Sunday, February 28, 2010

Annual

It's my birthday today! It would make me really happy if you (whoever you are, reading this) would stop doing whatever you are doing at this exact moment in time and watch the Replacements right now.

Otherwise, today I am 24, and officially am doing nothing with my life, other than drinking, smoking, going to school, listening to awesome music and writing about it. I want to get paid for this. If I did, I'd be more consistent about it.

GO CANADA GO!!!

In honour of that big fuckin' track meet that's happening in my goddamn city right now, I give you an Olympics of Heavy, wherein the winners of specific musical topics are arbitrarily chosen by me! Let's begin.

Longest Doom Metal Song:
Gold - Japan (Corrupted, "Llenandose de Gusanos," 2 Hours, 3 Minutes, 51 Seconds)
Silver - Japan (Boris, "Absolutego," 1 Hour, 5 Minutes, 35 Seconds)
Bronze - United States (Sleep, "Dopesmoker," 1 Hour, 3 Minutes, 32 Seconds)

Shortest Grindcore Song:
Gold - United Kingdom (Napalm Death, "You Suffer, But Why?" 1.2 Seconds)
Silver - United States (Brutal Truth, "Collateral Damage" 1.4 Seconds)
Bronze - United Kingdom (Napalm Death, "Your Achievement" 7.1 Seconds)

Freakiest Space Oddessey
Gold - Germany (Cluster - Cluster '71)
Silver - United Kingdom (Hawkwind - Space Ritual)
Bronze - Japan (Acid Mothers Temple - IAO Chant From The Cosmic Inferno)

Proof That We Are Not Alone
Gold - Germany (Tangerine Dream - Zeit)
Silver - United Kingdom (The Orb - Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld)
Bronze - Canada (Voivod - Killing Technology)

Best Face Paint
Gold - United States (KISS)
Silver - Denmark (Mercyful Fate/King Diamond)
Bronze - Norway (Immortal)

Freakiest Stage Tricks
Gold - Canada (Thor - Bending steel bars with teeth)
Silver - Norway (Mayhem/Dead - Huffing bird carcass fumes)
Bronze - United States (Alice Cooper - Electrocution)

Best Prog Rock Suite
Gold - United Kingdom (Pink Floyd, "Echoes")
Silver - Germany (Ash Ra Tempel, "Amboss")
Bronze - Canada (Black Mountain, "Bright Lights")

Nerdiest Concept Album
Gold - United States (C Average, "C Average")
Silver - United Kingdom (Caravan, "In The Land Of Grey And Pink")
Bronze - Germany (German Oak, "German Oak")

Best Album Title
Gold - Sweden (Refused, "The Shape Of Punk To Come")
Silver - Germany (Helloween, "Pink Bubbles Go Ape")
Bronze - United States (Nation Of Ulysses, "A 13 Point Plan For The Destruction Of America")

Most Massive Drums
Gold - Japan (The Boredoms, "Super Æ")
Silver - Brazil (Sepultura, "Roots")
Bronze - United States (The Liars, "Drum's Not Dead")

Strangest Album Packaging
Gold - United Kingdom (Cathedral, "The Garden Of Unearthly Delights," scratch n' sniff CD that smells like apples!)
Silver - United States (Tool, "10,000 Days," includes picture book and 3D glasses)
Bronze - United Kingdom (Rod Stewart, "Play It Again Rod," record jacket shaped like a glass of scotch with Stewart's head inside)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Cluster - Cluster '71



Band: Cluster
Album: Cluster '71
Label: Phillips
Year: 1971
Rating: 76%

Tracklist:

Side 1
15:33
7:38

Side 2
21:17

The record begins with a faint hum and what sounds like a distant radar pulse. Skeletal synths pan across the celestial dome as the hum thickens into an undulating drone. The pulses, regular at first, drift in and out of time, rising and falling in intensity as more synths weave in and out of the mix. The piece, quiet and distant at first, gradually grows in volume and power, and becomes increasingly unsettling as what sounds like an analogue keyboard wafts through the air like cosmic nebulae pierced by a hyper driven space vessel. Whooshing cosmic drones emerge ever-present and creeping bleeps sweep across the viewport. Synthetic feedback stabs and heavy distorted phase effects permeate this disorienting landscape, chilling the listener, before a high echoing synth siren flashes across the event horizon. A hypnotic pulse emerges, and is soon buried by flashing phasers and distantly echoing reverb as filtered sounds float through the mix. Suddenly, a rapid, almost frantic bass pulse that wouldn't sound out of place on a modern house track emerges through the void, propelling the piece finally into oblivion. If any record can better re-create the awesome stillness of intergalactic space travel, I have never heard it.

Cluster's first album after the departure of former member Conrad Schnitzler is a landmark in kosmische music. remaining members Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius marked the rebirth of the band by switching out their old moniker, Kluster, for the new one, spelled with a 'C'. Obsessed with the sensations of weightlessness and propulsion, emptiness and ether, Cluster on this recording took space rock much further than Hawkwind or Pink Floyd ever imagined it could go. Despite the vast quantities of hallucinogenic drugs and sonic explorations their contemporaries engaged upon, Cluster's excursions lacked any connection to rock's organic blues roots whatsoever. There is no rock here, no solid matter. Only the primal void of space remains. In stepping outside time completely and seemingly rejecting all acoustic instruments in favor of synthetic or treated ones, Cluster traveled beyond the Oort Cloud and completely severed any ties to the earthbound roots of their Anglo-American contemporaries. I'd have to consult some quantum physicists on this, but I would bet that the theoretical continuum of space and time found its nexus somewhere within the grooves of this record.

Finding their genesis in the thriving late '60's German art community, Cluster and many of their contemporaries looked to the limitless possibilities of space and the untapped potential of electronic composition to transcend inherited guilt complex of German society. What traditional instruments do appear here have all been treated to the point where they are no longer recognizable as such. There are antecedents to what Cluster was doing here: like most experimental musicians, they were heavily indebted to the works of Karlheinz Stockhausen and other post modern composers. However, there is as much aggressively non-musical noise here as there is tutored study. This is the sound of phenomenally intelligent and creative kids playing with new toys, just trying to see what sounds they could get out of them. Most great musicians operate this way.

The three pieces here are named simply according to their lengths. Although the specific sounds of each piece are different, evoking different textures and sensations, the overall mood is similar throughout. A vastness engulfs these pieces, as if their sounds could travel forever through the distant reaches of space. Although none of them have what could realistically be described as a tempo, there is a definite rhythmic sense present. Synth lines and drones intersect with one another, sometimes irregularly, sometimes very deliberately. The contradictory feeling of movement will remaining perfectly still applies unmistakably to space travel. The enormity of the universe can hardly by grasped by us insignificant beings, and with our primitive propulsion systems, we might as will be completely immobile. We are merely receivers absorbing the transmission, echoing Cluster's concentric sonic radiation as it expands beyond the furthest limits of our universe.

Too harsh and abrasive to properly be labeled ambient, Cluster's interstellar travel on Cluster '71 and other early 70's proto-electronic albums would later influence three generations (and counting) of electronic and ambient innovators to explore the sonic limits of man-made machines in hopes of creating the most fantastic sonic worlds ever heard by human ears. Of course, it is their far gentler and more traditionally song-oriented masterpiece of electronic melody, Zuckerzeit, which is most frequently cited alongside the work of such other Krautrock cosmonauts as Popol Vuh and Tangerine Dream. But for fans of cosmic, experimental, and acid-damaged psychedelic space rock, this album will be of great interest. Some of these synthetic distortion tones are downright gnarly, and the whole vibe here is frightening, even if no indication is ever given as to how or why one is to react in such a way. Listen closely and without distraction, and let the unexpected turns and sounds move you across the galaxy. So long as you can buy my theory that the exploratory wonder and inexorable power of rock can be captured by instruments besides the guitar and drums, you'll have a hell of a trip. Just remember to bring your headphones.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Etiquette

In my years of tinnitus-courting eardrum abuse I've been to a good number of metal concerts, and I've often been tempted to write down an actual guide to mosh pit etiquette. Too many kids going to metal shows for the first time have no clue how to do this, and there are rules for the general safety and enjoyment of everyone present that should be observed.

How to mosh:
1. Most importantly: SAFETY FIRST! If someone falls, help them up. Don't hit anyone who is not on their feet. No one wants to be that guy that died in a mosh pit at a slayer concert... actually that's a bad example.
2. NEVER throw the elbows. It's a dick move.
3. Hit other moshers with your shoulders as hard as you want, so long as they are in the act of moshing. Do not go charging into people on the edge of the mosh pit, unless...
4. They are standing on the edge of the mosh pit and are pushing people who have not hit them first. This is a dick move also and it is perfectly appropriate to pull these little bitches into the melee.
5. Do not stand on the outside edge of the pit and expect to remain unscathed. You will be hit by flying bodies, just push back and deal with it.
6. NO SKANKING within a 3 mile radius of anywhere where anyone is playing metal. Ska is the antitheses of Metal.
7. Don't kick or throw punches. That shit might fly at a hardcore show, but come on... hardcore is fucking stupid.
8.. Girls in the mosh pit should expect the same treatment from other moshers as guys. No exceptions.


When to mosh:
1. If there is an acoustic instrument playing at any time, it is NEVER appropriate to mosh. Unplugged sets are totally not metal.
2. If double kick drums are being used at any time, it is ALWAYS appropriate to mosh. Nothing is more metal than double kicks.
3. Observe the three-fifths compromise: If more than three fifths of the band members have hair longer than their shoulders, it is appropriate to mosh. Female band members are exempt from this rule, as are anyone with dreads, mowhawks, liberty spikes or a shaved head, and none of these shall be counted in the forming of the longhair-to-square ratio.
4. If vocals are being growled (as opposed to screamed) it is appropriate to mosh.
5. Moshing stops between songs.
6. When the fucking metal singer tells you to fuck some shit up, do it.
7. You may momentarily stop moshing to furiously headbang or play air guitar or drums if one of the following things are played:
a) a finger-tapping guitar solo,
b) a bass solo,
c) an unaccompanied double kick barrage, or
d) a guitar riff that sounds like murder.


Appropriate Attire:
1. Leather and metal spikes have been an integral part of metal's wardrobe since Judas Priest was gigging around Birmingham. Up to two wrist bands with spikes and up to three spiked belts around the waist are acceptable, but anymore spikes than that is an unnecessary hazard in the mosh pit. A wrist band shouldn't exceed 3 inches in width, anymore than that and it 'aint a wristband anymore.
2. Medieval armour is awesome and totally metal, but you should never come to a show like that and expect to mosh.
3. NEVER take your shirt off. That's just gross.
4. Jeans and a black T-shirt are always acceptable. Bonus points for wearing a hilarious or obscure band T-shirt.
5. Makeup or corpsepaint is acceptable, but just remember that you look ridiculous.

Live by this code and the headbangers of the world shall dance in Valhalla and drink the blood of posers.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Convergance

Some food for thought... Genre tags were once handy labels with which one could compare bands which had similar sonic and stylistic (and in some cases, geographic) signifiers in their sound. These terms could also help to define new bands in such a way that set them apart from their formative musical influences. Taking as an example the varied world of heavy metal, a term like "death metal" could be used to describe a musically complex and extreme form of metal distinct from its closest cousins; black metal, grindcore and thrash. But to today's metalheads, these are merely umbrella terms, each of which incorporates a myriad of sub-styles and micro-genres such as deathgrind, goregrind, death doom, progressive black metal, deathcore... you get the idea. What I want to know is how far you can subdivide music into hard categories before such terms lose all meaning.

It seems like in the last decade, most rock music being produced has been a product of either straight rehashes of static genres (the 00's garage rock, thrash metal, stoner rock revivals) or genre-splicing experiments. Without a doubt this is a result of the growth of the internet and its ability to break down genre barriers. This is not a bad thing. Rock has subdivided into so many different categories by now that there really is a ton of fruitful music made simply by combining styles to see what happens. What does have me wondering is what will happen when we've exhausted all possible combinations? Admittedly, this will take a very long time. There are so many possible permutations that haven't even been considered yet. A friend recently mentioned his own idea for a new band to me: A garage-blues-rock band with a rapper. Sounds crazy enough to work. How about Manwich, the industrial-space-funk project led by Johann Grenier? And I've always thought I'd love to hear a band that combines psych drones with trip-hop. Sometimes these experiments are crude, but given some time to refine their ideas, creative musicians can find a way to make it work and create something new along the way.

So will all genres eventually become static forms of cross-genre Frankenstein experiments without new ones emerging to take their places? Most genres tend to follow a similar pattern in which a group of pioneering artists come to define a style. A few of these bands come to be seen as leaders of the style, and a 'scene' will develop, increasing media exposure and fan base. Soon after, a second wave of followers emerge playing music that falls within the style as it has been defined by the pioneers. The 'rules' of the style now become codified, and mainstream exposure to the style reaches its peak and then begins to wane. Eventually most of the fans of a genre will move on to others and many of the bands break up, go on hiatus or change their style to keep up with the times. At this point the genre becomes static, as only a core group of long-term survivors or younger revivalists continue to play the music as it was originally defined, and only die-hard fans of the genre and its bands are still around to care. This cycle generally takes about 7 to 10 years to complete, although mainstream attention may wax and wane independently of the artistic fortunes of a style.

My guess is that micro-genres will continue to emerge and multiply, so it shouldn't be a problem finding new music. What does concern me is the relative lack of true innovators, bands that come out of nowhere and completely change the game with something that is entirely new. The last time I remember hearing something like that was the first Battles record, which came out almost three years ago now. But hey, maybe I'm just jaded.