, and emotional hardship. The lyrics are interestingly expressed, and obviously heartfelt. There does seem to be a false moment on either disc of this album. The second disc is comprised of a couple of instrumental tracks (one of which is a Bach composition), a few b-sides, and three poems with distorted backing sounds. This is not Ms. Autumn's first, album, but it is good, and it makes me want to look into more of her material.

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Now that I'm done with the wrap-up, yeah, I'm not going to do the full thing anymore. It is a long process to review every album I listen to in a day. I started writing this at around 01:30 and completed it a 04:50, so obviously a lot goes into it. I am going to have to be more selective. I do like that I have to think about what I've listened to. I think it gives me a greater appreciation of what I've experienced, and it gives me a more well formed, better informed opinion about what I am listening to. If I were a betting man, and I'm not, I would expect one or two reviews a day.

I also intend to get more into my personal music projects. I lost all of my multi-tracks and finished recordings when my PowerBook died on me, so now I'm starting from scratch. Go me for backing up everybody else's shit but nothing of my own creation. I have some better software now, and I'm always improving my playing technique, and my personal creative point of view. It is Post-Electro-Metal-Gaze-Core or something along those lines. Have a day.