Kimbra – ‘Primal Heart’ (Album Review)
Kimbra is a pop artist – emphasis on artist – and Primal Heart is one of the best albums you will hear in 2018 Read more…
TMMP’s Top Albums Of 2016 [Feature]
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As the music industry slows down, its alternative end hibernating while the pop-enamoured mainstream hungrily ogles Christmas shoppers, the time has come to look back on a seriously strong year for organised soundwaves. For me, it’s been heavy, intense, and a hell of a lot of fun thanks to the releases listed below.
With so many exceptional contenders in the running for the top spot, the thought of ranking them in order of quality is plainly ridiculous. So instead, I’ve picked out three releases that had memorable impacts on me when I first heard them, and assembled the others in alphabetical order.
The Pretty Reckless’s Who You Selling For – along with previous effort Going To Hell – is conclusive proof (if it were honestly needed in 2016) that women belong in rock music, and are fully capable of kicking ass. The sexists of the music world are like Wile E. Coyote; they’ve run off the edge of the cliff, nothing surrounds them but empty air, they’ve looked down, and they’re panicking. Sonic Boom Six’s The F-Bomb picks up where that image leaves off – it’s cheeky, chirpy, happy and hard-hitting (sometimes simultaneously), addressing a wealth of gender-related issues and providing a great ska-fuelled party soundtrack as only Sonic Boom Six can.
Musically, Dissociation is The F-Bomb’s polar opposite. The Dillinger Escape Plan’s swan song is crammed with brutal and ultra-experimental mathcore – but it’s also Dillinger’s most delicate and diverse album. The Dillinger Escape Plan are living proof that you can achieve great things without compromise, by sticking to your guns and just going for it.
Beyond that point, you’re free to dive into an epic range of albums including solidly grooving rock sets, monolithic slabs of military-grade metal, and progressive masterpieces. Since I’ve not reviewed many EPs this year, I’ve also included a pair of extended-playing mind-blowers in the form of Dorje’s Centred And One and Toska’s Ode To The Author. Dorje specialise in utterly idiosyncratic rock tunes with added progressive spice, while to me, Toska (made up of Dorje’s backline, namely guitarist Rabea Massaad, drummer Ben Minal, and bassist Dave Hollingworth) represent the future of instrumental metal.
Both Dorje and Toska are bands on the rise – and they fully deserve to hit the same peaks enjoyed by the biggest names on this list.
There’s little more to say; for me, this list represents the top albums of 2016. Enjoy the full reviews linked below, follow TMMP on Twitter, subscribe to my brand new YouTube channel, and stay tuned for more world-class music next year!
1) The Pretty Reckless – Who You Selling For
1) Sonic Boom Six – The F-Bomb
1) The Dillinger Escape Plan – Dissociation
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2) Read more…
Carina Round – ‘Deranged To Divine’ [Review]
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Listening to the career retrospective of an artist you’ve only just discovered can be a dangerous proposition. If it sucks, you’re fine; life continues as normal. If it’s great, on the other hand, you may be at serious risk of kicking yourself half to death for your ignorance.
So, if you’ve never heard of Carina Round before now, you’ll need to focus in order to keep your feet rooted to the floor rather than buried in your own backside. Deranged To Divine covers fourteen years of temporal ground, collecting cuts from four solo albums and an EP alongside two previously unreleased recordings (namely Gunshot and an alternate take of Want More), totalling nineteen tracks if you buy it on iTunes. It is also, to say the least, pretty fucking good.
As well as counting herself a member of Puscifer – the electro-industrial brainchild of Tool’s Maynard James Keenan – Carina Round has collected her fair share of legendary fans, among them Lou Reed, Ryan Adams, Billy Corgan, Dave Stewart and Brian Eno. You don’t get to that level of respect without demonstrating exceptional dedication to your art. But if Carina Round’s credentials aren’t enough, the music contained within Deranged To Divine is Read more…
Fifi Rong: Forbidden Desire [The Interview]
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With her new EP Forbidden Desire, future electronic superstar Fifi Rong continues to go from strength to strength. Click here for a review of the full EP, and read on as I chat to Fifi about Forbidden Desire, her creative process, and her biggest project to date…
Your new EP Forbidden Desire is out on April 29. How’re you feeling today?
I’m feeling good thanks – I’m looking forward to hearing how this EP is received!
While you were writing and recording Forbidden Desire, what was your creative process?
The Forbidden Desire EP is basically an outline for a bigger picture, leading into the new album I’m making. These songs came from many demos to go into production.
There was a lot of drama and ups and downs producing and recording the EP, but everything flowed very Read more…
Erika – ‘Onna’ [Review]
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In music, women generally aren’t allowed to be kickass. They can be sex objects, sure, positioning themselves as submissive man-pleasers or manipulative man-eaters…but not much else. Any emotions they happen to show are usually interpreted as attempts at avoiding the dumb-bimbo label, or open invitations into the Black Widow’s web.
In reality, those emotions may be real – and the women themselves are obviously not objects but real people, with their own Read more…
Fifi Rong – ‘Forbidden Desire EP’ [Review]
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Fifi Rong is a future superstar. Very few musicians in general possess an instantly recognisable style of their own – but Fifi Rong has overcome one of the most common sticking points in the modern music business. Whether captivating audiences with beautifully eccentric live shows, or birthing wickedly seductive electronic tunes, Fifi Rong’s original creativity is something to marvel at.
Forbidden Desire’s title alone encapsulates Fifi Rong’s core characteristics: Exoticism and tasteful sensuality. We’re not talking about Read more…
David Bowie – ‘Blackstar’ [Review]
Where have all the real rock stars gone? Those unique individuals capable of capturing the imagination of a mass audience without dumbing down the fruits of their labours? The musicians who can spin your head around, widen your horizons, and still meet with large-scale acceptance?
On Blackstar – his twenty-sixth album – David Bowie inspires, provokes, bewilders and bewitches as only he can. Taking the scenic route through Blackstar‘s title track, full to bursting with Read more…
Fifi Rong [Interview]
Few music-related experiences are as satisfying as discovering a musician who completely spins your head around – even when you feel sure you’ve heard it all. Fifi Rong is just such a musician. Following the release of her new EP Violently Silently (reviewed on TMMP here), I caught up with Fifi Rong to discuss the creative process behind her latest release, while she dug deep into the motives behind her music…
Your new EP Violently Silently is starting to make its way out into the world. What thoughts and feelings are going through your mind right now?
I’m happy with the creative cycle, putting my thoughts and feelings and what I have become into my songs and production. Passed on to the people who are there to receive and interpret the music subjectively. What was once mine is now theirs; it’s a great feeling.
What was the underlying creative process behind Violently Silently? I understand the tracks are linked together in a very intriguing way…
I used the same set of sound elements, sampled, crafted, and re-sampled, to present a set of songs that Read more…
Fifi Rong – ‘Violently Silently’ [Review]
If you’re a sucker for finely crafted trip-hop-flavoured tunes, London-based Tricky collaborator Fifi Rong will make your ears prick up.
Violently Silently‘s Intro is guaranteed to lull you into spy-movie-themed daydreams, all grittily seductive beats and slowly swirling samples – but before you assume you’ve heard it all before, Once proves a right-angled tangent. Fifi Rong refuses to be easily pigeonholed, leaning hard on her experimental inclinations and digging out odd alt-pop hooks that feel awkward and alien on first listen, but slowly work their way into the mind. Beachhead established, Slow Poison bounces with Read more…
Morning Bound – ‘Morning Bound EP’ [Review]
The hell with the UK. I’m moving to NYC.
New York has long been associated with none-more-cool music of assorted kinds, and this EP continues that home-town tradition by eschewing norms and traditions in favour of a purely eccentric, experimental approach to composition and performance. I Did Fine features Read more…