The Music Banter Members' Journals Monthly Update Thread

[Trollheart]

So here we are in May, with kids no doubt eyeing the calendar eagerly awaiting release from school on their summer holidays and I equally eyeing the same dates, but not quite so eagerly. Oh I remember what it was like to be off school for three months, sure, but one of the benefits of getting older is that you are allowed suddenly think kids have too much time off school. When I had a job I was lucky to get four WEEKS a year off, and these little brats get three MONTHS? Doesn't seem fair somehow. Next thing their ghetto blasters will be pumping out the latest chart-toppers at full volume during the afternoon, stolen cars screeching around the streets, football in the park ... gah! Kids these days... wasn't like this when I was .... mutter mutter...

Sorry, where was I? Oh yeah: first update for May. So what have we got, before these screaming hordes descend on us with their ... sorry ... Keep your mind on the task at hand, old man! Well, let's see: we have two brand new journals from brand new members, along with the return of two that haven't been updated in a while. Let's get to it then shall we?

Anteater is enthusing over the delights of the Mahavishnu Orchestra in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...n-dollars.html

and Black Francis continues his exploration of the Pixies in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...l-journey.html

Whether Briks got the idea for his latest theme from my writing reviews in the style of Nickelback_rules last week or whether this is just (ahem!) coincidence, it's apparently Nickelback week down at http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...seur-cave.html, as he compares Chad to Corey and puts “Silver side up” alongside “Iowa”. He also delves into some more metal , with a look at Sabaton. Um. Never heard of them...

One of those new journals of which I spake comes in the form of http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ack-sound.html, where one of our newest members looks at albums from Panopticon and Blood Ceremony. With a title like that on his journal, expect heavy. And dark. Maybe. But definitely one to watch.

If you're http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...wnapilago.html why not learrn a little about Frownland's very own band, Wolves in Sheepskin?

Too busy to update http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ening-log.html, (and who would blame him, with all that music he listens to?), Goofle nevertheless has presented his RYM list for you to peruse.

In rapid succession, those two journals making a comeback are http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ic-memory.html, where Ladyisingering is looking at Squeeze, Bowie and others while

Mondo returns with http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...istortion.html and talks about Rudimentary Peni, with more promised updates soon.

And the other new journal this week is http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ic-sanity.html, with entries on everything from boybands to Tony Hawk! Interesting!

Always a good read, Silenzio has much about Lykke Li in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...mix-music.html

A new section and the return of an old one in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...d-journal.html as I introduce (um) “Impressive Intros” and bring back “Keep it simple”, while also reviewing two more prog albums on the list with Russian band Azazello and Dutch outfit Exivious. The final episode of season one of “Les Revenants/The Returned” makes its appearance at http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-emporium.html leaving the way clear to bring in ... ah, but that would be telling wouldn't it? Yes it would. So tell us Trollheart! Um, no. Not yet.

Unknown Soldier pays homage to one of the best live heavy metal albums ever in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-history.html

and Urban lists his favourite actors he wishes/wants to see play a part in the upcoming season in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...who-thing.html

Finally, before he was banned (whether permanently or not I don't know) YorkeDaddy made a valiant effort to explain why he's become such a troll in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-personal.html Sorry man but I don't think anyone is going to accept that as an excuse. I hope you get back here, but if so I hope you have the good sense to tone down your attitude or you'll end up being permabanned, if you haven't already been.

And so to this week's

This time I want to give it to Frownland, whose journal has only been going a short while but who, in this latest entry, shares with us some personal stuff about himself and his band. As usual, YouTube links have been removed but if you think you might be into WiSK's brand of expereimental noise rock, then head to his journal where you can listen to the videos and then maybe throw a deserving band some cash and download their albums.

Originally Posted by Frownland

And Now The Part Where I Talk About Myself

Musicbanter regulars, you surely know all about my group Wolves In Sheepskin because I never shut up about us. Today I'll be reviewing our most well received (and best selling) album, Indecent Vibrations. This album is my second favourite of our output, with A Van Per Oven being my favourite. This music speaks to me because the group does what we love as opposed to what would sell or sound appealing, and I'm glad to say that I'm a member of one of my favourite bands.

Indecent Vibrations consists of four tracks ranging from 6 to 17 minutes in length. It is entirely improvised apart from basic song structures that I came up with ("when I start to do this, change to that"). Stryder Rymer plays guitar for tracks 1, 2, and 4 and mandolin on the 3rd, Christophe Bassett (myself) plays guitar on the first track, electronics on the second, and drums on the last two, and Zach plays drums on the first two tracks and guitar on the final two.

The opener, Robot Intestines has Zach on drums and Stryder and I on guitar. It starts off with a kickdrum assaulted with reverb before the guitars enter. The sound is noisy and industrial, which is why we named the track Robot Intestines. The first minute or so is slower and more droney until it breaks into a faster part where indigestion occurs in the robot's intestines.

The song carries on like this with the crazy and noisy soundscape offering a variety of electric guitar noises from myself and rumbling rif***e from Stryder. There are points where we slow back into the opening part before breaking into another chaotic passage. The track ends on a drone and closing drums. This one is my favourite track on the album, and one of my favourite WISK tracks overall. Everybody did a great job on this song, and I don't have a favourite player on it because the sounds meld together so well. We recorded this track in my garage and after we were done with this tune, my dad came out and said "why don't you play a SONG?" so we knew this was a really good track if he felt the need to say something about it.

The second track is Flashback, where Stryder is on prepared guitar, Zach plays a reverb box and drums, and I play effects-heavy theremin. This track clocks in at 17 minutes long and is the longest on the album. It starts off very ambient with the players trading echoey and strange sounds. Throughout the track the theremin abandons the ambient atmosphere that the other two instruments are creating and overlays them with other-wordly sounds. About 9 minutes into a theremin solo comes in that makes you regret taking the brown acid. The other instruments grow in intensity until the quasi-sudden end of the track.

Out of the four tracks on this album, this one is my least favourite, but it's still a great track nonetheless. We thought that Flashback would be an appropriate track name for obvious reasons.

Then we have the last two tracks which are rather similar but still very different animals. Anyeurysm, which is intentionally misspelled as a reference to our album Any of Many, is a noisy track where Stryder jumps on the mandolin, Zach plays the guitar, and I sit at the drums. It starts off with a tremolo guitar and mandolin trade-off combined with drums. There's one tom that really complements the track as it's very prominent and gives the track some semblance of order to the track. There are points where you can't even differentiate what's each instrument is doing as it's a great wall of noise. I'm rather proud of my drum work on this track, especially the from the point where I rapidly play the snare up until the end of the song. It carries on in the noise ridden industrial sounds until it ends abruptly (the reason for this being that my recorder ran out of battery, the actual performance ran at about 12 minutes).

The closing track, Echoes of a Distant Memory has the same line up as Anyeurysm but this time with Stryder on guitar. A strum of the electric guitar and the clunkety drums enter. This one has more standard drumming in the beginning that breaks into a fast paced, almost Han Bennink-esque style. The guitars on this track are anything but standard. They're very angry and inseparable, and that thing called melody that Trollheart is always going on about is gone from this track. Everything is lost in the wall of noise. The track continues on in the metal-influenced aggression that we hear in the beginning of the song until we get another abrupt end. Again, this is because of the recorder running out of battery.

This album was incredibly fun to make and I find it a lot of fun to listen to. The sound of this album is somewhat unparalleled in our other six albums, save for a vague similarity on some tracks from A Van Per Oven and the title track from Lizard of Ox, which sounds like Indecent Vibrations on heroin and bath salts. We found a unique kind of sound that's specific to us with this album, and that's something I'm glad that we've done.

For the art piece on this entry, I'm going to give you guys the album artwork to Indecent Vibrations. It's a photograph of the reflection of the inside of a drainage pipe. We got the lines to be really messed up by throwing rocks in the water and taking the photo right after.

Updates are still a little thin on the ground, but it's nice to see the slack being taken up by new journal authors, and Cicatrice and The Sane Psycho, you're both very welcome to Journaltown. Hope you enjoy your stay here and become productive members of the community, which based on your start I have no doubt will be the case.

That's it then for another week. I'm off to try to write some more interesting stuff for my journals and try to piece together three articles I'm working on at once, apart from anything else. Hope the sun is shining where you are. Summer, they say, is on the way!

Till next week
Toodles!

Oh, and .... May the fourth be with you!