Seven Days ov Diskografies: Part Deux
More foregone conclusions disguised as seething words ov wisdoom.
If you’ve ever been down to the wonderland known as ToH’s Facebook Group, you might have noticed that sometimes spend an entire week listening to full discographies of bands. Naturally, I do seven per day. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably realized this article has something to do with the said weeks. It would be futile to do seven posts about seven bands each, as I’m sure you all have plenty of music to listen from the Toilet already, so instead this is going to be a little different (and not nearly as long). Instead I’m just going to be stating some obvious facts you all already knew towards the end of this collection of various noises of different levels of pleasure, sometimes wrongly accused of being music (check out my last installment here if you missed it).
THE MUSIC:
nnaai
I was very pleasantly surprised by this. It’s a minimal drone/noise album by a project I had never heard of before. I also got schooled by some elitists professionals; apparently HNW has nothing but a static wall of sound, whereas drone/noise can have a development. If it happens to be minimal as well it can’t have pulses or layered synths, unless they are merely adding to the evolution (one kind of static turns into another kind of static, I guess). Go figure. I haven’t listened to any other nnaai albums, but they are apparently different from this, by being less influenced by HNW. I just liked this album very much and thought I’d share it with you. Like the guy on Facebook and see him at Bandcamp.
Off the Beaten Tracks
Off The Beaten Tracks offers some minimalistic neoclassical music (formerly it included guitar, today only piano and strings). A new artist with not much information available to lazy asses like myself. An intriguing change of pace in this hectic era that I find myself lost in. Perfect for staring at stuff. I don’t have mountains near me, which is a bummer, but I do stare over the lake at the forest, yonder on the horizon.
A New Perspective has become my perhaps most listened record during the past few months, and I am expecting great things from the Some Day EP to be released soon.
Now, recently someone told me I shouldn’t listen to “neoclassical” music because no classically trained musician would ever play such. I encourage you to flush all classically trained musicians who would never play “neoclassical” music with me. And jam “Last Dance” off of Some Day, it’s my ham right now.
QUICK UPDATE: You can stream the brand new “Some Day” full EP here.
Dark Buddha Rising
Dark Buddha Rising is not just a bad trip, it’s a seriously fucked up acid trip filled with malicious intent, encompassing you in a manner that leaves no room to breathe or move. Their sound is based on psychedelia, but every song is long and drawn out, even for the measure of that specific type of music. At times their songs – no, their rituals – manifest as oppressive and sultry giants, looming behind the ranges of mountains. At times they leave you shaking, scared to death. Imagine a Lovecraftian horror. A rift in the reality, from which a force oozes like some color of death about the void. Dark Buddha Rising does not provide you with the soundtrack to this malign event that shapes your perception of reality, and re-determines your place in it. It embodies this malign event in the form of sound waves. Their albums are not composed of separate songs, but parts of a whole. Dakhmandal, their latest release, does not climax on every “song”, demanding to be listened as a whole. In their sonic rituals Doom and Stoner find a lover in Black metal and ravish it, combining Ufomammut to Electric Wizard and frosting it with Hawkwind. Khvost makes an appearance on “Sol’Yata” (if that means anything to you, it’s at 52:42) and the band has since added vocals to their performance. Speaking of their performances, the live show contains the same effect of the sonic ritual with added visual ritual. No black metal band has ever reached the same heights with their theatrics, which is not to say that DBR would rely on such gimmicks. The bottom line stands, if you cannot dedicate time to this band, your attempts to listen to it are futile.
Like them on Facebook, listen more at Bandcamp.
Nightsatan
Nightsatan play self-proclaimed lasermetal. Their intention is to play heavy metal, but with only synthesizers and electronic drums. Their birth was greatly affected by “Wolf-Rami’s desire to play Doom metal without a shirt” so, yeah, I don’t think we should take this so very seriously. Mind you, the band never slips into the dreaded waters of humor music, even if it may seem so. In 2013 they released a movie called “Nightsatan and the Loops of Doom”. The soundtrack, twice as long as the movie and serving as the bands sophomore album, is more reminiscent of Perturbator, whereas the debut Midnight Laser Warrior is more John Carpenter-ian in style. You can listen to a song from NatLoD here and check the trailer here. And check out a live video of an older song here, Sami Albert Hynninen makes surprise (to the band as well, apparently) appearance on it (at seven minutes or so).
Like at Facebook and visit Bandcamp.
Aalto
NSFW (as in there is a naked butt in there and possibly a penile instrument as well).
Aalto is a Finnish etnofolk band that combines psychedelia, krautrock and klezmer to their songs. I haven’t got much to say about this band other than: listen to it. Both linked albums are good and safe options if you are working, though I would recommend the song above (on the latest album, linked below), especially if you liked Värttina when it was featured on the Toilet. You can check out Aalto’s 2012 full-length on YouKnowWhatTube and 2014 full length on Spotify.
Furia
I know there’s a lot of bands here already, so I’m going to feature this last one quickly just to add some metal into this post. Some of Furia’s members are in Kriegsmachine, so if you like them or Mgla, this might be for you. A Polish black metal band to the core, dabbling in some slight experimentalism. These guys write the songs and guitar parts that Maciej Kowalski thinks he is playing in Mgla. Their latest album came out last year and is frickin’ good.
Official homepage and Bandcamp contain more info about them.
THE THOUGHTS:
All in all, this Seven Days ov Diskografies isn’t a very good experience. It wasn’t last time, either. It was pointless binging by the end of it, and it produced little to no pleasure.
When you listen to excessive amounts of music you start to realize that the majority of it sucks. There is so much bad music out there to be heard, and that often becomes a problem. If you are working with music, you’ll end up listening to so many bad bands that your perspective is bound to shift. Whether you write for a magazine or a blog (or something similar), if listening becomes work and not fun, the vast amounts of bull crap will leave you embittered and unable to listen as before; even the stuff you love. You can see it if you look at, say, Fantano (for the sake of naming someone most of you will know). Over time, he’s become much more critical. Finding more and more wrong with albums and their production, musicianship, and so on. What once was a trifle has become an obstacle. Over time, things like a poor production job (or even an unfitting one) can become too much of a burden to bear. In the Toilet, most of the music featured is loved/liked by the people who write about it. Instead of featuring only new bands, featured bands are revisited (which I would like to see more). That’s not only important in helping to keep the bands already featured in mind, but I would say that it helps keeping the community satisfied with something more familiar. After all, it is human tendency is to enjoy that which it knows.
Now, I’d like to say something really smart here, but I’m afraid it won’t do. Enjoy the silence the noise the soundwaves.
So, what are your thoughts? Did I say the exact same things for a second time? Am I just rambling because I have nothing to say? Is this a poor excuse to pollute your ears with yet another batch of bands? (Yes).
(Image VIA)
