Tuesday, January 28, 2014

White Sea: "Prague"

Your first thought might be "this doesn't deviate enough from the M83 template to warrant a side project", but damn if it doesn't deliver the goods. Yay, though White Sea is the "solo" debut of M83's Morgan Kibby, first single "Prague" is prefabbed ear sugar custom built for what's left of modern rock radio... after cleaning up that deceptively vulgar chorus, naturally.

Will you quickly tire of this song after 20-30 spins? Probably. Does that negate the value of those 20-30 spins? Not in the least.

Dreamcrusher: "Vulpeculae Freeze"

Back in the 90's I used to dig me some gabber. Well, I dug a lot of things about it. What I actually really fucking hated about it was that every song had the exact same build - with only minor variation in BPMs - and the only thing that distinguished one track from the next was the rudimentary texture of abrasion layered over top. Ho hum and shit.

Dreamcrusher toy around with that abrasive overlay but don't bother with the unyielding, metronomic beats. "Vulpeculae Freeze" sounds like old Godflesh updated with modern production software, particularly in the overdrive dept... and considering Godflesh were my favorite band for a pretty good chunk of the 90's I guess that earns this track a blog entry, eh?

Sunday, January 26, 2014

THROWBACK 1980 || The Associates: "Paper House"

Never released as a single, "Paper House" remains one of the more overlooked - and elegant - entries in the tragically short lived career of the already unfairly obscure Scottish band, The Associates (later just Associates). Like the best bands of the time, Associates fused upbeat, minimalist synth patterns with mechanistic percussion and dark, oblique bass/guitar lines to create a dichotomy of repressed alienation.

THROWBACK 1983 || Black Sabbath: "Born Again"

Black Sabbath have had their fair share of rebounds over the years - need I mention their Ozzy-helmed 13 comeback being nominated for a Grammy? - but for my money none of their resurgences have been more overlooked by history than the post-RJ Dio album, Born Again.