I could live a million years...

On his blog, Mushroom Cloud of Hiss, Chris Allen has recently been posting some rather good reviews of different albums (remasters, a couple new albums, and some classics from Roxy Music).  I`m not sure what inspired the recent spate of posts, but it`s led to a decent amount of reading, as well as a few thoughts on revisting the past myself.  Granted, I would undoubtedly come at things from an entirely different strata (I had the urge to go back and listen to some early REM and NIN discs recently, so I`d probably start there). 

I mean, I`m still waiting for my copy of Rotten Roma Casino to arrive from Germany and the new Ulver disc doesn`t arrive until sometime later this year (weird considering that there really aren`t that many days left and an announcement still hasn`t been made).

Biting off more than you can chew...

I think I've almost perfected it into a new art form.  It's like spinning plates, bowls, glasses, fire hydrants, and otters all at once.

Random Note

Archive.org's practice of actually archiving this is very strange.  Sometimes links will work, sometimes not.  Sometimes the pages that you search for will come up empty, but a link through to that page will work.  And by this, I mean pages wholly with archive.org, not external pages that are now defunct.

The Land of Pretentious Symphonic Metal

A few weeks back, Therion released a new album Sitra Ahra, the conclusion to a four-part epic starting with Lemuria and Sirius B back in 2004.  Now, I generally like Therion, but I am one to admit that there are many times when they go off the musical deep end, landing somewhere in camp show tunes territory, similar to acts like Haggard, Avantasia and Ayreon.  Although there are definitely things to like about the album, this is definitely one of the ones that takes a headlong leap into cheese, layering operatic vocals upon choirs, Thomas Karlsson trying to write some sort of ariosophic musical, and Christofer Johnson trying to ensure that one of every single instrument is used at least once. 

I've been listening to it off and on for the past few weeks, and I'm honestly not sure if I like it.  The music itself is quite good, I'll give it that, and despite the complexity of the instrumentation, you'll find that there are quite a few points that get stuck in your head.  And there's "Hellequin", which is just unintentionally funny.  I can appreciate some of what Karlsson is trying to do with the lyrics, weaving through some of the myth and philosophy that surrounds his own Dragon Rouge and beyond, but taken in pieces, most of it seems silly.  One of these days, I'll probably sit down with the lyric booklets and try to put together the narrative, especially some of the bizarre transposition of different mythological pantheons.

I will commend them for their ambition, at the very least, and it may sound as though I didn't like the album, but really, you have to be in the right mood to listen to it.

I Still Hate Duran Duran

In a recent review, Chris Allen discusses the new remaster of Duran Duran's Rio.  It's a well-written piece that you should probably read, and it almost makes me want to listen to the album, it's that persuasive, however, I don't think anything can get me past one simple fact, I still hate Duran Duran.

How to Destroy Angels

While I've been listening to the work of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on the Social Network soundtrack, I've also gone back to listen to their other project (joined with Reznor's wife, Mariqueen Maandig), How to Destroy Angels.  Their initial offering, a self-titled six-track EP, is a curious beast.  It's not quite female-fronted NIN, but the comparison is not quite incorrect.  I'm reminded of somewhat of Reznor's contribution to Jakalope half a dozen years ago, but harsher and mixed with some bizarre fetishistic dub music.

All the best laid plans

I've been quite enjoying Yoav's latest album, A Foolproof Escape Plan.  It's more upbeat than his debut disc, Charmed and Strange, but it's still strangely intoxicating.  The mix of electronic beats and the sound of classical guitar is still there amidst the labyrinthine rhythms.

I think my favourite track is "We all are dancing" which you can see below: