Archive for March 6, 2022

Black Sabbath – Tyr (1990)

Black Sabbath – Tyr (1990)

March 6, 2022

Tyr seems to ranked high amongst the Tony Martin era Sabbath records. Personally, it’s one of my least favourites, coming along like a second-rate Headless Cross, if I could be so bold. The later Martin stuff, although much more critically reviled, seems heavier and more in the spirit of Sabbath than something like this. It doesn’t help here that it sounds dated and out of touch, even for its release date. This is a fault…

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Darken Wood – V (2019)

Darken Wood – V (2019)

I’ve started a bit randomly here, coming in at number 5 of (so far) 6 dungeon synth records by the beautiful Darken Wood. Honestly, the first thing that springs to mind several minutes after letting V unfold is memories of exploring both the Imperial lands of Cyrodiil in TES IV: Oblivion and traversing the wilderness in TES II: Daggerfall. That’s what I love about good dungeon synth, is the ability for it to take you…

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Anal Penetration – …The Lost Shits (2005)

Anal Penetration – …The Lost Shits (2005)

Once I was lost, now I am found! Some shit from Anal Penetration (what a sentence) that was apparently lost, is now presented to us through the interpretive medium of pornogrind. I love grind and all of its ridiculous subgenres, but pornogrind is where I am most thin on the ground, thanks mostly to the legions of tupa tupa dickheads with songs about rape and fisting and so on. I’m not saying Anal Penetration, especially…

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Killing Joke – Brighter Than A Thousand Suns (1986)

Killing Joke – Brighter Than A Thousand Suns (1986)

What I would define (if possible) as Killing Joke’s “poppy” period is probably my least favourite era. That being said, Night Time is a banging album, but Brighter Than A Thousand Suns continues in this vein, but with less urgency and with more sprinklings of New Romantic style pomp. That’s not to say the songs aren’t sprawling or lush or anything like that, but elementally, things just come together differently, and therefore hit differently, especially…

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H A Z E – Internet Explorer (2019)

H A Z E – Internet Explorer (2019)

H A Z E uses the vaporwave feel and aesthetic as ground work for building excellent and chilled out electronic offerings. However, like many modern entries into the genre, calling Internet Explorer simply vaporwave does the record a disservice. There are many forms of electronic meandering present here, and I’m reminded a lot of the more spacey and ambient stuff Mick Harris did in the 90s with Scorn, specifically here in the tracks “Connected” and…

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Dinner Party – Dinner Party (2020)

Dinner Party – Dinner Party (2020)

This is a short yet rewarding release from Terrace Martin and a revolving door of collaborators. It’s warm, comfortable yet snazzy music that is summed up perfectly in its name. I’m reminded how Miles Davis’ Doo Bop tried to mix jazz with the emerging and extremely popular hip hop styles of the early 90s. Whilst that might not have gone to plan, here such a thing is achieved to a dazzling effect. Kamasi Washington crops…

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Eyeliner – Buy Now (2015)

Eyeliner – Buy Now (2015)

This has to be one of my favourite vaporwave / future funk releases. I’ve always shyed away from using the term future funk but I think it certainly applies here more than vaporwave. Specifically, I think, because there seems to be zero repurposing of existing artist’s work; Buy Now appears to be entirely original compositions that are absolutely gorgeous in capturing that late 80s / early 90s synthesizer sound. There is also a prominent funky…

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DJ Bailey – Intelligent Drum And Bass (1996)

DJ Bailey – Intelligent Drum And Bass (1996)

This is a fantastic collection of tunes from the 90s, which YouTube insisted on forcing down my gullet. Honestly, this thing has been in my recommended for what seems like a year or so. Now that I’ve heard it, I want to go out and get a copy of the actual cassette. This is some chilled out shit. It doesn’t quite fall into “house” territory, but the drum and bass beats are more a laid…

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Snoop Dogg – Malice N Wonderland (2009)

Snoop Dogg – Malice N Wonderland (2009)

Well then….. lol. I got this from a charity shop I think in 2013 or at the latest 2014. I used to work part time collecting dead peoples clothes that charity shops couldn’t sell. They’d sell the clothes to my company by weight, so the money would still be going to good causes, and we’d collect the clothes in high volumes and take them back to HQ to be pulped and turned into fuck-knows-what. This…

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Vomi Noir – Les Myasmes De La Deliquescence (2019)

Vomi Noir – Les Myasmes De La Deliquescence (2019)

Vomi Noir are quickly becoming one of my favourite goregrind acts. Colour me surprised then, when I found myself listening to their debut full length with a furrowed brow. To call Vomi Noir “polished” in the same way that Nasum or Pig Destroyer is polished, would be a complete lie. However, this record comes with a much more shinier punch than I ever could have imagined it to. Is that a bad thing? Can I…

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Kamasi Washington – Harmony Of Difference (2017)

Kamasi Washington – Harmony Of Difference (2017)

Harmony Of Difference, at “only” 30 minutes, is of course, never going to reach the sprawling, gargantuan payoffs of The Epic or Heaven And Earth, but its still an enjoyable slab of meandering, busy jazz that’s up there with the all-time greats. 13 of the 30 minutes are taken up by closer “The Truth”, which ramps up the saxophonic carnage (yep) to batshit levels of warbling goodness. That sentence does the rest of the ensemble…

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The Day Everything Became Nothing – Brutal (2008)

The Day Everything Became Nothing – Brutal (2008)

There are few bands that create goregrind as cut and dry as The Day Everything Became Nothing. Its almost a sick, twisted opposite to what the genre usually contains – that being splattering, sloppy, gloopy music which admittedly has a blasting, precise backbone, but often gives the impression of total sonic sickness and chaos. On Brutal however, the band expand on their razor-sharp sound, bludgeoning you to death with perfect and rigid slabs of dense…

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Infest – Infest (1991)

Infest – Infest (1991)

What can I say about Infest? At this point the band is beyond legendary in both the hardcore punk and grindcore / powerviolence circles. As much as I love the band (live they kill it) I’d never actually heard this self titled 7″. Shame on me, because its fucking incredible. This thing is the pinnacle of hardcore / powerviolence. The sound, the mix, the anger. Shit! Absolutely incredible record. Well worth checking out as its…

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Gets Worse / Endless Swarm – Split 7″ (2018)

Gets Worse / Endless Swarm – Split 7″ (2018)

I don’t know what I can say about Gets Worse that I haven’t said before. They are, easily, one of the best powerviolence groups out there right now. More of that fine metallic carnage is lined up for us here, alongside Endless Swarm’s more unrelenting grind savagery. Truly, a fantastic split EP.

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Genesis – Invisible Touch (1986)

Genesis – Invisible Touch (1986)

I’ve never listened to Genesis before. Of course, their shit is all over the radio, but never to the point have I sat down and enjoyed one of their albums. I also can’t help but feel like Patrick Bateman listening to this shit. Anyways, it’s a very poppy, very synthesizer-heavy roundup of songs from Genesis. There’s some absolute bangers, and then there’s some tracks that just kinda blur on by with nothing to say for…

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Etienne Daho – Pop Satori (1986)

Etienne Daho – Pop Satori (1986)

Since September 2019 I’ve had a private Telegram channel in which I keep track of everything that I listen to. Once I’ve done a piece on LIW for that particular release, I delete the entry from the Telegram channel. Etienne Daho’s Pop Satori has been on that list since September 2019 lol. In fact, I remember listening to it, headphones on whilst lying on the sofa, my girlfriend not long pregnant with our son. She’d…

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