Category: Reviews

Rewind Review: Screaming Females – Castle Talk (2010)

Screaming Females’ (Mike Abbatte – bass, Jarrett Dougherty – drums, Marissa Paternoster – guitar and vocals) fourth album, Castle Talk, features a drawing (by Paternoster) of a horse on its cover. The horse’s tail seems to be made of fire. It’s a fitting image for an album that often charges straight at you like those horses from Krull that move so fast they leave behind trails of fire.

Opening track “Laura + Marty” opens with doom metal chords before it abruptly switches into almost power-pop riffs and post-punk bass grooves. “I Don’t Mind It” could and should be a big radio hit as Paternoster sings a peppy song about heartbreak. Dougherty’s “not as easy as they sound” beats are a highlight of “Boss.” His switches between hard rock beats and jazz timing are sharp.

The raucous energy of “Normal” gets your whole body shaking. “A New Kid” has this cool warped sound to it that I love (especially in Abbatte’s drunken circus clown bass), and, good heavens, Paternoster’s riffs on it blow you out of your boots. Her vocals on “Fall Asleep” are layered with fuzz, almost taking a back seat to her shredding – which is somehow smooth and buzzsaw-like at the same time.

“Wild” has soaring solos that contrast with Paternoster’s soft vocals about missing a lover. “I wanna be your late night crisis line. I wanna give you all a piece of my mind,” Paternoster sings on the snappy and snarky “Nothing at All.” “Sheep,” (a solid rocker about infidelity – “You’ll count sheep with anyone, and anyone will do.”) is a great example of what makes Screaming Females so good – their ability to make effortless turns from soft tones to face-melting riffs. “Deluxe” starts out with a left-in blooper before it drifts into a slightly psychedelic, echoed, acoustic track that lets you catch your breath for a moment. Castle Talk ends with “Ghost Solo” – a song that builds behind Dougherty’s rumbling floor toms and Abbatte’s almost-disco bass to Paternoster’s defiant vocals (“This is it, it’s the last time you set me up.”) and guitar riffs that sound like a delighted bird of prey.

It’s a good send-off to the record and a good addition to any fan’s collection of the band’s material. Few bands can make love songs that are both heart-tugging and head-exploding at the same time. Castle Talk is full of such tracks.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Viscerals

Any album by the Newcastle quintet Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs should come with a roll of duct tape to secure your face to your head due to the constant threat of band’s booming, fuzzed-out riffs blasting it to smithereens. Their newest record, Viscerals, is no exception.

Beginning with mosh-pit inducing drums by Christopher Morley, “Reducer” takes off like an experimental rocket car across desolate salt flats. It shifts momentarily into bass-heavy sludge from John-Michael Hedley and echoing vocals by Matt Baty telling us that “Ego kills everything.” He’s right, of course, and that statement is woefully apparent in the 2020 political climate. The swirling guitars of Ian Sykes and Sam Grant on “Rubbernecker” produce a pulsing effect that creeps up your spine and settles somewhere in your amygdala.

“I’m dancing with the devil with his two left feet,” Baty sings on the creepy, jarring “New Body,” which is over seven minutes of controlled chaos as Baty yells, “I don’t feel a thing!” to a red-tinged harvest moon while standing in a thaumaturgic circle. Or at least the ceiling in the recording studio while standing in comfy sneakers. I’m not sure. The short “Blood and Butter” is a haunting spoken word track that melts into the thrash metal-like “World Crust,” which sounds heavy enough to crack its namesake.

“Death is in bloom!” Baty shouts on the doom-psych killer cut “Crazy in Blood.” It’s a standout track on a standout record and the type of song that makes everyone stop and listen. “Halloween Bolson” is bubbles like a witch’s cauldron and then builds to a rapid boil of space rock guitars and enough fuzzy bass to awaken a hibernating grizzly. The song crunches for nine straight minutes and, just when it lets you catch your breath, it cracks you in the head again with another massive riff. The closer “Hell’s Teeth” is a great shout-and-response track (“Let’s rock! In peace!”) that is both radio friendly and potentially speaker-damaging.

Viscerals is true to its name, as every song is either savage or seething, often both. It’s a powerful record for bizarre times that brings things into focus through fuzz.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Mars Red Sky – self-titled (2012)

Any album that is (apart from two songs) recorded in a Spanish national park is bound to be interesting. Any album recorded in a Spanish national park that is also as heavy as Mars Red Sky‘s self-titled debut album is stunning.

I mean, good heavens, the first lines of the first track, “Strong Reflection,” are “Dead stars are burning in the sky, their light reflecting in your eyes, and here the ravens don’t show. Where I’ve been, you don’t want to know.” That alone is metal AF, so the heavy bass that moves like a mastodon, the drums that hammer like its heart, and the guitar that wails like its trumpet blast is heavy enough to knock down your garage. “Curse” is a throwback to 1970’s stoner rock with its echoing lyrics, fuzzed-out guitars, and lyrics about acid rain and how “The greatest fun, it’s not fun at all.”

“Falls” is a wild instrumental blending guitar psychedelia with thunderstorm-like drumming and bass so gritty that you could probably sand lumber with it. “Way to Rome” is a tale of gladiators (or slaves, or both since they were often one and the same) preparing for death. You can’t go wrong with lyrics like “Ride the dark horse through the fire, through the storm, as we’re set to die in the heart of the sun.” Again, metal AF, and the song shifts like sand dunes back and forth between psychedelic rock, stoner metal, and even a bit of krautrock.

“Saddle Point” is another cool instrumental, and “Marble Sky” is a harrowing tale of burning entrails, crushed mountains, and beings emerging from holes in the sky. The vocals are covered in reverb through this track, bringing to mind Black Sabbath tracks. The guitar also takes on a bit of a blues flavor as well, which is a great touch. The closer, “Up the Stairs,” is a fuzz-heavy track about climbing what seems to be an endless stairwell into space and away from the “evil sound” of Earth. That was eight years ago. Where is this stairwell in 2020? I’d like to take a walk.

This was an auspicious debut in 2012. MRS are working on a new full-length album. Let’s hope it comes soon. The world needs heavy stuff like this to shake it awake.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Falle Nioke & Ghost Culture – Youkounkoun EP

I don’t remember where I stumbled onto Falle Nioke and Ghost Culture, but I’m glad I did. Their music makes you dance and feel a sort of spiritual warmth come over you when you hear it, and their Youkounkoun EP, is four tracks of musical magic.

Nioke hails from Guinea Conakry in West Africa and plays percussion while singing in six different languages while most of us can barely manage one. Ghost Culture is a producer / DJ who blends house, electro, and dub. The two of them are a powerful combination.

Opening track “Barké” (“Blessing”) is about doing good for others and receiving blessings from such work. Good grief, don’t we all need encouragement to do that in 2020? I’m not sure which bumps more on it, Nioke’s voice or Ghost Culture’s electro-bass and beats. “Fufafou” is an instant house hit with Nioke moving around and with GC’s beats like Muhammad Ali’s butterfly float and bee sting.

“Loneliness” mixes Nioke’s percussion and GC’s beats so well that you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. “Mounemouma” shuffles, curls, and bumps along for over three minutes of body-moving bliss.

It’s all upbeat, and somehow great for dancing or chilling at the same time. You could drop this EP into a workout playlist, a lounge DJ set, a world beat mix tape, or a wedding reception and it would work in all of them.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: DJ Zinc – Crack House E.P. (2018)

It seems wrong to refer to London-based DJ / producer DJ Zinc‘s 2018 release, Crack House E.P., as an EP when it’s ten tracks in length. He’s the DJ, however, so who am I to argue with him? It’s ten tracks of bouncing house, jungle, and drum and bass that’s great for any house party or club – even if they are just in your backyard or apartment and consist of no one but you and your pets.

“Blunt Edge” gets the party started with its killer electro-beats and even wickeder synth-bass. “Pimp My Ride” adds Afro-beat dance rhythms and you’re already starting to sweat on the dance floor. “Jekyll and Hyde” is classic strut-your-stuff house with a bass groove that gets stuck in your head all night. “Number 1 Girls” is a straight-up dancehall track featuring vocals from Benga and Sweetie Irie.

“Watch Dis” blends that dancehall vibe into a wild jungle track that will have you jumping around your living room. “Nu Sound” continues the dancehall-laced beats and drops a sick bass line on you that sounds like DJ Zinc has transformed into some sort of rattlesnake working the decks with his tail.

“Horrible” isn’t horrible. It blends retro-rave sounds with vintage video game blasts and beats chopped up by a master chef. “Because” is aptly named as Zinc loops a woman saying just that throughout the track as synths and bass swirl around her voice and then drop out into a killer cut for any dark club any night of the week. Why? Because.

“No one can complete with our killa sound,” No_Lay sings on “Killa Sound.” It’s hard to argue with her, because she and Zinc make a killer team on this hot dancehall track. The closer, “128 Trek,” is one of Zinc’s biggest hits and the first song I ever heard by him. It made me immediately want to track down more of his work, and will do the same to you. The way Zinc drops and loops beats throughout it is immediately ear-catching. You’ll want it on every workout playlist you have.

Actually, you could just make all of Crack House E.P. a workout playlist. You can’t go wrong there. It works as a house project, cooking, or hot sex playlist as well. Get it while it’s (still, two years later) hot.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Rituals of Mine – Hype Nostalgia

Terra Lopez, AKA Rituals of Mine, is, if nothing else, a trooper. Her newest album, Hype Nostalgia, began (at least emotionally and conceptually) a couple years ago when she was processing the highs and lows of a three-year period of depression resulting from her father committing suicide as she was starting a world tour and a friend dying in the same week Lopez signed to a major label. Highs and lows. She began therapy in 2018, just in time for her bandmate to leave ROM, but she pressed on with the record, using it as not only her own audio medication, but also in hopes of helping others dealing with similar highs and lows.

Opening track “Tether” opens with the haunting lyrics, “You used to love, you used to laugh at my mistakes.” as Lopez loops choppy beats, bullfrog bass, and just the right amount of echo on her vocals to bounce her lyrics around in your head and cause you to think, “Yeah, I’ve been there.”

“Come Around Me” was the first single from the album, and it’s an out-and-proud track about being an openly gay woman of color in a male-dominated industry. She doesn’t want “none of this fake shit” and tells guys in the music biz that all she needs from them is to get “back to the basics” of just being a compassionate / cool human being. “Exceptions” has Lopez singing about her former bandmate’s departure. “You’re not the only one who has these thoughts,” she sings over sultry slow jam beats and synths.

“Heights” has Lopez putting down vocals that are almost raps, and those trip hop beats behind her are top-notch. Speaking of trip hop, “Trauma” is so deep, trippy, and smoky that Tricky is probably kicking himself for not writing it. The follow-up, “Free Throw,” has Lopez telling us “I stay in my lane,” meaning she’s no longer interested in being involved in other peoples’ circuses. “Reflex” is downright sexy as Lopez sings, “All I want is you.” to a special lady somewhere.

“My family history is only a mystery,” Lopez sings on “65th St” – a song that appears to reference her parents and her deceased friend. “All I ever wondered is if you are the source of my emptiness,” she sings on the deeply introspective (but no less beat-heavy) track. I’m not sure if she’s singing to a family member, a former lover, a friend, or herself in a mirror. It works anyway you slice it. Lopez laments her lover being miles away and “fucking with my mind” as she wonders, “Who you thinking of?” on “Omen.” Her electronic beats and bedroom bass are so good by this point in the record that the feel effortless.

“222” is spacey bliss that floats into “Hope U Feel” with Lopez singing, “I’m exhausted…” and “What am I supposed to do without love?” Yet, the song has an uplifting undertone that leaves you feeling like she (and all of us) can move forward if we allow ourselves to do it. The album ends with the short and lovely “The Last Wave.” Lopez puts down simple piano chords as she sings, “I tell myself I’ll find a way out of this.” and how she tried to break through her father’s depression but was unsuccessful. “I can never breach the divide, but I tried, and I still think of you sometimes.”

That’s all most of us can do at times, but that’s okay. Lopez has learned to move forward, as all life must, can, and will do. She encourages us to do the same.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Rewind Review: Screaming Females – Baby Teeth (2006)

Baby Teeth, the first album by power trio Screaming Females (Mike Abbate – bass, Jarrett Dougherty – drums, Marissa Paternoster – guitar and vocals), is like a hard slap across the face to awaken you from a stupor induced by bland rock, bro-rock, nu-metal, and other genres that tend to dominate FM airwaves and beer commercials.

Opener “Foul Mouth” bursts forth with bold drumming from Dougherty and Abbate and Paternoster’s chugging riffs. Hearing Paternoster’s voice for the first time in 2006 must’ve made a lot of heads turn. Her singing voice is a mix of (sometimes) controlled anger, heartfelt balladry, and punk snark that was sorely absent from the airwaves fourteen years ago. Paternoster’s guitars swirl and spin like a dust devil on “Electric Pilgrim.” “Jonah” gets off to a funky start with Abbate’s bass walk and continues that groove with hand-claps and strut-down-the-street beats and guitar riffs.

“Angelo’s Song” sets you up with simple guitar notes before Paternoster unleashes with her trademark guitar fury to stagger you back a few steps before it turns into almost a power-pop track. “The Bearded Lady” has some of Paternoster’s wickedest playing and Abbate and Dougherty’s snappiest rhythms on the record. The opening of “Henry’s Embryo” seems to display the band’s love of The Cars.

Abbate’s bass on “Dinosaurs” has a cool, dark feel to it that you can’t shake. The track gets so rowdy that it made my boss once tell me to turn down the volume at my desk. “Sports” is just as wild. Dougherty’s calm high-hat taps at the beginning of “Bus Driver Man” are a deceitful whisper before the whole band unloads with heavy hits that a lot of stoner metal bands would love to steal. The closing track, “Baby Jesus,” ends the album on a powerful, wild note with furious playing by the entire band.

If Screaming Females were cutting their baby teeth on this self-produced debut, they replaced them with big cat fangs. Baby Teeth is a slap with a steel gauntlet in challenge to anyone who dared scoff at them.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Chelique Sarabia – Revolución en Música Venezolana (2019)

In 1971, the Shell Oil Company sponsored Venezuelan poet and musician Chelique Sarabia to compose an album of traditional folk music updated for modern times. This album would be given as Christmas gifts to Shell employees, friends, and customers in 1973. Sarabia enlisted local musicians to play a host of traditional instruments so he could filter those tracks through synthesizers, sequencers, tape loops, and who knows what else. The result, Revolución Electronica en Música Venezolana, was an amazing South American synth-wave album that’s still ahead of its time.

Opening track “El Pajarillo” blends funk bass with traditional guitar arrangements warped by reverb, pan, and filter controls into a trippy, exotic vacation. “Maracaibo en la Noche” blends distant female vocals and birdsongs with the psychedelic guitar. “Polo Margariteño” has what sounds like a lovely clarinet piece throughout it, and the effects are taken off the guitar to let the traditional dance rhythms come to the forefront. “Cantos de Mi Tierra” has a bit of a spooky feel to it at first, which I love, and then it curves into a beautiful dream space.

“El Cumaco de San Juan” shimmers with an underlying brightness that eventually fades as the guitars come forward as snappy as Rice Krispies. “El Diablo Suelto” is as subtle and witty as Old Scratch himself. “Polo Coriano” sounds like it’s going to be a bold piano-led track at first, but then makes a left turn and becomes a toe-tapping track that brings a smile to your face.

The opening chants of “Mare-Mare por Comer Zopoara el Pájaro Guarandol” weave in and out of the track but rarely overtake the beautiful accordion, organ, and traditional guitar flourishes. “Somobra en los Médanos” reminds me a bit of Italian romantic comedy scores from the 1960’s, and Sarabia puts the filter effects to good use again on the guitar solos.

“Barlovento” gets off to a mind-warp start and continues spinning down a rabbit hole into a Venezuelan wonderland of guitar solos, traditional hand percussion, and echoing vocal sounds. “Rio Manzanares” brings in a hot saxophone riff now and then to mix with the traditional guitar strumming, producing a great effect. Not to be outdone, the closing track, “La Bella del Tamuangue,” adds a trumpet that drifts back and forth from leading with skillful zigging and zagging to hanging out in the back with long, soft tones to add more psychedelia.

It’s a sharp record that will make you want to bug out to South American for at least a few weeks, and, again, so far ahead of its time that it sounds like it could’ve been released last week instead of almost fifty years ago.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Guerssen Records.]

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

Live from the Astral Plane is the latest in the Levitation Sessions put on by The Reverb Appreciation Society. The sessions are recorded live performances that are later streamed for ticket buyers and then released as official live albums from the respective bands. The first, from July of this year, was by Holy Wave. The newest is by Death Valley Girls, and it’s a stunner.

Any album that begins with 1980’s New Age synth-wave directions on how to astrally project is bound to be a trip, but it’s not surprising coming from DVG. They are known proponents of manifestation and utilizing the laws of attraction. The nine minutes of instruction end with “Now, with blessing, go forth.”

And DVG do exactly that, creeping out of your bedroom closest at 2am with the sublimely spooky “Abre Camino” – a track that builds on horror film heartbeat drums from Rikki Styxx and vocals from guitarist / lead vocalist Bonnie Bloomgarden and bassist / backing vocalist Nicki Pickle that border on being incantations. It bubbles like a cauldron and by the time they reach the three minute-fifty second mark you’re thinking, “Holy f*<k, they are not screwing around.”

Lead guitarist Larry Schemel leads the charge on “Street Justice” with riffs that never let up for almost three straight minutes. “Death Valley Boogie” brings in some Southern California surf riffs and some of Pickle’s fastest bass moves. The way “Sanitarium Blues” moves back and forth from low-key psychedelic grooves to hard and fast garage rock choruses is sharp.

Bloomgarden adds organ on “More Dead (Than Alive)” to provide weird contrast to Schemel’s frying pan-hot solo. Somehow, he conjures up even more heat on “666” (but, should we really be surprised with that title?). “Disco,” one of DVG’s early hits, is always a blast to hear, live or otherwise, and this version from the astral plane doesn’t disappoint.

“Wear Black” brings the band’s surf influence back for us. “It’s a man’s world, that’s what you think. It’s a man’s world, it’s not for me,” they sing on “I’m a Man, Too” – a song that throws down the gauntlet at man-splaining, sexual harassment, and male douche baggery (“If you’re a man, I’m twice a man as you.”).

“Dream Cleaver” is a nice tease since it’s the closing track of DVG’s upcoming album, Under the Spell of Joy. “Disaster (Is What We’re After)” has this great garage punk energy through it and some of Styxx’s heaviest, wildest beats. The closer, “Electric High,” chugs like a phantom train that uses bones instead of coal in its engine and leaves you a bit out of breath and wanting more by the end. Yes, the feeling is a bit tantric.

And, yes, you need to hear and own this. Let it take you out of your body, your social media feeds, your mind-space, your ego, and whatever else is containing you.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Brijean – Walkie Talkie (2019)

Blending Los Angeles jazz and funk with Detroit and Chicago jazz and funk with hip hop from both the west and north coasts, Brijean (Brijean Murphy – percussion and vocals, Doug Stuart – beats, synths) make moody dance music, trip hoppy meditations, and shiny summer grooves on their debut album Walkie Talkie.

Murphy’s opening percussion on “Like You Do” mixes so well with Stuart’s electro-grooves that it’s sometimes to tell where one ends and the other begins. “Fundi” seems to mix in conversations you’d overhear on a subway while Murphy sings about taking your time and lying low over Stuart’s space disco beats.

“Drive Slow” is perfect for such activity, especially when cruising along a beachside road or to or from a chillwave afterparty. The underlying hip hop synths are a great touch in it. “Time moves by so slow,” Murphy sings at the opening of the peppy “Show and Tell.” “Just let your body go, it’s easy.” She and Stuart encourage us to dance and forget our troubles, a crucial skill in this day and age. It’s a lovely track that will take you away to that ideal club in your mind, even if just for a little while.

The title track reminds me of some Thievery Corporation tracks with its electro-lounge grooves and feel-good dance beats. The closer, “Meet Me After Dark,” promises a cool afterparty for all of us somewhere in the future, which is actually the present, so celebrate now with Brijean’s sweet grooves, sexy bass, and toe-tapping beats.

Walkie Talkie is lovely. It’s a much-needed dose of sonic bliss in times of self-isolation and changing seasons. Don’t skip this one.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]