Amoeba Music

These two brothers play gorgeous original '70s influenced pop songs. They use real instruments and feature lush harmonies in their "hooky" tunes. Some of my favorites are the title song "A Dream Is All I Know," and "They Don't Know How To Fall In Place."

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Bob Andy originally started the Paragons ("The Tide Is High"). Later he worked for Studio One and made this tight Reggae album in the late '60's, during the Golden Age. I am surprised that he wasn't more of a household name, because this album kicks all the way through. My faves are "Crime Don't Pay" and "Too Experience(d)." Grab it if you can as this seems to be a limited reissue.

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Coming hot off of the success off of “ILLINOISE,” the Broadway adaptation of his album “Come On Feel The Illinoise” from 2005, Steven has put out a 20-year anniversary revisitation of “Seven Swans,” Illinois’s predecessor and arguably where Stevens began to put his style down into cement. His fourth studio album, the original pressing of “Seven Swans” is poetic, obsessively biblical, literary, and often nonsensical in its lyrics; “Abraham” and “The Transfiguration” recount bible stories while “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” takes its name from the famous Flannery O’Connor story. Stevens’ songs are an intricate puzzle of references and spirituality (both universal and personal to him). Up until the release of his latest album “Javelin” which he dedicated to his partner Evans Richardson who had recently passed, Stevens’ songs were infused with a quiet queerness which both intoxicated and infuriated listeners. Like the track “Size Too Small” which refers to the narrator’s tuxedo while being the best man at your best friend (and ex-lover’s?) wedding. The 20th anniversary reissue includes two bonus tracks not on the original album, “I Went Dancing With My Sister” and “Waste What Your Kids Won’t Have,” two quiet and genuflecting songs which feel quintessentially Sufjan. Read more

Dreamy and utterly spectral, the artists on the “I Saw The TV Glow” soundtrack had an almost impossible task: to make music that matched a film which was at once nostalgic and futuristic, full of choppy discordance while still lulling listeners into the spell of the Pink Opaque along with its main characters. The film pulls off the lost 90s-teen-movie-style art of having a real-life band perform their songs in the soundtrack in a scene in the movie, like Letters to Cleo in “Ten Things I Hate About You” or the Offspring in”Idle Hands.” In director Jane Schoenberg’s take, indie darlings Sloppy Jane and Phoebe Bridgers perform an original song from the soundtrack at an otherworldly, edge-of-town dive bar, serenading the characters of the film: “I think I was born bored; I think I was born blue; I think I was born wanting more; I think I was born already missing you” Mostly comprised of original tracks, the soundtrack also includes a cover of the Broken Social Scene’s “Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl” which is pitch-shifted and put through a glitchy electronic filter which produces a version of a familiar favorite which just feels a little off in a deeply unsettling way, exactly what it seems like the movie is trying to achieve. With Florist, Bartees Strange, Caroline Polacheck, Jay Som, and Maria BC, the soundtrack is kind of an X-Men situation of indie powerhouse artists. It would have been nearly impossible to make a bad album. Read more

Thou is a juggernaut of heavy music, heavy riffs and heavy subject matter. Umbilical is an excellent album. I can fell the anger, the doom and gloom. The heat of living in Louisiana, all the unsanitary beer soaked cigarette perfumed music venues where kids are exorcising their own frustrations, fears and energy by standing, grinding and bumping their sweaty bodies against each other like sardines in a can. Thou is one of the rare bands that have never disappointed me, and this album is no different. I can find no filler, I can find no faults, this is one album that is close to perfection. Read more

The creativeness and imagination to put together a highly atmospheric soundtrack to a made up “forgotten”giallo film is very impressive. But what is just as impressive, is the music contained within the album. Being a fan of many thriller - horror - giallo types of films, the music is one hundred and ten percent on point. This is the type of album that sparks one imagination and escapism, that is desperately needed in todays world. Read more

Antichrist Demoncore deliver the goods with G.O.A.T. This is a band with one hoof planted in all things hardcore and the other hoof in the realm of grind. G.O.A.T. is excellent at being heavy, fast and unpredictable. In a genre that is hard to tell one song from the next ACxDC does an excellent job of writing songs that not only push abrasive fastness but actual songs that you can differentiate. Read more

Much like Hypocrisy or Therion’s terrible art work, the A.I. generated art work for Deicides new album art is a hindrance to an otherwise solid mosh inducing death metal album. I remember looking at the cover and thinking oh boy this going to suck, but…It does not. Without sounding too repetitive, this is death metal that is not trying to be anything else but death metal. Benton and company have seemed to gotten a second wind and have been creating good metal again. Get past the art, instead dive into the furious blasphemy of Banished By Sin. Just make sure to get a neck brace, your going to need it. Read more

Atmosphere gets thrown around a lot in describing metal, and it is easier to hear when a band does it as opposed to writing about it. Sometimes you get the atmosphere of a cold fog while lost in the woods vibe, sometimes you get feel the being ripped to shreds by modern machinery or the sicking heat of a desert day while cooking a meal over a bonfire with no water in sight. Then there are bands like Amebix, Neurosis and Hell that have managed to create a unique sound with an atmosphere that is recognizable and wholly them. Cutting The Throat of God is a highly developed wall of sound that has a specific kind of atmosphere, melody, dissonance, and space between notes to create a highly listenable and dynamically heavy album of great metal music period. Read more

Soundscapes and textures, mood and abstractions of storytelling via drone meeting tasteful synths by way of blackened post this or that. This is definitely avant-garde metal that has taken a left turn but not so far left that it is only harsh noise that leave your ears ringing for hours upon hours. There are many layers to this album and one that I find myself being able to auditorily revisit, experiencing different aspects of, over and over again. Themes of extinction by our own hands vis a vis pollution, greed, and destruction of the environment run rampant throughout the album, as well as a strange and diametrically opposing feel of hope. In short this is like watching the elder chief make gumbo in their kitchen without a recipe or any measuring cups. Moving, shaking mixing and throning in all kind of this or that. However it all works it comes together that the gumbo is so good you undoubtably will go back for seconds. End terrain is much like that gumbo. Read more

Excellent NYDM with an abundance of riffs and technical metal shit thrown in for good measure. This is quality head banging brutality.How have Malignancy have been able to write such ridiculously good albums since 1993, but are less well known than say Immolation or Cannibal Corpse is beyond me. Regardless, pick up this beast of an album and prepare some truly insane non watered down ear drums bleeding metal that will kick your ass. Read more

Hardcore wrapped inside metal and warped round some noise wrapped in some industrial electronic cocooned in raw human emotions. This is a mosh inducing music that is both familiar like all great hardcore records but this is also different enough to exist on its own merits. It’s inside you is a more mature version of Candy, a forward thinking version of Candy. A version that is continuing to grow, experiment and redefine what it means to be a hardcore band in 2024. Read more

Witch Vomit has built upon their previous albums and have shown quite a bit of growth. The stand out aspect of Funeral Sanctum is using memorable melodies without sacrificing the death metal sound. The songs them selves have great riffs and enough distinction to remember the different tracks, and again I stress that the death metal is still there. In short this is a wonderful example of a band fully embracing who, and what they are without being stagnant. Read more

A long time ago in a galaxy far away there were teenagers that did not have the information of the world at their finger tips on a mobile device that could tell you whatever you wanted to know. Things took time and communication was much slower, some things took much longer to develop. However, this forced people to dig deep, to seek out to use their imagination, and develop their own ideas, their own ways, so on and so forth. I am very glad I took the time to read Non Serviam and not only got more insight to Rotting Christ but to the development of a sound that was unique to Greek Black Metal. In short the music created by the Tolis brothers (and company) way back in 1989 will not, nor should it be the music created in 2024. With that being stated, these veterans of black metal have brought into being a top tier black metal album full of their brand of hellenistic atmosphere {there’s that word again}, well thought out repetition, pacing and song composition to stress feeling over technicality or speed. This is an album that takes you on a journey to a place and time, of pre-christian values and knowledge, of pagan kings and the people that stood up to the christian invaders and said no. Overall, Pro Xristou is an accomplished piece of black metal by a band that has not only invented its own wheel but took it apart, forged something else all together. Rotting Christ continue to refine and create their own brand of special black metal that the world needs more of. Read more

I believe that a certain times, at certain places on earth, issue forth some sort of cosmic vibe gets sent out, that gather creative people/heads together that create something bigger than that specific time and place. Looking at the folks who found themselves drawn together (at an Isis show) to create Khanate and then the music the individuals went on to make after Khanate split up, is like trying to pin point every minute detail of why Norway in the 90’s produced some the most influential metal music ever. My laziest description of Khanate is experimental drone with hyper pissed off vocals. I do think that simplifies something that is so compelling cathartic and engaging, something that I think is trying to go beyond tangible descriptions and into the vagueness of art. But like a lot of things that can transcend the initial moment and movement of said individuals, Khanate broke up {regrouping and reforming 14 years later} but leaving behind the album Clean Hands Go Foul. I will highly recommend any and all Khanate albums for the connoisseur of harsh brutal music, and give Ean enthusiastic horns up to Sacred Bones for reissuing them on LP. Read more

f you are still want to read my reviews have I got a doozy of an album that is firing on all cylinders. I really appreciate when artist get together and actually make an album that takes the strength of both, and mixes them to construct something that is altogether exclusive to that particular album. This is a beautiful ugly harsh genre boundary pushing beast of an album. Of course I love it, and you will too. Read more

I am left with very little to say after listening to Nobody Planning To Leave, except this is a masterpiece of music. This is hip hop at its best and should be listened to by anyone who even remotely likes music. Read more

Another winner from the excellent label Analog Africa. I am not an expert in any shape way or form on Congolese music, but every track on this is a funky banger. As usual these comps are well curated, full of great information and the production is top shelf. Read more