NOEXTEHO

Reviews have equated this to WIRE and Gang Of Four, and that is in fact a fair comparison.  Same era (late 70s/early 80s), same place (U.K.), same scene (post-punk/new-wave)....  And this is a definite good thing.  The sheer ammount of songs on this disc is a little overwhelming, so feel free to take it in small bites (although there's certainly nothing wrong with rocking out to the whole thing at once).  If you (like me) are in danger of over-playing your Joy Division, WIRE, and Gang Of Four albums, then it's time for you to add Joseph K to your rotation.  (and if you know of more things to add to such a rotation, please let me know!  and no, The Killers and Interpol and that shit are NOT viable options!)

I forget why I first sought out songs by this band, but I'm glad I did. It's energetic and fun rock, without being cheesy. It's noisy and dissonant, yet still melodic. Oh, and there's a female singer. All ingredients that I like. There is a bit of a post-punk/new-wave-y Siouxsie And The Banshees (or maybe Lydia Lunch?) vibe about it, but it isn't necessarily _trying_ to sound like that, it just sort of _does_. And that's a large part of the reason why this is so good.

It comes as no surprise to me that I like this compilation. What with Madlib, Jay Dee, and MF Doom all appearing on it, I was bound to listen to it and at the very least enjoy their tracks. However, while the tracks I was looking forward to are indeed pretty awesome, the entire mix as a whole is amazing. It's truly a more cohessive album than many single-artist albums I've heard. Each song complements those around it to the point where I forget that it's a compilation. Also, I've listened to it countless times and I'm still not sick of it. (side note: I'm not to crazy about the DVD that comes with it, though. It feels sort of like the obligatory bonus features that come standard with every DVD now. Oh well... The CD alone is more than worth the purchase, anyway.)

i've always been a fan of kool keith, but this album is really awesome. the dude producing it (IZ-REAL, whoever that is) made some awesome sci-fi head-nod beats that are just perfect for kool keith to rap about 'galaxy waxers' and say "black 37.... meet me at 11" over and over and over... over. maybe it's that this is the first kool keith album i've listened to intently, but this is the first of his albums to truly make me afraid of him. i'm pretty certain he really has ray guns.

(btw, Project Polaroid and the new Dr. Octagon are pretty cool too. maybe i'll post about them indivually sometime.)

ok ok ok... sure, pitchfork loves it, and when listening to it, you can see all the same people you hated who worshipped electroclash (only when it was hip in nyc, mind you) totally rocking out to this now, sort of like their electroclash replacement. but its soooo awesome that the good outweighs the bad. waaaaaay outweighs. it's weird and fun and dance-able and electronic and pop and hip and cheesy all at the same time, just like how everything swedish should be.

I don't remember what the first Espers album sounded like, but I'm going to have to go back and give it another listen now. "Espers II", their newest album, is pretty awesome. It put me in the same kind of peacefully haunted mood that Air's Playground Lover song did. Except this is a whole album of that mood. Real nice. It won't necessarily make you bouncing off the walls with happiness, but if you're looking for a chill, slow-ish, sad-ish album, here's a great one.

This is some pretty nice electronic music, in a similar vein to Boards of Canada or (perhaps more accurately) Freescha. Pretty, simple, yet engaging. A couple of songs are rather mediocre, but most of them are almost as nice as Freescha, I think. And it sure beats the hell out of any other 'electronic' albums I've heard for months.

I've been liking Def Jux more and more over the years. Sure, there's still spots of it I just can't get into (one example: Camu Tau or whatever his name is) but pretty much anything by El-P, Aesop Rock, or Mr. Lif is awesome. And, fortunately for us, this is a Mr.Lif album which El-P produced which has guest spots by El-P and Aesop Rock, among others. So, its got the ingredients to be awesome, and it is. (also, i don't normally care about an album's artwork, but this cd has some really beautiful artwork. if you're sick of all those photoshopped look-a-like crappy hip hop covers, buy this cd for the artwork alone, even if you hate the tunes)

so, most of the album lacks drums. and its awesome. there's rhythm to the album, just not a rhythm section... its sort of like if philip glass made an indy album, sort of? and if he used words, and had a sense of humor? yeah, sort of? oh, and by the time the first (and only?) song with drums comes in, oh man, the energy is so very amazing. i know this album is a few years old, but if you haven't heard it, you have to get it right now. and dont just get a few songs, then decide that you dont like it. get all of it, and listen to it all the way through at least once. then decide what you want to about it.

[on a related note, I heard the new Sparks album Hello Young Lovers and it's got some good points, but it's really not as good as this one.]

perhaps you've heard that girltalk song where he mixes together ALL of the jockjams songs into one impossibly pumped-up song. or perhaps you've heard the one where he mixes the meow mix jingle with 'every rose has a thorn'.... those are mostly awesome due to their funny, but this one is awesome for being essentially the awesomest mash-up i've heard. so many songs.... so many cuts and transistions... sure, some of it is funny, but that's not the point. the point is that its a crazy mind fuck of a mix. its got rap references directly contrasted with the material their referencing. its got Biggy rappin on top of elton john. oh, and its got the mashup standard of using MIA at least once. but don't hold that against mr. girltalk, because it really is a dense, booty-shakin, amusing, and yet somehow totally cool mix.
[update: i wrote this while listening to the cd for the first time. by the end, i was a little sick of it. but thats probably just because its really insane the whole way through. i still have fond memories of it, though.]

for some reason, i wanted to not like this cd. probably because of the name, it made me think of something i would hate. but within the first few seconds of the album, upon hearing the dirty distorted (yet impeccably tight) rhythms, i started to think "hmmm, ok, i'm digging the music. but how are the vocals? they can't be good too, can they?" well, they were. they've got an awesome flow to them.... and theyre set in the mix just right, like theyre a background instrument instead of a solo focus. and theyre chopped up quite awesomely too, at times. so good. and the music! oh the music! awesome electro. dirty electro. plus, if you actually listen to the words, theyre just as dirty as the electro. wonderful. and cool. like miles davis. a very dirty miles davis. if he didnt play jazz but electro-hiphop instead. yeaaaaaah.

this is probably the poppiest boris album, but thats not to call this pop. its just that it has the highest concentration of songs with lyrics out of all the boris releases. but thats totally ok, since their brand of powerful rock is just so hard, energetic, and supremely cool. like if guitar wolf were to do fast stoner metal instead of garage rock. (oh, and in case i haven't done so yet, i want to recommend every boris album ever right now, because i haven't met one that disappoints.) i would say that so far, this is the best Boris album to listen to if you haven't heard them before. and if you have heard them before and you haven't heard this yet, well, you're insane.

have i recommended Om yet? well, i am now. this, their latest album, is awesome. unlike their first where the songs (all 3) all sort of sounded the same, but really really awesome anyways and the repetition was sort of the point, this one has more changes going on in the music (all 2 songs), and even has some acoustic guitar, i think. its got sort of the same mood as the first record, which is sort of the same mood as psych-rock but arrived at through a completely different method. in a single sentence: it's heavy-as-fuck guitars repetitiously going awesome, while monotone lyrics rhythmically pump on to make 15 minute long songs of, um, i don't know what theyre about, but theyre awesome....

this one is one of those things that have only just caught my eye recently. i wouldnt recommend it as highly as something like Om or Spank Rock, but its still pretty cool. to describe it simply, its some electro-pop type stuff with a girl singing. to expand, this album is less experimentally influenced than the previous Psapp album (entitled "tiger, my friend" or something like that). but in a way, thats good, since the songs are sort of softer and gentler, and therefore wouldnt be as well suited to crazier electronics. several times, i found myself bveing reminded of bossa nova, and yet i don't think there were any bossa nova trademarks going on. but it was nice, and definately has the same sort of feeling as an astrud gilberto song, i think.

mmmmmm. black sabbath-y guitar and rocking, without ozzy singing! yes! sure, there's a singer, but the singing is further back in the mix, and no where near as much of a focus as it was with black sabbath. the focus here is just awesome rockin' out. also, this album is the only album that all 6 of us (my departmental coworkers and i) have ever aggreed on. and we dont just agree on it, we all think its pretty awesome. so, a modern update of black sabbath as the key to world peace? maybe. just maybe.

I JUST got done listening to this. This is by far the speediest review turnaround I've ever done here. But this is that awesome. I think i might have mentioned Soul Position before, and their other stuff is indeed good, but oh man... this one is even better! My only complaint about this album is that one of the songs uses the same sample as one of the songs from Dan The Automator (and friends)'s Lovage - Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By, and Automator used it better.... but that's really my only complaint. This album has awesome and always-interesting production, worthwhile lyrics with a good sense of humor and intelligence, and, perhaps most importantly, the best song about cellphones ever (which just so happens to have one of the best choruses ever). Oh, and the album opener is basically the definative essay about the stupidity of popular hiphop (a.k.a. 'pop-hop' a.k.a. 'radio hits' a.k.a. 'utter crap'). so, if you can even find this CD anywhere (it comes out april 4th), you need to hear it. and you will enjoy it. i think. maybe. if you're awesome.

sure, its all in the same 60s/70s female garage rock style of which there are many awesome compilations available, but theres something nice about being able to get an entire album by one band, instead of just having to deal with compilations of singles or 7"s. and, theyre very very awesome, too. i dont exactly understand Thee Headcoatees' relationship to Billy Childish (and his bands Thee Milkshakes and Thee Mighty Caesars and Thee Headcoats, etc, etc, all of which are awesome) but i think he just makes all these bands, and theyre all garage rock-y. which of these Billy Childish projects came first? who cares. if given the choice, i prefer girls singing. you know that. oh! and they're english, so theres the slight hints of their english accents working their way through, oh so awesomely. oh, and the singer of Thee Headcoatees (Holly Golightly) has awesome solo material too... its more early rock'n'roll (bo diddly, chuck berry, buddy holly) than it is girl-group garage-rock... totally worth checking out.

[note: this entry proves that i need to come up with better descriptions than just 'awesome'.... sorry about that.]

Moondog wasn't quite the 'outsider' to music that many make him out to be. He did, in fact, study music before moving to NYC and performing with homemade instruments on the corner of 54th Street and Sixth Ave dressed in homemade robes with a Viking helmet and spear. As bizarre as his costume was, his compositions were delicate minimalist masterpieces, which folks like Philip Glass and Steve Reich credit as being the first of their kind. But above all else, his music is just soooooooo awesome and soooooo beautiful.

[NOTE: this blurb works equally as well for the Moondog release Moondog/Moondog 2, and i can't figure out whether that or Viking... is better. so, they're both good.]

it pisses me off that jay dee (a.k.a. j-dilla) died recently. we had just gotten this promo a week or two before the album dropped, and i was listening to it at least once a day (sorry i forgot to mention it sooner on here)... then the album comes out and he dies. sure, dying probably helped sales of this album, but it's so awesome that i want more! i want to team up with him somehow and make music! i want to see a j-dilla + mf doom album! i want more.... more future posibilities.... and all i have is his back catalog. well, at least he squeezed out this album before passing. about the album: its instumental hip hop. yes, yes, i know, instrumental hip hop is usually rather boring, just begging the question "why the hell isn't there an MC?!?"..... but not this one. all the songs are so perfect of a length that you get the gist of it, then it's on to another one. its always interesting, yet it doesnt just sound like one-beat-after-another nonstop rapid-fire. while artists like RJD2 typically have a few awesome songs on their instrumental albums, Donuts is solidly entertaining from beginning to end. and unlike dj shadow's stuff (which i think isnt so much hiphop as it is more like electronic music), Donuts is definately hiphop. awesome awesome hiphop, to be specific.

[SIDE NOTE mini suggestion: also check out the jay dee and madlib collaboration they did under the name Jaylib entitled Champion Sound. sweet beats, sweet rhymes.... its my second favorite madlib thing, next to Madvillain. and my second favorite Jay Dee thing, next to Donuts, of course...]

it took me a little (little little) while to get past the indy-famous people (whom i refuse to mention) that have recommended this album in interviews and such, but i'm very glad i got past it. i think technically (ha!) this would get classified as psych-folk or freak-folk or something like that, but its really just awesome. the music is sort of psych-rock-ish, but no, not the long droning psych-rock i talk so much about... its more jefferson airplane or non-masturbatory-solo jimi hendrix, i guess. i could be wrong, though, because the music (to my ears) always ends up playing the role of a bed for ms.foster's awesome voice. ahhhh... her voice..... her voice is almost as different from other people's voices as bjork's voice is. (dont worry, bjork haters, it doesn't actually sound like bjork) it does make you think that she might be as insane as bjork, though, while still sounding nice. and the way it works with the songs! oh! its great! when the song gets energetic, so does her voice. it actually sort of makes me think of an airplane or a bird or something flying around. i can't explain how or why i think that, but maybe you'll see. (oh, and it doesn't actually sound like an aeroplane, it just makes me think of one.)

[what? theres finally a new cd on here?!? whoah!!!!]

I guess one could say that it's sort of like if My Bloody Valentine's wall-of-sound was applied to some of Spacemen 3's droning riffs. But, wait, that description sounds wrong to me.... Oh, I don't know... It's just so awesome. While most droning psych rock is about the trance and the droning itself, there are also some amazing tension build/release moments on this album. A structure will form out of the chaos, or chaos will form out of the structure, and it's so chill and heavy and trippy all at the same time! Ahhhh, yes!

Unfortunately, I can't remember which album is which, so I'll just recommend them both. They are both awesome. If you might like some fine Brasilian bossa nova, or you're looking for some wailing music that expresses your pain and makes you want to dance with your family at a picnic and fuck your significant other at the same time, or maybe you just heard 'The Girl From Impanema' in a movie and thought it sounded neat, well, you MUST check out this guy. he's got a long spanning carreer, and not all of his later stuff is as good, but these two earlier albums are awesome! soulful, yet bossa nova-y. i still don't understand how it's possible, but here it is. and two albums of it, to boot.

some of you have heard much of this already, as a certain hawaiian listened to a lot of the songs on this a lot, and that, in turn, had me listening to it a lot. but the fact remains, that if you're looking for a classic, solid rocksteady compilation, this is THE one to get. so many people, so much rocksteady. a perfect chill vibe. and, after listening to this, you can get a feel for which of these artists you may want to further check out. my picks: alton ellis, marcia griffiths, and horace andy.

while rjd2's solo instrumental songs are not always amazing (they are sometimes, though!), team him up with an MC and its golden... El-P, Aesop Rock, and other def jux folks have known this, and now apparently (well, 'then' apparently, actually. this is sort of old-ish) Blueprint knows it too. Mr. Blueprint does occasionally have a busdriver-esque whiny-ness, but like Busdriver when he shines, his atypical voice is a perfect fit. and rjd2 definately makes him shine on almost every single song.

Sounding, to me, sort of like a less-melancholic version of Boards Of Canada, this is such a beautiful and chill album. I love listening to it on a morning when i have to wake up extra early and i really dont want to be awake, because its gentle and simple enough to not bother me, but the relaxed beats slowly wake me up a bit and get me ready for peppier music. that's not to say this album isn't interesting, either, because it really is. such nice sounds, such beautiful music.... ahhhhhhhh.

Well, this CD was unimpressive at first listen, i thought. But I had a strange itch to hear it again today, for the first time in months.... I don't know how I wasn't impressed the first time! Del sounding less goofy and more awesome than ever? Check. An awesome stuttering chorus rivaled only by "my generation" by the Who? Check. A Bjork sample used prominently and awesomely? Check. I know you don't read this, Hieroglyphics, and I know this will never get back to you, but I apologize anyways for not immediately liking this album on first listen!

(btw, this CD gets my award for being one of the few hiphop CDs with no low points at all. Solidly good all the way through.)

i was tempted to just write a simple one sentence description (madvillain = madlib + mf doom!!!!!!!!!!!!) but i figured i'd say a little more about it. i've been liking MF Doom more and more lately. and i've been liking Madlib more and more too. and this album is my favorite thing either of them have touched. it might be my favorite hiphop album ever, actually. a perfect mix of weirdness and headnod-ness (i think i view those as the two extremes of the hiphop that i like).

when we first got this CD, i thought it was going to be girls screaming a load. so i put it on (i like girls screaming a load sometimes) and was pleasantly surprised to learn it was nothing like i expected. it has peppy (maybe even dance-able) rhythms and the girl sings more than screams. its definatley a rock-type singing, but i think i can hear some nicely repressed tinges of soul in there. the songs are quite energetic (especially the title track)...

whoah! a fairly recent electronic release that i like?! this album is mostly awesome electronic dub. real chill. its completely different from Pole, too. i havent been able to figure out how, though. all i know is that i really like this CD and the chill vibe it gives me. does anyone know if any other orb CDs are like this one? i've heard some of the earlier orb stuff, but its not like this.

some of the spacemen 3 stuff touches on the britpoprock or shoegaze thing, but only from a distance. with a real long pole. it mostly stays over in the psychedelic droning trance area. and thats a really good thing. my favorite spacemen 3 songs (which are, in fact, all on this album) consist of lots of droning or repeating riffs and very very sparse drums, if any. sometimes theres a little bit of never-overpowering chanting/singing also. you could say this is a precursor to pharoah overlord's stuff, but from more of a rock place, instead of from the groove place that pharoah overlord comes from. anyways, i think i'm going to be so bold as to say that this is one of my most favorite CDs ever.

with each listen, i like this more and more. some of the songs are definately better than the others (especially the last song. thats the best one), but its all pretty good. not a "buy this" type of good. but definately a "download and keep the tracks you like" type good.

i've never been much of a wu tang fan (or popular hiphop in general), but this cd is pretty cool. not "super awesome must go out and buy it right now" cool, but a "i dont mind when it randomly pops up on my computer or ipod" cool. theres a couple songs on it that really truly are super awesome, too, but even the worst of this cd is still pretty good. its hard to find albums like that anymore.

(oh, and its a mathmatical fact that this CD is 1 million billion times better than the new 9th Wonder/Nas CD.)

guilty pleasure... no no no.... REALLY guilty pleasure. in the same way that Andrew WK was a really guilty pleasure.. i would totally love to go to a Morningwood show (well, for free, that is. no way i'd pay for that), if it weren't for the fact that i know it would be full of screaming 12 year old girls. just like how i would have loved to see Andrew WK at his peak if it werent for the fact that it would have been full of screaming frat guys. this cd has some genuine rocking moments, and its almost like the crappy moments make those rocking moments even better.

ok, ok... first, i want to mention that i'm using this blog as an information dissemination tool, not as a journal. i'm going to try to keep it from becoming a journal, too. but i'm not making any promises. the information i'm disseminating is my opinions on CDs that catch my interest. see, a few of my friends always ask me to let them know about "new" and/or "cool" music, since i listen to loads of it. do i listen to loads of it to know about it, to be able to brag about it, to be a music nerd? no. do i listen to loads of it to stay on top of trends, to appear "cooler" than others? no. do i listen to loads of it because i really like music, because i couldn't live without it? no, again. well, maybe. probably not, though. well, no, maybe. i dont know. i just do. i like some of it. i dont like other bits. i like some popular stuff, some not-so-popular stuff. some musical tangents i'll know loads about, but others i dont know at all (yes i mean you, reggaeton). sometimes i'll know a bunch about a genre, but have huge glaring holes where i've never listened to stuff thats considered "essentials" of the genre. whoops.

with my music-listening stuff out of the way, i'll say a little bit about my writing.... i'm a very "practical" person. or perhaps thats just "lazy." either way, you'll notice that i dont capitalize correctly or punctuate correctly a lot. thats no stylistic choice, really. its just me being practical (speed/convenience reasons) or lazy (pretty self-explanatory reasons). i've managed to convince myself over time that its more train-of-thought this way, and more honest and real, and to a certain extent, i guess it is. but i think i'm merely psychologically reinforcing my laziness. who knows. anyways, its the way i do, and i'm sticking with it, for now. (i am actively trying to get into the habit of dealing correctly with quotes and punctuation marks. for instance: [George said, "I'd like that."] instead of [George said "I'd like that".] the inccorect way makes so much more sense logically/programatically... oh well.) (i'm also trying to cut down on my use of parenthetical expressions, especially when they occur inside parentheses. i do, however, really enjoy the fact that i admitted that in a parenthetical expression inside of parentheses.)

oh, i also forgot to mention my extreme rambling (but if you're this far into this, you've probably noticed). hopefully its not longwinded, but just rambling. i like the distinction. i think i'm trying to cut down on my rambling. but we'll see if thats at all possible.

hahaha! i just found a little note i wrote about the rules i was considering for this blog. this will be a nice conclusion for this post:

1)dont talk about work. thats boring, and will undoubtedly turn to complaining about work, also boring. (initial post is exempt)
2)dont specify where i work, beyond "record shop"
3)dont specify who i am. (mystery is fun)
4)try to mention pitchfork as little as possible (i have to read it for work. yuck.)
5)first post = a huge disclaimer/introduction (maybe consisting of these rules?)
6)1+ images per post! (i like images!!)