Animals As Leaders – ‘The Joy Of Motion’ [Review]

AAL Joy Of MotionFinally, on their third album, Animals As Leaders have sold out. Gone are their trademark twisting riffs and über-dense polyrhythms – all of their previous idiosyncrasies have been ironed out, replaced with a light and airy, easily digestible, radio-friendly approach sure to see them bothering the pop charts. In fact, Miley Cyrus made headlines just hours ago when she tweeted “OMG cant get enuf of da noo AAL record! Mega luv #nextalbumtobeallgent”. Time to jump ship, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Only kidding. Read more…

Posted on 30 March 2014

The Fierce And The Dead – ‘Spooky Action’ [Review]

This has to be the dirtiest album I’ve heard in a long time. The most recent instrumental offerings collected in TMMP’s archives have been markedly slicker than Spooky Action (Alon Tamir’s Terraforming and The Best Pessimist’s Love Is…) and/or Belgian (Celestial Wolves’ Wood For Wood; Marteleur’s My Anvil Is My Tuning ForkIndustroika’s North) – but thanks to The Fierce & The Dead, we now get to check out an album that not only promotes the joys of filthy instrumental noise, but was also created less than an hour away from TMMP HQ. Finally, London gets a well-deserved spot among its overseas art-rock contemporaries, represented in fine form by TFATD. Read more…

Posted on 21 January 2014

The Best Pessimist – ‘Love Is…’ [Review]

According to the greatest Facebook page ever, the term ‘alexithymia’ refers to “An inability to describe emotions in a verbal manner”. Although this definition only scratches the surface of alexithymia’s psychological repercussions, it serves perfectly well to describe my state of mind when listening to Love Is…. Read more…

Posted on 20 January 2014

Naor Tsubery – Journey To Infinity [Review]

Our investigation into the Israeli music scene is only just beginning, but we have already unearthed some real gems.  Prog-pop group Project RnL have been making waves online for some time, and RnL guitarist Alon Tamir released a musical mission statement of his own last week. Today’s spotlighted artist, Naor Tsubery, makes a statement of his own with Journey To Infinity – a prog-metal track showcasing his multi-instrumental talents.Taking on all instrumental duties bar cello and violin and adopting a videosong format (in which what you see is what you hear), Naor Tsubery has set out his stall as, essentially, a one-man Dream Theater. This is certainly an ambitious goal, but Tsubery clearly has no interest in playing it safe. Read more…

Posted on 17 January 2014

Marteleur – ‘My Anvil Is My Tuning Fork’ [Review]

Belgium certainly seems to have its fair share of atmospherically-minded musicians, and Marteleur is no exception. There’s a very clear Tool influence on My Anvil Is My Tuning Fork, which initially marked Marteleur out in my mind as potentially being ahead of the competition. This album is very interesting, but to be perfectly honest it sounds more like a soundtrack than something intended to be consumed in a solely audio-only format. As a chillout album it works very well, but the instrumental pieces on display here often feel directionless, with a lot of repeating vamps that remind me of an old songwriting tutor berating me for overusing my DAW’s copy-and-paste function. Read more…

Posted on 08 January 2014

A Guide To Project RnL – Part Two

project rnlWelcome to Part Two of The Musical Melting Pot’s Guide To Project RnL! Click here for Part One, where we looked at Project RnL’s YouTube-based output to date. This time around, we’ll be looking at the extracurricular work of Project RnL’s core members: keyboardist Eyal Amir, and vocalist Ray Livnat. Read more…

Posted on 04 January 2014

Demented Dimensions [Live Review – The Star, Guildford – 18/6/13]

When Guildford promoters Genrebomb put on a show, you know it’s going to be 1) professionally run, 2) crammed with talented bands, and 3) a great experience. Needless to say, this show was no exception. Read more…

Posted on 20 June 2013

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