Love or Hate?

Trollheart · 12-18-2015, 12:06 PM

Finishing up on your track recs then with this one:

Title: Outside the Great Circle
Artiste: Costin Chiorneau
Genre: Electronic, Ambient, Drone
Taken from:[/i] Outside the Great Circle
Familiarity: Zero
Suggested by: mythsofmetal

Expectations: Hmm. I'm pretty sure I had this in the original rules, though I don't see it now, that no one track was to exceed ten minutes, and this is thirteen. It's a mini-album in itself! I've added the rule now, but since it wasn't clear I will accept this one. In future though, please only suggest tracks that satisfy that criterion. I know some tracks can go for up to twenty or thirty minutes, and I don't intend listening to anything that long! As for expectations with this I have absolutely no idea. A Romanian musician who seems to have made a whole movie out of this? Could be anything.

So we start off on spooky ambient sounds, footsteps, screeches, echoes, water dripping, all that good stuff, and this takes us into minute two, when a sort of repeated piano pattern is set up which then abruptly cuts out and is replaced by a hard feedback guitar, very slow and doomy and I think I hear dark, growled vocals coming in now. Yeah, I do. Low in the mix, but they're there, and speaking of there, we're now at minute three, with ten to go. Piano is back but more sort of tinkling this time, think there's a guitar playing low in the background. Now there's just a repeated pattern, I think on keys or it could be guitar, vocal fading out to be replaced by acoustic guitar? Rolling drums. We're in minute five. This video is weirdly disturbing.

And on it goes. It's very dark, very ambient, with various instruments coming and going, vocal coming in and falling out. Not quite sure what to make of it. Pretty damn strange, that's for sure.

Conclusion: ? Quite possibly takes the word “pretentious” to new and undreamed of levels.

So, Love or Hate? ? I honestly don't know. I didn't hate it but I certainly didn't love or even like it. It's not meh, but as I can't make up my mind that's what I'm going to go for. Meh.

Possibility of looking into the album: n/a as this seems to be the whole thing.

Trollheart · 12-18-2015, 12:11 PM

Title: Fortress
Artiste: Protest the Hero
Genre: Progressive Metal
Familiarity: Zero
Recommended by: The Batlord

Expectations: Firstly, I see they're a progressive metal band, so that's a good start. I then see they utilise celtic mythology and so forth in their lyrics (at least for this album) so again that's good and finally it's a kind of concept album, or at least has a common thread running through it, so I expect there should be some thought put into the music. I have a good feeling about this one. Probably regret saying that later....

1. Bloodmeat: Strong, fast, powerful opening, good vocal.
2. The dissentience: Well, slipped into the second track without me actually realising it, which is probably not a good thing. But then, once it gets going this is pretty sweet too. Some great guitar work and the vocalist really stretches himself.
3. Bone marrow: It's good, but I'm kind of finding this a little too .... I don't know ... busy? Also each track has sounded rather similar to the others so far. Nice piano ending with some acoustic guitar. That was different. I was going to mark this one Orange, but...
4. Sequoia throne: Just passed by without making any real impression on me.
5. Palms read: I just don't see too much difference between the tracks here, not so much that I could really distinguish one from the other. That's not to say they're not good, but they all sound very similar to me.
6. Limb from limb: At least there's a bit of divergence here, with an interesting opening, but again it just sounds more of the same and I'm getting bored now. And quite disappointed.
7. Spoils: Maybe it's too technical, I don't know, but I hear a Dream Theateresque reliance on solos and clever passages rather than actual songs, for the most part. Hold on: another lovely piano piece gets this a change from White to Orange.
8. Wretch: There's a song lurking in here somewhere, hidden among all the twiddly guitars and hammering riffs.

9. Goddess bound: Again, nothing I can really hang my hat on. If I had a hat. Which I don't.
10. Goddess gagged: This has something about it, but you really have to dig through the maelstrom to get to the tune.

End result: Nowhere near as good as I had anticipated. Just very chaotic and over-the-top. There's definitely some great musicianship and songwriting in there, it's just I have a hard time digging it out of the overall confusion of sound. Hard to enjoy really.

So, Love or Hate? I can only give this a Like.

The Batlord · 12-18-2015, 12:54 PM

Meh. I figured there was a decent chance the same mathcore elements that made Converge unlistenable to you might make you lukewarm to Protest the Hero, but it was worth a shot.

Trollheart · 12-18-2015, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

Meh. I figured there was a decent chance the same mathcore elements that made Converge unlistenable to you might make you lukewarm to Protest the Hero, but it was worth a shot.

On paper, as I said, it looked to be right up my alley. However I just could not get into it enough to enjoy it.

Trollheart · 12-18-2015, 02:49 PM

Title: Selected Ambient Works 85 -92
Artiste: Aphex Twin
Genre: Electronic/Ambient
Familiarity: Zero, though I've heard you guys talking about him
Recommended by: TechnicLePanther

Expectations: Completely blank slate here. The word “ambient” in the title gives me hope I may enjoy it, but that may turn out to be very far from the case.

1. Xthal: I'm not sure; is this what they call chillwave or chilltempo or something? Quite relaxing in a sort of slow clubby way, female vocals which I can't make out the actual words on, heavy drums and swirling keys. Quite nice I must say.
2. Tha: Slightly more uptempo, more heavily centred on the percussion, though it's a long track and could change, probably will, over its run. Yeah some synth and bass coming in now.
3. Pulsewidth: Kind of a bouncy rhythm to this; reminds me of 80s pop I think. Trumpeting synth is nice.
4. Ageispolis: Slower, more ambient with a kind of popcorn (?) keyboard
5. i: This is very abstract, very laidback. And very short.
6. Green calx: Much more in your face with buzzing squelching synths and thumping drums. Kind of annoying if I'm honest
7. Heliosphan: Something of a relief after the relentless pounding of the last track (and it was a long one, too!). Ticking percussion with warbling synth, slower, darker, picking up the tempo now but still relatively mid-paced.
8. We are the music makers: Nice bassline in this. Like the sprightly piano too. Not really too much in it overall though, given the length.
9. Schottkey 7th path: Very spacey, kind of suspense/horror vibe to this. Slower than previous tracks. Bit weird the way the synth keeps rising and fading near the end.
10. Ptolemy: Hammering, kind of jungle beat with a busy bassline and sampled keyboards. Again, it's a little repetitive.
11. Hedphelym: Spacey kind of feel to this, slower with maybe a suggestion of simulated whalesong?
12. Delphium: Yeah it's okay but you know, hard to write about.
13. Actium: Instrumental albums again: my bugbear in terms of reviews. A nice beat but again kind of what do I say?

End result: It's the old problem with instrumental albums. I may like them, even love them, but it's hard to write about them. For what he does, Aphex Twin does really well, but it's again kind of background music to me that I find hard to devote any real attention to.

So, Love or Hate? Still give it a Love.

TechnicLePanther · 12-18-2015, 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Title: Selected Ambient Works 85 -92
Artiste: Aphex Twin
Genre: Electronic/Ambient
Familiarity: Zero, though I've heard you guys talking about him
Recommended by: TechnicLePanther

Expectations: Completely blank slate here. The word “ambient” in the title gives me hope I may enjoy it, but that may turn out to be very far from the case.

1. Xthal: I'm not sure; is this what they call chillwave or chilltempo or something? Quite relaxing in a sort of slow clubby way, female vocals which I can't make out the actual words on, heavy drums and swirling keys. Quite nice I must say.
2. Tha: Slightly more uptempo, more heavily centred on the percussion, though it's a long track and could change, probably will, over its run. Yeah some synth and bass coming in now.
3. Pulsewidth: Kind of a bouncy rhythm to this; reminds me of 80s pop I think. Trumpeting synth is nice.
4. Ageispolis: Slower, more ambient with a kind of popcorn (?) keyboard
5. i: This is very abstract, very laidback. And very short.
6. Green calx: Much more in your face with buzzing squelching synths and thumping drums. Kind of annoying if I'm honest
7. Heliosphan: Something of a relief after the relentless pounding of the last track (and it was a long one, too!). Ticking percussion with warbling synth, slower, darker, picking up the tempo now but still relatively mid-paced.
8. We are the music makers: Nice bassline in this. Like the sprightly piano too. Not really too much in it overall though, given the length.
9. Schottkey 7th path: Very spacey, kind of suspense/horror vibe to this. Slower than previous tracks. Bit weird the way the synth keeps rising and fading near the end.
10. Ptolemy: Hammering, kind of jungle beat with a busy bassline and sampled keyboards. Again, it's a little repetitive.
11. Hedphelym: Spacey kind of feel to this, slower with maybe a suggestion of simulated whalesong?
12. Delphium: Yeah it's okay but you know, hard to write about.
13. Actium: Instrumental albums again: my bugbear in terms of reviews. A nice beat but again kind of what do I say?

End result: It's the old problem with instrumental albums. I may like them, even love them, but it's hard to write about them. For what he does, Aphex Twin does really well, but it's again kind of background music to me that I find hard to devote any real attention to.

So, Love or Hate? Still give it a Love.

Enjoyed it more than I predicted you would, so I'm perfectly happy. This is renowned as one of the best IDM albums of all time.

TechnicLePanther · 12-18-2015, 07:38 PM

Hey Troll, have you ever heard the entirety of Tubular Bells?

Trollheart · 12-18-2015, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TechnicLePanther

Hey Troll, have you ever heard the entirety of Tubular Bells?

Oh yeah. Owned that album for a long time. Brilliant masterpiece.

bob. · 12-19-2015, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Title: Nowhere
Artiste: Ride
Genre: Shoegaze
Familiarity: Zero
Recommended by: bob

1. Seagull: Nice bassline, reminds me of something? Ooh! Like the group vocal, very nice. Uptempo without being too fast, lot of power yet somehow kind of restrained? Well, it gets pretty wild near the end. Impassioned, sure.
2. Kaleidoscope: Like its title, a little all over the place and maybe trying to do too many things at once? Not mad about this one.
3. In a different place: Like this one though; slow punchy ballad with a sense of The Waterboys or The Adventures about it. Has quite the celtic air.
4. Polar bear: Like this too. Kind of a staggered guitar (I don't know what it's called, maybe phased? Sort of sounds a little like an old steam locomotive) and a really nice vocal with again that celtic touch.
5. Dreams burn down: Reminds me of a mix between Big Country and Enya. In a good way. Throw in some Lightning Seeds for good measure. Slower track, very intense. Like when the guitar really punches in.
6. Decay: Kind of downbeat lyric with an uptempo beat, some great percussion
7. Paralysed: Like the melody in this one a lot. Slight sense of panic and paranoia in it. Great guitar solo.
8. Vapour trail: And a really nice closer. Is that violin?

End result: Not, to be fair, the revelation bob's recs usually are, but well up to his usual standard. Just as Micco is helping me appreciate more music that is outside my usual wheelhouse (old r&b, soul, swing etc) so bob seems to be becoming my go-to guy for elegant indie albums that usually really touch me. As we say here in Eire, go on ya good thing ya!

So, Love or Hate? Nevertheless, I don't quite feel I can give this top rating, but it's a very solid Love for sure.

i think you need to accept the fact that you LOVE shoegaze music my friend

i'm glad you loved it.....i'm switching up styles....the next album is a three song funeral doom album

Trollheart · 12-20-2015, 06:36 AM

Title: We Cool?
Artiste: Jeff Rosenstock
Genre: Punk/Indie Rock
Familiarity: Zero
Recommended by: Machine

Expectations: Not a clue. I see he was in a ska-punk band prior to this. That means precisely nothing to me.

1. Get old forever: Starts off very low-key, lo-fi, low everything then kicks up with a lot of energy. Impressive; you can certainly hear the punk influence in the barely restrained aggression and the sort of shouted vocal.
2. You, in weird cities: Faster from the off, quite infectious really. Good fun.
3. Novelty sweater: Sort of a blues, old-style hard rock anthem in this one. Poor ending.
4. Nausea: Like the bright piano, very Billy Joelesque. That melody in the chorus is robbed from something. Good though. Oh, sax and trumpets. Nice.
5. Beers again alone: Harmonica gives this a real hard-drinkin' Country flavour. Love it. Kind of like Steve Earle meets The Pogues.
6. I'm serious, I'm sorry: Acoustic Springsteen turns into a heavy rocker and back again. Like this one.
7. Hey Allison!: Sure is a lot of energy in this.
8. Polar bear of Africa: Sounds a bit like The Jam to be honest. Great hook.
9. Hall of fame: Somehow that didn't do anything for me.
10. All blissed out: Great slow accordion intro with a ragged vocal. Getting back on track, perhaps. Yeah, this is excellent. Love the way it ramps up near the end.
11. The lows: Another powerful track with a lot of crushing energy
12. Darkness records: Folky/Country acoustic with some great bass. Punches up nicely. Using a classical theme here? Great closer.

End result: Very enjoyable album, very little if anything to complain about. Not what I expected (from the title I had thought this was a hip-hop album!) and went down very well in the end.

So, Love or Hate? We cool, man, we cool. It's another Love.

12-18-2015, 12:06 PM	#2411 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,994	Finishing up on your track recs then with this one: Title: Outside the Great Circle Artiste: Costin Chiorneau Genre: Electronic, Ambient, Drone Taken from:[/i] Outside the Great Circle Familiarity: Zero Suggested by: mythsofmetal Expectations: Hmm. I'm pretty sure I had this in the original rules, though I don't see it now, that no one track was to exceed ten minutes, and this is thirteen. It's a mini-album in itself! I've added the rule now, but since it wasn't clear I will accept this one. In future though, please only suggest tracks that satisfy that criterion. I know some tracks can go for up to twenty or thirty minutes, and I don't intend listening to anything that long! As for expectations with this I have absolutely no idea. A Romanian musician who seems to have made a whole movie out of this? Could be anything. So we start off on spooky ambient sounds, footsteps, screeches, echoes, water dripping, all that good stuff, and this takes us into minute two, when a sort of repeated piano pattern is set up which then abruptly cuts out and is replaced by a hard feedback guitar, very slow and doomy and I think I hear dark, growled vocals coming in now. Yeah, I do. Low in the mix, but they're there, and speaking of there, we're now at minute three, with ten to go. Piano is back but more sort of tinkling this time, think there's a guitar playing low in the background. Now there's just a repeated pattern, I think on keys or it could be guitar, vocal fading out to be replaced by acoustic guitar? Rolling drums. We're in minute five. This video is weirdly disturbing. And on it goes. It's very dark, very ambient, with various instruments coming and going, vocal coming in and falling out. Not quite sure what to make of it. Pretty damn strange, that's for sure. Conclusion: ? Quite possibly takes the word “pretentious” to new and undreamed of levels. So, Love or Hate? ? I honestly don't know. I didn't hate it but I certainly didn't love or even like it. It's not meh, but as I can't make up my mind that's what I'm going to go for. Meh. Possibility of looking into the album: n/a as this seems to be the whole thing. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

12-18-2015, 12:11 PM	#2412 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,994	Title: Fortress Artiste: Protest the Hero Genre: Progressive Metal Familiarity: Zero Recommended by: The Batlord Expectations: Firstly, I see they're a progressive metal band, so that's a good start. I then see they utilise celtic mythology and so forth in their lyrics (at least for this album) so again that's good and finally it's a kind of concept album, or at least has a common thread running through it, so I expect there should be some thought put into the music. I have a good feeling about this one. Probably regret saying that later.... 1. Bloodmeat: Strong, fast, powerful opening, good vocal. 2. The dissentience: Well, slipped into the second track without me actually realising it, which is probably not a good thing. But then, once it gets going this is pretty sweet too. Some great guitar work and the vocalist really stretches himself. 3. Bone marrow: It's good, but I'm kind of finding this a little too .... I don't know ... busy? Also each track has sounded rather similar to the others so far. Nice piano ending with some acoustic guitar. That was different. I was going to mark this one Orange, but... 4. Sequoia throne: Just passed by without making any real impression on me. 5. Palms read: I just don't see too much difference between the tracks here, not so much that I could really distinguish one from the other. That's not to say they're not good, but they all sound very similar to me. 6. Limb from limb: At least there's a bit of divergence here, with an interesting opening, but again it just sounds more of the same and I'm getting bored now. And quite disappointed. 7. Spoils: Maybe it's too technical, I don't know, but I hear a Dream Theateresque reliance on solos and clever passages rather than actual songs, for the most part. Hold on: another lovely piano piece gets this a change from White to Orange. 8. Wretch: There's a song lurking in here somewhere, hidden among all the twiddly guitars and hammering riffs. 9. Goddess bound: Again, nothing I can really hang my hat on. If I had a hat. Which I don't. 10. Goddess gagged: This has something about it, but you really have to dig through the maelstrom to get to the tune. End result: Nowhere near as good as I had anticipated. Just very chaotic and over-the-top. There's definitely some great musicianship and songwriting in there, it's just I have a hard time digging it out of the overall confusion of sound. Hard to enjoy really. So, Love or Hate? I can only give this a Like. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

12-18-2015, 02:49 PM	#2415 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,994	Title: Selected Ambient Works 85 -92 Artiste: Aphex Twin Genre: Electronic/Ambient Familiarity: Zero, though I've heard you guys talking about him Recommended by: TechnicLePanther Expectations: Completely blank slate here. The word “ambient” in the title gives me hope I may enjoy it, but that may turn out to be very far from the case. 1. Xthal: I'm not sure; is this what they call chillwave or chilltempo or something? Quite relaxing in a sort of slow clubby way, female vocals which I can't make out the actual words on, heavy drums and swirling keys. Quite nice I must say. 2. Tha: Slightly more uptempo, more heavily centred on the percussion, though it's a long track and could change, probably will, over its run. Yeah some synth and bass coming in now. 3. Pulsewidth: Kind of a bouncy rhythm to this; reminds me of 80s pop I think. Trumpeting synth is nice. 4. Ageispolis: Slower, more ambient with a kind of popcorn (?) keyboard 5. i: This is very abstract, very laidback. And very short. 6. Green calx: Much more in your face with buzzing squelching synths and thumping drums. Kind of annoying if I'm honest 7. Heliosphan: Something of a relief after the relentless pounding of the last track (and it was a long one, too!). Ticking percussion with warbling synth, slower, darker, picking up the tempo now but still relatively mid-paced. 8. We are the music makers: Nice bassline in this. Like the sprightly piano too. Not really too much in it overall though, given the length. 9. Schottkey 7th path: Very spacey, kind of suspense/horror vibe to this. Slower than previous tracks. Bit weird the way the synth keeps rising and fading near the end. 10. Ptolemy: Hammering, kind of jungle beat with a busy bassline and sampled keyboards. Again, it's a little repetitive. 11. Hedphelym: Spacey kind of feel to this, slower with maybe a suggestion of simulated whalesong? 12. Delphium: Yeah it's okay but you know, hard to write about. 13. Actium: Instrumental albums again: my bugbear in terms of reviews. A nice beat but again kind of what do I say? End result: It's the old problem with instrumental albums. I may like them, even love them, but it's hard to write about them. For what he does, Aphex Twin does really well, but it's again kind of background music to me that I find hard to devote any real attention to. So, Love or Hate? Still give it a Love. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

12-18-2015, 07:38 PM	#2417 (permalink)
TechnicLePanther and the livin' is easy... Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: New York Posts: 1,997	Hey Troll, have you ever heard the entirety of Tubular Bells? __________________ Many have tried to destroy it... but... true evil never dies. It is only... REBORN *SUGGEST ME AN ALBUM* - I'm probably not going to listen to it but I will if you bother me enough.

12-20-2015, 06:36 AM	#2420 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,994	Title: We Cool? Artiste: Jeff Rosenstock Genre: Punk/Indie Rock Familiarity: Zero Recommended by: Machine Expectations: Not a clue. I see he was in a ska-punk band prior to this. That means precisely nothing to me. 1. Get old forever: Starts off very low-key, lo-fi, low everything then kicks up with a lot of energy. Impressive; you can certainly hear the punk influence in the barely restrained aggression and the sort of shouted vocal. 2. You, in weird cities: Faster from the off, quite infectious really. Good fun. 3. Novelty sweater: Sort of a blues, old-style hard rock anthem in this one. Poor ending. 4. Nausea: Like the bright piano, very Billy Joelesque. That melody in the chorus is robbed from something. Good though. Oh, sax and trumpets. Nice. 5. Beers again alone: Harmonica gives this a real hard-drinkin' Country flavour. Love it. Kind of like Steve Earle meets The Pogues. 6. I'm serious, I'm sorry: Acoustic Springsteen turns into a heavy rocker and back again. Like this one. 7. Hey Allison!: Sure is a lot of energy in this. 8. Polar bear of Africa: Sounds a bit like The Jam to be honest. Great hook. 9. Hall of fame: Somehow that didn't do anything for me. 10. All blissed out: Great slow accordion intro with a ragged vocal. Getting back on track, perhaps. Yeah, this is excellent. Love the way it ramps up near the end. 11. The lows: Another powerful track with a lot of crushing energy 12. Darkness records: Folky/Country acoustic with some great bass. Punches up nicely. Using a classical theme here? Great closer. End result: Very enjoyable album, very little if anything to complain about. Not what I expected (from the title I had thought this was a hip-hop album!) and went down very well in the end. So, Love or Hate? We cool, man, we cool. It's another Love. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018