SAW [Week 64 - "Home of the Strange"]

#1851

I'd agree it shouldn't be prog metal primary. I'll go help that fight now.

Maybe secondary, but that doesn't make much sense either since it influenced prog metal, not the other way around.

#1852

Week 55: Royal Blood - How Did We Get So Dark?

Submitted by speedchuck

Available on Youtube and Spotify

Hope I'm not jumping the gun too much here. I'll explain really quickly who this band is and why I submitted them. If you don't want to ruin the surprise, go ahead and start listening.

Royal Blood is not in my top 10 bands. They aren't in my top 15. They might be in my top 20. Point is, I didn't submit them because they are just the best gosh-darn act ever. I submitted them because they are unique.
RB is a recent rock band out of Britain, with two albums out. This is their second. The first album is more of the same, some better, some worse. I was introduced to Royal Blood when I was talking to a friend of mine, who plays the bass guitar. I play the drums. I joked that we should try jamming sometime, thinking that it was obviously a joke since you can't play music with only backing instruments. My friend immediately introduced me to Royal Blood to prove me wrong.
There are only two members in Royal Blood, a bassist/keyboardist/vocalist, and a drummer. The bassist mostly sticks to the bass guitar alone, giving the band a unique sonic texture. Generally, the two only record music on their album that they can play live, so the one bass guitar is all the tone that they have in most songs. By using a bass pedal that does something funky with the octaves, the band manages to emulate grungy guitar and sick drops into the low bass tones.
This dynamic is, again, unique, and it's interesting listening to a band that has these limitations. Their music takes a simpler form, and may not be for everyone, but it's something different, and I hope you enjoy it!

P.S. I kinda wish I had submitted their first album. On repeated listens, I've decided that it is the better of the two. Nevertheless, I have submitted what I have submitted.

#1853

I'm glad you moved forward, because I was about to forget.

#1854

Not to hold us back or anything, but I just got through my second spin of Operation: Mindcrime. Perhaps its my musical biases (an/or those I inherited from my father) but I'm not hearing anything that wows me. For those who rate this album highly, what should I focus on when I give it another spin? Is their any particular instrument virtuosity I may catch with my headphones on?

It's not my brand of metal, so most of it comes through as more or less standard hair-band era big sound that still plays ad nauseam on some rock stations. Am I missing something or is this album perhaps just not for me?

**http://www.last.fm/user/nutella23** · #1855

I've been falling behind but I listened to Operation Mindcrime as well as both of Royal Blood's albums at work today. All fine/enjoyable but I will need a couple more listens/hopefully more attentive listens if I find the time. I should try to catch up on actually giving ratings for the last several albums as well

#1856

G-Man wrote: ↑Tue Apr 10, 2018 3:02 pm Not to hold us back or anything, but I just got through my second spin of Operation: Mindcrime. Perhaps its my musical biases (an/or those I inherited from my father) but I'm not hearing anything that wows me. For those who rate this album highly, what should I focus on when I give it another spin? Is their any particular instrument virtuosity I may catch with my headphones on?

It's not my brand of metal, so most of it comes through as more or less standard hair-band era big sound that still plays ad nauseam on some rock stations. Am I missing something or is this album perhaps just not for me?

I would guess that it's not for you.

I can see the big hair metal sound, but I enjoyed the album for its story, the dynamic vocals, and the really, really high quality 'big hair metal' sound.

Same sound, but I wouldn't equate Queensryche to Bon Jovi or Def Leppard or Motley Crue. This music has more to it than "PARTY" and "LOVE" and "INSPIRATION" and "SEX EUPHEMISMS." It's about politics, an underground revolution, brainwashed assassins, the influence of religion, forbidden relationships, etc. And, in my opinion, the music and vocals reflect that, demonstrating the difference between "The Needle Lies" and "Pour Some Sugar On Me."

But if you're looking for a different sound or some revolutionary use of metal instruments, you won't find it here. That's what I was looking for the first time I heard the album, and I was disappointed as well.

#1857

Thanks speedchuck. It may just be that I equate Queensryche's sound with the hair band era in general and what it represented. It's an easy/lazy association to make. I'll try to focus more on the story but concept albums are generally hit or miss with me because I don't normally focus on lyrics as much as others.

I'm on the opposite side of the fence regarding the vocals. On a number of tracks, I thought to myself "man this song would rock more if Axl Rose was the singer."

#1858

G-Man wrote: ↑Wed Apr 11, 2018 11:39 am I'm on the opposite side of the fence regarding the vocals. On a number of tracks, I thought to myself "man this song would rock more if Axl Rose was the singer."

Unpopular opinion on my end, I think. Axl Rose's voice wears thin on me about two minutes into any GnR song. He's too whiny and nasal.

Edit: It's fine not to focus on the story. But I think the story gives a different feel to the album in the musical delivery alone. To each their own. This album may not be for you.

#1859

My first thoughts on Royal Blood:

Wow, do these guys sound like Local H. The bass-imitating-guitar setup makes the sound a little deeper and sludgier, which I dig. The drums sound a lot like those of Local H's second drummer (the four albums that come after Pack Up the Cats). Royal Blood's style seems more varied, however, and the singer has much better range and ability than Scott Lucas's shouty approach.

#1860

Okay, so tracks 1 and 3 sound a lot like Here Comes the Zoo-era Local H. The rest of it sounds more like a hybrid of Queens of the Stone Age and Muse, which has its moments but the second half of the album loses some steam. Pretty good variety overall though. I'm going to listen to their first album now and see if I agree about it being better.

#1861

Yeah, I don't know; the sole reason I like and appreciate Queensryche is that it doesn't sound like hair metal too much for me. I can't stand stuff like Def Leppard, Motley Crue, etc.

#1862

Chalk me up as someone who hates Axl Rose's voice as well; otherwise, Geoff Tate is pretty solid.

#1863

I'm swamped, and I'd appreciate if anyone could move us forward here. I'll try to listen to HDWGSD sometime today. This might be the first time I've missed a week.

#1864

Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica

Submitted by M Plus 7

Available on Youtube and Spotify

#1865

Apologies from me as well, I'll be able to catch up later today and also provide some context on my submission.

#1866

Okay, finally got a chance to listen to Royal Blood! For my taste, it's a bit too much on the generic hard/alt rock side of things for me to really dig it, but it wasn't bad by any means. It passed into background listening for most of its duration, but occasionally I would think the vocals or drums were kinda neat. Sorry I don't have more to say about it. At the risk of being boring and predictable (which I totally am), I would rate it a 2.5.

#1867

Regarding my submission for this week, Replica, a few things (I'll try to stay as succinct as possible):

- Oneohtrix Point Never is the recording alias of an American experimental electronic composer named Daniel Lopatin. The name is a verbal play on the name of the Boston FM radio station Magic 106.7.

- This is hands down my personal favorite album I've submitted so far, so much to the point that I would consider it a top XX "desert island" album. It's just about everything I want in music wrapped up in a very unique slice of surreal ambient electronica based heavily on samples with substantial glitch undertones. I mean, I was pretty much destined to love this album from the album's RYM subgenres alone:

Spoiler: show

- Speaking of samples, some people would call this a Plunderphonics album, which is a fancy term music nerds came up with to describe albums based heavily or entirely on samples. My favorite use of sampling on this album... so tough to decide, but it would have to be the use of this in "Sleep Dealer" (which has to be easily one of the greatest tracks of all-time in my weird opinion).

Spoiler: show

- If you want to know more regarding the album's title and meaning:

Spoiler: show

Happy listening!

#1868

Replica was nice and easy to listen to but my first spin didn't leave me feeling a whole lot. It came, it wafted to and fro, got a little strange at times, and faded away. It seems like it may be a challenge to isolate individual tracks without staring at my computer screen due to the overlap/sudden change.

This kind of music reminds me a little of this guy I was friends with in college. In his free time he creates his own instruments. I don't know that he does much with sampling but the overall mood and vibe seems to fit the kind stuff he does.

**http://www.last.fm/user/nutella23** · #1869

idk.... part of me feels like even dataplex was more interesting than this. in some sense of interesting at least. Like definitely this kind of music is always interesting in a way because of the sampling/"plunderphonics" and I usually appreciate that kind of thing but I'm just not really getting a lot out of it atm

#1870

G-Man wrote: ↑Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:41 pm Replica was nice and easy to listen to but my first spin didn't leave me feeling a whole lot. It came, it wafted to and fro, got a little strange at times, and faded away. It seems like it may be a challenge to isolate individual tracks without staring at my computer screen due to the overlap/sudden change.

This kind of music reminds me a little of this guy I was friends with in college. In his free time he creates his own instruments. I don't know that he does much with sampling but the overall mood and vibe seems to fit the kind stuff he does.

Oh man, this is cool, thanks for sharing! I can see why you drew the comparison; definitely different, but perhaps their approaches and aesthetic are similar. Cool either way.

#1871

I could see why you all feel that way, primarily due to how ambient and minimalist the recorded layers are. It definitely is an album that grew in appreciation over time for me, but on the other hand I also pretty much loved it instantly. I'm an ambient guy though, so a lot of space in my music doesn't deter me (if anything, it does the opposite).

If any of you are interested in sampling any of Lopatin's other work, it might be more likely to hit with you all, but I don't know, especially as someone who is naturally gravitated towards his stuff. Generally though it is less ambient and floaty than Replica, which was his first major release. He's been increasingly exploring new ground with each release (despite all throughout retaining some unique OPN trademarks that still exhibit his general composition style and sound).

R Plus Seven (2013) is sort of a transition between his Replica sound (though he started stripping away ambiance and relying more on actual space as well as on Sequencer and MIDI sounds) and his more recent sound featured in Garden of Delete (2015), which is still pretty experimental and delves in ambient but otherwise is much more chaotic and less sparse, more so influenced by industrial and post-industrial music. Either way, he's exploring worlds in electronic and ambient music that no one else has for sure, so it's hard to find comparisons.

These two songs work better within the contexts of their albums, but at least might give an indication of how you will feel about his post-Replica stuff:

"Zebra" from R Plus Seven
"I Bite Through It" from Garden of Delete

Lastly, he has an album coming out this year that I cannot possibly be more excited about. No idea what he's going to do next, but I'm thrilled to hear what it will be.

#1872

I've fallen behind a bit the last few weeks, but I'm trying to catch up now! Operation: Mindcrime is something that I would have probably dug a lot more a decade ago, but these days, it doesn't do much for me. The concept wasn't very interesting for me and I guess I wished there were some different dynamics going on between the songs; much of it sounded the same to my ears. I'm not a big prog or metal guy so I knew it would've been a fluke if I really liked it; that said, it's better than Dream Theater.

Thanks for suggesting — I'm gonna try to listen to the others that have passed soon!

**http://www.last.fm/user/nutella23** · #1873

Well I'm listening to R Plus 7 now and loving it, so

#1874

nutella wrote: ↑Thu Apr 19, 2018 12:48 pm Well I'm listening to R Plus 7 now and loving it, so

Dammit, I picked the wrong one.

Seriously though, that’s awesome. It’s amazing. I love Replica and R Plus Seven both; I really cannot choose. OPN is a rare artist in that his discography contributes more than one to my all-time favorite albums.

#1875

All caught up just before the next one goes — Royal Blood wasn't my thing, I couldn't get past the vocals, they reminded me of Thom Yorke's lesser moments in the 90s. I think I've heard Replica before but couldn't tell; either way, as a genre it's not something I take to very much. It was fine as background music but didn't rouse anything in me. Thanks for suggesting these ones!

#1876

Petrushka

Spoiler: show

4.06 out of 5 (A-)

No Blues

Spoiler: show

3.38 out of 5 (B)

A New Nature

Spoiler: show

3.13 out of 5 (B-)

Fisherman's Woman

Spoiler: show

3.5 out of 5 (B)

The Wilderness

Spoiler: show

4.03 out of 5 (A-)

Operation: Mindcrime

Spoiler: show

3.17 out of 5 (B-)

How Did We Get So Dark

Spoiler: show

3.81 out of 5 (B+)

#1877

I don't have much time to move us forward again (or apparently listen to albums). I'd appreciate it if someone could gimme a hand.

#1878

Week 57: Aphrodite's Child - 666

Submitted by Ricochet

Available on Youtube and Spotify (probably)

#1879

First, I looked up the band and discovered that one of the members was Vangelis, he of the Chariots of Fire theme.

Second, the concept of this album is an adaptation of the Book of Revelation. I spent a whole semester of college studying Revelation and eschatology in general.

Third, this was pretty amazing. Not only amazing in light of #2 but also in that the oddball, chaotic nature of the album at times really fits the chaos running through my head/life right now.

#1880

Also, since 666 is the final album in the current queue, here's my pick for the next batch:

Loretta Lynn
Van Lear Rose
2004
Country
13 tracks
38:30
Available on YouTube and Spotify

#1881

I'll submit Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion

And I have got to listen to the last two albums soon. There's never time for anything anymore.

#1882

So I'm familiar with 666; it's a pretty solid album even if a bit spotty here and there in terms of quality. I'd give it a light 3.5.

Also, glad to see G-Man made the Vangelis connection; he's pretty great. I prefer some of his solo work to this album, but this is great too and an intriguing bit of musical history.

#1883

M Plus 7 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 19, 2018 2:49 pm
nutella wrote: ↑Thu Apr 19, 2018 12:48 pm Well I'm listening to R Plus 7 now and loving it, so
Dammit, I picked the wrong one.

Seriously though, that’s awesome. It’s amazing. I love Replica and R Plus Seven both; I really cannot choose. OPN is a rare artist in that his discography contributes more than one to my all-time favorite albums.

Just a week later and this opinion of mine is wrong. R Plus Seven is better. And considering Replica is in my top 15-20 albums or so, that says something. It's definitely my favorite thing of all-time, at least for the duration.

#1884

Alright, I have to decide on my next submission. Always a tough call. I'll go with...

Sun Ra - Lanquidity / 1978 / Jazz Fusion / 5 tracks / 42:07 / Available on Youtube and Spotify

Something different this time.

#1885

M Plus 7 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 27, 2018 10:28 am So I'm familiar with 666; it's a pretty solid album even if a bit spotty here and there in terms of quality. I'd give it a light 3.5.

Also, glad to see G-Man made the Vangelis connection; he's pretty great. I prefer some of his solo work to this album, but this is great too and an intriguing bit of musical history.

Alright, there's definitely more to talk about here. What do people think of the sex track? That ought to get you all listening to it.

#1886

Having listened to it again today, I'm actually thinking more like a 3.0. It's a bit more shaky in parts than I remember. There's some cool songwriting and experimentation scattered throughout, but part of the problem is that I feel like -- although the themes throughout the record are definitely cohesive, the music is not so much. Definitely a bit inconsistent.

Still a neat album though.

**http://www.last.fm/user/nutella23** · #1887

Agh I have such a long and growing list of things I want to submit, but all in due time.... for this batch I will go with:

The Reign of Kindo - Rhythm, Chord & Melody / 2008 / Jazz-y indie rock / 12 tracks / 58:23 / Available on Youtube and Spotify

#1888

Man I have had no bloody time this past week.

Theophany - Time's End / 2012 / Rearranged Soundtrack / 10 tracks / 54:33 / Available on Youtube and Bandcamp

IDK how to genre

**http://www.last.fm/user/nutella23** · #1889

I don't know what "rearranged soundtrack" means but I'm psyched.

**http://www.last.fm/user/nutella23** · #1890

Finally listening to 666 and loving it so far. "The Lamb" is amazing. Excellent sounds are happening.

**http://www.last.fm/user/nutella23** · #1891

OK, catching up on ratings. I think last time I said a number in here was for Los Campesinos so next up is my submission Esben and the Witch which I never actually stated my rating for but it's 4.0 I guess. Then:

Emilíana Torrini - Fisherman's Woman: 3.5
Explosions in the Sky - The Wilderness: 3.5
Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime: 3.0
Royal Blood - How Did We Get So Dark?: 4.0
Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica: 2.5
Aphrodite's Child - 666: 4.0

Idk man ratings dont make sense

#1892

So which album is next? I have no idea how Jimmy orders the submissions.

#1893

G-Man wrote: ↑Mon Apr 30, 2018 12:07 pm So which album is next? I have no idea how Jimmy orders the submissions.

Of the people who submitted albums, the person whose last submission was the longest time ago goes first.

#1894

That makes the order this time around:

Nutella
G-Man
JaggedJimmyJay
Speedchuck
M Plus 7

So....

Week 58: The Reign of Kindo - Rhythm, Chord & Melody

Submitted by nutella

Available on Youtube and Spotify

#1895

nutella wrote: ↑Sun Apr 29, 2018 9:21 pm I don't know what "rearranged soundtrack" means but I'm psyched.

Me neither. I made up the genre because I don't know how to do genre and there is no wikipedia page for this thing.

#1896

All genres are made up. It stands.

**http://www.last.fm/user/nutella23** · #1897

Sweeeeeeeet hope y'all enjoy these guys

#1898

I finally gave this album a listen today. I enjoyed it. Relating it to what I know, I'd say it is in the same general vein as Ben Folds Five's more mature tunes, but with an expanded sonic palette due to the extra instruments. It may lack a little something in variety but the quality of the music is consistent. A little jazz, a little pop, and lyrical styling that walks a very fine line between contemplative and melancholy.

#1899

Think we should leave this album open for another week? No one has commented on it. Perhaps more time is necessary.

#1900

G-Man wrote: ↑Mon May 07, 2018 9:14 am Think we should leave this album open for another week? No one has commented on it. Perhaps more time is necessary.

This would be great, actually. Sorry all, just haven't gotten around to it yet with everything going on.