Rock – Page 96 – 7th Level Music

Review: Here Lies Man – Ritual Divination

Ritual Divination, the new album by Afrobeat / metal / funk / psych / who gives a damn band Here Lies Man, is the first one they’ve recorded as a full four-piece (Marcos Garcia – guitar / vocals, Geoff Mann – drums, J.P. Maramba – bass, and Doug Organ – keyboards) and the power and chops of their heavy groove live shows comes through on each track.

The opening guitars in “In These Dreams” is straight-up classic metal with keyboard stabs to shove you into the first scene of the “movie” that is Ritual Divination. In case you didn’t know, each HLM album (and live show) is essentially written and performed like a soundtrack to a film that’s different for everyone hearing it. With “In These Dreams,” you’re already thinking, “Well, this is a bad-ass movie and we’re still in the opening credits.”

The next track deals with one of HLM’s favorite subjects – mortality. “I Told You (You Shall Die)” starts out with a slow, trudging rhythm and then transforms into an epic space rock jam with the band both reminding us of our impending departure from this reality, but also telling us to not fear something we cannot truly comprehend. “Underland” is the shortest track on the album, clocking in at just under two-and-a-half minutes, but it packs a lot of guitar power into that short (compared to the other tracks) time frame.

The riffs on “What You See” immediately make your whole body sway forward and back with them. It’s a certain groove that HLM do so well and gets your attention at the outset. As good as it is, somehow the groove on “Can’t Kill It” is even better – possibly because it ups the funk and stirs it up with killer bass and keyboard work. “Run Away Children” is almost hypnotic with its trance-like vocals.

“I Wander” is a standout, with Maramba’s bass hitting hard, Mann’s jazz background being on full display, and Organ and Garcia working so well together it’s difficult to tell where one of them ends and the other begins. HLM let us know that you can cut and strut all you want, but “night comes all the same” on “Night Comes” – another reminder of our mortality and to embrace impermanence. “Come Inside” chugs along like a train powered by onyx instead of coal.

“Collector of Vanities” could be a song for most of us. How much junk do all of us have? How many selfies do we take? How many do we filter, polish, and recolor in order to project an illusion to the world? HLM encourage us, through the power of fiery rock, to de-clutter our collection and focus within instead of on the surface. The title of “Disappointed” is repeated almost like a mantra through the track. As for what HLM is disappointed in…well, they did record the album in 2020 so it’s anybody’s guess.

“You Would Not See from Heaven” gives a strong nod toward their Black Sabbath influences – in both the sweaty, heavy groove and its somewhat doomy title – although I suspect the song is more about how, in heaven, you would not see your desires, vanities, and illusions because you are free from them. “I want to run, I want the night…” Garcia sings on “The Fates Have Won.” They always do. You might not think they will, but they have infinite patience. “Out Goes the Night” is a song that is both heavy as stone and yet uplifting as the sunrise at the same time (“In comes the light, out goes the night.”). The closer, “Cutting through the Tether,” puts down a slick drum groove (with extra hand percussion to boot) as Organ’s keys, Garcia’s guitar, and Maramba’s bass slither in the background like asps waiting to strike.

It’s another solid record from Here Lies Man, who continue to put out work that is hard to define, but once you hear it you want all of it you can get.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Review: Shame – Drunk Tank Pink

What do you do when you spend a good chunk of your young adult life as a touring rock band, build your identity around said band and said touring, and then have all of that yanked away from you by a pandemic?

If you’re British rockers Shame, you look inward, ask yourselves “What the hell were we thinking? We’re more than…whatever we were during nonstop tours and parties.”, and refocus on how they (and the rest of us) were going to deal with reality in 2020 and beyond. You also write and record an outstanding record like Drunk Tank Pink.

Named after a color used in jail cells to calm, you guessed it, drunks, Drunk Tank Pink has Shame taking their angry, bratty punk sounds down multiple avenues that include post-punk influences like Talking Heads and pop icons like Elton John.

“Alphabet” starts off with snappy drums and singer Charlie Steen telling us flat-out “What you see is what you get.” He and his mates are through with perceived notions and crafted images. They’re just as pissed and antsy as the rest of us, and Sean Coyle-Smith‘s guitar certainly amplifies that notion. “It just goes on,” Steen sings on “Nigel Hitter” – a song about repetition and how life can and will continue whether you want it to or not. “Born in Luton” has Steen raging about feeling trapped alone in his own home (“There’s never anyone in this house!”). The song dissolves into a slow burn of boiling anger at a world that botched its collective response to the pandemic and thus left millions feeling like him.

“I should just go back to sleep…In my room, in my womb, is the only place I find peace,” Steen sings on “March Day.” It’s a rather plucky song about depression, with Steen poking fun at himself and realizing that self-medicating his way through the pandemic wasn’t a good idea. “Water in the Well” has a deceptively wicked bass line from Josh Finerty and some fun horror movie imagery and great percussion from Charlie Forbes that runs around the room like a cackling gremlin.

“I live deep in myself, just like everyone else!” Steen yells on the wild “Snow Day” – a barrage of punk and prog fury that has great, sly lyrics like, “I know what I need, I just haven’t got it yet.” Finerty’s bass is at the front of “Human for a Minute,” which would be a great name for a Gary Numan song but sounds more like a slightly heavy Edwyn Collins track with its groovy swagger and lyrics about finding a new identity with a new lover (“I never felt human before you arrived.”).

“Great Dog” builds and builds to wild, mosh pit-filling riffs and then plunges off a cliff at the end to leave you breathless. “6/1” has Steen proclaiming, “I pray to no God! I am God!” He’s determined to be in control of his own destiny / fate / life, even more so as he watches so much of the world tear itself apart over petty things while the rich get richer. Coyle-Smith and Eddie Green‘s guitars on “Harsh Degrees” come at you from so many different angles it’s like you’re being attacked by a a dozen Shaolin monks. “I need a solution, I need a new resolution and it’s not even the end of year,” Steen lazily sings on the closer, “Station Wagon.” He’s looking for something, anything, to turn a lame year into something worthwhile. We were all doing that in 2020 and still are not even a full month into 2021. “Look up there. There’s something in that cloud. We’ve seen it before,” Steen says. “Won’t someone please bring me that cloud?”

Drunk Tank Pink comes to us in 2021 to remind us that, yes, 2020 was one of the worst years ever (“No one said this was going to be easy,” Steen says on the final track.), but, you made it here if you were lucky. You survived. You have the moment, the moment all of us have had and ever will have, to move forward and emerge stronger.

You can come out of the drunk tank with a new perspective. It’s okay to acknowledge what you suffered. There’s no shame in that. This album reminds you to put that rage down after you’ve acknowledged it, to learn from it, and to keep moving ahead.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Miss Grit unleashes heavy title track from upcoming album – “Impostor.”

Miss Grit, moniker of Korean-American musician Margaret Sohn, releases the title track from her forthcoming Impostor EP, out February 5th. It follows the “addictive” (Consequence of Sound) lead single “Dark Side Of The Party.” Throughout Impostor, Sohn explores the titular “impostor syndrome” that so often characterizes the insecurities of the early 20s. This is clear in EP closer “Impostor”: “They’re clapping awfully loud // For no tribulations or trials // Your reward’s // Faking worth // You’re no star // Impostor.” In Sohn’s words, “‘Impostor’ is the shredder I put all of the nagging voices in my head through.” The track bursts with fuzzy chords and bright keys, and when it hits its climax, Sohn’s vocals fade into a fury of heavy, eruptive guitar. Subsequently, there’s a stretch of bliss, Sohn’s voice floating over atmospheric keyboard and acoustic guitar: “Let ‘em smile // Let me smile.”

Listen to Miss Grit’s “Impostor”

Sohn makes relatable songs that masterfully dissect the feeling of self-doubt. Her songs can drastically shift from delicate to explosive as they show her technical prowess as a guitarist and melodist, and her evocative lyricism. On the heels of her Talk Talk EP, a “truly awe-inspiring first work” (NME), Impostor is a six song collection that’s more cathartic, resolute, and fully documents the array of talents she brings as a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and producer.

Impostor addresses her life-long navigation through the racial impostor syndrome she experienced as a half-Korean girl “trying to fit into the white space” of the Michigan suburbs where she grew up. Not even a move to New York City, where she studied music technology at NYU and began to dream of creating effects pedals for a living, could ease her internal conflict. Part of that uneasiness for Sohn was her initial success with Talk Talk and the feeling “she was someone who was impersonating a musician.” Her solution was producing the EP by herself at Brooklyn’s Virtue and Vice Studios so that she had complete creative control.

“I’ve gone my whole life feeling really uncomfortable defining myself,” Sohn says. “I realized that a lot of the time, I’m more comfortable with other people defining me and making up their mind about who I’m supposed to be.” Writing this EP helped her understand that futile pattern. Miss Grit is a project that allows Sohn to break through self-bias, creating a version of herself that doesn’t need to be limited. Expressing herself through her powerful, confident music while still being vulnerable about her insecurities is a dynamic that characterizes her work, with all of its pushes and pulls of emotion. Ultimately, Sohn says, the Impostor EP is about feeling self-doubt, working through it with music, and letting it all subside.

Listen to “Dark Side Of The Party”

Pre-save Impostor EP

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jessica and Jim at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – KG

As they are often happy to do, prolific psych-rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have released an album enshrouded in mystery and riddles. I’m sure that the cover, with its imagery of a collapsed structure, has produced many Reddit discussions about hidden messages within it. Is that a totem pole on the bottom left corner? Are those snakes to the right? What does the block with nine holes in it on the upper right represent? What’s with the crosses? Finally, where’s “volume 1” if K.G. is “volume 2?” It wouldn’t surprise me at all if KGATLW’s next album is called A.T.L.W. and it’s listed as “volume 1” on the cover for reasons unknown to anyone but the band.

To further stir the pot of witches’ brew, the first track on K.G. is “K.G.L.W.” The short instrumental harkens back to themes heard on Murder of the Universe and it drifts like incense smoke into “Automation” – a track that returns the band to their psychedelic roots (a much welcomed return at that) and some of the microtonal sounds they brought us on Flying Microtonal Banana. “Minimum Brain Size” is even better as it pushes the psychedelic elements a bit further with its Middle Eastern-tinged guitars and spiritual song vocals.

“Straws in the Wind” reminds me of some of the stuff KGATLW released on Sketches of New Brunswick East with its mellow tones, excellent acoustic guitar work, sitar touches, and slightly krautrock timing. “Some of Us” continues our trek through a starlit desert while KGATLW sing about the “destruction of everything” and enlightenment.

“Ontology” picks up the pace. It sounds and feels like we’re heading down a river that slowly grows more rapid by the moment. Then, to throw us out of the mandjet and into the Nile for a wild tumble, along comes “Intrasport” – an electro dance track that any DJ could drop into any set and fill the floor. Thumping synth bass, disco drums and synths, 1970s porn film guitar…it’s all there.

“Oddlife” then mixes the disco synths with psychedelic vocals (“It’s an oddlife, ’til you get it right.”) and killer drumming. The harmonica and acoustic guitar on “Honey,” one of the first singles from the album, make it a standout. It sounds like a fun bike ride around the back forty of a mint farm in the late summer (complete with harp flourishes).

The first time I heard the closer, “The Hungry Wolf of Fate,” the local tornado siren test started just before the song’s intro ended. It was a perfect mix. A warning of danger and a song about a fierce beast with heavy drums and howling guitars.

K.G. works quite well and is a nice return for the band to shorter songs with concise songwriting. Mind you, I love their epic ten-minute-plus jams, but here they show they can cut in, cut up, and cut out.

Keep your mind open.

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Top 35 albums of 2020: #’s 5 – 1

Here we are. We’ve reached the cream of the cop.

#5: Yardsss – Cultus

This album is “only” three tracks, but one of them is over twenty-three minutes long. The other two are over seven minutes each. Even more impressive? This entire psychedelic / prog-rock album was improvised. Yardsss came in without a game plan and created a monster of a record that you can’t believe was done on the fly.

#4: Caroline Rose – Superstar

This is Caroline Rose’s best album to date. She tackles subjects like fame, flying your freak flag, sex, love, lust, and finding the self with power pop riffs, playful, lovely vocals, and some of her wittiest songwriting to date.

#3: Windhand – Levitation Sessions

I watched several livestream concerts this year, and all were good. This one by doom metal giants Windhand, however, literally gave me chills. That moment came during “Forest Clouds” when I could feel something happening. The hairs on my arms stood up and I couldn’t stop grinning. It was a powerful moment that I needed to remind me that live music will return. Nothing can stop it (or Windhand, it seems), and this entire live album was like being handed a battle axe as a hobgoblin army advances on the city.

#2: Automatic – Signal

I knew right away upon hearing Signal that (A) it was a post-punk gauntlet thrown down at other bands, (B) it was sexy as an underground 1960s dance club in Paris, and (C) it was going to be my favorite debut album of 2020. Everything on this album works at a high level. It makes you feel like a sexy bad ass, and all three ladies in Automatic are such. Tread lightly, however. They’re not screwing around and might whack you with a claw hammer if you cross the line.

#1: Flat Worms – Antarctica

This psych / garage / punk masterpiece by Flat Worms went into my #1 spot upon first hearing it in April 2020 and never moved. It is stunningly powerful and chock-full of killer lyrics about fighting against the rat race, internet addiction, the depersonalization of others, economic inequality, and toxic relationships. This is one of those albums that sounds new every time I hear it. It’s a shame they couldn’t tour to promote it, because this album could’ve and should’ve made them big-time draws.

I’m already hearing good stuff in 2021, so let’s stay healthy and get back to shows and festivals.

Keep your mind open.

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Top 35 albums of 2020: #’s 10 – 6

We’ve reached the top 10 (of nearly 80) albums I reviewed in 2020. Who made the cut? Read on…

#10: The Wants – Container

The only thing bad about this album is that The Wants didn’t get to extensively tour to promote it. Screw you, 2020. Container deserves to be heard by everyone, especially post-punk fans or anyone else who likes their rock with a slight goth edge. I was lucky enough to see them in February 2020 before the country and touring and venues shut down. I hope they’re able to get back to the road soon, because hearing this record live is even better.

#9: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Viscerals

This album is so heavy that it might break your turntable if you have it on vinyl. The Black Sabbath influences are evident, but Pigs X7 sound like they had fun while making an album to unleash their wrath upon Brexit, COVID-19, politicians across the pond, and jackasses in general.

#8: Frankie and the Witch Fingers – Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters…

I’d only heard a few tracks by Frankie and the Witch Fingers from earlier records before hearing their new album, Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters… Holy crap. This record floored me. It’s double-album-full of prime psychedelia, shoegaze, and garage rock jams. Let this album consume you.

#7: BRANDY – The Gift of Repetition

I don’t remember where I first heard BRANDY’s music, but I’m glad I did because this is the most fun punk record I heard all year. The repetition mentioned in the album’s title is used to great effect throughout the record with killer beats, riffs, and choruses.

#6: Hum – Inlet

The biggest surprise release of the year also turned out to be one of the best albums of the year. No one expected or even considered a new, full-length album by 1990s shoegaze legends Hum, but along came Inlet to knock off our socks and remind us that these guys can mop the floor with just about any other band out there.

Only five more to go! Who takes the title of best album of 2020? Come back tomorrow to find out.

Keep your mind open.

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Top 35 albums of 2020: #’s 15 – 11

We’re more than halfway through the list now. Let’s not waste time.

#15: Ela Minus – Acts of Rebellion

Part-electro, part-goth, all great. Ela Minus made us move, stand up and fight, and otherwise get off our collective duffs during a year when we needed to be shaken out of our funks.

#14: October and the Eyes – Dogs and Gods

Have you ever seen Cult of the Cobra from 1955? In that movie, a woman who can turn into a cobra tracks down the men who, for kicks, infiltrated her cult’s rituals, and kills them one by one. She falls in love with one of the men, however, and you can guess the rest. This album is pretty much what the Cobra Woman would have playing on her ear buds as she stalked and seduced her victims.

#13: Falle Nioke and Ghost Culture – Youkounkoun

“Barké,” a song from this EP, stopped me in my tracks the first time I heard it. The record mixes Afrobeat and electronica in perfect amounts, resulting in slick dance tracks and hypnotic songs.

#12: Kelly Lee Owens – Inner Song

Kelly Lee Owens makes electronic music that can make you dance, sigh, relax, or meditate – all sometimes in the same track. Her second album continues to set the bar high for others behind her. I say it many times, but I don’t mind repeating it – She’s both an inspiration for me to make my own electronic music and at other times throw my digital turntables out the window due to thinking, “Damn, that’s just not fair.” after hearing her tracks.

#11: Public Practice – Gentle Grip

Trust me, this post-punk debut album is as intriguing and sexy as its cover. I’d been waiting for a full-length Public Practice album since 2019 when they released a few singles and I saw them live in Chicago. The wait was well worth it. Gentle Grip is outstanding and leaves you eager for more.

The top 10 are next!

Keep your mind open.

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Top 35 albums of 2020: #’s 20 – 16

We’re into the top 20 albums of 2020 (out of the nearly 80 new albums I reviewed last year). Who made the cut? Read on…

#20: Matt Karmil – STS371

This EDM record is full of throbbing bass, oil slick beats, and ambient / psychedelic synths. It works its way under your skin and moves your bones.

#19: Ultraflex – Visions of Ultraflex

Cover that looks like a 1980s New Age CD? Check. Synthwave keyboards that could fit right into a sci-fi film? Check. Sexy Replicant vocals? Check. Visions of Ultraflex manages to be both a neat synthwave album and one of the best make-out records of 2020 at the same time.

#18: Oh Sees – Metamorphosed

This album is “only” five tracks in length, and the first three are under two minutes each. The other two, however, make up for the rest of the album’s time length of over forty minutes. It’s a mix of punk rockers and prog-psych-krautrock jams that shows how deftly Oh Sees can move back and forth between styles.

#17: Holy Wave – Interloper

Holy Wave came back with a fine addition to their catalogue. Interloper blends psychedelia with some shoegaze and surf elements and is full of songs about not fitting in or being comfortable anywhere. That alone could sum up 2020.

#16: Oh Sees – Live at Big Sur

Yes, two Oh Sees albums in this list. Live at Big Sur was their second live-streamed show of 2020. They played at the Henry Miller Library and dove deep into their back catalogue to play stuff they hadn’t played live in years. The encore was a barrage of covers, many of them Black Flag tunes.

We’re over halfway through the list! Come back tomorrow for more!

Keep your mind open.

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Top 15 singles of 2020: #’s 5 – 1

Here we are at the top of the list!

#5: Too Free – “Elastic”

Yes, another song by Too Free. This thing is a sexy floor-filler EDM track that has an underlying hint of goth menace to it that immediately catches your ears.

#4: Jon Hopkins – “Singing Bowl (Ascension)”

If 2020 did anything right, it forced all of us to sit and be here. There was often nothing else to do. It was a year of zazen if you let it be so. Along comes Jon Hopkins with this lovely, stunning track suitable for meditation and making out – again two things that we were given a lot of time to do in 2020. Everyone needed to hear this last year, and any other year before or since.

#3: Matt Karmil – “PB”

I don’t know what “PB” means. Peanut butter? Pittsburgh? Pulsating beats? Yeah, that’s probably it, because this dance track is full of them.

#2: Kelly Lee Owens – “Melt!”

Yes, Ms. Owens has two tracks in my top 15 singles of 2020. I think she is the only person alive who can pull off an absolute club banger about global warming. She does nothing but amaze me and make me want to smash my digital turntables with a twelve-pound sledge hammer.

#1: Flat Worms – “Market Forces”

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that my favorite single of 2020 comes from my favorite album of 2020. Everything about this song works on a high level – beat, riffs, lyrics, and vocals. It moves and slugs like a professional boxer as it throws out lyrics about getting off your ass and shaking illusions out of your head so you can embrace the present and reality.

There you have it. Keep your mind open.

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Top 35 albums of 2020: #’s 25 – 21

The top 25? Already? Yep. Here we go.

#25: Death Valley Girls – Levitation Sessions: Live from the Astral Plane

Your live psychedelic rock album can’t miss when the first track is a guide to astral projection. You also can’t miss when it’s full of wild rock, passionate vocals, and, for all I know, tantric magic.

#24: Deeper – Auto-Pain

Wow. I mean…Wow. This post-punk record covers some serious subjects (suicide, existential angst, boredom, ennui, technological creep) and does it with serious chops and resolve.

#23: All Them Witches – Nothing As the Ideal

All Them Witches returned with possibly their heaviest album to date. Nothing As the Ideal is almost a Black Sabbath record in its tone and sheer sonic weight. It sounds like they were getting out all their frustration of not being able to tour on the record. It’s a cathartic gem.

#22: Protomartyr – Unlimited Success Today

Protomartyr put out one of the mots intriguing records of 2020. Unlimited Success Today is layered with stunning guitar chords, powerhouse drumming, and mysterious lyrics that sometimes read and sound like a madman yelling atop a milk crate in the middle of a busy intersection in your town.

#21: Gordon Koang – Unity

Possibly the most uplifting album of 2020, Unity is the tale of refugee Gordon Koang finally becoming an Australian citizen. Koang is a musical superstar in Africa, but fled the continent due to civil war and threats on his life. Despite all his tribulations, Unity is a record full of hope (not to mention fun Afrobeat tracks) that we needed last year.

The top 20 of 2020 are coming up next!

Keep your mind open.

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