#15: Oranssi Pazuzu - 'Värähtelijä'
http://www.oranssipazuzu.com This is definitely not the most "out there" Oranssi album, which means this is not my favorite of theirs... but they are still making music on another level, even if not quite as high as their usual leveling up. The album does have its moments of weirdness and transcendental overtures, but 'Värähtelijä' is all about business. This is the most in your face, focused Orannsi Pazuzu album. Toned back a bit are the trippy layering, the multi-levular approach. That's some word I made up once, it's fun. This album bigly kicks ass is what I'm saying. Well hell, I am just meandering around the point: I have been a fan of this band for years now, so how cool is that? This may or may not be the most annoying review I'll ever write. But what more can I say about this band? I really love how unique it is, the blend of styles, the high production value, the weirdness of the band, etc etc. Oranssi Pazuzu is still all those things, but not quite as out there, like they are pulling back a bit and showing us what they are all about... which means, it is probably a good introductory album to the band. The band has made year end lists before with an incredibly strong discography. If you have not checked them out before, they have been described as black metal meets Pink Floyd; extreme rock with prog and psyche rock overtones and subtle nods to many different genres; things like that. At times they sound a bit like a Finnish version of Today Is The Day (another super heavy but psychedelic heavy metal band). I'm not really sure how to best describe them. But they are heavy, intense, and mystical sounding. Those combinations usually form my favorite heavy metal bands as long as they keep things unpredictable. I wanted to keep this album off the top 25 and in the Honorable Mentions category as a punishment for not expanding the sound further and instead contracting a bit... but maybe it was necessary for them as a band. Whatever the case, this album freaking rocks and sounds amazing, one of the best produced albums of 2016. If you love heavy, weird music, you must check these guys out and get that discography, it is dense, strong, and among the best heavy metal releases over the past decade. If you are new to the band, start with this one and then work your way back to the beginning, it is a memorable trip. This band has a certain magic to their inimitable sound, stellar production expertise, exquisite tones, multiple levels of sounds both concrete and spacey layered on top of each other, forming some of the best music you'll ever hear if you can get past the fact that some crazy motherfucker from Finland is screaming his balls off at you in an unknown language. Keep an open mind, listen, tune in and drop out. 'Värähtelijä' did not quite trip me out as much as I wanted it to, and it didn't get as weird as the other albums, but it still rocks harder than most and hones in on their core sound which is good enough for #15 on the list. I suggest checking out "Hypnotisoitu Viharukous", my favorite song of this 2016 incarnation of the band! Seriously, just get their entire discography, it's well worth it.
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#17: Oren Ambarchi - 'Hubris'
Hear "Hubris Part 3" After a whole bunch of heavy metal, we are finally finding another genre on my top 25 at #17! Wait, what? There are non-rock forms of music?? Well, yes, yes there are. And they are more meditative and neutral usually. Like an abstract painting, drones and experimentation do not yield obvious results. There is no mythology or heroic characters involved usually, just cool sounds a bit unhinged from reality. A futuristic sound beyond rocking out sometimes. While Oren Ambarchi uses the rock music cliched instrument of electric guitar, he makes it sound... different. The pitch bends are either more subtle or more extreme; the feedback and noises allowed to ring out even more; more and more affectations layered upon the sound. This is not virtuosic playing, it is more like unleashing the instrument and allowing it to be more itself. I have been following Ambarchi for a few years now. Prior, my favorite thing was his collaboration with Stephen O'Malley: 'Shade Themes from Kairos'. This is how I found out about Oren Ambarchi. His attention to tone and detail is hard to match. That and the wide variety of sounds and distortions he produces from his guitar and table full of effects and dials makes him a more expansive musician than most. While 'Shade Themes' was more focused on tones and drones, Ambarchi's newer work is very rhythmic, adding another dimension to what was more of an ambient music paradigm. Harmonics are allowed to be free and frolic. Even at its most distorted the guitars are impeccably clear. And the rhythms on top of all of this are top notch. Track one enters the stage as a 20 minute plus table setter. I am reminded of Phillip Glass in an obvious way, in that there is a study in repetition going on here. And also clarity. On this lengthy opener the listener becomes very acquainted with the most straightforward beat on the album and the track lulls the listener into a state of near-captivity (if it weren't just so long to let the mind wander I suppose). Then the 2nd movement arrives and is gone in a few blinks of the eyelashes. Its main purpose is to introduce something totally different rhythmically, and to sound more like a digestible song format... accept that it is not even as long as a pop song. This in effect resets the whole thing so that you can hear "Hubris Part 3" (linked to above). The ending track is somewhere in between the first two, mimicking the lengthy repetition of Part 1, but absorbing the more complex rhythmics of Part 2. The closing track is my favorite part of the album, and makes the whole thing, whole I guess. The other part beyond the interesting goings on with the musics, this thing is produced to sound fantastic. It is absolute ear candy and highly recommended. #18: Blut Aus Nord/Ævangelist split - 'Codex Obscura Nomina'
hear the track "the parallel echoes" Blut Aus Nord is from France and the French love to reinvent black metal. And they do it well. Ævangelist is from America, a duo that is listed as being from both Illinois and Oregon. Which is also pretty black metal. Normally I would not present a split as a serious contender for a year end list, but the body of work both these bands are creating is singular in vision and highly creative. On 'Codex Obscura Nomina' both bands converge towards the same sound: a swirling black mass of sounds with a unique but loopy electronic drum beat tying it all together. Blut Aus Nord is more loopy and hypnotic though, where Ævangelist tend to throw more curveballs at you from a rhythm perspective. While the overall sonic palette the bands are using is pretty similar here, they do sound a bit different. Most obviously, composition wise. Where Blut Aus Nord uses more conventional rock song structures, Ævangelist contribute only one track to B.A.N.'s 4 tracks. That being said, the two bands contributions are about the same total playing length: about one side of an LP. So I suppose this is as true a split album as any. Aesthetically the two bands complement each other, but the production value is a bit lacking, especially for side B, Ævangelist. Oh well, the work is interesting enough to overlook the shortcomings on the production end of things, in my opinion. What we here on this is primarily an atmospheric voyage into dark sounds. Blut Aus Nord sound more ambient than ever, and the vocals are very creepy. The first 3 songs are unique sonic excursions while track 4 is a bit more catchy in nature due to almost a dance beat happening. Both bands conjure industrial elements into the extreme metal sound, which is pretty black metal of course. This nod toward whole other genres makes the music especially interesting, that and its over the top immensity. It is as if you are in a giant canyon on another planet that dwarfs ours. It is that creative spirit of striving to push the envelope or even invent something new that has landed this on a year end list or two. It is not easily digestible on many levels (the tinny production, the scary vibes, the disturbing voices, the utter darkness will drives many away from its universe). But 'Codex' succeeds in introducing one band's fanbase to another while continuing a new creative vision that both bands are pioneering in slightly different ways. Now if they can just spin off into some better studios and production situations, their next releases may be the best of this style yet heard but us human beings. Although there are some albums on this list that rock very hard, or for some, could be called Heavy (or even Metal), there were so many quality albums that were released in 2013 that I am making two year end lists to kick off the blog version of Questionable Taste (what once was a facebook page for my internet radio station called Through The Cracks, which morphed into some other manifestation of posting some music through the magic of youtube). "Like" the Facebook version of this blog on your Facebook please, if you are into that, so you can get any updates..
The purpose of this inaugural post is to get a list out there as quickly as possible, since this page is not really done yet, and 2014 is now well under way. I cannot even explain how excited I am about music right now, both as a listener and as a musician... it is truly a wonder to be into and follow the routes music is taking currently. Production keeps getting better, the musicians more imaginative and more connected to information than ever, and the cross referencing of ideas is phenomenal. Music is everywhere, and it has never been so easy to get the word out about it. Which is another problem unto itself, to get noticed or even recognition; but I digress. What makes this year different from my tumblr blog about 2012's music is that I am going to just list my favorite albums of 2013, and not worry about a cutoff (the blog format was a top 40). Since I know that I loved more than 40 albums from 2013, I am moving on from that format. Also, I will not do a countdown to #1 album style of blog, as I felt that was too arbitrary a way of doing things, and made me look at music rating too linearly, or whatever... maybe hierarchically is a better way to describe what I was doing. And tier-ing is lame and played out, isn't it? So I suppose I will still rate the albums, as I go through and review them all (albeit more succinctly than last year) alphabetically this time, according to 6 categories. Just like everyone, my taste is difficult to attribute to anything or to sum up, predict, etc. Music is just super subjective like that (which is part of what makes it so great). The things that I have been liking more and more over time are jazz and experimental music, and pop less and less. And I will always love heavy music, innovative and/or adventurous rock and roll, as well as electronic music of the progressive variety (well, prog probably applies to all those other genres too, but sometimes I can find prog to be exceedingly boring or cheesy). So all I can offer here is my expert, completely subjective as ever and convoluted opinion; and hope to turn people on to some music they would not have heard otherwise. Ok, so, the list, is what this is all about... the non-metal list:
And now, for the Honorable Mentions...
Well, that's that, and that was there. 2013 was an incredibly great year for music, and I encourage you to get every one of those albums I just listed, even the Honorable's. Next up, will be my picks for best Heavy Metal albums of 2013! |
AuthorG.M. Bowles Archives
February 2017
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