a little introduction for those who haven't had the pleasure: "Opeth is a progressive death metal band from Sweden that is influenced by many diverse musical styles ranging from jazz, 70s progressive rock, death metal, and blues. Their recent releases have deviated from their traditional death metal influenced style, with more emphasis on progressive elements. Vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt is also noted for utilizing both clean singing and death growls, often in the same track. Due to their unique blend of melodic and progressive elements, Opeth are often classified separately from more typical death metal acts. The name Opeth was taken from Wilbur Smith’s novel Sunbird and derived from Opet, a city of the moon named in the novel." -Last.fm
For me this band has been a stepping stone into genres and music scenes I've never even dreamed of existing. 'Canterbury' & 'progg' were things I didn't know off and not even taking in consideration that this also resulted in rediscovering my love for vinyl records. Anyways, during their European Tour 2008 Opeth played in my favourite venue, Amon Tobin recently called it "arguably the best sound system in Europe", the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, BE. Below, the video's of their set (almost complete).
Line-up:
DJ Mental (FM Brussel)
The Ocean
Cynic
Opeth
only footage of Opeth, italic titles are captured:
Heir Apparent
The Grand Conjuration
Godhead's Lament
The Lotus Eater
Hope Leaves
Deliverance
Demon Of The Fall (partial)
Encore: The Drapery Falls
youtube playlist
Down here is a clip I found, a little prog-rock-quiz, Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree, Bass Communion, etc) vs Mikael Åkerfeldt... it's a massacre...
Opeth website
Opeth MySpace
Roadrunner Records
Cynic website
Cynic MySpace
The Ocean MySpace
The Ocean website
Describing Audrey’s music is no easy task. If the group has succeeded in finding a central theme, it’s a balance in the melodies - shimmering, beautiful moments of pop meet dark sadness.
The harmonies (everyone in the group shares vocal efforts) shift quickly between keys and moods. Straightforward, conventional narrative is replaced by abstract meanings which strengthen the melodies. -Last.fm
Static captation of their set on November 21st, 2008 at the Arenberg Schouwburg in Antwerp, BE.
Opening that night, surprisingly, was Mrs. Hyde, playing an acoustic set. No captions of this because of some regretted, self-imposed 'no opening act policy' but make sure to check them out...
playlist @ youtube
Audrey website
Audrey myspace
Mrs. Hyde website
Mrs Hyde myspace
The harmonies (everyone in the group shares vocal efforts) shift quickly between keys and moods. Straightforward, conventional narrative is replaced by abstract meanings which strengthen the melodies. -Last.fm
Static captation of their set on November 21st, 2008 at the Arenberg Schouwburg in Antwerp, BE.
Opening that night, surprisingly, was Mrs. Hyde, playing an acoustic set. No captions of this because of some regretted, self-imposed 'no opening act policy' but make sure to check them out...
playlist @ youtube
Audrey website
Audrey myspace
Mrs. Hyde website
Mrs Hyde myspace
Transit are four Belgian post-rocking ornithologists, Jeroen (guitar), Toon (bass), Koen (drums) and Nick (guitar), with a passion for nature, emotions and all kinds of music. This is more or less the essence of Transit; more words about them would just be tiresome; so they just hope you enjoy their music as much as they enjoy playing it!
I've seen this band play now three times and each time their music will fill up the room and suck you into their cinematic, slow coresque post-rock as if you've known them for years. I've rounded up some goodies of the band... enjoy.
Footage:
+30 min live set at the Ancienne Belgique, November 1st, 2007 during the 2nd Now_Series with 65DaysOfStatic, Apse, Creature With The Atom Brain, Liars, & Youthmovies
Downloads:
Transit - Harmattan
[LostChildren013] (August 1, 2006)
Transit - Broadleaves vs Conifers
[LostChildren017] (December 1, 2006)
Transit MySpace
Transit website
Lost Children Net Label
For those who haven't had the pleasure of being introduced to the eccentric genius Salvador Dali (shame on you), his appearance on the 50's show 'What's my line' might be just what you need.
Click the image for some pics from my long awaited visit to the Dali museum in his home town Figueres in Spain.
Click the image for some pics from my long awaited visit to the Dali museum in his home town Figueres in Spain.
A.armada, an allience with base camp in Athens, Georgia is the combined effort of members from Cinemechanica and Maserati's tour guitarist Josh McCauley, they bring us the result of their second recording mission. Their long player follows up their 2005 EP, Anam Cara, if you can call a 5 track- 28 minute listen a long player that is. The debriefing of their latest mission is presented in a packaging that wouldn't look to bad in my vinyl collection but obviously there's more to the album then meets the eye. Anam Cara, Gaellic for soul mate, begins their mission like a brave trooper in a dismayed frenzy, running into the woods throwing a hand pomegranate to alert the listener.
Fully loaded and their hearts set on victory they guide us onto the well balanced battlefield of post-rock instrumentation, years of training and drilling make it sound so controlled and in place that there's a cornucopia of tightness. All the pieces on this musical Stratego board have their objective to fulfil, sneaking Scouts of subtle swelling guitars aiding the ruthless Spy of straight forward face bashing riffs in outlining the field for the General. Once the these outposts are set there's no escape from the A.armada stranglehold, it is docile to the post-rock supreme command of the late 2000's supplemented by a distinct striking private of the Cinemechanica squadron.
The clash of the highly combustible, rampaging frenzy that is own of the Cinemechanica chapter and the neo-psychedelia of Maserati might be the components of A.armada, the sum of these Athenian wings is not the sum of their combative power. Once they join forces, they face the reality that their individual strength is absorbed in the clockwork mechanism they've signed up for. Mayhem and mushroom snacks don't go hand in hand all that well and only brings a welcome deviation of the thirteen in a dozen post-rock sound. Nonetheless, the achievements of this Athens Axis of post-rock are not to be regarded lightly. Anam Cara is broken down in five very similar sub-missions but each of them has it's appeals and unveils a bit more of the A.armada weaponry.
The only major flaw of the entire operation is the overconfidence of their opening move, going in with a bang and dispersing over the field opened up their perimeters, but they failed to deliver 'the smell of napalm in the morning'. It's better to blow up then to fade away is a cliché, I know, yet applying it on an albums structure will give the listener a reason to hit play again once the battle has been fought. As many beautiful pieces of dreamy ambience and adrenaline pumping themes Anam Cara may contain, none of these will keep abreast for a long time. The only post-listening stress souvenir I got of this album came from If Only You Knew What the Lost Soldiers Did to Me, one minute in the track. A delightful panned simple riff opens, sober drums fall... easing in the otherwise fine five minute track. In one of the longer breaks they overlooked -or ignored- the guitar riff that drops in a fraction earlier as the drums. Sure, a minor flaw most won't hear unless they go looking for it, but overlooking this when recording/mixing/mastering the album is a deadly flaw in this reviewers opinion. Fixing it could not have taken much longer then a minute...
In the end, what remains after several listens is the need of closure on this album. Something to mark the end of this campaign that is excecuted according to the textbook guidelines, no bodycount, just one annoying fleshwound.
Website A.Armada
Myspace A.Armada
Hello Sir Records
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Post-rock, once a term brought to live to label bands who where re-inventing the rock scene in a strange age -dominated by Generation X, the nineties. A first generation of post-rock bands took rock to an almost lost form of crafting music, free of sales figures, board room imposed attitudes and hipness. They inspired a whole new generation that was in need of guidance...
A second generation of bands charted the genre and spread the word about it's novice, this train is unstoppable! As time passed, the second generation drawed out the details of this new uncharted continent and provided a sturdy homebase for new explorers to follow in their predecessors footsteps. nowadays, a third generation of
post-rock explorers is surfacing and aim to amaze us with their crucible of influences that are no longer subjected to genres as we knew them. Sphericube is one of those third generation bands, their self-released debut Jugda is the map of their Slovenian settlement.
Most of the times when I listened to Jugda a slight cold shiver ran over my spine before the first minute was over. Plucked violin strings and delightfully reverbed guitars paving the way for a few raising hairs, hooks that sound more like faint bends made some intriguing, yet minimal, shifts that promised me that I was in for some skilled compositions. The drum suggested that I should tighten my laces, I would be in for a serious round of foot tapping. Then the minute was over... the singer wailed himself into Emergency Lane like a siren that rubbed more Thom Yorke in my face then Radiohead is capable of. Now, for the record Thom Yorke has some brilliant vocal chords, Radiohead has some beautiful tracks, but I've had it with their knock-off sound ever since OK Computer. This is the main issue I have with Jugda, every once in a while the shiver down my spine was provoked by my loathing of repetition. Despite my issues, I noticed my foot found his groove back and I decided to indulge myself in the extraordinary blend of wailing vocals and, what sounds like, a borrowed drum computer of Björk on a canvas of post-rocking melancholy with strokes of jazz.
read the full review
Sphericube Website
Sphericube Myspace
Download Jugda
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