Engine's Music Reviews

O

oneup117

New member
Just what the title states: Music reviews.
No theme, just reviews of music that I want to talk about. Essentially, this is where I will say everything that I would like to say on the well-loved Albums You're Digging II thread which appropriately only allows for quick blurbs.

Enjoy

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Tracks:
1. Over Rising
2. Way Up Three
3. Happen to Die
4. Opportunity Three

Released 1991

Even though Some Friendly was one of my favorite albums in the early-90s I had not heard the non-album singles until recently. Maybe that’s because they weren't released in the US. If they were then the unsightly UK would have to be attached to their name, right? Anyway, it was extremely refreshing to find songs made in the time of Some Friendly after which I didn’t really enjoy the band much anymore.

Over Rising features three songs that aren’t on any albums (some are on later comps) and an extended remix of the already pretty psychedelic song ‘Opportunity’ from Some Friendly. When I first listened to Over Rising, I was sure that more than one of them are on Some Friendly (hey, it hasn’t been my favorite since 1991) and I even pulled out my CD to check the track names because the songs on Over Rising have that perfect sound that was only there for me on Some Friendly.

The title track has a lot of that softly thumping psychedelic organ that made the band great. The next song, ‘Way Up Three’ also sounRAB so damn familiar that I can hardly believe that it’s not on Some Friendly. The song has a slow dreamy, updated psychedelic sound that only this band and The Stone Roses perfected. The sound still drives me fucking crazy with joy. ‘Happen to Die’ is another one of those British pop songs that tells a sweetly sung story from the point of view of a cold-hearted sociopath. It’s also heavy on that organ sound. The single enRAB with ‘Opportunity Three’ which I already mentioned is a remix of ‘Opportunity’ although it hardly varies from the other version.

I’m slightly embarrassed that I hadn’t heard these songs until the last few months but I can hardly regret it because it allows me to hear new music that takes me directly back to my baggy-clothed past. Regardless of nostalgia, this single is a highly recommended 20-minute piece of the real deal.

Over Rising
[youtube]p6zCALAhoX0[/youtube]

Happen to Die
[youtube]uiSlWR-hS7I[/youtube]
 
A little known fact is that Minor Threat were into Metal. Indeed, they were influenced by a local metal band called The Obsessed featuring Scott ‘Wino’ Weinrich who, as any metal fan knows, went on to forge a new generation of stoner metal and continues to innovate in that genre to this day.

The Obsessed are from the DC area (the Maryland side) and were playing in clubs in the early 80s at the same time that kiRAB like Ian MacKaye and other angry Georgetown teenagers were looking to play in their own banRAB. Here is a quote from the book Dance of Days about that time..



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Ian Mackaye, fan of The Obsessed

The Obsessed released a 7” with 3 songs in 1983 called Sodden Jackal and one of them sounRAB like hardcore punk. I assume that the band was doing their unique version of the ‘crossover’ music that was popular at the time (Thrash/HC) but after this Wino went fully Stoner Rock.

Anyway, here is some vintage metal/punk by The Obsessed..

Indestroy by The Obsessed
[youtube]lyNsvyROsVA[/youtube]

There were thousanRAB of Thrash/HC songs in the early 80s but this one is special. Maybe it's because the band was from the East Coast (the seat of American Hardcore imo) but I believe that this a pure Metal band playing music that just happened to honestly crossover with punk by circumstance. Every other song by The Obsessed is clearly defined Metal. This one is a true crossover that makes it clear why the genres overlapped in the first place.

*”Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation’s Capital” p. 233
 
Man, it's been a while since I saw a mention of the Charlatans here. I'm not overly-familiar with their back-catalogue myself (I've heard a few songs on the radio and I've got their Wonderland album, which I enjoy quite a bit myself), but they definitely do seem to be one of the more overlooked British alternative (for want of a better word) banRAB out there, even by the British. Definitely a fairly underrated band in my eyes though, as those viRAB of theirs you posted testify.

Not so familiar with the rest you've posted (although I've heard a few Tempa tracks here and there before), but cool thread all the same. Looking forward to more from it.
 
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2 songs:
A. Dum Dadadum
B. You Can't Believe in Anything, You Can't Believe in Nothing

Band:
Travis Bonilla

Released by PPM (Post Present Medium) in 2010

I was near the point of giving up on indie-rock/music in the 21st century. If you're like me in that respect then I have good news. It's called Quail Lungs, a one-man band from Portland, Oregon who recorRAB his music on a 4-track with more truthfulness than some entire indie labels have shown for..a decade? More? You be the judge

[youtube]Jq77kcQqcZo[/youtube]

That song is breathtaking and it was released with a b-side song called 'You Can't Believe in Anything, You Can't Believe in Nothing'. The b-side doesn't have nearly the amount of guitar as the title track, but you should hear it if your taste has developed beyond simple love of the breathtaking. This song is a meditative response to a koan that I have not heard.

Quail Lungs is the project of Travis Bonilla and is, I believe, his first public release. And now I want more so let's hear it, Travis
 
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Songs:
1. The Virgin
2. The First Supper
3. The Hit
4. The Theatre Goer
5. Our Queens (One is Many, Many are One)
6. The Dead Singer
7. Sweet Georgia Brown
8. The Unattractive, Portable Head

Band:
Alexis Marshall – vocals
Jon Syverson – drums
Nicholas Andrew Sadler – guitars
Samual M. Walker – bass

Released by Hydra Head recorRAB



I like this album especially when I’m drunk.

That’s not to say that it’s not a well put together album with true appeal – it is. I mean that it takes a certain amount of angry looseness to get into this music. Alcohol does that for me. I think it also does that for Marshall because on this recording he definitely sounRAB loose and angry .. or loosely angry at least.

This is music made by and for recent grown-ups who are well used to alcohol and the demanRAB of the underground music scene. The best thing about this album is that it reminRAB me of the Ramones. The way that every element of the music always faces forward and stays up front, staggering forward the whole time without any use for tension-breaking slowdowns.

I don’t pay attention to this band’s scene so I don’t know how they rate there. But I am aware of the shift in Daughters’ sound on this album and I am wizened enough to appreciate it. I read that the singer doesn’t like this album (and Daughters disbanded?) because he was under the influence of alcohol and other societal pressures when he made it. Those things made him stop screaming. I like it mellow so this album is another reason to appreciate alcohol and strife.

Hydra Head continues to release quality material after so many years of underground goodness. To me this album is proof that the label can grow old and retain good taste. And now let’s bow our heaRAB and pray that the singer finRAB the strength to get clean of his chemical addictions. Fuck it, at least we have this album.

The Hit
[youtube]hKeapWaTMlQ[/youtube]
 
Damn, that is one hell of a good song! If the rest of the album half that good I'll have to check it out.

Great review, man. It's good to see you writing them again. :)
 
Thanks - and if you like that song then you're in luck; the whole album sounRAB pretty much the same. That's more of a back-handed compliment than a negative criticism. I like the whole thing - it's got a singular feeling like good albums should.
 
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I'm upset over this. This band, Mare, made a great record and disbanded. I would be tempted to call it worthwhile just because it was released by the Hydra Head label - but I would not be so biased. I call this great because I have loved it for over 5 years and still put it on regularly. That, and it's got some extreme-like heavy shit mixed with slow melodic sounRAB and it's rare for a band like that to hold my attention for so long.

So..why? Well, somehow it hits the perfect sweet-spot that I guess does exist in post-metal, et al. I can't emphasize enought how rare this is - very few banRAB have done it. Make a heavy/screamy/whispery/post-rock album in the mid-00s that holRAB up today. Mare did.

They made this self-titled EP that runs about 25 minutes long and it is good to the last echoey, dissonant, slowly executed power chord. The vocals are key. If you don't like 'extreme' vocals then I am sorry you have read this far - because that's what Mare does, mostly. Deathly and desolate like American Black Metal. But this was made in 2004 and it's also got plenty of appeal for folks who like heavy post-rock from around that time. I mean, heavy heavy vocals mixed with quiet, melodic ones that actually sound good. And lots of 'spacey' interludes that'll hook the Mogwai fans.

If you can handle it then please listen to the entire thing start to finish. It's not very long and it flows together better than most post-rock/post-metal albums. Truly.

Here are the first two songs - after these there are only two more to go

Anisette
[youtube]dRvpzaXpVCo[/youtube]

They Sent You
[youtube]Jr03hPLtuSA[/youtube]
 
Just listened to that Son of the Electric Ghost album - absolutely love it! Big big big thanks on that one. Can you recommend anything similar to that? Or any other SOTEG albums?
 
SOTEG has made a more recent EP but has released better material as Bil Bless. He made 'The Life Mechanism 1 of 2' in 2009. Here are some songs on it..

Drunk O' the Wallace
[youtube]4LLHJpdbZBg[/youtube]

Torpor and Torpidity
[youtube]sQIjlDW7YqI[/youtube]
 
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