MicShazam

Since Point is very, very cheap on Amazon, I'm thinking I might as well just give it a chance and start there. As a side note, it's pretty cute how the new album is available on cassette

Janszoon

Well, here's a little sample of it:



Have you listened to the whole new one?

__________________
A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

MicShazam

No, I've just checked out the track that I posted, plus this one:



What I often do with new albums is that, if I'm sold enough on a quick glimpse of it and a source that I trust has praised it a lot, I tend to just give a few select albums a chance. Basically just buying the CD and hoping for the best. It's served me surprisingly well over the years and leads to a lot of positive surprises.

I listened to the track you posted above. It speaks well for the album it is from. There's that same attention to detail and sonic richness that I really dig about the tracks from the new album.

MicShazam

I made a few Spotify playlists, so I'm posting them here where they don't bother anyone.

This one is a bunch of all-time favorite songs of mine. They're heavily cherrypicked to fit losely withing a sort of pop/rock category. That means no metal, folk, jazz, classical, weird electronic stuff... Just some pretty catchy, simple tunes... that I absolutely adore.

https://open.spotify.com/user/micmot...ZXoirb4vZMzxvE

This one contains my favorite songs from 4 maligned albums that generally don't have a good reputation. All of these songs are excellent as far as my opinion goes. I enjoy them with no reservations.

https://open.spotify.com/user/micmot...wsjWBZHxTeODea

This one is a bunch of all time favorites, this time strictly confined to the genre of metal. I tend to love metal bands with a sort of poppy, genre bending sound. Most of these bands tend to keep things simple to a degree.

https://open.spotify.com/user/micmot...dkHa1IN4xxsGv5

MicShazam

Been checking a lot of old music bookmarks, trying to clear the mess. It's so easy to save a bookmark of something that might be interesting, but going through it all takes work. I'm barely scratching the surface of the surface.

I did find some gold nuggets this evening.

Sivan Arbel - For Aba

Jazz.

Karen Beth - April Rain

Folk.

Aaron Parks - Invisible Cinema (Full Album)

Jazz.

Chris Potter – Yasodhara

Jazz.

Quercus - Heart With Bread (Full album)

Funeral doom.

Songhoy Blues - Bamako

Funky blues rock.

The Gathering - On Most Surfaces

Not exactly a new discovery for me, but I recently started taking an interest in the band.
It's all really thanks to how amazing I think Anneka Van Giersbergen's new band, Vuur, is.

MicShazam

A couple things I've been checking out of recently.

Jinjer - I Speak Astronomy


The video is a bit cheesy (what metal video isn't?), but I think I could get into the musical style of this band. I've ordered the whole album on Amazon, so I better hope my judgment isn't totally off here...

ギターカバー dir en grey THE ⅢD EMPIRE (VESTIGE OF SCRATCHES ver.)

Turns out my favorite band has a new track out! It's just a re-recording of an older song, featured on their upcoming best-of compilation. Still, I usually find their re-recordings to be very interesting. This song is originally from a while back (2003), so I expect some degree of reinterpretation, since that's what they usually do with older songs. Frustratingly enough, I can't actually listen to the track where I'm sitting right now, so I don't know if it's good. I'm going to run it on repeat first chance I get.

A Perfect Circle - Talk Talk

I'm not really a big fan, but I do like their first album. Their upcoming 3rd album has been incredibly long underway. Not actually very impressed so far. Three tracks have been revealed, all three pretty nice, but they don't have much personality. The first album by this group was way more unique.

MicShazam

I haven't been checking out much music recently, as I've been somewhat busy. But here's a few things that stuck out to me:

BARREN EARTH - Withdrawal

In my opinion, this band never quite delivered on their potential, but maybe this next disc will be the time. They certainly seem willing to experiment a bit, considering their previous songs had a sort of proggy-melodeath vibe, with a dash of some pseudo-folky keyboards. This song has some nice things going for it and I always liked this band better when there's no growling.

BARREN EARTH - Further Down

Speaking of which... This other new track tells me that the new album isn't a complete style change, although I do detect some details in this that sound more like Ihsahn than old Barren Earth. I'm going to check out the new album when it lands, but I won't expect too much.



Realizing I have no new music to post, but also really wanting to post more, I'm going to raid my record shelf for inspiration and find a few things to show:

Eths - Nihil Sine Causa

Did a pretty good, somewhat strange album, then closed shop. Several bands did the same around that time. I mean, come one. Don't do 5 bland albums, then quit when you're starting to finally go somewhere.

Faun Fables - Ode to Rejection


Monika Roscher Bigband - Illusion

I might have posted this one before? Anyway, you should make sure to check out her music.

Canvas Solaris - Horizontal Radiant

Generally, I find hyper-technical prog metal boring. Especially the instrumental kind. This album is an exception.

MicShazam

Checked out some new music this morning. Here's what I liked the most.

Melvins - Stop Moving To Florida
(Frome the upcoming album Pinkus Abortion Technician)

I can't say that I'm currently a fan of Melvins, but I've been feeling curious about them for a while.
Heard a track here and there, but kind of forgot to follow it up with a full album listen.
I like the rich and punchy sound of everything in this new single.
The drums and bass especially make me think that I could get on board with this.
I get a Faith No More feel from this particular song, but let's see where the rest of the project goes when it's out.

The Ragbirds - Breakdown
(From the 2016 album The Threshold & the Hearth)

Very beautiful, evocative folk pop of some kind.
Reminds me of a variety of things, Neko Case and Faun Fables among them.
I think this track speaks well of the album, not to mention that I found it on Ted Gioia's best of 2016 list -
so I would dare to buy it without needing to hear any more. It's on my 2016 albums list now.
Good stuff.

Ana Burch - Tea-Soaked Letter
(From the 2018 album Quit the Curse)

I don't usually like this sort of folky, rootsy, jangly, americana pop, but I think I quite like this.
Ana Burch reminds me of KT Tunstall, just musically richer somehow.

IBON ERRAZKIN - Lazy Afternoon
(From the very recently released 2018 album Foto Aérea .)

"A peculiar and utterly mesmerizing collection of music".
This is how a short description of this album began on this months Editor's Choice section on Allmusic.com.
Curious, I checked out a random track and I can believe that this album will be quite a ride.
Check it out for yourself.

MicShazam

(Post 1/2)

Here's some music/muzak for you to enjoy/be tormented by. I like all of it, of course.

Creepy Nuts(R-指定＆DJ松永) / かいこ

Yes, this Japanese group is named "Creepy Nuts".

Infected Rain - Mold

Infected Rain - Stop Waiting

Sounds very nu-metal, but with a dash of metal core. I think they could become a pretty good band if they keep at it. They've got some hooks and good sounding production. I won't hesitate to say that I'd rather listen to this than a lot of the samey, gray noise getting produced right now under the banner of metal. I find the pop sensibilities of this band refreshing.

JINJER - Words Of Wisdom

JINJER - Sit Stay Roll Over

JINJER - Just Another

Unlike the above group, Infected Ran - who I take some kind of interest in - I'm 100% sure that I genuinely like Jinjer. I bought their album King of Everything recently, but I don't have a full opinion on it yet. When this band is firing on all cylinders, they're making me think that maybe mainstream metal isn't in such a sorry state after all.

Deftones - Acid Hologram

Deftones - Beware

Honestly, for years and years I didn't like this band at all. It's only recently that they've somehow suddenly clicked with me. Perhaps it's that I've listened to so much modern metal over the last few years. My ears have become accustomed to the sounds of -core this and that nu-metal that - no longer only understanding and respecting the sounds of old-guard metal. All of a sudden, Deftones seem like a band that I could grow to like quite a bit.

MicShazam

(Part 2/2, version 2*)

*"Connection reset". Great. I tried to preview this before I posted it and lost ALL that I had written. This is my attempt at re-creating that post word for word. Write your lengthy posts in Notepad, kids. You'll be sorry if you didn't.

Hollie Cook - Postman
From the 2014 album Twice.

Last time I was on Plug, Rostasi played some Hollie Cook and I loved her right away. It was probably a different track than this.

Jane Birkin / Serge Gainsbourg - La Javanaise
From the 2017 album Le Symphonique.

I missed this one last year, but it's Jane Birkin, so I'm interested automatically.

Janelle Monáe – Make Me Feel
From the upcoming album Dirty Computer

Not sure what to think of this new single, but her previous two albums were really good. I'm picking this one up sooner or later.

Kylie Minogue - Dancing
From the upcoming album, Golden.

Kylie's upcoming album was supposedly recorded in Nashville and takes some inspiration from country music. This seems like an all round terrible idea, at least if I'm judging from this first single. I plainly don't like this and find it pretty uninteresting. On top of that, it seems to me that the recording is kind of bungled. Listen closely to Kylie's voice during the chorus. Am I crazy, or does that sound like overcompressed, oddly distorted garbage? What the hell!?

Dir En Grey - Fukai
From the recent compilation, Vestige of scratches.

Dir En Grey - Beautiful Dirt
From the recent compilation, Vestige of scratches.

Both of these tracks are - like the last Dir En Grey track I posted in this journal - newly re-recorded versions of older Dir En Grey songs. I quite like these new versions and feel tempted to buy the album just for that. Or, that is to say, there's possibly a few other items of interest on the 3 disc compilation, but I'll have to look further into it to be sure. They had a single a year back that isn't on any album, so that's hopefully on there. Maybe there'll be some live tracks or b-sides as well. I'm enough of a super-fan to be excited over mere scraps.