This is an instrumental math/noise EP, and the collective name under which its creators work references anime (either this TV show or this movie – or perhaps both?).
No matter what the mainstream magazines might have you believe, it just doesn’t get any cooler than this. Read more…
Very few bands give as few fucks as Baby Godzilla. Even fewer bands use this trait to their advantage; there’s a very fine line between “putting in no effort” and genuine fuck-giving-free music. Baby Godzilla, however, are on the right side of every line. Every track on Knockout Machine is intensely chaotic, and yet makes perfect sense. In fact, if you were to force Baby Godzilla into a tightly-quantized corner, the results would most likely lose every last iota of structural integrity, and just dissolve into something utterly unlistenable. Read more…
A common accusation levelled at those whose core beliefs revolve around science and humans is that they are little more than logic-driven robot people, cold and emotionless, utterly devoid of the ability to feel ‘real feelings’. Their favourite music is assumed to consist of late-Seventies robot pop (Kraftwerk / The Normal / Giorgio Moroder / etc.) and the various electronic music styles birthed since that era, while their favourite activities are presumed to be a) watching Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens videos on YouTube, and b) arguing with Creationists and Christians in the comments.
Bats are very different. Read more…
Deep in my iTunes library sits a humble two-track EP by a long-dead band called Strobe 45. That band, when it was around, was completely insane. It was common for their detractors to dismiss them as either being unable to play or sounding so bad that it made no difference – but the truth was, Strobe just didn’t give a fuck. That singular quality made them a quality band. Once you were accustomed to their raw-as-a-Dirty-Sanchez-episode noise, tiny sparks of genius made themselves permanently known, enabling you to listen to something most would deem unlistenable not just out of some misguided musical masochism but rather out of genuine, ecstatic appreciation. Read more…
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 Fork; Industroika’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…
As regular readers will know, Jamie Lenman is a big deal where I’m from. My Facebook feed literally blew up with the release of the double-A-side Fizzy Blood/Pretty Please, news of his secret set at The Boileroom in Guildford, and the dates for his Heavy / Mellow Band’s recently completed tour. On top of all that, of course, there is this album. Not just a standard-length LP, but a 70-minute double album that takes in so many styles that I felt compelled to delay this review and let it all sink in and mature for a while. Now, however, it’s ready to go. Read more…
Opinion
Instrumental rock can be a mixed bag – and this album by Belgian post-rockers Celestial Wolves is a case in point. Track-by-track commentary below: Read more…
From the moment Always Lead, Never Follow begins, it’s immediately clear that Scholars have done their rock school homework. Tight, professional, and gritty, this is nothing less than a Red Bull-fuelled rollercoaster ride through a world of passionate and poppy post-rock. Scholars are a great band, frequently bringing to mind At The Drive-In, Reuben, and perhaps even a scandal-free Lostprophets during searing moments of original musicality. Read more…